001Today is the regular board of education meeting. Today is Monday, September 8th, 2025. And we will start with the pledge of allegiance. Um, Trustee Thompson, can you lead us? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And next up, pledge of allegiance is done. Roll call, please. >> Chamblas, >> absent with notice. >> Carlos Harp >> here. >> Cindy Holder >> here. >> Mark Kimble >> here. >> Chrisa Malpine Taylor >> here. >> Gloria Thompson >> here. >> Public fundamentals. Public input is fundamental to the operation of Madison District Public Schools. Our public has an opportunity to speak at every board of education meeting. A period of time known as public
002comment is set aside at each meeting to give parents and other citizens a chance to speak directly to the board about school related topics. Anyone who wishes to speak to the board must fill out a request form and give it to the board secretary before the meeting begins. Comments are limited to three minutes. The board of education accepts comments made during public comment from anyone who follows these guidelines. Public comment is one of the many information sources the board uses before making decisions in the best interest of the children who attend Madison District Public Schools. The board also works with the district staff to address citizens questions and concerns. Did we get any requests? No ma'am. >> All righty. Anybody else? No. Okay. Um shall we move on to the administrative report? Yes. >> So
003tonight I just want to we have two things we want to talk about. One is this upcoming Saturday we we are having the open air market. We want the public to come out. We have over 40 vendors. We have Blakes coming out giving away free donuts. Travis, if I'm missing anything, please help me. Um, we also have uh a bounce house. We have gifts for kids. So, it is this Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 3 pm at Wilkinson Middle School. We just think it's going to be a great opportunity for families to come out. You can come out, do your Christmas shopping, start a little early or get some seasonings for your Thanksgiving dinner. But we are so excited. We have different levels of um rentals. So, we had a category where uh vendors could
004purchase a booth and purchase like prime real estate booths booths, so on and so forth. So, we're really excited about that. So, make sure you guys come out anytime between 10:00 a.m. and 3 p.m. And we also have an update on enrollment and I'm going to hand it over to Pam. Good evening. So, I have some numbers here of where we are with our student count. Obviously, this will change regularly throughout the next couple of weeks as students continue to add and students continue to drop. So, overall, as of today, we've enrolled 180 new students. We've had 122 students exit. Pre-enrollment means that they have applied and they're sitting there maybe waiting for another form um that they need to submit. So you can see what our numbers are for pre-enrollment. That's how many for
005each of those buildings is right now sitting there. No shows, that's the number of students that as of yet have not shown up. We've made phone calls, they've sent emails. Um tomorrow is day 10. So if these students do not show up tomorrow, after 10 days they are dropped. Our current numbers for each building you can see on the left hand side. Um ECC is kind of broken up into different categories because we have our kindergarten, we have our early childhood special education, then we have our GSRP. Um so you can see this year we have 46 kindergarteners. Last year we had 62. We knew that there was going to be a decline this year. That's why one of those staff members was um transferred over to the elementary school. MEES current numbers 382. Last
006year at this time it was 406. Wilkinson Middle School 164 now 179 last year. Madison High School 274 now. Last year 253. So our total with the entries and the exits we're at about a negative 15. Um obviously the goal is we need to get all these pre-enrollment students enrolled. I meet with the building secretaries every Tuesday and Thursday to go over enrollment and just see where they're at, what they're working on, how they're getting these parents to come back to the school or to um tell us where they're going or why. We did have a family of four reach out today that they originally had with withdrew um but they've decided to come back. So that's four more once they get enrolled that we'll add to this. Um, typically every day we've been getting
007about 10 new applicants for pre-enrollment. So, if we continue on that trajectory, um, basically that means weekly we're getting about 50 students. The secretaries are doing an amazing job of getting them enrolled. As you can see, we've enrolled 180 students, which is amazing. You know, our goal was 100 and we've really surpassed that. The problem is our exits is we can't we can continue to enroll but when we're losing large numbers that's where we'll see that impact. Do you have any questions? >> Well, actually I'm sorry. No, go ahead. >> Um, so currently there's 85 students at ECC. Yes. Is that correct? All >> together, >> there's maybe six or seven more. They are your birth to three. So, they're not actually counted as a full FTE. They're home. Um they get services in their
008home with our um one of our special ed case load uh teachers. So, there may be six or seven more, >> but in the home. So, they're not using the building. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. just touch on I'm sorry uh the ECC you said you were expecting um the decline. Could you just go over that a little bit more? >> Yeah. So, when we were looking at our pre-enrollment um over the summer for kindergarten, we noticed that we had less students that were enrolling. So, normally we would have had three teachers at ECC teaching kindergarten, but because we saw this ahead of time, we trans um transition one teacher over to me. So, there's currently two kindergarten classes instead of the three so that we're not overstaffed um for that for that grade
009level. >> And can I add about the kindergarten 2 classes? So, one of the problems that we are trying to figure out is GSRP. So GSRP programs are now inside of daycarees. So it's kind of hard. Prior to that, we were able to capture our kids just come as a four-year-old through GSRP and then they just metriculate right up to kindergarten. Well, now GSRP is offered in daycare. So it's kind of hard. And I know the principal has reached out to daycarees throughout the school year to say like, "Hey, can we come in? Can we talk to the parents?" But we're still trying to figure out how to bridge the gap from outside GSRP programs to get them to come back and have them here inside the building. And one of the selling points was
010that we are all certified teachers. We have wraparound services from social workers to special education if they need that. So we're still fighting with daycarees with the GSRP kids to feed our kindergarteners. So if you look at the GSRP numbers last year, they were 22, which was very low. So now that's the 22 that would be feeding in. So if we had 40 like we have this year, you know, add 20 to that, we'd have 60some students. So that that low enrollment last year in GSRP also really hurt us. But this year now we're up to 40. I think we have room for five more. holder. >> Um can Okay, so do we um receive full funding for GSRP or how does that work? >> Yeah, it's a it's a different type of funding. Um
011it's based on how many students that you have. >> So Ebony may be able to talk a little bit more about that, but she so she gets a a check I believe twice a year for GSRP. >> It comes through the state aid. >> Through the state aid. How much per student that is? >> Okay. Um and can you also uh ECSE >> early childhood special education. >> Okay. >> So those students are on a half day schedule, but they count as 1.0 FTE. >> Okay. >> So that really helps us out because we're only servicing them for half a day. so that we can put she has a class of four in the morning, class of 5 in the afternoon. There's room for more students if they get certified, which is constantly happening throughout
012the school year. And um like I said, we get a 1.0 FTE for those. Now, the other students that there's about six or seven of, we will get a 0.58 FTE. So almost 60% of the of the state funding about 10,000 will get 60% of that for those home inhome um students and they do come into the building sometimes. She has a room where she can provide her services there as well. >> Thank you so much. We appreciate >> Trusty Harp ahead. >> For the exits, is that still going up or has that capped off now? >> I'm sorry. Say that one more time. for the exits. Is that still going up daily or is that capped off now? >> No, we don't know when a family is going to let us know that they're
013exiting their students. So, that's basically students that have withdrawn or exited the district. So, that could continue the next couple of weeks typically. Depends what school district they're going to. If they're doing schools of choice, it literally is not literally usually the end of September because count day is October 1st. So you have to have those students enrolled in seats marked present prior to count day. So our count day will end our schools of choice open enrollment will end Friday the 26th and then Wednesday October 1st is count day. So that gives us Monday Tuesday to get them in school marked present for attendance prior to Wednesday. Now the way the state also does it with schools of choice is if you are a schools of schools of choice you apply you are admitted if
014you are not in attendance within the first five days we are supposed to drop you because schools of choice they want you if you're enrolling with the district you have five days to show up and cast one more thing uh actually not really an ask but um probably after count day is there a plan to kind and look back at what what has been the actions that have been taken to get enrollment up to see what we can learn for next year. Is that something that we can plan on? >> Absolutely. And remember, and what I'll do is look at last year, how many entries did we have compared to this year? I believe last year we had about 85. So, we're talking over double. So, our enrollment marketing and our enrollment actions are working
015because we're getting the students. What we have to do now is work on what is the reason we're losing them. What grade level is being most affected? H most affected by that. How do we make a plan to retain those students? Because I can continue to enroll. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I can continue to enroll and keep getting all these students, but if if we're not retaining them, then that's that's the piece we need to figure out. We thought it was the fifth to sixth or the 8th to 9th, not so much. It's kind of across the board. >> Thank you very much. just keep going. Um and I am are are we able to um has any of the student the students families that has exited um expressed any of the reasons why they
016have left or >> some do some let us know that they've moved >> um so they're they're just in another district because they moved either to an you know a city that's further away. Now, we do have some families, we do, we had one family that moved a couple cities over. I'm not going to name um and they stayed with us because they preferred to keep their children here. So, it just depends on how far and if the parent is able to provide that transportation because it's no longer available if they move outside of our district boundaries. um some are some don't even let us know at all and then we just get um the record request from the school that they're entering. Um so it it just depends. Um but we do our best
017to try to find out exactly why and um you know keep kind of a tally on where it is. If they're moving um to another district in state, there is an exit code that we would put in. So I'll know that for sure. Otherwise, it might say unknown. That means that the parent never let us know. >> Thank you. >> I just had one question. I know uh MEES was not really our target area because it's always full, >> but 24 kids is is a whole classroom of loss. So, um just looking at that today, what what can we glimmer from those numbers right there? >> Yeah. So, we um when we were counting, we did know that we were not going to have as many kindergarteners transitioning to Madison Elementary School. So if you
018look at those that number of minus 24 um that could be part of it because we just even though well we did have the 62 last year the real thing was some of the classes we had four sections of each and we reduced them to three. So, let's say like second grade or third grade. Maybe in the past we've had four sections of each, but based on our numbers, we only have three because we did not want to have four sections just because because we've always had four when we didn't have the student numbers um to to back that up. And I think it's also a decline in the kindergarten enrollment that is going to eventually have an impact. So like the kindergarten enrollment was low last year. So now that's impacting our first grade
019enrollment this year and next year is probably going to impact the second grade. So on and so forth >> because we've always had four first grades. Well, so now this year we only have three first grade. So one of those teachers had to go to teach another grade level. One of the things that we do plan to do um after count this year is do an enrollment audit to see which classes and which sections could we possibly if needed consolidate so we can try to see where can we make sure that we are efficient in terms of staffing. >> Yeah. And I'll also give you kind of a breakdown of um the number of students in each class like for elementary every single you know first grade class, second grade class, third grade class to
020let you know exactly how many students are in there to also just show you that we are making sure that we're staffing according to our numbers and not to the numbers we thought we might have. That's not how we're doing staffing. >> Else is good. Trusty Thompson. >> I'm good. >> All righty. Uh, with that, are we ready? >> Go ahead, Superintendent. >> Can I just sit here? >> Okay. So, I I know we wanted to have a conversation about um the snow removal for 25. So Ricky, if you can come up please. Before we have that conversation, we just want to take this time to honor you as our 25 26 staff member of the year. >> Thank you. [Applause] >> So as an admin team and as the building principles, we had this
021conversation about okay, we want to carry on and you were the name that everyone wanted to honor. We just want to say thank you for your hard work and Pam has a little speech for you. So, it's my honor to present the Madison Cup staff member of the year to someone whose impact reaches every corner of our district, Mr. Ricky Malik. >> Thank you. As our safety, security, and facilities manager, Ricky plays a vital role in creating the foundation for learning. He ensures our buildings are safe, secure, and well-maintained so that teachers can focus on teaching and students can focus on learning. His proactive approach, whether it's implementing safety protocols, conducting inspections or addressing issues before they become problems, makes him an invaluable part of the Madison team. What sets Ricky apart is his unwavering
022dedication. He consistently goes above and beyond the call of duty, supporting our staff and students during the school day and even steps in during special events and emergencies. His knowledge, skills, and professionalism give our community confidence that our schools are safe places to learn and grow. Tonight, we recognize not just the work he does, but the care, commitment, and heart behind it. Ricky, thank you for all you do for Madison District Public Schools, and congratulations on being named our staff member of the year. Thank you. Congratulations. [Applause] >> Yes. Family, please come up for a picture, too. >> Did we surprise you? >> You did. >> Okay. Thank you. I'll continue to >> do my best for the district. >> Thank you. I am. >> Thank you. [Applause] >> No problem in about 10 minutes.
023Thank you. Next is the consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine in nature by the board of ed and will be acted upon by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If any member of the board or any citizen request discussion of an item, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and will become the first item of business under the board of education action items portion of the agenda. Tonight's agenda includes approval of the minutes of the board of education for the regular meeting August 18th, 2025. Approval of August 2025 expenditures in the amount of 1,464,983.98 and approval of the personnel report submitted by human resources on September 3rd, 2025. I need a maker in support, please. Madam President, >> Trustee Thompson,
024>> I'd like to make a motion that the board of education approve the consent agenda as appro as presented. >> Do you have support? >> All support >> discussion. Seeing none, roll call vote, please. >> Carlos Harp, >> yes. >> Sydney Holder, >> yes. >> Mark Kimble, >> yes. >> Chrisa McAlpine Taylor, >> yes. Gloria Thompson. >> Yes. >> Motion pass. >> New business. We obviously have a board seat open. We had one person to apply. Um so we do have some questions if we would like to um ask. And first, because not everyone may be um as familiar as those of us have been around here for a bit, Mary Hart, can you come take the the front podium and tell us a little bit about yourself? >> So, my name is Mary Hart.
025I am a former trustee of the Madison Heights uh board of education and now my husband serves on also. So, one thing I want to say is I really did enjoy my time and my husband and I are not monolith as this board has found out. So, I want to, you know, allay any concerns there might be that, um, a couple serving on the board that we're going to vote or feel or think the same. So, um, although we probably have the same, not probably, we do have the same ethical and moral and values, um, we certainly approach things differently. So, I just wanted to say that and I would love the opportunity to serve our board and our students and our community again. >> Do we have anyone that would like to ask a
026question? >> I do. >> Trustee Kimell, >> it's good to see you, Mary. How are How are you feeling today? >> I'm feeling fantastic today. >> All right, that's it for me. >> That's it. Trust Trustee Harp. >> Um I would like to ask is there anything you would do differently from the first time that you served to now? >> Absolutely. If there was something that I disagreed with instead of just making a statement why I was against it, I would probably vote that. So I would vote no as opposed to yes on something that I just didn't agree with. So that is something I would definitely do differently this time. >> Thank you. I don't have any questions. >> I know they're looking through them. I think that Trusty Thompson >> I don't need
027to ask any questions. Welcome back. >> Okay. I think with that we do, it's not in the agenda, but we do need to make a motion to um >> Madame President, I'd like to make a motion to approve Mary Harp as a board member. >> I'll second. >> Well, she needs to be legally she has to be added today. Um because she it is down as only the interview. Um it was asked should we just make the motion to add um like A1. This is the interview and then >> let me let me rephrase my motion then. My motion is to appoint Mary Harp as a board member for the vacant position. I'll second supports accepts. Um, okay. With that, this does have to be done tonight. There is a 30-day time limit. So, um,
028roll call vote, please. >> Carlos Harp, >> yes. >> Cindy Holder, >> yes. Mark Kimble, >> yes. >> Chris Sarah McAlpine Taylor, >> yes. >> Gloria Thompson, >> yes. >> Motion pass. >> Now, we do have to swear her in. >> Remember, bring your stuff because you're gonna be sitting up here. I, Mary Harp, Mary, >> do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States in the constitution of the state of Michigan. United States discharge the duties of the office of school board member and I lost my place. I am for the Madison District Public Schools and the best for you to fill out. Welcome. Okay. Next on the agenda is the Michigan Association of School Board Delegate. um that position. Excuse me, I have a tickle in my throat. I
029just keep, you know, fighting with it. Um Trusty Dodge took Yes. May I ask? That was the one Trustee Dodge had. Correct. >> From what you you told me last week, yes, >> I believe that that's true. And it seems to me um that Christ, you might have done the alternate. Would you have an interest in in doing that or would you rather us look elsewhere? >> I'd rather look elsewhere. Okay. So, this is a meeting um that happens during the Wednesday um meetings at Oakland schools. So part of it is a dinner meeting that have um current uh things that are happening legislatively um potential problems. We um do need to have a board rep. Um, so I don't know if anybody would have Wednesdays one one Wednesday a month free to go and
030then report back. >> Madame President, is this once a month? Every month? >> Okay. Wait, Trustee or Perry, go ahead. >> You're speaking of the Oakland County School Board delegate. This is the Michigan Association of School Board delegate. >> So this one there's not a consistent meeting once a month, but you may get emails, you may get a email. >> These are the ones they notify all of us. >> This is the state of Michigan school board delegate. >> Okay. >> So in my past experience, this individual will get emails, let us know what's going on, log on to maybe a Zoom meeting. There's usually not a lot of face-toface meetings unless you're at a conference and usually if there's a vote you guys will take it back or take bring it to the board
031and then take the information back to MASB and let them know like hey this is our opinion and this is what we're going to do to support. They also may call on you like now in the time where there's not a budget, they may say, "Hey, can you get these letters out to your local community, things like that, >> then we still have to replace our Oakland County School Board delegate as well, first off?" So, do we have anybody that would like to do this? If not, we can bring it back up into two weeks. Oh, Trusty Harp Carlos Harp says he will do it. Thank you. And then we'll put the Oakland on the agenda in two weeks. We need a backup. Do we have a someone that wants to be the um backup
032rep? All righty. Thank you. And next, RFP for auditors. I know that that was one of the things that we had talked about before. Um, it's actually brought up. I want to say, um, Mary Bush had asked about this a bit back and so we had talked about putting a new RFP out for auditors. Um it's getting to the point where it's time that we should look for next year. I know this past year we did it we were told too late. um always decide to stay with the people that we have, but um it's just good business sense to to put it out for bid and seeing if we're getting um what we need our best for our buck. Um who typically with the attorneys just draw that up and send it out? >>
033So, we've never done it as an administration. So, we can reach out to our attorney or reach out to someone >> and we can re if you could just give us until after this audit is over with. Can we bring this back to the table in October to discuss? >> I just didn't want it to go to the >> side. I'll keep it on the agenda as a ongoing item, >> but we will research on how to do it. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Have you guys ever been a part of it as a board? It's not unusual for every at least two years to put >> time frame. Like when do you guys usually do it? >> Um right after the other one's done. >> So right after the audit. >> Yeah. >> Okay.
034So possibly we're thinking about November. >> Soon. >> Okay. >> It'll be because they'll be clearing their desks and getting in line. We kept being told there was no time to even look at us last year. When did we talk? When did they how when did they want to do it last year? >> Remember? >> No. Um I I'm trying to think and if someone if it comes to mind >> someone else can say but it seemed to me it maybe was >> I think it was when we came back and had our organizational meeting in January or somewhere around that time >> because when you have your organizational meeting you have to say who you're going to use for an auditor for that year >> to do it prior to being done with the
035end of the audit We definitely can get the paperwork out because you got to send it to multiple companies and see who even responds. >> I'm just wondering if we need to get it sooner than later then. Like waiting till November seems late if January is too late. >> Well, right now they are in the midst of the audit. So September is not a good time for us to get it out just because we have so much going on. So we can if we can bring it back to the table in October and then we can discuss then once we figure out what the process I mean it may even only take a week. We don't know how long it takes because I'm quite sure the auditing firms have something to send out >> because
036they're reasonable. >> We could also just send a email to >> um Joe Urban. >> Well, I don't like for us to do lawyer business. Well, the way it's worded with the state is that because the audit is a direct accountability measure for the taxpayers and the state, the board of education, not the administration, approves and contracts the auditing firm. >> And again, we have to make sure that it's done correctly. We none of us sitting here right now know, >> but that's what we're saying. The it's the board's responsibility. So, you're right. That's that's on that's all on you guys. >> Thank you. Uh, Miss Thompson, >> go ahead. >> Oh, I was just gonna add that if you do decide to go to a new um another firm, we have our preliminary starts
037in June, so or actually starts in July, so we need to have that in place by spring. >> Okay. We definitely would have >> Yeah, just just because they start doing the audit preparation in the summer. I was just saying because none of us are familiar. We don't want to miss the deadline again. So, okay. Um, are we good to move on to snow removal? >> Yes. >> I asked Ricky to come because he can explain what type of contract we currently have and what type of contract we need to have for the future. So, I'll hand it over to Ricky. >> Yeah. So last year we were sort of put into a pinch with with Gary re re uh retiring. So we were put into a pinch and then so we just made some
038phone calls and and uh and uh we had a uh somebody come in and charge us per push. It was a it was non-contractual. They charged us per push because it was emergency and there was already so many big companies that already have their season set. Um, so October 1st of this year, I was going to uh call three more four more businesses to come on out and give us the bids on uh the snow removal for the season. And uh we'll do it contractually rather than per push. I mean, I'd like I'm going to, you know, definitely like some years we wouldn't pay to do it contractually because we didn't get a lot of snow some years. So, it's it's a it's a hit and miss. Um, but I'll look at it both ways
039and then I'll uh take it to Pam and Patricia and uh we'll make the uh decision on that. Um, and it seemed to really really work out. Company we used last year was there early in the morning and that's another thing that I'll have to question a lot of these contractors is it's not at your time, it's at our time. School starts at 7:30. I'm going to need you there at 5:00 am. And that's what we ran into last year with some of these is like we're so late into the to the game that they couldn't accommodate us. So I will do this year because I have the time October 1st. I intend to uh call um these companies and and meet them and show them what we need done. And again, we're only going
040to do Wilkinson and Early Childhood. um the staff member, which we only have one outside, which is Scott Labra. He can handle the high school, he can handle the mees. Um just too much to ask for one person to do all of it and have it ready for time school gets school starts. So that's what I'm planning to do. >> I have a question. >> Sure. >> Um because we have one outside person. Yes. >> Um are we set indoors? We don't. he wouldn't be better utilized indoors and do >> bidding out for all of them. >> Well, here here's um here's the thing. Our head custodians do their own main entrances. We have the equipment to do, you know, uh Scott can get this done in like four hours. The high school mees because
041connected um we have the equipment, we have the psalter, you know. Um, so it it is a lot cheaper in my opinion um to to do it our way. Um, you know, we're we we have an outside guy, you know. Um, so for him to do them two schools, it seems to be a lot quicker and I think it it saves a lot of money as well because the high school is a large. That's why I took that one. And me large parking lots is going to be a lot of money. Um, compared to the other ones, I believe uh early childhood is only 175 per push where I think the high school could be up somewhere around 400 per push. And again, not knowing what the weather's going to be like, you know, that
042could that could because what they'll also do is they're going to charge us a lot of times. A matter of fact, I I I received one and if anything is additional 4 in, then that number goes up. That's just the way these contracts work with with majority of these uh these uh snow plowing companies. Um and then we also have our we also salt all the lots as well and sidewalks. So, um and and what I like about that is having Scott do it is we have control of them. Meaning, I don't mean in a bad way. I mean like, "Hey, Scott, we have uh, you know, something refreezes. Um, hey Scott, we got to go hit hit this spot of the parking lots over at Wilkinson or ECC because you know, we know we
043all know Michigan when that sun comes out, it melts and then it refreezes." Now, these these these subcontracting companies, they are not going to come out every time for that unless you're going to pay them. So, the luxury of having Scott doing this is to make that call, say, "Hey, Scott, we got this snow drifts." They're not going to come out on snow drifts, and we all know we get those. So, that's that's the idea of having Scott do the >> So, what day will the bids be open? Because obviously, they all have to be open at one time. >> Yeah. Um, I mean, I just think October 1st was my is the date that I put on my calendar to to make the calls to, you know, whoever contract like I have one right
044here. That's interesting. >> But officially, we can't look at that because >> No, no. Well, this is actually for this year. It's not a bit Gisham. They send this every single year to every single district. So, yeah, this is definitely not >> just clear. It's weird. I get I get >> the bidding process is is very clear. Do we don't do the standard bidding process how we do for syncing funds for anything over a certain it's not required because it's below the the threshold, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. It's not like u like a seasonal contract for for um like ECC seasonal now we're talking it could be anywhere from 15 to $2,000. But we don't say, "Hey, send in put in a publication kind of how we do for plant man and sinking fund with
045those over the bidding threshold." There's a bidding threshold in the state of Michigan. We don't do that formal process. What is the amount >> for fiscal year 25? It was $30,500. So, it's going to go up um and then be released in October. So we usually just reach out and send out letters to companies around us that says, "Hey, >> we need your service. Can you put in a bid? This is what we need." So there it's not a formal bidding process because it's not that amount. And then we can bring if you guys want to make the decisions or you want to see the bids before we make a deci the the decision, then we can do that. But we do not place it in the newspaper and say, "Hey, we need a a
046push contract." back. We just reach out to people around one of the places even on 11 mile we send out and whoever sends one back they send it back and we put a date that hey this is when we need the information back. >> So we just do quotes only bids are are necessary over 30,000. So, but we just pro we just would like to get to do at least three quotes to get the best amount. >> And I and just like I do with like doors or or something, I've always I've always try and get three quotes. There are some cases where there's not three companies out there that do some of this stuff. So, um I'll get as many as I can, but definitely like and anything under that threshold, I always get
047three quotes. Always. And uh sometimes it's not always that cheaper one. It might be that one in the middle, but they've done work for us before and you know, you build a relationship with some of these companies and they're out the next day or, you know, so so I feel safe with with uh with this process and uh I will do, you know, my part and make sure that I explain to them thoroughly what we need and when we need it. >> Okay. >> Questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you, Ricky. >> Next up is the agenda format. Um we have a couple of things that um Trusty Carlos Harp had asked about and had sent to each of us. Um, one of them did you want to start with a
048couple of the talking points? Um, Trusty Hart, >> I uh condensed it down to three points if that's okay. >> Sure. >> All right. First one is that when we start the meetings for the public comments, I think we should state out loud verbally that the board will not be responding to any of the comments. I just don't want the anyone in the public to feel like we're just ignoring them. We're not going to respond, but we're not allowed to respond. So, I think we should state that as part of the public comments. I checked the back of the paper. I didn't see it listed back there. So, maybe that's also something we could add on the paper, too. >> Anybody have anything to add with that? actually really like that because it I think
049that sometimes people want some response because they're saying some really good things and things from the heart. So, I actually love that idea because it just lets people know like, "Hey, we're listening. We want you to talk. We want your comments. We just can't respond." So I I do really love that. >> Right. Let's go next. >> All right. Second one is uh if we again if we could I would like us to add our board mission statement, the one that's in our policy. I I would like us to read that out loud at the start of at some point at the start of our meetings uh for two points. one to remind us as a board what we stand for and the second one to let the public know what we stand for, what
050our values are, what's what we're trying to accomplish. I think it's easy to forget that. So, I would like us to read that as part of our our agenda. >> Do we have a good idea? I mean, I know for us meetings can be long and people don't want to hear. But I think it is good because you don't know who's tuning kinds of crazy things and um without understanding what it's like to be a board and what can rule a board. And what you see on that side isn't necessarily how it can be once you're on this side. Head shaking. Trusty Kimble, you're on board. >> What's that? >> Uh, no. I think it would lengthen our meeting, so I'm against it. Our meetings are long enough. >> I'm sorry. >> I agree with
051stating it stating our mission. I believe it's five sentences. >> I think >> it's been a while since I've seen it. >> To his point, >> could have a different person read it each time to really go soak it. Whoever does the uh pledge of allegiance could read it. I believe that Superintendent Perry's pulling that up. >> Yeah, >> it's just one sentence because we made it we we revamped it three years ago when we rebranded. >> I mean, I can what I can do is just print it at the bottom of the agenda where we have the bylaws and I can just put it at the bottom of the agenda. and also put it at the top of every document so it's in the forefront. >> He thinks it's one sentence. >> I know
052it's one sentence >> to pro to pro provide students for the next phase of their life basically. >> Well then I think the president should state that when she >> reads the um public fundamentals, >> right? >> We can do that too. Is that everybody's in agreement? We'll add that to our public fundamentals. >> So, just add it to the top of the page that you >> right after we tell people we're not going to respond to their bad comments. >> So, do you want to add the statement about not responding to public fundamentals or just put it on the back of the paper? >> I think we can do both. I could we can definitely add it here as a bullet point but we'll also put it on the sheet >> so that it
053will be there president holder >> that also gives you a lot to read. Would you like to that up >> um there may be times like looking necessary depending on my voice. >> That's what I and I know that that's a lot. So I want to be um >> you're not going to get around >> you know understanding and courteous to that as well. appreciate that. >> You're welcome. So, um certainly we could have other people assist with that. It doesn't all have to be on >> the way it will be done. I think it's a good idea. >> Yes. >> Can I read a statement to see if you guys agree with it? I'm just >> so at the end of your the public fundamentals >> what public comment statement that you read we
054can start with the mission and basically our Michigan you want the mission or the vision which one you guys would like to have. So, it's just Madison District Public Schools will use a rigorous curriculum that will engage any student regardless of their curriculum or their current academic level in an environment that is safe, supportive, supportive, and nurturing for all. So I can revamp that and maybe just kind of make it flow to public comments and then you can go. And then the last statement will be um >> while the board welcomes public input, members of the board would not engage in direct dialogue or respond to comments during the meeting. Concerns raised by raised may be referred to the appropriate administrator for followup. Can I make a suggestion >> instead of um read that again
055>> the last part? >> Yeah. But not responding. >> So while the board welcomes public comment, public input, members of the board would not engage in direct >> right right there. Change would not to cannot. So, while the board welcomes public input, members of the board cannot engage in direct dialogue or respond to comments during the meeting. Concerns raised may be referred to the appropriate administrator for followup. >> Mr. Carlos, >> go ahead. >> Two so far. And my last one, um, and there may be a reason for this and maybe I'm just not aware. Uh, it seems like the board comments at the end have to me seem inconsistent, but again, maybe I just don't know better. I would like to see board comments at the end of all meetings if possible, if that
056makes sense. So in the past just just past practices we used to have meetings twice a month and then when we had those meetings when I came on board comments were only made at the first meeting and then the second meeting we did not have it. So now we kind of have meetings every other month month twice a month. So that's you guys just have to tell me how to proceed. will of the board. >> Well, I'd like to make a suggestion >> should limit those comments to three minutes. That's always been the norm. It's not enforced and it should be. >> Anybody go over there? Oh, yeah. Some people do. >> Yeah. We've had people who go way over. They >> act like they're accepting an Academy Award. This >> is a long time.
057Maybe limit it to a minute. Thank you. Blah blah blah blah. >> I'm for that. >> Yeah. >> I think if you have something to say, I think a minute is really a a ve that's a very short time period. And then we run into the issue of instead of speaking clearly, speaking quickly, which makes it very difficult for some people to not only hear and understand. And sometimes there are things that are very important said. I don't think since I've been on it, people have gone past that three minutes. >> I've not monitored it. So, um, and then my question is, if it's only a minute, are you going to be like, "Oh, your time's done." That would be inconsiderate. Yes, ma'am. Are you guys speaking of just board comments or also committee reports?
058>> Talking about comments. >> So committee reports can just stay on the first meeting. >> And now we're talking about the comments going on every meeting and if you don't have a comment then we just have a good night. >> Right. three minutes then because a lot of times some of us don't have anything to say anyway except you know glad you came. >> If if if it started going being arduous and just people going on and on and on I think we can reassess and re-evaluate but but at this juncture I don't see that a lot of people have gone over three minutes. all about if we do it and we'll we'll pay more attention because I honestly haven't honestly. >> So, it's been a while. >> Um, so I I don't want to
059say yay or nay because sometimes it does seem like it's gone on for a bit, but how much the clock has actually moved? >> Excuse me. I'm not certain. Excuse me. Um but um we certainly can put it back on and if it becomes problematic, we can always readress it. That's that's the best part of this. We're we're talking about it. Let's see what works best for us and for the district and we adjust as as changes need to be made. Um, I just want to say to um, Trustee Carlos Harp, he he has just done so much uh, behind the work, behind the scenes work, and I know that's kind of the way he's wired, but we definitely are are seeing the the benefits. So, thank you. Um, and these things are all very
060viable and and uh poignant to to take into consideration and move on. >> Thank you. And next on the agenda, if we're done, is facility usage. So, that was just an ongoing item. We talked about it earlier with ECC. And >> is there anything anything new or any questions? Um because we did not have our full board. Um Trustee Mary was not here. Maybe she has a question. Trustee Mattel Pine Taylor was not here. So, if you have questions that renting out buildings and making money off of that, is that what we're speaking of or like what exactly? >> That would be incredible. >> Yeah. >> Is that is that what we're talking about when we're talking about facilities usage or we just talking about how our students are using? >> I thought both. I
061thought there was mostly uh like butts and seats during the day >> and then um what we're doing after hours. >> President Holder. Yes. >> So, one of the concerns I have is we are a district with currently 915 students. Our ECC has 85 students in the building. Has 274. And at one point, this building did have over a thousand. I don't see with the size of our district how we can maintain fiscally maintain and I think it's irresponsible to our our maintain four buildings. I just there's got to be a way to consolidate. Um because right now we're spending I mean we're up to be talking about spending a ton of money at will at um Wilkinson sorry middle school and um it has only 164 students. I really struggle with how many students,
062how few students we have in buildings and how large the buildings are and how many um students they can they can hold. Somehow we have got to find a way to consolidate. We just can't keep it up. the deficit shows that and that just very much concerns me and I know that there's processes processes to go through to make that happen. Um we struggle with the the financial burden that four buildings um take on us with such few students to enroll. So, um, and while I agree with that, well, because I come from the other side of state with a very small school district where junior high and high school were basically in one building. Um, but I do understand like what if all of a sudden we had a huge increase in >> I
063agree if we if we're using a building that we could figure out a way to consolidate into another building to save ourselves that money and overhead that would be great. The other flip side is to look at what we would need if we wanted to if we needed to keep all buildings open. what could we do to get community engagement to rent out our spaces? And I do understand that means having somebody in that building at the time that people are in there. So I do understand that's you know paying for a staff member or whatever. But I think, you know, if we can utilize these even looking at, and I don't know how Oakland County does adult ed, but if we even had, you know, could rent out our facilities in the evening for
064adult ed classes or even community engagement classes like some like over in Kazoo, we could go and you could, you know, someone might teach you a class in um, you know, Bob Ross painting, whatever it is you might be interested in. or even like um entrepreneurialship and they would rent out obviously buildings from or you know classrooms in school. Is there something that we can look at doing that where we're getting engagement and community engagement? So just not like oh I want to run you know the gym for volleyball but I want to hold classes you know every Monday and Wednesday for six weeks like they do I guess at the Math and Heights Community Center >> holder. I I love that idea. I still think we can do both. I agree. >> Right. I
065think we can reduce while um I would love more community involvement, you know, extending it to the community. Um because certainly um the high school could be for all of that, right? Um I I think we have some, you know, looking at all I think it was Plant Moran what Plant Moran said needs to be done. There's a lot that needs to be done and to be um good steward of taxpayer money. I just think we need to really think through what we need to do and what we need to repair and what we need to say, you know what, this building is not helpful to us anymore. we need to bring everybody to this building because we have such low numbers in each building except Madison Elementary School. And although, you know, it looks
066like we've lost some of that as well, hopefully to bring it up, um I I just think we really need to look at that. And as much as I would love for there to be a run on enrollment here at um in Madison, that's not happening anywhere, right? And I and with the uh it is such a a teeter totter of people coming into the district and people leaving, right? Um that we we're actually down 15 for the year. So I I think that's my biggest thing about really taking a look at that and seeing what we can do to be responsible. >> Trusty Kimble. Uh just a little lesson from the past. Madison had a very big adult ed consortium back in the 90s which we lost millions of dollars on. So I don't
067know how feasible that is. And if you're looking at closing a school, the only one that fits that mold would be Wilkinson because Hathnan, if it ever closes as a uh educational institution, the property up to the doors go back to the city of Madison Heights. We did a land deal with them to get the parking lot that we have at that property now. So then we're going to be faced with the demolition cost of that school, which is the biggest reason why we sold Edison because the demolition cost was astronomical. So I would be in favor of potentially selling Wilkinson at a retail price though, not not to close it and tear it down and build houses and all that nonsense. I think to another educational institution >> would get more enrollment. >> It's
068like building a plant for the employees to buy the cars. No, that has not been proven. Especially with the Monroe property is a prime example of building 34 houses there. How much enrollment did we get? I don't think we got much at all. Majority of them go to Landfair. So I would be in favor of selling Wilkinson for retail to another educational institution and get our money out of it >> or five what you mean by uh another >> the insurance estimate years ago on on Wilkinson was 13 to 14 million is what that building and property is worth. Just for clarification, you said another education, >> another educational institution, OCC, Baker College. Okay. >> Any of those >> because with the funds, we could modify the high school to accommodate two schools and have
069money left over. >> And that's the most sellable property other than Madison Elementary, which obviously we're not going to sell that. That's our newest school. But Halfman or ECC is not a good candidate for us to close. It will cost us a lot of money financially. And what are we left with? We're going to be left with a lot where the footprint of the school was. That's it. I don't know how many building lots that would be and how much that would be worth, but it's certainly not worth the cost of demolition. Trustee Mary Hart, >> I think that's kind of what we were talking about too is the the junior high and high high school mesh together. Um, a lot of school systems do do that and um, so I do think that's a
070school that we were all talking about if we closed it would be Wilkinson. And I mean I know that something's not happening obviously the school year because it takes a lot of time and I do want to let people know too because there is always talk about merging school districts but that is just not an easy process. That requires petition. It requires all school boards to be on board of that. It requires a state superintendent to sign off. So for people who just think, oh, we can decide to merge, that is just it would probably never happen. Landfair has never ever wanted to merge with Madison school district and unless Hazel Park wanted to come on board and honestly I don't see that happening since that's now become a trifecta with Ferndale and Royal Oak.
071So, I I kind of want to put the information out there that even merging school districts is not easy. It would be a several year process and I would like people kind of remove that from the table because I just don't see that as being viable and I just wanted to put that out into the world. Carlos Hart, >> I think this might also be a really good time to go back to that plant uh Moran audit that we had to even see what's coming up for maintenance because there's other schools that's going to be affected. We're have costs coming up. So, we probably should uh go back to that. Researched this issue before. The state of Michigan can merge two districts within the same city limits without a referendum from the voters. They have
072to do it. They have to initiate it. suggest that um plant manoran I don't recall if they were the ones that did this in the early like 2010s but they are obviously our company of choice right now. Um could we do an actual um study what needs to be done? What exactly what classrooms are available? What is the usage? We did that before um they were talking about closing um Edison which then became keys. But um the company had come in and told us exactly every square footage what is available classroom what is not what is necessary office or bathrooms or whatever. Um, they might even have a lot of that since they've been doing the studies on these buildings. Um, but I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea for them to come back
073and give us some usage studies if the board is in a grant. >> Can we just clarify how the the pay will be made for plant or marine because we can't use syncing funds for that. >> I'm sorry. Could you repeat that question? >> The funds to have Plant Moran do the work. Where would that money come from? Because we can't use syncing funds for that. >> I think she's referring to earlier work that they've already done. >> You guys have that? >> It wasn't the other. I believe it was a different company, but they did indeed come and they had plans of what we needed to do next on each building. So maybe we can, >> you know, plant Moran had, >> if you remember the previous administration, their plan was to add on
074to the high school for the Wilkinson for the junior high and then bulldoze Wilkinson and turn it into commercial property. If you remember, >> Trusty Kimble, that wasn't what I was saying. Then I don't think you heard Trusty Chris Kelpine Taylor was talking. So, I'm gonna give her the floor and then I'll I'll let you have the floor, please. >> Go ahead. >> Um, I believe at the beginning of the year and and I could be wrong. I couldn't be misunderstanding what you're asking as well. Um, I know that Plant Moran had a whole packet of what needed to be done, but I think you're talking about like how many like um each like how many people each building can hold. Well, but here's the thing. We know it can hold um more than 438
075kids which would be um we'll consider medicine together. We know Madison can hold more than that. Now there might need to be some work done in order to get that to happen. I struggle having new things done because because I actually I really like the idea of the the middle school. That was I think when I first came in that was kind of what I was I like. >> Middle school. What? Adding on to the high school. >> Yes. I like that a lot. >> I like that too. >> Um but I you know so I struggle having things done to the middle school. We don't know what can happen. Um, I just think we just need to look at So, I don't know if that's what you were talking about. Sorry, I did like
076three different apologize. >> It was a little bit of everything. Now, like I said, we were actually looking at closing um potentially a school. >> Um, and I don't believe at that particular time we were in in potential deficit spending to their point. um because we did do a classroom. Where really are we at with the kids that we have? What do we need? Um so that point's well taken. Um at the same time, I think we need to somehow um have a hard study what is going to be necessary at any of the next buildings because we have that money set aside for those exact things. And um I'm not sure how to proceed honest and truly. Does anybody have a suggestion? I do understand there's there's costs involved in any information. >> Does
077it have does there have to be and please educate me. Um does there have to be a study in order to do that? >> It's hard to Can you pull your microphone down just a little bit because it's really hard. >> Sorry. Um, does there have to be a study in order to um is that >> to do to do that? >> Didn't mean to interrupt you. Is that just something you guys know? You know what each classroom could potentially hold in each building. >> So, it be based off of the number of staff that we have and their contract. So based off of teacher contract what we have negotiated the number of students in the contract I think it's 29 for 6 through 12 and 26 for K through five. >> So you're looking
078at two things. Are you looking at with the current staff members or with the current amount of deaths that we have? Which question? >> I think the physical like the physical amount of people of of students each building can hold. So it's the physical amount. >> So we would just have to take each classroom that we have and multiply it by the each fulls size classrooms because sometime some of the classrooms we may have for self-contained kids that that those classes cannot hold 25 kids. So, we will have to take the number of classrooms that we have for specific students, general education, and just multiply it by the number that's allowed in the teachers contract. >> These are just talking points at this point. This is just a place to >> to begin. >> Of
079course, the classes can be larger, but that's something you have to negotiate with the teachers union. So, >> we have a new program at Wilkinson. So >> yeah, you have the metro program >> there are, >> but we also have to be mindful that some of the self-contained classrooms, you probably can't put 26 kids. Their limit may be nine depending on how many pair pros, so on and so forth. We have >> Kimble. >> Um I don't know if people are aware or not, but at the height of its population at Madison, there was a bunch of portable trailers where that road is now over to Madison Elementary. So that augmented the numbers right there. But I I think it's a sound idea because we could put Wilkinson on the market without disrupting anything. And
080even if we got 10 for it, put five towards altering the high school to accommodate a junior high, separate entrance, all that stuff. And then we can look at putting some money into ECC and keep that viable. Because if we go down to two schools and then there is a resurgence of population, it's going to be a problem because past administrations have sold the land off for little or nothing that we could build a new school on. I think Monroe should have been green space. Madame President Thompson, >> I think we also need to think about it's not just a a ninth grade class or 10th grade class and how many rooms do they use because they travel during the day from classroom to classroom different subjects. Are we going to have enough rooms to
081offer the middle school kids at the high school? What we're offering now at the high school, you got high school kids traveling throughout the day and middle school kids traveling throughout the day. Do we have enough classrooms at the high school for that? >> I I don't. >> Hold on. >> Different grade. Yeah. >> Can you separate it by wing? like one be at this wing and the other one at the other wing and then you can make sure they don't. >> Right now we only have one cafeteria. So >> Oh yeah, >> that that would pose a problem. But >> but again, if you're looking at arts and math and science and all the different classes that they take, you need a classroom for every one of those classes, >> sixth grade, seventh grade,
082eighth grade, upon which you're going to add to whatever is in in the high school. It it's something that really needs to be researched >> and a lot of districts do it. We just >> we're in a huge deficit right now, >> right? >> And we're we're not in a deficit. We're predicting a deficit. >> Predicting a deficit, >> but we can make cuts. If we strategically have a successful year and we get funding and we stay in our budget, we may be able to not get in a deficit. But >> that'd be amazing. >> Yeah, >> Madame President, >> Trusty Kimble, >> if we recall back in 2017, the high school was sectioned off and Keys Charter School was taking up a portion of the high school. I don't see why that can't be
083restored. And add a cafeteria with the with the construction money we have. >> Sure. One of my major concerns is just knowing that we have the prep program and we have some kids at the high school that are over 18 and maybe 19. And so one thing we have to think about is I know for me I would not want my middle schooler in a building with >> No, we're talking about separate entrances totally separating them. You have to go in and out of a a separate door. The building does not connect inside. That's how they had it. >> That's how they were doing it. Where did they have lunch when they connect when they had >> I'm not aware of all the operating details, but the point is they were completely separated from our
084students. >> There was no interaction, no contact. And if we've got money to use for a construction project like that, I don't see why that can't be done again. And a separate cafeteria built for the junior high. >> We need another gymnasium as well. Mary Hart. >> So, you know, obviously I think some of us are just we're throwing out ideas of of of ways we think we can do stuff. And obviously this is something that maybe we just have to have planning and just really look at the research, look at other districts that have done it, what's actually feasible here or not, because the ultimate end goal isn't even just about money. It's about what really what is going to be best educationally for the students that do attend here. Um, and of course
085the more money we have to put into their actual education is a benefit. And I I don't think anybody can argue that. So maybe this is just something that we can say, you know, like we've thrown the idea out. And let's just, you know, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen by next school year. I mean, I I doubt it could even happen that fast. But that gives us so many months to really look at it and look at what other schools around us have done and how that's impacted those students at all different age levels too. You know, I I come I come from POD. I think I turned out fantastic. But what happened to me in this 80s is much different than the world we live in today also. So,
086I just think that maybe this is something we have to just really look at and research and take our time and you know, >> and if we could uh Maria was here, I believe in February that they had brought the latest stuff to us. I'm going to have to recheck because Yeah. Mary would not have had access at all. Um, so let's see if we can't redistribute the info so we can all start with the same bit of information. Trusty Kimble. >> Now, in the past, the bond that built the elementary school, it was part of a threephase. They were going to have three different bond issues. And the second bond was to build a new junior high or add on to the high school. it was their one campus idea. I would look into
087storage and see because I know they they commissioned studies from a couple different companies to justify it to people. That information may still be around and it's free if it is. >> I'm sorry, Superintendent. >> No, it's fine. Um, a couple things I wanted to say is that in the meantime, I think the what we need to do as a district is figure out how to get our students in district back. And I think the only way we can do that is by rebranding and just continue and to build on a professional level to get the community to trust us. Because we can build all these campuses and close all the buildings, but we have to be a true representation of what Madison District Public Schools has to offer the community. And the only way
088we're going to get any type of bond pass is if we get support from the community. So, I think the teachers, I think the administration, we do an amazing job every day coming in boots on the ground, making sure that we show up and show out for our students. But we really need the community to trust us. We really need board members to push that because that is the the the problem is most of our students are not in district. They leave us. So we have to figure out what can we do as leaders of this district to get the community to trust us to bring their kids back to possibly get a bond passed so that we can add and have one campus or revamp science labs so on and so forth. So, I
089think that's what we really need to focus on is that's another conversation. How do we rebrand and make Madison District Public Schools community trust us? >> We sent out a survey because, and this is funny because I've only lived in Madison Heights seven, eight years, but from my friends that have grown up here, they've said this has always been a problem. Everybody thinks Lambfair is so terrific and Madison's not. Now, I will tell you on my street there are several babies that have happened and I talked to these people and I'm letting people know very much that this school district is the place you want to send your kids because in about three years they're going to be going to preschool and what have you. And I want those kids in my district and I
090very actively talk to people but for some reason I think we just need to the best people that can tell us why they choose to leave are the people that live here. And I think for one we just you get such a bad rap if you're half you know if you're at 12 like 11 and a half mile on down there's just a bad thought and I don't know how we change community perception but maybe if we can ask people they might tell us how we changed but I do hear I do hear when we ask people they always want to talk about the previous board the previous administration the people in jail and I don't know. I don't know if maybe we need to utilize AI and figure out like what we can do
091obviously to overcome because those are barriers we have to overcome, >> you know, but doing it oneonone on one on one on one >> is is hard. So, I guess I'm just putting out there like this just seems to be a problem that's gone on for 50 years. >> Yes. So, I I completely understand everything that you're saying. I see the positive effects of it, but then I also look at the negative that if we close a building, the image that we've really worked hard these past three years to create for Madison now, is it going to look like we're an unstable district that, you know, because of the, you know, um, declining enrollment? Are we going to lose more students by doing that? So that's just one of the things that I think we
092have to consider as well. >> Just a >> I think one of the first buildings should be on the chopping block would be the administrative office. We survived for years with the board of education in the junior high and it was only purchased uh for an exorbitant amount of money so that uh it was a convenient rende rendevous place for a certain person that I'm not going to name. So that would be the first one I would look at. But the point is if we put Wilkins on it for sale and we get real money for it, we can do modifications without a bond. I absolutely love the idea of how can we u I won't even say rebrand because I know a lot of work has been put into the district and and what
093we stand for but I I definitely support anything we can do to promote that. >> So that and with the enrollment and I'm glad to see the enrollment is going up and we exceed our goals. So I definitely think no matter what else comes from this discussion, we definitely should continue on that path as well. There's nothing stopping us from doing multiple things at one time. >> Can I just add one thing too? >> Sure. I think that we also as leaders of the district and I'm asking board member for support is that we cannot engage in the negativity and we probably need to really have a an elephant in the room moment where we invite the community to come in and say, "Hey, we're going to take this meeting and we're going to hear
094everyone's concern and we're going to come back and figure out how can we service your students and bring them back to Madison District Public Schools. Now, it may hurt. It may be a smack in the face, but I think if we have that opportunity where the community can come in and say, "This is why we have our kids in another district." Sometimes we have to be faced with the truth to figure out how to move on. >> Great idea. because we don't know if they don't tell us >> and it's hard because we can't send them surveys because they're not part of our population right now. So, how would we get because you had brought that up about maybe surveys. I think that's a great idea, but how do we get it to them? You
095know, and here's the thing though. I it might be we mail stuff because they're still living here. They're still in they live physically in our community. they they whatever brainwashing goes on that makes up you know and I'm all for school of choice but like I've said from the beginning when I was on last time I want us to be the school of choice and we are the school of choice for other students and you know I I hear so many excuses from people well if we didn't have students from Pontiac I tell my no you weren't sending your kid here before that and these are great kids whose parents want them to have a good education and they're really good kids and I'm like some of The problems that come are from some of
096the bad kids that live right here. So, you can't use that excuse. That's not an excuse. You know, what was your excuse before that? What was it before that? What was it before that? You know, we're a great school. We've got a great superintendent. We've got a great assistant superintendent. We've got great teachers that have been here for a long time. Improve President Holder Madison Heights. Her kids went to Madison Heights. Her husband taught here. This is a lot. you know, about what this community is. And we shouldn't even just always talk to parents, but we need to talk to people who are just married and want to have families. And we also need to talk to regular taxpayers because if you're paying taxes, you need to be concerned about your school district, even if
097you don't have children in it. And we need to hear from them. What do they hear? What did they know? You know, so I'm >> we could go probably on all night. We probably should not have >> I agree with Mary >> suggestion. >> Hold on. Joking. >> I think this is a good discussion to have. Um you can kind of get us some information and uh we can find the uh information the checklist uh that uh we were getting from plant manoran. Now is that part of this engineering service that we're voting on tonight? The next set of services >> is what a part of it? >> Um plant Moran and and the the um >> so this is for the sink and fund. This is for work to be done at Wilkinson Middle
098School for the rooftop units. So, I don't know if you guys remember last year we reported that two units were down and we had to relocate some classrooms because there was not heat. So, what we're asking is for approval to get the work started. So, this is not the company that's doing the work. This is the company that's going to lead the work, the engineers. So, that's what's on the action item for today. Thank you. So, um the approval for the Madison District Public Schools Engineering Services, the Was there upcoming financial commitments? >> Yeah, we're on 6B upcoming financial commitments. >> Sorry, >> I No, I apologize. I I crossed it off my list. I'm getting new glasses tomorrow. That will be that's going to make a huge difference, honestly. upcoming financial commitments. Superintendent Perry,
099>> as of now, no. The largest item we have on the agenda or the most important is the concrete at I mean the rooftop units at Wilkinson Middle School. We want to get that done before the winter comes. So, at this time, we don't have any upcoming large financial commitments. Not yet. >> Thank you. Approval of Madison District Public Schools engineering services. Uh the attached proposal for the mechanical services necessary to design and issue bidding documents for the replacement of the heating only units at Wilkinson to be funded by the sinking fund in the sinking fund three-year plan. We identified these units requiring replacement due to the life expectancy and high costs associated with repair. Additionally, we are planning an allowance within the budget to cover engineering fees. The attached proposal including engineering to support
100these planned activities. As you may know, these services are crucial for this public bidding process due to the anticipated project costs. Additionally, the scale of the project necess necessitates engineering support services to ensure everything runs smoothly and efficiently as well as being in compliance with the state regulations. The total amount for approval is 47,500. The expected project schedule based on the board of education approval on 98 field investigation and construction documentation 913 to 10:10 public build bidding in contract development 1013 to 11:14 BOE approval December meeting date to be determined award contractors and commerce procurement of material materials. It is recommended the board of education approve Madison District Public Schools engineering services proposal as presented. I need a maker and support, please. >> Madam President, >> Trustee Thompson, >> I'd like to move that the
101board of education approval of Madison District Public Schools engineering services proposal as presented. >> Thank you. Do we have support? Trusted Mary Hart >> I support. >> Thank you. Discussion >> none. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> So the total amount we won't have any other amount. The total amount is 47 500. >> That's for the engineering service. That is the people that's going to lead the process. And as of today, that is the amount. However, when work begins, there may be a change order. If the job goes beyond if it if they need some additional support, they will come back and say, "Hey, we have a change order that we need to get approved." So, this does not include the installation of the units. This is just the work that needs to be done
102to find the right company to install the units. >> Thank you. Anybody else? >> Vote, please. >> Carlos Harp, >> yes. >> Cindy Holder, >> yes. >> Mark Kimble, >> yes. >> Christa McAlpine Taylor, >> yes. >> Gloria Thompson, >> yes. >> Mary Hart, >> yes. >> Motion pass. will be coming back to us again when needed to. Uh, next up is committee reports, GRC. Um, the big thing about that is that we don't have a we don't have any any budget. We don't have any funding as of yet. So, there's just really no news other than we need to know what we're going to have. >> Thank you, Parks and Wreck. I believe I believe that's trustee Chamblas. Uh HRC I believe that's her as well. Finance committee we are meeting Wednesday and enrollment
103committee. Go to the last one. However, um there was one today and unfortunately was unable to make it. However, it looks like you gave us a update earlier today >> and we had to cancel today because we had a union meeting and I sent out an email. >> Oh, I didn't get that. The cancel could have gone anyway. So, >> yeah. And the last time we did meet it was going over numbers which I said we would have updated. So, >> exactly. And you did a great job updating it. So, thank you. >> Yeah. >> Last up is board comments. Kimbo. >> Um, just want to thank the four people that showed up tonight and I hope everyone had a good summer. And that's it. >> Carlos Harp. >> Um, I want to say congrats
104to the work to increase enrollment. That is awesome for surpassing our goal. Um, to me it it that shows that the the plans and the implement implementation of the different things that were talked about earlier in the year worked. So I definitely look forward to any lessons learned from this after the the headcount and then to see what can we do to improve or modify for next year or to continue it. So that's all. Thank you, >> Mary. Well, I want to thank everybody for allowing me to serve again on the board. Um, I'm looking forward to that. I also want to um say I hope that the kids have really good vendor event this Saturday. Um, and I the young man Jason, I don't know if he is the student council president or the
10510th grade president. Um, and he reached out on community cares and he asked for people to donate baked goods which we are going to do backwood. They turned out okay. But I just want to say he held himself um really well. There was an adult who gave him a hard time on there and it's a shame adults act like they do sometimes, but what a good young man. He just handled themselves so well and I'm really proud of him and that's exactly the kind of student, the kind of leadership and and why I think this is fantastic school district. >> Very little to say other than welcome Mary. I'm excited to have you on the board. Excited to sit next to you. Um and um just congratulations to our employee of the year. That was
106incredible. Yeah, that's it. Have a great weekend. >> D Thompson, >> I just want to thank everybody that came tonight way back in the back. Um and welcome back. And that's about all. I'm glad the school year is going well. I just want to say welcome back. Uh welcome to Trustee Mary Harp. Um she was quite an asset and I'm sure she will be again. Um I just I I do believe in I've said time and time again tooting our own horn. I a lot of people don't know I have a sister that works in a grocery store near here and word on the street was we were being taken over and we didn't have teachers. And I was like, don't listen to it. That's absolutely not true. Just because it's said doesn't mean that
107that's what's happening. So, we need to There's naysayers. We can't stop them, but we can check it and say just because you heard it doesn't mean, you know, doors are open, we have kids, we have staff, and uh we will continue moving forward. And with that, we just have one motion left on the agenda. >> Madam President, >> Trusty Kimble, >> I make a motion to adjurnn. Trustee Mary Harp supports. Roll call vote, please. >> Carlos Harp, >> yes. >> Sydney Holder, >> yes. >> Mark Kimble, >> yes. >> Chrisa McAlpine Taylor, >> yes. >> Gloria Thompson, >> yes. >> Mary Harp, >> yes. >> Motion passed. >> And good night. in 42.