Lansing School District Board of Education meeting 5-1-25

001[Music] Good evening. Good evening. Good evening everyone. Good evening. I don't know if everybody can hear me. Oh, hello. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Lancing School District Board of Education um regular um board meeting and information study session. Um I'm calling the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Would everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance, please? 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. All righty. Thank you everyone. If I could have one of our wonderful trustees read our mission statement this evening. Yes, Dr. Kavanagh. The mission of the Lancing School District is to provide a highquality education in a culturally safe and nurturing environment that supports all students

002to live purposeful and fulfilling lives. Thank you so much. At this time, could the clerk please call the role? Mrs. Ber, present. Dr. Kavanaaugh, present. Mr. Herd, Mr. Lopez, Mrs. Moore, present. Dr. Navarus Martinez, present. Dr. Rodriguez, Mrs. Strode, present. Miss Williams, quarum is present. Thank you so much. And I am aware that Trustee Herd will not be here this evening at this time. Dr. Rodriguez, did you have words you would like to share? Thank you, Madame President. Yes. Board members and public, we had to celebrate the life of Mrs. Blair Emble who was a employee the Lin School District for so many years. with hers with hers full of love and gratitude for a life beautifully live. We celebrate the remarkable journey and Mary Blair a devoted wife, loving mother, grandmother, passion, passionate educator,

003faithful servant of the Lord and tireless community leader. Her passion for education led to a long and distinguished career in the Lancing school district where she touched the lives of count countless students, families, and fellow educators. She began as a business education teacher at Hurry Hill where her commitment to her students and their success quickly stood out. Her leadership abilities soon led her to to be an administrator. She serves an assistant principal and both her Hill School and Lancing Easter High School. principal and hill vocational center and finally principal and gardener middle school. She also play important role in West Junior High alternative education program and was a trusted mentor through all his life and a tireless advocate for young people. Her former students and colleagues often speak of her as a steady presence, fair,

004kind, and deeply invested in their growth. Had the honor to serve with her as a pre assistant principal in Easter High School. Her only interests were the students and the parents and the community. with justice for all that we just say as a leader that we have to celebrate her life because Lancing school district has this kind of teacher for many many years also with her I almost can't say the same about Mr. Johnny Jones who was the coach and ever for many many years and also he was an arrow in 197273 and then already was a coach that these educators dedication to Lancing schools to ling community we had to celebrate we cannot forget them and all of us went mad president I will ask for moment of reflection and meditation for them. Thank

005you, Dr. Rodriguez. Thank you for acknowledging our um our pillars of the district. Thank you for that. Did you see who was in that in that picture that was just up on the screen? Can we can we bring that back up? Can Oh, it's up. Who is that over there with those sunglasses on? That's our one and only, a pillar in the community and a valued trustee of the board of education. Thank you, Dr. Rodriguez, for lifting and acknowledging all of all of the staff that has served the district. At this time, we're going to move on to public comment on agenda items. Are there any? Seeing none, um moving on to our approval of our minutes from our last meeting. Are there any any um comments or or any adjustments to those minutes? Alrighty.

006Well, moving on to our presentations. We got a full house today. Thank you everyone for coming and happy happy first day of May and happy Thursday to you all. Um right now we're going to go into our presentation, our service presentation honoring staff members with 40 and 50 years of service. Who am I handing this over to or am I? All right. Yeah. I can I actually I have the I have the the information. Yes. So, um at this time I didn't know if there was a formal if we're doing it. Okay. So, at this time, we just talked about pillars that have served the um Lancing School District that are no longer with us, but we also have people that are serving us to this day currently that have um for 40 and 50

007years of service here in the Lancing School District. Um, is there a Sue Grace in attendance today? A Sue Grace? Yes. I'm going to go over here. Can Can you join Can you join us? [Applause] for 40 years of service. The [Applause] Okay. S is actually working at a picture of everybody. So, let's see. [Applause] Congratulations. 45 years. [Applause] I met Martinez Martinez here, but we're celebrating 50 years. [Applause] I mean, well, Cordelia, Cordelia, come over here. Give me a hug. [Applause] Department of public safety. She has served She was an executive assistant for one of our former superintendent Dr. Wonderful. Thank you for accepting this whole. So which find out which day you can be there. All right. Better. Wonderful. [Applause] Alrighty. This is amazing. I'm so full of joy right now. Alrighty. Another

008amazing presentation. Um, it was amazing. Yes. Full of joy. um our learning our visual learning boy boards are happening right now. I'm gonna pass this over to um Miss Benvdz to guide us. No, sorry. Oh, sure. Uh just uh good evening everyone. Um it's always better that I hand the mic over to Jessica anyway. Uh but just to again remind the community what we're trying to do is show the incredible learning of our students to make sure that in this important space of the district that student work is on the walls uh that the work of the students the work of the teachers the work of the schools are there. So you'll notice that there are six uh boards and these get replaced every month. So we have, you know, about 24 25 schools and

009so um once a month six go. So we repeat them about twice a year and uh we're really really proud of everybody's work and I'm proud of course of the work that Jessica's done to put these up. So I'll let her kind of explain it all and then we'll go take our tour. Uh we have six schools represented here this evening. We have Atwood, Capitol Area, K12 online, Kavanaaugh, Guyer Park, Luton, and Sexton. And if it's okay with the board, I'm going to go just a little offscript. Um, we have our visual learning boards every month and we take about a threeminut tour per board as we go around and we have wonderful students that always come to show off their work and our teachers and our principles. And that what happens is after the

010visual learning boards, we all take our seats and we love you all, but a lot of you end up going home, which I we don't blame, but we want to give you a round of applause before you do that. And so my going off script, I would really love it if you're here to represent. And I'd like to just call the school out. If you're here to represent that school tonight, if you'll stand and then we can see who everyone is, go to the visual learning boards, but we'd like to give you a round of applause before you leave. Um, and so, um, Atwood, if you could please stand if you're from Atwood today. Thank you, Atwood. Capital Area online, if you'll please stand if you represent them. Thank [Applause] you, Kavanaaugh. We have little

011friends with us today. I love it. Look at all these students. This is my favorite part. Um, Guyire Park, if you're here to represent Guyire Park, thank you. If you're here to represent Luton School, Luton, I know they're [Applause] here. And last, but certainly not least, if you're here for Sexton. Awesome. So, what we'd like you to do is if uh the schools that we named, if you'll find your visual learning board, how this works is each of the schools stand by their boards and then we invite the audience to take a tour of the six schools or six bulletin boards and our wonderful um board secretary helps keep us on time with a timer of about three minutes each. So, um make sure to see all of the boards. You do have to rotate.

012I know that's always a thing. So, because we get so excited. So, in just a few minutes, we'll have the board join us um at each of our boards, and we'll take uh three minutes per board and be able to tour six of our amazing schools. So, thank you again for being here tonight and indulging me on the applause on the front end versus the other side. So, thank you. And let's get started. All of you in the audience, we're so happy to have you here. Please join the tour. Okay, everyone, it is time to move to your next visual learning board. So, if you'll please finish your sentence and then head to your next board, please. Time to head to your next visual learning board. Okay, everyone, that marks your next three minutes. If

013you'll please rotate your board. In rotation, please go to your next board. Please head to your next board. Hello. Okay, if everybody can rotate. Rotate. Thank you. Hello. Hello. Now, now, now you get the three minutes. Okay, here it goes. Full three minutes. All right, so friends, uh, this weekend District. Bring Never mind. Thank you. We're good. [Music] Justin was The fact you're wearing the jersey makes me so happy. Okay, everyone, if you'll please go to your next learning board. Please rotate. Next learning board. Okay, everyone. This Hello everyone. Hello. I think our superintendent is going to wrap us up. All right, folks. Well, uh, that is Yeah. Yeah. It's not the mic. It's not the It's the mic. Yes. Thank you everyone. All right. Alrighty. All right. Looks like we have our our board

014members back. Do we have everybody back? We have our board members back. And um feel free to stay if you'd like. We would love to have you. They're like, "Let's go home." I get it. I get it. Alrighty. So, next we have drum roll, please. No. Literally, literally. Right. Um, we have the, um, Department of Enrichment. Um, superintendent or Thank you. Yeah. No, this is, uh, this is awesome. So, uh, first of all, for all the families leaving, we want to just thank you all for your wonderful work. Thank you. Um, you know, I I hope this is really getting people to recognize the quality of work in Lancing is really increasing the level of work that the students are doing, the rigor. That's the reason why you have rubrics and state standards so that

015you can see uh that we're holding our kids accountable and our teachers are able to do it. Uh we're really really thankful for everybody's hard work and included of course in a school system that's uh working very very well. you care deeply about not just the classroom academics but also enrichment. Uh what makes being a kid in school incredibly fulfilling is not just learning your numeracy and your literacy and learning the academics but being part of something uh special. Be it a team, be it dance, be it music, be it art. And what you're going to hear today is some incredible work that's been happening in the district. But I want to frame it because I want folks to really see how the last 3 years has changed the investment in our arts and and

016sports and uh enrichment. You know, sadly through economic downturns and through COVID and through all sorts of uh things, this district had, you know, had to do some some decisions that it didn't want to do. Um, and so our arts and our sports didn't necessarily get the investment that it deserved. And now over the last three years, we've really been able to put a lot of support into these incredible enrichment programs. And really thanks to Stephen Draper and his wonderful work in codifying not just oh it's athletics or oh it's arts or oh it's music is to think districtwide how do we help kids from kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade if they want to become amazing artists amazing actors amazing athletes and so I want to turn the mic over to Stephen

017so that he can kind of come up to the the deis let's call it the tables uh And I'm also uh very happy to bring on Mitch Foster as well. You might know Mitch Foster from such roles as being the head of high schools. Um but as the senior director of high schools, he also oversees the enrichment department. And so it's really just an honor to have both these guys come up here and tell you about the wonderful work uh that they've been doing and where we do need to increase and improve. So, with that, uh, Mitch, happy to turn it over to you and take it away. Very pleased to be here. Um, Ben said a lot of what I might have said already, so I'll be quick because, uh, Steven's got the most

018to say tonight, but uh, yeah, Mitch Foster, senior director of high schools, and I also oversee uh, enrichment and um, engagement. You may recall he Ben spoke about the last three years but in less than the last year we did a little organizational shift and had created this uh department or this director of enrichment and engagement and as he said this is not only K12 athletics but K12 almost everything extracurricular from arts, music, dance etc. and Stephen's uh here. I'm really excited to hear uh for him to share uh some of the amazing work that's been done in even just less than a year and work that's ongoing and work that will be happening. So, Stephen, take it away. Thanks, Mitch. So, Stephen Draper, director of enrichment and engagement. Um thank Mitch for introducing me

019and and Ben and all of you for having us here tonight. Um, I have a handful of guests here and before I I get into everything else in the presentation, one of the things that I want to emphasize is that the overwhelming majority of my work is is rooted in supporting staff members around the district and students around the district. Um, while there are things that I have been able to help with, most of what you will hear is is things that staff members in our buildings, at our high schools, at our elementary schools, the work that they have been doing and ways that we've been able to support them in achieving the goals and programmatic outcomes that they want for themselves and for their students. I think that's kind of been the the the

020core of of my approach and our approach to developing these programs is trying to be responsive to the things that our administrators that are coaches that our band directors the things that they want and that they need. Um so with that being said, I'll I'll dive in. So for an overview, we'll talk about the mission of enrichment. Um we'll focus on athletics, the visual and performing arts and robotics, the four sort of key areas that fall under uh this department. Uh community partnerships and grant funding. And then throughout we'll have student and staff testimonials. So the mission that we've created for enrichment across the district is to create an inclusive engaging opportunities across athletics, arts, and STEM. The second piece of this is connecting students to enrichment activities that lead to positive student outcomes. And

021transparently, this is a working document that needs to continue to be honed both with input from community members, from staff, from students, from our district athletic coordinator, from administrators, uh from the soontobe hired visual and performing arts specialist as we're doing interviews for those positions. This is something that that needs to be developed and refined to make sure that it's responsive to the needs of our community. for now, you're going to have to put up with the one that I've worked on so far. So, we're going to start out talking about the visual and performing arts, uh, three key areas. One is the increased access to the arts. Another is our community partnerships and grants we've developed over the last year. And then lastly, a focus on what's next. Um, we don't have time to

022cover all of the things that have happened over the last year and years. This will mostly focus on new developments over this year and things that we've changed uh from Miss Martinez and Mr. Kenny at Everett who have been doing things for years and working so hard. And Mr. Kenny also is the theater director at Eastern who's about to put on Cinderella. These people have been working and doing these things for years. We actually had somebody else I was going to reference here tonight, Miss Grace from Lions, who is another person I was going to mention who has done choir and drama after school there for a while. a while. Um, and we won't have time to go into all of those things. And I think one of the things we'll emphasize is part of

023our vision for this role and the visual and performing arts in this district is to provide people like Miss Grace more support from the districts. That way they're able to execute their vision and develop their programs um with the appropriate resources with what they need to grow their programs. So our first slide will center on uh shifts we've seen in staffing in the fine arts across the Lancing school district over the last decade. Uh what you're looking at is the amount of teachers in the arts in our schools starting in the fall of 2015 uh when we had uh 21 teachers across the entire district to where we were in the fall of 2024 which peaked at 52 teachers across the district in the performing arts. Um, that's a testament to our tremendous HR department,

024to our administrators who have gotten buyin from their teachers and kept them invested and engaged and the district for investing in the arts. But I think it's important to highlight that significant shift that we have seen and one that again I have very little to do with uh but one that the district itself has invested in and done a tremendous job of developing over the last few years. And you'll notice that this peak or that this increase started in the fall of 2022. And we've seen that number continue increase over the last few years, which is tremendous growth, essentially doubling in the last three years. I might have just made a mistake on you. Let me come back, guys. I apologize. So, you saw today um you saw as you were walking in uh Ston's

025band uh their their drum line performing. Something that I want to highlight is that right now we have band, marching band, choir, and drama opportunities at all of our three big high schools. Sexton right now has 85 students taking band. Um over the last few years, they have not offered uh band at Sexton. Um that growth in essentially one year is a credit to Mr. Malikian who you might have seen out there playing as you were walking in and who is a tremendous asset to Sexton and our school district. um who has expressed interest in getting down to his feeder elementary schools and meeting with those students before they're moving up into their high school who has been doing after school program who had a pep band at basketball games this year at Sexton performing

026at those things and that's been the work of Mr. for Malik and he has done a tremendous job there. In support of him, we have currently budgeted and/or spent $60,000 on new instruments or repairs to instruments. That's $30,000 towards our high schools, 10,000 to each of those, and then 10,000 to each of our middle schools, uh Dwight Rich Gardner, and a third that we will talk about in just a little bit. We've also seen theater and drama programs pop up around our district. This year at the middle school and elementary school level, we'll have Dwight Rich and Post Oak participating in the Disney and Schools program which is run through the Wharton Center. Um we've been able to use our electronic ticketing that we use for athletics to set up digital tickets for them so

027they can sell tickets electronically and help fund their programs. uh provide them with additional budgets towards costumes and programmatic things that they need where I think this sort of structure has been beneficial to these programs. Uh the third program and we have some guests from Mount Hope here tonight is uh Mount Hope. Um Courtney, do you want to you want to come on up? Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm going to introduce Courtney and then uh uh we'll let her speak a little bit about the program. I'll just shift this one over here. Make sure you turn it on. So Courtney is a fifth grade teacher at Mount Hope and she has also over the last two years started a theater program. Um when I took this role, uh Courtney and I met in the fallish I

028think. Um when I found out that she had run a program last year out of Mount Hope and had like 30 kids participating and put on this performance while operating out of her classroom because they're in Wood Creek right now. Um and just did a tremendous job. Um this year we were able to partner and work together and support Courtney and the students at Mount Hope to put on a production of Shrek. Um that was that was pretty tremendous. We had the opportunity to go and watch them and it it was great. So Courtney um uh was kind enough to come and share a little bit about uh the program and what they've done in Mount Hope. Awesome. Um thank you so much. Um and thank you guys for letting us come and speak today.

029Can I hold this? Is that okay? All right. So um I've prepared a speech in a theater way. So, please bear with me. Um, so I was asked by Stephen to talk about theater at Mount Hope and how it impacted our students, which one of them is here today. Um, and my first thought was of some of the audience's reactions when they saw the show. Um, one example is the sixth grader who played Fiona. She was normally uh one of the quietest students and her teachers were shocked by her energy and confidence on stage. Her grandmother came up to me after the show and she said, "I didn't even know she could sing. The students who played Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man, typically students who are really restless in the classroom, channeled their energy and

030were some of the audience's favorite characters. There were even students in the audience who never considered drama, but they were so inspired that they want to join next year. However, the biggest impact for me didn't happen during the performance, but at the final rehearsal. During a song toward the end of the show where Shrek opens up to Fiona, two background actors instinctively linked arms and began to sway back and forth. Soon the entire cast joined in without prompting and it was a spontaneous, genuine show of unity. Proof that for these students, the show had become more than just a performance. It had become a family, a community where fourth through eighth grade students felt comfortable enough to share these vulnerable and emotional moments with each other. A place where they felt seen and respected. a

031place where they could truly be themselves, something they might not always experience in a classroom setting. The 33 students who signed up in September have grown exponentially in maturity, confidence, vulnerability, and creative expression. They work tirelessly two days a week from late September to April, learning lines, learning to sing, learning to follow music, learning to act, and creating props and scenery on crew. They learned how to work together, how to be a team, how to support each other and lift each other up, how to trust each other in the process, and how to persevere through countless challenges. Not every student is cut out to be on the honor roll or to be able to perform at grade level. But the activities of our drama club allowed every student, no matter their grade point, to be

032equal. Theater and any form of arts education like we're talking about tonight are absolutely vital because they create experiences like ours. Mount Hope has been really proud to promote the arts through drama club and we are so excited to see the support that the district continues to provide to the visual and performing arts in the future. Thank you guys so much. [Applause] [Music] Hello, my name is Jasmine. I'm in sixth grade. I played as Lord Barkquad and this is was my second year in drama club. Drama Club is important to me because it's somewhere where I fit in. Everybody has hobbies or something they like. Drama club to me is a community where everybody belongs. Not only that, drama club is a great way to make friends and sometimes that's hard for people, but we

033get to make art and have fun while doing it. Thank you. ful about seeing that program was seeing the way that uh we were able to partner together to get them some of the little things that are sometimes a challenge when you're operating in a silo in a building. And one of the things that we were able to do was to connect them with the costume shop, which is the group that's based out of the Riverwalk Theater where they provide all of their outfits for their shows. And so being able to connect the Mount Hope Theater program with the costume shop and let Courtney get the opportunity to walk through there and get their costumes through their performance and you can see their outfits on the stage. How much of a difference that makes uh

034when kids are on stage and they're wearing like the costumes, right? The costumes they're supposed to. It's such a different experience as somebody that grew up performing in musicals and drama and all those things. You know the difference that it feels uh when you're in when you're in something like that. I think that was a really really significant moment. It was it was great to see what they did. Um another thing that I'll talk about with the arts is something that Dwight Rich did uh Shannon Harris the principal there which was make a major investment in mics for their drama program. So that way they can host and conduct uh productions at their site consistently without needing to move mics across buildings and to make sure they have enough for programs like what they're doing

035this spring through the Disney uh in schools with Wharton Center. Um and Dakota Salazar who's our audiovisisual tech for the district helped coordinate this purchase and connect Dwight Rich with the right products and resources. And it was really great to see that type of investment at Dwight Rich into the arts programs there to make sure that they were able to uh uh to put on a performance this year um and in the future. The next thing is a little piece on community partnerships and grants. Uh we had the reach art program operating at Dwight Rich and Everett over the course of this year. We've had over 50 students participating in afterchool programming four days a week at Dwight Rich and Luton. It's housed at Dwight Rich but was open to both students. and then also

036at Everett High School on Fridays for their arts incubator club. Um, we're gonna have Melissa Keely and Autumn. We're here to talk just briefly about their program. And I will not talk about this one at all. I think you're still on. And I should introduce Melissa, who is the director of Reach Art Studio, which was uh once started by, if I'm not mistaken, let me make sure I get my history right, a Luton parent. Um, no, she was Morris Park. Oh, she's a Morris Park parent. Uh, Miss Brinkman. Yep. Right. Miss Brinkman. Yeah. So, thank you so much for letting us come and and share a little bit about the after school programs. So, as Stephen said, we're from Reach Studio Arts Center. I had you on. We're from Reach Studio Arts Center and we're

037a community based art studio in Rio Town. Um, and we do free and siding scale programming for youth in our community. But we know that tuition is only one of the barriers for youth and that transportation is a significant issue for many youth in our community especially since co. So we're particularly happy and excited and grateful to be partnering with the Lancing School District so that we can provide on-site programming at Lanc School District buildings. So as Stephen said, currently we're doing two programs. We're doing a 4-day program for grades three through eight at Dwight Rich, which also includes Luton students, and a weekly art club at Everett High School that we call the arts incubator club. So, at REACH, our mission really is to foster equitable access to arts programming through educational opportunities. And

038that's because we know that the arts really fill a special place for students. For many young people, the arts provide an outlet for creativity and expression while promoting social and emotional health. And as someone who recently said to me, the beautiful thing about art is there's no single right answer, which can be incredibly empowering to young people. And while the arts teach students, while our arts programming teach students techniques and practices, they are also working working on developing a whole host of important skills. And these skills which have been identified by the president's committee on the arts and humanities include critical thinking, problem solving, decision-making, higher order thinking, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, imagination, and judgment. Skills that um are going to carry them on in their their education and career long after they leave our programming.

039And I'm excited to see the increase in um teachers in the arts in the districts. Um and also excited to see the investment you're making in after school engagement because after school programming doesn't take the place of what's happening in the school. It enhances it. Um the co-curricular um programming that we do often is called shadow education. And there's actually some really amazing research coming out about the power of afterchool programming and how it can start to address some of the education gaps we're seeing particularly between income levels because it provides out of school learning that can enhance what's going on in the school day. Not not replace it but supplement it by giving additional opportunities for kids to learn outside of the school day. and um arts programming, sports, theater. These are all critical

040ways to help address student learning. Um I also want to just talk a little bit about the specific program. So since January, I have been co-f facilit co-f facilitating the arts club at the Everett High School. Um I was a little bit apprehensive when I stepped into the role because I didn't know how high school kids would react to a middle-aged mom coming to make art with them every week. Um, but they come, they routinely prioritize hanging out in the art room Friday afternoon. And I don't think it's just the donuts. They really do want to be there. Um, the community that has developed in that room is energizing. It really is the best part of my week. Um, and this generation of kids, these teenager teenagers, they're open, they're kind, and they're eager to

041learn, especially in these informal learning environments. The flexibility after of the afterchool model allows for for exploration without grades or required assignments, which means that kids can engage differently in often self-directed ways. As teens, sometimes it's hard to read what they're thinking about what we're doing that day. But a pretty good example that we're connecting is that last month um we had two students from the Everett program walk the two miles from the high school to reach Studio Art Center to attend our free teen night. And then at 8 o'clock they did not want to leave. They wanted to hang out and make more art. And we had to um very carefully welcome them to go home. Um but it showed that these students have found community and connection um through arts programming and we

042look forward to building on those relationships and forming new ones with amazing students in the district. And while I have the mic, I want to also invite you. Currently, we have partnered with Sarah Wills, one of the high school art teachers at Everett, and we have an exhibition at Reach of the Photography program that she has done. And we're going to have an open house on Monday from 5 to 7 to honor and celebrate the students. And then next month, we'll be showcasing the work of our arts incubator students in our gallery. [Applause] Hello everyone. How are you? Good. My name is Autumn Hopkins. I am the lead instructor for the Dwight Rich after school program. When this program was developed and offered to me, I was more than excited to be a part of

043it. From 2022 to 2024, I was an art teacher and educator in the Lancing School District at Eastern and then Patentale. And my favorite part was helping the kids of my community love art and be expressive. It filled my heart to be a mentor to these kids because I once was one of them. Like them, I grew up in Lancing schools, found my passion for art fueled within my art classes at my schools. So, I know firsthand how important having that creative outlet is, and being a part of a safe space as well. Because of the knowledge and confidence I was given due to being a student from this district, I was able to graduate from MSU for fine arts and currently own and run my own art business. Sorry, I'm a little nervous, so

044you can probably hear my voice. I want to take what I learned as an artist, a student, and a teacher from the district and merge those worlds by helping students feel more confident as an artist and feel closer to their community as I have as well. The first session at Dwight Wrench Dwight Rich went really well with the students. They got to create unique arts, use new kinds of materials that maybe they weren't able to before, and make awesome connections with not only us leaders, but also other students from their community. Throughout the program, I was able to develop relationships with the students that will last forever, as well as notice their skill sets grow as artists. At the end of our program, we do an anonymous survey so we can improve our lessons based

045on their experiences. I would like to share some of the feedback that we received from this last session because it touched our hearts at Reach. One of the questions we asked, sorry, was what was your favorite thing about this class? One student said everything. It was very fun. Another said, one thing that was my favorite was that I got to learn more techniques. And the last one which warmed our hearts the most was just feeling included. That's all they wrote, feeling included. That one right there is exactly why I love what we are doing here with the school district and what motivates us at Reach to create and further this program. The goal as we get into the future in hopes of continuing this program with the district is just to keep fostering that kind

046of environment and developing that relationship with the students. The feeling of inclusion and helping bring more resources and development for them to grow as creative beings is incredibly important. Our lessons are purposefully open-ended as to foster a creative mindset because I believe this approach helps the kids improve as students when they have these creative spaces within the walls of their schools. We are also helping combine skills that they learn within their classrooms in our program as well. For example, our middle years program learn the art skills to create these characters and settings for their comic. They end up making a comic at the end of their session. They also learn how to develop stories in our brainstorming sessions which leans into improving literacy skills. Our program helps with many development skills in general such as

047motor skills, language skills, social skills, decision-making, and risk-taking. Overall, this program is special to me, not only as a Lancing School District alumni, but as an artist in this community who is ecstatic to be giving kids who are just like me an opportunity to be great and feel included in a creative way. Thank you for making this happen for them. And again, I am hopeful to see more opportunities like this for students of my community in the future. And thank you for having me. [Applause] uh better than I would uh for the program that they've done. It's been great to work with them though and spend time with them and I think I'm meeting with them in two weeks to talk about uh next year. Um the next piece I was going to talk about

048is another community partnership. We were going to have two students from Willow come out today uh with their violins. Um, but they also have their carnival tonight. Um, and so Dr. Beard and the students were not able to come because a carnival is of course more important. Um, so it's shocking that I couldn't convince them to to come. Anyways, um, so at at Willow this year, something that we've done is we've partnered with an organization called TAC, transcendent performing arts center. Starting at second semester, we've had 25 students at Willow who have been learning to play the violin twice a week in their music class. Um, these violins existed in the district already. They were at Pleasant View. We were able to work with a local luier, uh, Mr. White, who was working on these

049violins when they were purchased. I can see you might even remember who he was. Um, and so he he had said he's like, "I remember these when they were bought." And he got the opportunity to to fix them and provide them. Uh we provided 30 violins in uh quarter and uh three/4er sizes uh to Willow for their strings instruction. TAC provided a volunteer instructor who is a PhD student at Michigan State who comes in twice a week to help support the classroom teacher who was a chist uh Miss Charlie Norris uh who's a music teacher in our district. TAC also worked to design a culturally responsive curriculum rooted in Suzuki principles which is based on learning by ear. Um, and they thought would be more accessible and more appropriate for our students. Those funds uh

050came from the Sphinx organization and TAC's leadership to get those funds to provide that volunteer in the classroom. So instead of having one teacher with 25 third graders with a violin, which would be a challenge, uh they have two people in the room providing that instruction. Um in order to fill this program out, the the structure around it was was really incredible by the folks at TAC and Dr. Beard. It started with a guest visit that Miss Benvdz participated in with Randall Guzby, who is a nationally renowned violinist who came in and performed for the students in third grade. So they got excited about violin programming. They had no idea they were going to get offered violin at that time. Um, a survey was sent out to families to see who was interested in joining

051the the students. After that was sent out, they had just over 20 students interested and Dr. Beard worked with families to enroll the rest of the class. And then as they started the second semester, they created a cohort model for specials where the two different third grade classes combined for specials with the 25 kids that go to the strings class and then the other 25 go to the general music who who did not express interest or were not identified for it. And that's how they built their special schedule. So, they're getting in their general music um their general music class with their music teacher. And then their third music class for the week is just a normal general music class. So, two days a week they get strings instruction. Uh the third day of the

052week they they get just general music. Um which keeps them making sure that their the teacher is able to teach standards that she's supposed to be teaching in the classroom and they're still getting the same instruction as their peers. Um the long-term goal is for this to continue. So, as these third graders move into fourth grade, they continue to have this and you start a new third grade cohort at Willow. Um, and hopefully in in five years, Willow is able to have their own orchestra, which is something that Dr. Beard is extremely enthusiastic about. And if you know Dr. Beard at all, you know that she is a a singer um and passionate advocate for the arts. Over the course of this year, we have also been able to receive a handful of grants uh

053towards the arts. One was the section 33 grant. This was a state grant that provided $51,000, just over that to Cumberland, Forest View, Lions, and Mount Hope. This grant had very specific requirements in order to qualify about how many minutes a week your students had to receive instruction in a specific topic. Um that every student in the grade level in the school received that instruction, that you had to certain all of these restrictions. These were the schools in our district that qualified for this grant. We were able to apply for it for each of the schools that qualified based on the state guidelines this year. Uh we also received grant funding from the Lancing Matinea Musical. It's called the project crescendo grant. That was another $19,260 given to Patentill Cumberland North Forest View and Atwood

054which was organized by Wendy York at North who started this and then I was just able to help them sort of sort out the logistics after the fact. Um Sarah Shrader, who's a teacher at Cumberland, received the overwhelming amount of the money from this grant. Um sometimes you ask and you shall receive. Uh she's received over $43,000 this year to rebuild and rejuvenate the music class at Cumberland. Um she gave a quick statement that I told her that I would read. She was unable to be here. Uh Miss Hopkins, the principal there, um what she wrote was, "This year the music program at Cumberland has received over $43,000 through section 33 in Project Crescendo. The impact has been transformative. Many of these materials are still on their way, but the anticipation and excitement among students

055is unmistakable. These funds are allowing the school to add high-quality instruments, curriculum, furniture, and other resources that will expand opportunities for dynamic music making and learning. Students are showing increased enthusiasm for music. Energized by the promise of new instruments and learning experiences. The arrival of these materials will open up exciting opportunities for them to engage more deeply with rhythm, melody, and ensemble work. experiences that were previously limited due to a lack of resources. This infusion of support is laying the foundation for a more inclusive, hands-on, and inspiring music education for all students at Cumberland. Sarah Schrader, person who wrote this, the music teacher at Cumberland, shares that the grants will empower her to teach with greater creativity and effectiveness. With these new resources, she'll be better equipped to fully support the ORF Schul approach, which

056is a pedagogical approach to music instruction, which emphasizes joyful active participation in music. She is deeply grateful for this investment in her students and her program and looks forward to the lasting impacts these materials will have as they get fully integrated into her classroom. So, the last piece is going to be centered on um plans for the future. The first is that we started interviews today actually for a visual and performing arts specialist. This is part of the longerterm vision to create parallel structures with athletics and the arts. This position will be a full-time dedicated position to supporting arts educators and uh afterchool programming centered in the visual and performing arts. Developing fundraising opportunities and integrating them within our broader uh athletic infrastructure to make sure that our arts programs have those opportunities as well.

057This was what was referenced earlier. As of now, we are planning to have a band offered at Mount Hope next year when they open up their new instruction with Mr. David Wallard um using the instruments that are currently at Eastern. The intermediate set of instruments from middle schoolers were housed in that building. Um over $20,000 has been earmarked to buy new and refurbished instruments for that program over the next five-ish six months. Next year, we plan to bring back a district-wide third through fifth grade choir, uh which is currently in the budget for next year and planned to begin uh at the beginning of the school year. This is another sort of big one. uh similar to how we do athletics uh for the junior highs right now where we have co-curriculars and coaches. Uh

058next year we'll see us have two co-curriculars offered earmarked for the fine arts in every K8 building and one in every K4 and 58 building. Our teachers behind us don't know this yet. Uh they are finding this out right now. Yeah. And so next year, these will be earmarked co-curriculars specifically for the fine arts um that will exist for them where each school will be able to offer this for choir or band or drama or whatever is responsive to their school community. One of the major things is going to be improving the connection between staff and district resources. Um people like Miss Grace who was here earlier, making sure that she's able to get the type of support she needs to have appropriate costumes and everything else for her programs. improving data on equitable access,

059providing responsive programs, what the the providing programs that our students want, so that way they're enrolling in them, and then making sure that we're able to measure student outcomes connected to arts programming. Uh we recently completed an inventory of existing stringed instruments and are working on a band one to make sure that we can have a plan for the future to get those instruments into people's hands. And then lastly, um this is a unique one that lancing matinea musical has reached out to us about which is working with community partners to provide afterchool private and small groupoup instruction in schools where there might be gaps around band where you can't offer band because of either the number of students or space providing small group and private lessons at those schools. So students in middle school

060are getting exposure to the arts early on. That was the arts. So the next piece is on robotics and esports. Um we saw growth in our robotics program, success of the 99 H grant and expanded esports this year. Uh this is a picture from the robotics tournament at Battle Creek Central. Um this year saw us have robotics programs offered at Eastern, Saxon, and Everett. We also were able to expand Everett's team to include Gardener students through hiring the Everett coach who also works at Gardener as a teacher. Um which was a really awesome coincidence. Um, we were able to create a more consistent structure for robotics once it was housed under the department of enrichment, similar to how we uh work with athletics, providing with transportation, budgets, all that type of support that you need

061to operate a program. We also received the 99H grant again, which provided $12,465 across our three high schools to help with registration costs and support stipens for coaches. Um, I have Miss Bills here who's going to speak a little bit about it and introduce a a guest as well. Um, Miss Bills is the assistant principal at Gardener. If you don't know her, she also helps out with the Eastern Robotics team where Mr. David Bills is the coach. And then Miss Cosand, who is the robotics coach at Everett, is one of her staff members at Gardener as well. She's a very well-connected person to share more about robotics than me. This one on. All right. So, one of the things that we are most excited about was that we were able to open up this opportunity

062to eighth grade students at Gardener. So, not only did that give them access to STEM activities, it also let them incorporate themselves in their future high school and start to kind of get a lay of the land and also to meet other students that they would be in classes with when they transfer their next year. We are looking forward to at Gardener actually growing this program and offering a program for probably our third through fifth grade students in the first robotics program. We also were able to add a coding elective to also support STEM education at our school. One of the things we're always keeping in mind is that we're preparing students for jobs that don't even exist yet. So, robotics is a fantastic way to fuel their passion and give them an outlet, especially

063when we realize maybe not all of our students want to be in athletics or even the arts, but this gives them an outlet to be a part of a team and a community. We were very fortunate, as um Mr. Draper said that one of our fifth grade teachers, Megan Cosand, was willing to go and actually start coaching at the high school. She is not feeling well tonight. So, I told her I would, you know, speak for that on her. But that has been a huge opportunity for her herself in developing her own practice. Um, one of the other things that is very exciting is that we are finally as a robotics program being recognized as part of with the athletics and the enrichment program. As Stephen said, this is the first year we've been able

064to have um busing to and from each of our competitions. We were able to have funding to support having our coaches put in hundreds of hours with our students to prepare them for these competitions. Another proud point is that at Eastern we also had three students that are former Eastern students that have come back to volunteer their own time to support and mentor our teams. And that is who I would like to introduce next. We have a couple of Eastern Robotics students here. I have Evan White who is a former Eastern student who graduated last year who is a mentor for our team. And then I have Leo Seavoy and his family here that would like to share the impact of robotics on their [Applause] lives. Uh hi, I am Evan White. Uh, I graduated

065last year uh from Eastern High School and I currently go to LCC for electrical engineering. Uh, I'm Leo Seavoy. I currently go to Eastern High School. Um, I'm a sophomore there and I have been in the robotics club for two years now. Um, I'm not really 100% sure what she wanted me to say. So, um but um I think one of the the most important parts of the robotics program um is furthering um people's love for uh coding or building or uh electrical um things like that. Things that I didn't even know, you know, existed before going into my uh eighth grade year when I joined. Um, and that is actually where I, you know, kind of figured out what I wanted to do. Um, going into adulthood he wasn't going to have to talk

066and then he got to go up there and talk. Um, I also didn't know that a lot of the stuff that we do in the club existed until I joined last year. Um, and like Evan, I also found what I wanted to do after school, um, by going to the club and, uh, what do you want to do? I'm good. You're good. Thanks, man. I appreciate you coming. Thanks. We also have Leah's aunt Jessica who did want to speak from a family perspective. This year was the first year for Eastern that we had parents that fully invested themselves in the program. They showed up to every robotics competition, which if you've never been to a robotics competition, um, let me just let you know this is an intense event. You have three days of approximately

06712 to 14 hour days where you will compete in no less than probably about 20 matches. Um there is 40 teams from across the state at each match. So coordinating where all of our team members are, making sure that everybody actually eats something in between matches. We have been able to have family support this year, which for us was huge. So, we'll have um Leo and Jessica come up to speak very quickly, but if it's okay to give them a round of applause because that is a huge thank [Applause] for bear with me. I wasn't prepared to speak tonight, but just to give a different perspective from someone who for the past two years has attended all the robotics competitions um and is a former student of Lancing schools. I had Mr. Foster in high

068school. So did my husband. Um I may have made him feel old tonight. I'm sorry. How are you feeling it? Um, Leo has just grown so much in the robotics program. And to see where he was freshman year to where he is now, he doesn't want to miss school, especially on a Tuesday or a Thursday. He will go. He doesn't care if he has to drag himself in there. Um, and then to just watch these kids be dedicated. And I think the thing that I want to speak on the most is that my husband and I were the only parents from Eastern that showed up. Not even in Mason when we're 20 minutes away. Um, so I would love to see district support, not just from parents, but I'd invite all of you to come

069next year to the matches. I mean, you can look at the schedule. It's a very long day, I will tell you that. Um, but you can look and see when Eastern and Sexton and Ever are up and you don't have to stay the whole time, but the kids need you. You look at some of these other schools. They have whole sections. So, we would love all of you to come and check it out. And the kids would be thrilled to show you what they're doing because Leo might not have talked a lot up here, but he talks a lot at home. I can promise you that. And I have learned things that I didn't know about robotics. So, we definitely need more district support, more parental support. Um, our nephews have been in our care

070since CO and just watching their growth has been fantastic. So, a special thank you to Mr. Bills and Mrs. Bills. They've done an amazing job. So, thank you. Thanks. [Applause] So, transitioning from uh the experience of those folks, I think uh the next steps for us as a district, I think there's a really obvious one, which is adding a robotics team at Lancing Tech. Um so, next year, a major priority for us is adding a robotics team at Lancing Tech and making sure that those students have an opportunity. Another is adding middle school opportunities. So students aren't getting this for the first time as they're approaching high school. Goal is to have a minimum of three middle school robotics teams next year and offer opportunities at all schools with middle school students if at all

071possible. The way to do this is by utilizing 99H grant funding for firstear programs to kickstart uh the programs at any school where coaches are available. Uh 99H is a statewide grant that provides uh enough money in your first year to basically kick off a program and and allow the school to make it sustainable, especially at the middle and elementary school levels. The next piece around uh tech was esports. This year we saw esports expand to three schools from one co-op team. The goal is five next year. We tried to get it to five this year. We weren't able to um find quite enough coaches, but we were able to offer esports teams at three schools this year. Lancing Tech had a an athlete qualify for the playoffs in the Michigan High School Esports League

072in Madden. The plans to grow for the next year is continued renovations of the Lancing Tech maker space to become an esports lab. And Mark Briggs and Dr. P have done a tremendous job over there along with uh Wyatt Hall who was the coach that was hired there. Uh he was unable to join us tonight. Um, but they have done a great job remaking that space. Lancing Saxon was recently awarded $8,000 to purchase new gaming PCs from TechSmith out of Okamus who made a donation to make sure that they had PCs for their esports program. And then it's to try to make sure that we have coaches at our four in-person schools and one offered at CAK12 um for students there to participate in esports athletics. This will be a quick one. A couple quick

073highlights. Um over the course of this year, we had Sexon and Everett football teams make the playoffs. Sexton boys soccer won a CAC championship for in my knowledge I believe the first time in school history. Uh which is a tremendous accomplishment this year for the teams and coach Bardell at Saxon. It was really really fun to be at those games and see those players compete. Um it was it was really it was really really cool. Uh Eastern volleyball had a win over East Lancing this year in a district game. Uh which was a huge victory and step in a positive direction for Coach Robinson and their program. Sexton boys basketball. I don't know if you heard. They won a regional championship. There was like a big shot involved or something. Um you might see me

074on the camera trying to hold our students back uh from running across the court after the shot was made. Um we hosted our first middle school and high school cross country meet. It was a joint meet and had over 150 students participating, 70 of which were middle school cross country runners, which was a a huge increase that we'll talk about a little bit later. We also offered three levels of girls volleyball at all three schools at Everett, Saxon, and Eastern this year. That's a huge testament uh to the coaches, Coach Cannon, Coach Miller, and Coach Robinson at those three schools, as well as their athletic directors. We also added boys volleyball as a club sport for the second year, and next year it will become an MHSAA sport for us. Might be frozen here. Is

075there another PC that we can click on to move the slide along? Oh, there we go. Okay, I think we're up here now. So, the other piece is our middle school highlights and and one piece and I'm going to invite uh Miss Huntley from Patenting to come up and speak a little bit about this was our increase in girls participation. We saw a large increase in girls participation this year at the middle school level. Um for uh volleyball, we had over 120 girls participate this year with four school teams and then two club teams. Uh we saw a huge increase in cross country. Um Sunley coaches volleyball and boys and girls basketball at Patill. Our girls basketball teams grew to 10 teams this year from six the previous year. Um and I'll pass over to

076her to speak about the significance of what that's done for Patill. Hello. Well, as a basketball fanatic, Stephen is bound to make me miss the game, I see. But, um, we're going to be here. So, uh, yeah, he asked me to speak. I coached three sports at Pataleill that have grown significantly since, um, we started kind of as a co-ed team a while ago at the old building, but, uh, coming in, he wanted to talk more about the girls and how that area has grown, which is a special place for me because I grew up being a female athlete and a collegiate athlete, so I enjoy watching the girls come out and play. And so I just wrote something that was um it's more than just a game for them. Um to talk about how

077it transformed our schools in the best possible way. The middle school sports, they've significantly impact our girls in more than just like being on the court. We first started off as a volleyball program to be co-op. Um it grew so much that we actually branched off from being with Eastern to being our own team and was able to have both a B team. Um myself nor the girls knew anything about volleyball for real. And so our first match was quite the disaster. They they were a little questionable about my coaching abilities and me about their playing abilities, but um together we figured it out and uh the hunger grew. And so from there we were able to actually win every single match that we played after that first game. And so um they actually gained

078enough confidence to challenge me if they went undefeated the next season. Would I allow them to have a sleepover? And so let's just say they uh were determined to prove that they weren't going to lose. So we definitely went undefeated. They were able to have that sleepover and that hunger continued. So the next year we actually became three teams. Uh we had a AB and C team to allow our sixth graders to participate and start to build those fundamentals early and the kids learned that I knew a little bit about volleyball. So by year two uh we've grown and that started to get the girls more interested in sports overall. We became um a basketball team in co-op with Patale, Post Oak, and Eastern. That determined we grew a little bit more. Uh the girls

079actually went undefeated again cuz basketball is more my thing. And um they have a lot of confidence. So they walked through the hallways and you would think they were Olympians when we announced that they won. And the boys are usually pretty sad that they lost that football, but it's a collective effort. And so it's something that they earn. Uh, basketball, we're really passionate about it. We have a lot of parents show up. We have a good foundation for people coming out and to support and actually being there to show our kids that sports are just as important as academics. Um, once they actually get these things going, they they like to hear their names on the announcements. They enjoy when teachers and other people show up to tell them how wonderful of a job they

080did and also praise them for their improvements in the classrooms, their behavior. The girl drama dies down. And so the biggest thing right now is that having the privilege of coaching them uh and laying the foundation, we've kind of had a nice feeder program going into Eastern where the freshman coach will often come over, watch their game, support them, and kind of give them a scouting report of what to expect the following year. So, this is something that I think is resonating with them and reigniting something in our girls to be athletes again, to take pride in who they are. Um, they're becoming stronger, better leaders, a better teammate. They're asking about being on the team starting in fourth and fifth grade. Oftentimes I'm like, "Oh yeah, until you get in the gym and realize

081I'll run you to death." But they still enjoy just looking forward to that opportunity and seeing themselves, you know, in pictures or posters or something that we display. Um they very excited, but it's truly impacted them in a powerful way. The classwork is improving. The participation is up. As Stephen said, we keep growing in numbers. Um, our girls are taking an interest in like soccer and track because they get to start earlier in the fall and looking forward to those sports. The girl drama is weighed down, which is a big part for me as the dean of students. And, uh, it turns out that it's really hard for you to fight and argue with your teammate after you run a million suicides the following night. So, um, but yeah, as a former female athlete, it

082just very great to see the girls grow in different aspects. They're confident. They're focused on and off the court. And it's really not just about the sports anymore. first about empowering them, making connections, and becoming the best version of themselves. And so, I always tell them, you know, the best year is yet to come. So, I appreciate that middle school sports are growing and developing, and we're able to push that into our high schools. So, thank you. [Applause] Jalisa and I met when I first got here and I was uh over at Patentill. So, we've kind of known each other and worked together for the last two years, and she does a tremendous job there. Coaches volleyball, boys and girls basketball. What she didn't mention about volleyball. She kind of referenced it was they had

083so many kids this year that they had to start a third team. And Mr. Merly, who's a gym teacher there, was willing to stick around and coach that third team. And it was all sixth graders. Um, which is a good segue to the next bullet point up here, which was the addition of Saturday tournaments and events where even though we didn't necessarily we weren't able to provide those sixth graders games against the seventh and eighth graders, we did start to host Saturday tournaments. And those Saturday tournaments, we invited the sixth graders, split them into two divisions. Um, and were able to let them play games against other sixth grade clubs that had popped up around the district at Sheridan Road, at Post Oak, and then at Patentill. Uh, which is a really, really cool experience

084for us to host our own internal volleyball tournaments. Uh Michigan Running Foundation built a new track at Gardener this year uh through Chuck Block, who also provides us uh significant financial support to fund our cross country teams and does our timing at all of our middle school track meets. Um we added a middle school tennis program in partnership with Todd Martin Youth Leadership this year. So we have 11 middle schoolers playing tennis and in the USA League right now competing on Saturdays across the Lancing area. We have a partnership with Real Lancing FC who is helping support our 7v7 soccer league for middle school. We changed our structure with this from being a co-ed sixth through eighth grade program to being a boys 6th through eighth grade program and a girls 6th through 8th grade

085program and they play in a 7v7 league. We have eight boys teams and four girls teams. We were able to structure this in a way where we have students we are offering um uh practices that are co-ed but when they come together for games we provide half of them training with coaches we hired from Real Lancing and the other half play 7v7. So the boys are playing 7v7 the girls are training with the coaches then they flip-flop which allowed us to co-op girls teams to make enough teams. Um and then cross country grew from 17 participants to 70 uh this year which was a significant uh change. A couple quick data points on this and we can go through this quickly. Our participation numbers from this year. One of the things that we've changed is

086how we track participation, which is giving a specific definition, which is a student who competed or was available for competition in at least half the season and finished the season with the team. And that's how we define what a participant is. You can see our middle school participation this year from football was just at 100, over 120 for volleyball, 70 for cross country, and this is across all 10 schools. One thing I'll mention is that we had for the first time offered school-based opportunities at every single one of our schools with middle schoolers. Luton was able to have a cross country team and a soccer team. And it's the first time that Luton has been able to offer school-based uh sports, winter participation. This is our middle school through the winter. You see boys basketball

087increased to 14 teams this year. We split to two divisions, seven A teams, seven B teams. Again, we hosted two Saturday events for boys and girls basketball. I don't know why it keeps getting back there. And lastly, spring. And we don't have our numbers for spring for middle school yet. I do know we have um over 127 students doing middle school track and we should be just over 120 for soccer. Some areas for improvement. One is a clear goal for girls participation. If you looked at the data when we pulled those numbers up, you can see a stark contrast between boys and girls participation at our schools. We've made specific efforts to address that at the middle school level this year, from promotional videos for girls basketball to hiring additional coaches and restructuring soccer. Another

088is using data to make those decisions. The third is meeting middle school participants where they are. A lot of our students haven't played before when they're hitting middle school. And so we've started conversations about trying to provide them more practice opportunities and less game opportunities. My background is a basketball coach and I know if you're playing too many games and not practicing enough, it can be difficult for you. Developing closer links between elementary, middle school, and high school programs. Our high school programs came to our Saturday events. It was one of the perks of that model this year. Um providing school-based opportunities for elementary school students. We've begun conversations about a partnership with Parks and Wreck to bring back school-based teams through parks and wreck that would be accessible and free for our students. Uh

089and then lastly, improved communication with families, which has been a consistent theme when we speak with families about something that they would like to see um grow. This is the track that was added this year at Gardener. Um what's next for athletics? One is a collaboration with the student development program uh to provide more responsive middle school programs that are focused on development and not necessarily just playing games. More Saturday tournaments. This was a huge hit with families. And one of the pieces of feedback I got from parents was that they said that they made more relationships with other parents as a result of these events than anything they'd ever done. Uh, one parent I spoke with said they got more numbers from other families for these because they provided rides and somebody else provided

090a rides and we didn't have to cancel a single game because people weren't able to have enough players for teams at these Saturday events this year. It was a significant change and it was amazing. Um the partnership with Parks and Recre for youth sports that we mentioned offering preseason parent meetings for middle school which was another piece of feedback we got from middle school parents. Uh a partnership with PlayWorks um that will provide uh program coaches at six of our schools next year to teach healthy play and structured recess. Uh and then our Kids Run Lancing and Playmakers partnership. So right now we have 180 third through fifth graders across the district participating in kids run lancing which is the playmakers good form running club um that is sightbased operating at all of our schools

091with third graders right now and then they also after Saturday track clinics as well that's new. Yeah and that is new this year. Um and then lastly we are currently working with playmakers to hopefully host our first ever back to school 5K uh this coming year on August 23rd. Um that date was just set a couple days ago to try to work towards establishing that. For high school one is trying to collect more data on student athlete outcomes. What are we seeing from people who are participating in athletics and participating over the course of four years? Um what type of success are we seeing and how are we measuring that and defining that? Again, creating a clear fundraising structure for our programs to support themselves and for us to support them. It's part of the

092conversation around a 5K opportunities to connect with youth sports, getting our high schoolers around our elementary and middle school students. Um, adopting event link that will provide us with a parent communication tool directly from our coaches. Um, a continued city series basketball games hosted at Don Johnson Fieldhouse, which was popular and a really fun thing this year. And then boys volleyball becoming an MHSA sport. Lastly is changes to facilities. We made two quick changes this year. One was a change to our minor repairs process. The enrichment department helps manage minor projects and maintenance and collaboration with facilities. These are little things that are sometimes uh they don't always resonate um and require a little bit of planning to get done. Things like backboard pads getting replaced, new nets in gyms, wall pads. We were able

093to add wall pads at Gardener um Eastern and replace wall pads at Ston this year along underneath their baskets. Um, some of those little things, rims at Sheridan Road, improving electrical and other minor repairs across this district that were run out of Dan Fom and myself with enrichment in collaboration with principles and athletic directors at our schools. Why this matters? It helps us be more responsive to schools and get things done when they ask us to. It allows us to address emergency needs more quickly. uh it clarified responsibilities around who was trying to get what done and allowed us to catch little things be before they become big. A couple major projects across the district, one is the Everett weight room will be getting redone in the near future. Another is the Everett soccer and

094track complex that'll be completed this summer. The Sexon track will be repainted in the near future. We had new dugouts put in at Ston. We had new dugouts put in at Eastern. Gardenner and Dwight Rich are due for a full sandown and refinish of their gym floors. and we are working with facilities to develop a clear five-year plan uh which should allow us to plan for the future and have a clear goal uh for the end of each year. Uh thank you so much to all the students, staff and community members um who have committed time to help grow enrichment in the district and I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak with you all today. No, thank you. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Draper, so much for your presentation this this evening. It

095was wonderful. Um, at this time, Trusty Williams, again, thank you for your presentation. It was awesome. A lot of information. I did read it. Um, you answered part of my first question because I heard you say you were going to be meeting with them in a couple of weeks. But the second part of that is while you're meeting, are you going to be creating uh proposals or budgets or the ask or need of what they're going to be looking for for the upcoming year? And then will that come back to us maybe at the end of the school year or the beginning of the school year as far as production wise for the different schools uh the different everything that you talked about just I know you were talking about meeting with the drama department

096and all the arts first. So that's my first question and how uh are you all going to be talking about what's coming up next year and how that ask is going to come back to us so that we can assist. Yeah. So, I think from a from an athletic standpoint, the structure for us is is more about um making sure that we're getting information out to parents early on because I think the structures that we've started to build around middle school athletics in particular are are pretty solid and we're offering them across all of our schools and we have a model of a school-based sport in each season and a co-op sport in each season. And it's clear and simple and we make sure that we're giving kids opportunities. Um, in terms of the opportunities

097in the arts, each one of those is based out of uh each school and it's structured the way that it is for athletics. Um, the plan right now is when the visual and performing arts specialist is hired is to collaborate with them to help develop those opportunities that are um not just responsive to the students but also to the staff members in those buildings and what they're doing. Because the reality is is you might have a school like Luton where Julia Nakarado who was here earlier um who was a wonderful art teacher might be able to provide an afterchool art opportunity and maybe that that school they don't have as many students that are interested in drama right and so I don't know that there's a specific answer on this in terms of saying like

098this is exactly how it's going to look the hope is that it's responsive to each individual school and the way that we've structured it provides flexibility uh to do that. Okay. So going on to that the second part you said collaboration which is a very good word because um for me I would like to see some of it like I heard about Shrek after the fact. So it's it's how are we getting the advertising out how are we collaborating so that no school is if we can not overlapping so that the support is provided throughout the district for everything that's happening be it sports be it the drama be it whatever. How are we going to work that out where everybody is kind of you know does that make sense? Yeah, it does. And I

099promise I'm not trying to dodge the question, but I I the hope is that the visual and performing arts specialist that this is going to be a function of one of their roles. The reality is is that in in my position uh organizing something like that districtwide would be tremendously difficult when working across athletics, arts, and everything else. We have three athletic directors at the high schools building schedules for athletics and maintaining websites, which is part of why we think this position is important. Uh to work with Dakota uh in the comm's team and Jenna and the comm's team, um the choir directors, the band directors to try to create clearer structures and to be able to advertise that within the broader community. Um because you're right, like a lot of folks didn't know about

100Shrek and the work that Courtney and their team were doing until it was almost here. Um, and that's the important part about this position, I think, and the establishment of this position is to do that work. Okay. My final question. Um, I hear you talk about no cheerleaders, no dancing. Those are competitive sports. What are we doing? I remember being a cheerleader in the in the elementary school. I mean, even if they're cheering for Saturday games, how are we going to implement those? Because I think, you know, we're missing out. I know we have some girls dance teams that have danced at the Detroit Pistons, but I think even bringing our middle schoolers and our elementary schoolers possibly to that level where they can at least perform in different arenas or how are we bringing

101that out because some girls just say they want pom poms. Yeah. Well, and I think um one of the things that I referenced at the beginning is that I wasn't going to have the opportunity to talk about everything and particularly things that people have been doing for a long time and Ever as you know and Miss Martinez at Ever has done a tremendous job of building that program from taking her students to Florida recently with Mr. Kenny to being at Pistons game to hosting all kinds of fest. I think they have one coming up this is it might even be this weekend uh where they're performing at Ever again and doing a desserts and dance event if I'm not mistaken. Right. Um and so like those opportunities do exist and we have folks at Eastern

102and at Sexton who are also oper offering those opportunities. Um and so like that that is happening. Um Miss Washington who is the cheer coach at Saxon and I spoke uh yesterday at the track meet um because her son runs track. Uh we spoke yesterday at the track meet because she wants to start inviting the middle schoolers to her high school cheer practice at Saxton during football to start to structure cheer the same way that we do football where the sixth through eighth graders come and practice at the same time as the high schoolers at the same site. So that way the coaches across the three schools will be able to be around them. Um and that's that's not nothing that like that's nothing that I am doing, right? That's something that Miss Washington is

103doing and those people are are are doing. Um, but those are definitely conversations that are occurring with those coaches and providing them with the support and feedback they need to make those things happen. Okay. Thank you. Wonderful. Alrighty. You did you have something? Um, Trusty Stro, I don't I don't have a question. Uh, I just really appreciated all the support in the room, bringing the students and uh, just everybody who's working to make this happen actually here to speak to it. And I think that's just very uh, great work to have them put their own words. and I wrote those down. And I'm a big words person, but to hear her say it was a a feeling of community. To to have a student say it was a place to belong. Um, and so I

104just say great work and kudos to having the mouth of that come from a child is very impactful. So, thank you. Wonderful. Thank you, Trusty Strode, Dr. Kavanagh. Thank you. And thank you, um, Trusty Strode because that tees up uh what I wanted to say. I also have more of a comment than a question um which is that we heard a lot of the benefits of these extracurriculars. So things like community inclusion, discovering new career paths. Um however, I want to point out um another um benefit of extracurriculars. Um so I'm a juvenile justice researcher in my real life and I get the question all the time, why do kids commit crimes? Uh and how do we stop it? And the science is really clear that one of the main reasons that kids commit crimes

105is because neurologically their brains are such that they are driven towards sensation seeking and risk-taking. And in the absence of a pro-social way to direct that that activity, then a lot of that sensation seeking and risk-taking is going to involve breaking the law. And we see that time and time again. And so by offering students a pro-social way to take risks, whether that risk is putting art out there, being on a stage, um being in the the robotics arena, um taking a risk on the field, um those are healthy ways that we can challenge um students who want that challenge, right? We're not going to be able to change the way people's brains develop. This is simply biology. And so instead we have to provide the support structures that allow that natural growth that all

106children go go through to happen in a pro-social way. Uh so I just wanted to raise that as well. Thank you Dr. Kavanagh. Um Dr. NZ Martinez. I do have a question. Can we have the violin the violin students come at another time? Sure. I I don't know if I can say that but sure. Wonderful. Yeah. I know they I think they just scheduled a concert for June 5th. I think they tentatively. So yeah. Yeah. Uh trustee um Lopez, thank you. Thank you for your presentation. It's great to see this uh growth in extracurricular activities. I want to talk about robotics. Um I think three years ago maybe. Uh Everett had a robotics team at Mason and uh they came out with several trophies uh which is really nice to see. I was acting as

107a judge at that time and uh this year in March, I think it was in March, right? Early March. Yeah, they had one in February, one in March. That was I was in Mason too. And and what I see with the robotics teams is that they all talked about family. It becomes a family when they work that close together. And they work because they want to work. They they make time. uh some of the kids are athletes or involved in many other things but they make time to go to to work with the robotics team because that's something I think that in a way and Dave said it you know keeps them grounded and so it is very important that uh to me though is that that we continue developing that robotics team it's very

108important for for growth for learning and making community making family too. Yes. So, thank you very much for the support. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much, Trusty Boyer. Hi, Stephen. How's How's it going? Good. Great job tonight. Thank you. Really appreciate that. Um everything in it. Can you speak to esports and this is for community, right? So, we hear about new things being introduced in high schools. My family and I had the opportunity. We toured a facility in another state and they showed us their esport room and they talked about why it was even beneficial for it to be in the library and so they had a piece of the portion of the library. So for community purposes because some parents might be like why are we spending our money or our tax money

109y'all getting these classes for kids to play the sports. So can you speak a little bit to why esports would be advantageous for our district to even start to participate in? Yeah, sure. And and one thing that I I totally forgot to mention, I should have, was our esports teams actually went on a field trip, oh, a tournament field trip down to University of Alvette on Tuesday, um where they got to tour the campus and meet with the admissions team and then compete in a tournament at the Block House, which is the University of Alvette's esports complex. Uh the 18 students from Lancing Tech, uh which is amazing with two grade levels there were were there and then Saxon Eastern and Everett were all represented at that event. Um, talking to coaches afterwards, uh, my

110understanding is that the esports coach at Alvette, who was there, also offered, uh, some of our students the opportunity to come to Alvette to compete in esports next year. If you're not familiar, esports at the collegiate level, can offer scholarships, and it's unique at the division three level, which is what University is. Because it is not an NCA sport, they can actually offer scholarships for it. So, esports opens up opportunities for students to receive scholarship dollars at the division three level that you could not receive in a what would you call a traditional sport. Um, so I think from that standpoint, that's one piece of it is that those students are able to go down, see this facility, meet with an esports coach, spend time with them, and understand what that's like at the collegiate

111level. I think another thing is that it brings in students from a wide variety of backgrounds into the same places. You might have a starting point guard from basketball that's in there and somebody else who hasn't participated in extracurricular before in the same space doing something that they're passionate about. And I think that sense of community building, which three of you mentioned, it was a is a huge part of the importance of esports because it can break down barriers across lots of different people. One thing that I would note is in continuing with one of the themes is trying to increase access and recruiting of female athletes into these spaces, right? Because both with robotics, with esports, and across our district, we're not seeing that type of participation in the same way from from our

112girls. Um, and it's something that we need to continue to try to pursue and address. I appreciate that. I also in learning a little about esports just the commerce behind it. So it's not just students are coming to play video games. There's a whole commerce behind these gaming sports that students are playing and actually showing them there's a there's a actual career behind this. And so let us introduce you to the career that maybe you had never thought about past this is my break time after school. I'm coming home to play the game. So I'm I'm so over the moon at this opportunity for our district and I I want our community to know why it's so advantageous for us to get in on it. That's right. Thank you for sharing that, trustee. Um I'm

113not a gamer, but I wish I was. Um okay, if there is no more questions for our amazing presenters, thank you again for presenting and doing all the great work that you're doing. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, did you have something to say? Yes. superintendent has something to say. No, I was just going to thank the awesome staff and all the families for being here. And you know, I really appreciate the question about esports. What a lot of folks don't know is there are college scholarships. Uh there's endorsements. It is as lucrative as some of the sports that you would think of as traditional sports. So, we just want to give our kids an opportunity for all things uh and to be successful. But I hope that the community really saw in that very robust

114uh conversation how much we have started to really uh infuse our schools with these extracurricular and enrichment opportunities. So thank you and thank you again to Stephen and to to Mitch. That's right. Give our students an opportunity for all things. Alrighty. Let us breathe. Moving on to our reports at this time. Um, starting with our report from our secretary, Dr. Nave Martinez. Yes. So, um, on May 9th, we are going to have a PD day, so there is no school. On May 23rd, we have a planning and records half day for our elementary schools. We also want to congratulate our seniors of the class of 2025 who achieved a commulative GPA of 3.5 or higher um in their high school career. On May 2nd, Sexton Spring plant sale from 3 to 4:30, cash sales only,

115so come prepared. Stop by the ATM before um they'll use the proceeds to purchase a raised garden bed for the club to use during their third year. Um, and our for our next board meetings, we have May 15, we have a regular board meeting. June 5th, regular board meeting and information study session. June 26, public hearing at 5:30 p.m. and regular board meeting at 6:00 p.m. Thank you. Thank you, Secretary. Yes. Um, Dr. um, Rodriguez, thank you. Um, I see here that June 5th is going to be our meeting. We are going to have some circumstances that we are going to need to have meetings. We're gonna pardon that. We are going to have some circumstances. We are going to need to have meetings. Yes. Yes. I won't be here after June 3rd. Okay. I

116will make I want you to be sure to if we have meeting for whatever we need to do has to be before that if you want me present. Wonderful. Thank you so much for informing me. I took a note. Alrighty, moving on to our um committee um our committee reports from our finance committee, Dr. Kavanagh. Thank you. The finance committee met on April 21st at 12:30 p.m. Present was myself and Dr. Nvarz Martinez. I want to raise that our next meeting will be held on May 19th at 12:30 p.m. So, you are welcome to join um if you'd like to engage in some riveting discussions on finance. Uh, as we always do, we covered our investments, our capital funds, our grant spending, um, any new grants that we've received, as well as go over the

117treasures report, which I will present to you tonight. The detailed treasures report for the period of March 1st, 2025 through March 31st, 2025 is attached to this evening's agenda, but the following are the highlights of that report. The beginning cash and investment balance was $80,813,756. Receipts totaled 14,231,398 while dispersements equaled 20,918,363. Net interfund transfers totaled $63,547 in interest from fund investments to the student to the student and bond funds as well as journal entries to remove the due two due frs in all funds. The monthly transfer to the general fund for bond expenses was $0. The ending general fund cash and investment balance on March 31st, 2025 was $74,63,244. The general funds cash and investment balance is $ 35,13,683 greater as compared to the same time last year. Um, two other things that um, I

118want to raise are, as we mentioned last time, I know that there's been kind of a lot of fluctuation in the stock market. And so I just want to reiterate and reassure everyone that our investments are not held in stocks. Um, we we use different vehicles um, where the terms are kind of purchased in advance so that we are not um, subject to those fluctuations. Um, so when we talk about our investments, don't worry, we don't necessarily mean um, stock market. The second thing I want to raise is the donations that we received during March of 2025. We received $447 in donations. Very timely. Um, two of the donations were to the Everett's Everett robotics team. So, if you liked what you heard tonight, remember that you too could be a donor. And I will

119shout you out just as I'm going to do now for Norton Eye Care and Andrew Robert Robinson Smith who both donated to the Everett robotics team. We thank them. Uh we would also like to thank Blackbow and Accenture, my school bucks and America interest um who also made donations this month. Mr. President, that concludes the March 2025 treasures report. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Kavanaaugh. Dr. Rodriguez, thank you. Um page three I see 2022 bond and 2022 energy bond fund car invest when we had to spend this money that's okay. Sorry slight delay. The 2022 bond we are working on spending over the next couple of years still. We have at least one more and a half probably before it's spent down. Um and then just as a friendly reminder, we are going

120for a series three which the board approved last month and so we'll be coming back in June to have you certify and sign off on those bonds. Thank you. Thank you very much. I I think to have a little bit more information going to be starting but it's good to know the need to know if this man is there and we have to build another building and all this kind of thing we have to do even I won't be here when that happen. Uh I think we should know. Sure. No, I agree. And we're always happy to give a presentation on the bond and bond update, but just in a brief sense, the 2022 bond is the one that we passed in 2022 and we have many years to spend that money. What Kim is

121alluding to is that the way that typically bonds are sold is that you do different tanches and so you sell some at the beginning to start the work and then you sell some later to continue the work. And so, um, what was approved, I guess it was last month, was just we're going back to the market to sell some more. But this is all part of what we did in 2022 when the great people of Lancing decided 71% uh, for uh, to allow us the funds, the $129 million to build the new schools, one of which, good plug, Mount Hope is going to open up in August, which is awesome. Um, but I really appreciate the question from uh Dr. Rodriguez is that we're happy to give a kind of a bond update that I

122think would be great for not just the board but for the community as well. Thank you. Look forward to that. Any questions or anything? All righty. May I have a motion uh that the board of education approve the expenditures as presented for March 2025? Madam President. All righty. Trust. Let's give it to Trusty Boyer tonight for special. Go ahead. Madame President. Yes. I recommend that the board of education approve the expenditures as presented for March 2025. We have a second. Second by Dr. Rodriguez. Um may All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Motion passes 80. M president. Yes sir. Um yes I just I don't know is the time to say yet I had a freely question we don't had report about the personal committee and I think they used to have every month we

123do um I hope that we can have some time thank you we'll make sure that when they start meeting they'll they'll report thank you Dr. Rodriguez for reminding us of that committee. I don't want to put more work with anybody, but um Okay, that's okay. All right. Uh personnel committee. U moving on to our superintendent report. Right. Uh definitely good evening and not good afternoon. Um you know, again, having me go at the end is so interesting because I get to comment on all these great things, but it also is two hours after this the meeting starts. Um, so we'll get the normal stuff out of the way. Uh, for gas cards, it's 2,458 uh, asked for and 2,457 received. So, just one person is waiting on it, which is great. Usually, we can do

124those pretty quickly. For KATA, it's 631 uh, asked and 622 received. So, if any student or family is asking for the CAD cards and it's getting uh stopped up by any means, it's usually takes a couple of days for the schools to get them, but please make sure to ask the schools. They should have enough. Uh in terms of the dean busing, there are uh 3,680 requests and 3,442 routed, which sadly is a larger differential than last time. The differential is now 238. Uh last time we were actually broke under 200 for the first time in I think three years. Um but I do know that we have uh started to get um more kids routed and we're certainly working on it. But I again I promised I would read these numbers until we get

125that differential to zero. Um it is still much lower than the 300 that we were averaging. Uh but we do know that we have had kids come into the district or asking for routes now uh that they hadn't been routing uh earlier. But again, the differential is 238. Um you know what you saw today, I think is really indicative of where this district is going. You saw students and teachers and principles present academic work. You saw the director of enrichment talk about the incredible growth of our enrichment programs, be it art or music. Uh I was sitting with Stephen watching Shrek Jr. the musical. Uh it was really special. Um when I used to teach uh folks how to become superintendent and principles and I was the uh whatever I had a fancy title, distinguished

126lecturer of education leadership uh at Hunter College. I was asked once on a panel, you know, what's the one thing that if a school could do, you would say it was a high performing school. And so it's one thing, right? You know, you could talk about test scores, but test scores could be here or there. You could talk about being fully staffed. You could talk about, you know, having a beautiful building, but I would always say if you could put on a musical, that's the thing. And the reason why I said that is because in order to have a musical happen, you need so many other things to work. You need to have teachers willing to work after school. You need kids willing to stay after school. You need somebody that can do lights and

127you can have learn how to sing and you can, you know, have costumes and kids engage. And what I was just so thrilled with was that we now in our junior high schools, in our, you know, elementary schools are able to put on musicals. It's really something special. And so I really hear um what Trusty Williams said, I think what we need to make sure of is, and I see Ryan in the back, is we want to make sure that the community knows uh that that the community knows what's going on. And you heard the parent about going out to an robotics uh competition, come out to the sports events, come out to the drama. Um, you know, in my weekly newsletter, The Community, I wrote about how wouldn't it be amazing if all of

128us cared about our students, athletes, and and drama and musicals as much as we do about the basketball game uh that's being played, you know, either in downtown Detroit or downtown New York. Um, you know, and I think that we're really getting somewhere in this district. It's really powerful. I've seen this incredible growth. And I just ask that all of us uh try to pick one event a month or three events a year. Pick a school to associate yourself with. Maybe it's the one you went to, maybe the one your kid goes to, and just go to an event. Um, as you heard that parent say, you know, it means so much to the kids, but I can tell you it also means so much to the adults, to the other parents, uh, to the

129staff. So, I just want to thank this board. I want to thank this community. You know, we've really done some tremendous things over these last four years. Uh, and I hope that everybody is super proud and can see the trajectory that we're taking. So, with that, I uh, turn it back over to the president. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent. Um, superintendent, really quickly, do you believe, this is something I thought about with the dean transportation because we're coming up on spring and normally leasing, you know, families who may be leasing places probably leased another place. Do you believe that has something to do with probably the dean transportation? I would think it would. Yeah, I you know, it's possible. You know, when you're talking about 3,500 kids, like all of that matters, right? And I

130really appreciate you asking that. we, you know, through a lot of work through Cordelia's office and the office of school culture and all of the schools having these strong relationships with the families to say, "Oh, you moved. Oh, you know, you you changed. Okay, now it's going to be harder for the busing, but we're still going to work for you." Uh, so I think you're right that as you know, the spring is when people do tend to move and when you move and you don't have enough busing as it is, that can kind of mess up with your route. So, you know, what what we certainly want to do and certainly anybody listening, you know, if you're having issues with transportation, please please please reach out to us. Uh, you know, what we have seen

131which has been wonderful is, you know, more and more families are starting to go to the schools in their communities and that's not only strengthening the communities and the parents are, you know, meeting each other and having playdates and things like that. Um, but it also really helps with the transportation. And of course, we'll say this, you know, I think probably forever, uh, until there's, you know, non- gas powered cars, I guess, is, you know, please, if you want a gas card, just let us do that for you. Uh, we know that the busing isn't uh where we want it to be, but we have certainly with Kata and with the gas cards uh moved it, and you can see thousands of families are taking it on, but you're right. You know, certainly the time

132of the lease is now, and that's probably one of the things. Thank you. All right. Alrighty. Thank you, Superintendent. Um, moving on to our new business. Um, we have um a resolution to to change a few um meeting dates um that we have this year and that would be the 19th. Um because it's Junth um we have I'm asking that we or on our agenda that that mo that that meeting is cancelled and moved to the 26th we'll be having a regular um scheduled board meeting and July 3rd an amendment to that date due to 4th of July weekend and um July 17th will be moved to the 24th to have our wonderful 98B B presentation by Miss Benvitz. So, if we could have a motion to um amend Okay, I'll read through it. You

133going to You got it. Yeah. All right. Go ahead. Madame President, um I recommend that the board calendar previously adopted on January 9th, 2025 be amended by striking June 19th and inserting June 26th, cancelling July 3rd meeting, and striking July 17th and inserting July 24th. It was moved by Dr. Kavanagh. Can I have a second? Second. Second by Dr. Martinez. Um, all in favor say yes. That's a friendly amendment and have meetings uh if are necessary from here to June 5th. Pardon? And to have another meetings if are necessary called by the president of the board. You're asking that we have adopt a meeting if we need another meeting if we need if we need one. Okay. Then maybe we need to add that. Okay. And we can discuss that. Okay. Wonderful. So it's been

134moved by Dr. Kavanagh, second by trustee or Dr. Never Martinez. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Motion passes 80. On to public comments on non-aggenda items. We have one. Um, Mr. Kyle Ricard. Did I say that? Rashard. Rashard. Rashard. All righty. Members of the public may address the board for three minutes. It is board's policy not to respond to public comment. Floor is yours. Yeah. Yeah. Good evening. Good evening. Wow. You said over the moon earlier. I can't tell if I'm over the moon or overwhelmed, but there's so much information. A lot of cool stuff to see. Whoever came up with the visual learning Great idea. Um, I'm here tonight to talk about accessibility. Um, I've been watching the more online YouTube. Um, and one thing that thinking about accessibility is like um,

135you know, is this room accessible to everyone? Is this room accessible to all our stakeholders? And at the current moment, I I don't feel that it is. Um, I would love to see online com. I like to see online comments like city council has um because I think about you know if you had like say a single parent who you know just gets home at 5 they got to cook dinner for the kids and you know but there's something on the agenda that night that they want to talk about and if they can't come here in in person they can't give their opinion I would rather have a space where that parent is able to to share their opinion um virtually and so I know that the city council folks they went through a long

136process to to get to the point where they're at now and so I'm sure they have some lessons that they could bestow if y'all wanted to go that route. Um, and then I was also thinking about I noticed on on YouTube the the remodel in here was one of the one of the first things I noticed like oh they ripped out the carpet. Um, which I agree with. Good call on that. Um, but I was I was curious about like is this space accessible to again like Lancing School District parents and students? Um, and if I had, let's say I had like three kids and the only way I can make it to this meeting is if I bring my kids here with me. Is the expectation that they sit in these chairs for the

137whole time after we've been telling them to sit down in their chair all day at school? Um, and so I'm curious like I mean, can we get like an area rug and some bean bags in the corner? Maybe like a small bookshelf, you know, so a t a tub of Legos, something that, you know, the kids can can do quietly while they're in the space. Um, just something to think about. But great meeting. Great meeting. Great meeting. I'm going to go home. Yeah, we have a good night. Thank you. Alrighty. Moving on to comments from the board. Oh, comments from the board. Yes. Um, Trustee Williams. Good evening, Madam President. Um I not sure how many students in our district are familiar with uh Gear Up or how many parents or anything, but this weekend

138they've opened it up that they're doing um uh it's it's called it's not too late MSU Gear Up for the Elevate Together family entrepreneur summit. It's this Saturday, May 3rd, and students can bring guests, how many guests they want. You come to learn how to start a business, hear from speakers, everything like that. It's going to be located at the Kellogg Center. Uh there is a registration link. I'm not sure how we can get that out. I did forward this email on to our comm's director. So hopefully we can see more students participate and go their families. It's open to the community. It everything is free. I do understand that it is graduation this weekend. But if your children have nothing to do, this is another avenue where they can learn about businesses creating their

139own and as well as a family as well. So, please look for that email or our communication. If you have questions, you can see me as well. Thank you, Trusty Williams. Yes, Dr. Nver Martinez. Yes. So, last weekend I went to the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement uh annual scholarship lunch and uh one of our students, Anthony Williams, got a scholarship. He's from Everett High School. Um he got $1,000 for college expenses. So uh we very proud of our students. Yes, we are our scholars. Yes, Dr. Rodriguez. Thank you, Mad President. Um we have San Jose attending the 3.5 Yes. celebration for the students in London the other student who had an average in the last four years the 3.5 and really was in to hear for them and listening to their speeches and

140and the parents happiness there demonstrate what um the level of learning that our students are having in the schools and congratulations from all of us or sure to the to the students to the parents to the teachers and to the administrator of these three or no five different places that they came from. Thank you, Madam President. No, thank you for for joining us last week for the um banquet. It was wonderful seeing all of our scholars. Trusty Boyer, I just wanted to give a special shout out to Kavanaaugh's presenters tonight, Rain and Flynn, who talked about the the stages and the life cycle of a butterfly. They took me through the whole process and it was just it was it made me miss teaching honestly because they're second graders and just between that second and

141third grade there's just really something special with students and their growth in their comprehension and being able to conversate and defend and observe and to reflect and to show. Um, so I just wanted to say thank you to them for their courageous function tonight to speak to what was a big group of adults in a room, right? And they're we're all towering over them. And so, um, we just want to say thank you for having them speak from Kavanaaugh school. Just the courageousness of our students tonight with Leo and then Eric. I'm just really honored, pleased, and excited to serve. Um, and also great shout out to uh Mr. Kdogan who wore his Pistons jersey tonight. It was a little bit petty move, but we love it, don't we? I completely deserve it. So, it's

142totally fine. Uh, I appreciate Chris very much. Yeah, that was that was funny. Yes. And trusty boy, we have something for you. Um, for Oh, yes. Dr. Rodriguez or No, no, that's over there. I know. Trust or Vice President Lopez? Uh, Dr. Lopez is fine. Oh, I'll speak that thing into existence. Uh, two two things. First of all, I'd like to thank um the trades people who um send us some nice posters to encourage trades or inform people about the trades. And they're also in Spanish. I got a packet with both English and Spanish and they talk about what is an electrician, who brings you power, the electrician, you know. So, thank you to them for doing that. I appreciate that. And I just want to take a a a moment to um go back

143to Mr. Jones like like many others. Um he helped many students was a mentor to them and uh my daughter um he was a mentor to my daughter and uh my daughter was uh uh was not the athlete but was the one that kept the athletes in in line. So she was part of the of the team and um she had many many uh good experiences and like I said you know he was a mentor to her and to all the team members. So I really appreciate that and again you know condolences to the family. Yes. Uh at this time thank you madam president. No thank you for acknowledging um coach Jones again. Alrighty trusty boy. It's about you right now. Um I don't know who if everybody knows the community but our beloved trustee

144will be um departing the Lancing school district board of education but we wanted to give you this plaque and honor you for your service for your three four month five month service five month service. So yellow. We can clap. [Applause] Um you're more than just all that. It's been a pleasure. And we've got [Applause] picture. [Music] Alan, come on. You better come on. Come on. Mr. All right. Let's move on with our agenda item. Then we'll get so All righty. I know it's getting late. Alrighty. Alrighty. Now moving on to um we are going to be going to close session. Can I have a motion that the Can I have a motion to go into close session? Madame President? Yes. I move that the board of education recess into close session for the purpose of

145considering material exempt from disclosure as is permitted in the open meetings act section 81C for strategy and negotiation sessions connected with the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement if either negotiating party requests a closed hearing. All righty. And we can lump it together. And furthermore, I move that the board of educ Oh, separate. You're amazing. All righty. Um, can I have a second? The first one. Can I have a second? Second. Okay. It's been moved by Dr. Kavanaaugh and second by Vice President Lopez. Um, can the clerk please call a role? Mrs. Ber. Yay. Dr. Kavanaaugh. Yes. Mr. Lopez. Mrs. Moore. Yes. Dr. Nibbar Martinez. Yes. Dr. Rodriguez. Yes. Mrs. Strode. Yes. Ms. Williams. Yes. Motion passes 80. Thank you. May I have a motion for the Oh, okay. So, I'm going to do it

146now for for Okay, hold up. Wait up. This is We always have to have order right here. So, I got too much going on. So, I'm going to start and then we'll follow. Wonderful. May I have a recommended motion on the second close session? Madam President, Trusty Boyer, I recommend that the board of education recess into close session for the purpose of considering material exempt from disclosure as is permitted in the Open Meetings Act, section 81H, considering material exempt from disclosure under another statute, which includes reviewing attorney client privileged materials exempt from disclosure under FOYA section 131G. Thank you. It's been moved by Trusty Boyer. Can I have a second? Second. It's been second by Dr. Nes Martinez. Please call the role. Mrs. Ber, yes. Dr. Kavanaaugh, yes. Mr. Lopez, yes. Mrs. Moore, yes. Dr.

147Nibar Martinez, yes. Dr. Rodriguez, yes. Mrs. Strode, yes. Ms. Williams. Oh, yes. Sorry. Motion passes 80. We are now in close session at 8:26. Six. my phone is on. Okay, welcome back everybody and we are enter exiting out of close session at 10:23 and entering back into our open session at I guess 10:23. I don't know. All righty. So, at this time, I'm going to um ask that there is a motion um to our um statement that I'm going to read. um the Lancing School District Board of Education, myself, President Robin Moore, I recently authorized Trun Law Firm PC to conduct an independent a independent third-party factf finding investigation regarding concerns lodged by district staff members about a board member's communication and interactions. The board has received the confidential final factf finding report and has

148accepted the investigator's findings which violates with with violations of board policies 3112 and 0144 do um P2 I. The board recognizes the critical role that district staff play in delivering on our mission to provide educational excellence in a safe and nurturing environment for all students. The board accepts that all board members will engage with different district staff in a productive way and in alignment with board policies. To end this, the board is committed to clarifying its collective expectations for its members and to provide professional development to members on those expectations. The board intends to collaborate with internal and external resources to reach this goal. The board looks forward to engaging with this important work to strengthen its alliance and relationships with district staff who are essential to the district district's success. May I have a

149motion, Madame President? Yes. I move that with respect to an investigation related to board member conduct, the board accept the confidential investigation findings findings as presented and adopt the board president's public statement as its final determination on the matter. It has been moved by trustee Bullyard. May I have a second? Second. Second by trustee Strode. May I all may I have the clerk the clerk call the role? Excuse me. Mrs. Ber, yes. Dr. Kavanaaugh. Yes. Mr. Lopez. Mrs. Moore. Yes. Dr. Nibar Martinez. Yes. Dr. Rodriguez. Yes. Mrs. Strode. Yes. Miss Williams. Motion passes six one. Okay. Well, yep. With that being said, at if there's no more business before the board, um meeting adjourned at 10:26. Heather.