001Board of Education meeting. It is Monday, July 7th, 2025. We will start with the pledge of allegiance. Trustee Dodge, can you lead us? 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. You roll call, please. Rebecca Chamblas, she's absent with notice. Missy Dodge here. Carlos Harp here. Cindy Holder here. Mark Kimell here. Chrisa McAlpine Taylor absent with notice. And 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 comment is set aside at each meeting to give parents and other citizens a chance to speak directly to the
002board about school related topics. Anyone who wishes to speak to the board must fill out a request for it and give it 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 that 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. So I do have three requests that have been given to me. Is that all of them? Everybody that submitted is happy. Okay. First one up is Kelsey Kane. Go ahead. It won't bite. I couldn't I couldn't remember. I got nervous
003about the microphone. Hello. Um I'm happy to be back in front of you guys. I was here um some of you weren't. Um on June June 11th talking about how much amazing math progress we've made in the district. Um this is my summer face, so I may have looked different that day. Um, good evening uh to the board and all stakeholders. Um, I stand before you today asking you to work with our union and all stakeholders to think outside the box to find solutions to our fiscal wos with as little expense to teachers and students as possible. At all levels, we are making enormous strides to build a foundation Madison can be proud of and more importantly that brings families and highc caliber students and families to our district. I have been involved this year
004with our MAISA teams in early math and our district's progress and work has been lauded as monumental from our top administration in Oakland schools as well as our state level representatives. I'm eager to continue this work with our structures in place. While we all stare down the glaring deficit the district is facing, it is up to us to come together to make bold, courageous, innovative changes that hinder students and teachers in the least disruptive ways. There will always be hard decisions, but I argue none are as important as the moment for how we shape as now, excuse me, for the moment for how we shape Madison district in the face of such a challenge. We will come together to protect students and teachers and the programs we know that are making a significant impact for
005our students. Or are we going to pick apart our infrastructure looking only at monetary values of positions and descriptions of their jobs? We're building the plane as we fly it. Our predecessors do not have to ground us and prevent us from moving forward with great change. We can be creative. I witness teachers creativity every day through innovative lessons, student experiences, building relationships with students and families, providing a safe and nurturing environment for our most vulnerable students and their families, and also the constant drive to improve instruction and learning for our students so they can become knowowers and doers of anything they set their minds to. I fear our creativity is being stifled by our overwhelm. An overwhelm that presents itself in an obvious budget deficit, but also lack of accountability and transparency as to how
006we are in this position. Unfortunately, cutting programs and teachers who directly support students education and growth will be catastrophic to the monumentum to the momentum that we are currently experiencing. Cutting liter literacy support at elementary levels will have a ripple effect that we are not prepared for and in no way can predict the collapse of the progress that our students and teachers are making. Our students made more progress this past school year than they have in the last two combined in some cases. And because of the amazing transformation our literacy department has undergone in the last five or so years. This is progress we cannot halt. Knowing continued cuts will be made, we can expect expect less individualized instruction, lowered, sorry, I've lost my place, lowered student and teacher interaction time with every pupil that's
007uh added to classes, student experiences will be all but eliminated, and pressure on students, teachers, and administration to do more with less will ultimately lead to less growth and achievement over time. There is not a day that will go by without the teaching staff of Madison district giving our students the best of our best. We will continue to show up with the intention of giving all that we have each and every day. We deserve that as staff. We deserve that as students. And more importantly, Madison district deserves that same level of dedication. Our students are still going to notice the difference in their experiences when they recognize teachers have moved roles, teachers are not here, class sizes are much bigger, and they don't have the same relationships with their teachers because there's simply not enough
008time. With cuts of this magnitude, there will be little we can do to replicate and improve upon the gains that we have seen from our commitment to continuous improvement. I ask, will we come together to protect students and teachers and the programs we know that are making significant impacts for our students? Or will we pick apart the infrastructure and slow and halt in some cases the momentum? Let us come together to be creative to find solutions that do not hinder or cut off our progress, but keep opportunities open for us to build upon our momentum. Together, we are stronger. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Uh, next up is I'm sorry, Rusty Rogers. Good evening. I think well maybe everybody but Mr. Hart knows who I am. Um I am Rusty Rogers. I am not only
009an educator for over 24 years in the district. I'm an alumni and I am also your union president for our wonderful teaching staff. Um just a couple of things. We we all understand we're all human. We understand the budgetary restraints and everything that we're going through. Um, but I'm coming to you like I did last time and the efforts to let you know that it cannot always fall on the teachers backs. Um, I have some statistics here for you. Um, looking it up, you can look it up. State of Michigan says that most uh, school districts budgets for teacher salaries are 70 to 80% of their budget for the year. Ours is 46%. Um, we are the lowest paid scale in Oakland County. Cost of living two and a half% the last two years, but
010we have an, this will be the third year we're starting at the same salary. We have 38 out of our 71 teachers that are below poverty level. And when I say below, I mean significantly below. That is 54% of our teaching staff. We um there is a law in Michigan for salaried workers that make less than $58,656 to receive fair pay and long for any long hours. Teachers are exempt from that rule. So, not only do we always work extra hours because there's no way to get done in a day what we need to get done in or in order to be effective teachers for our students, we're always working extra hours. And even though we might pick up uh an extra duty to get paid for it, that's not in including the time that
011we're going home and we're lesson planning, we're grading, we're coming up with more innovative ways. Teachers that are not working summer school right now are at home and they are trying to relax, recuperate, but most importantly, they're also looking for more innovative ways to teach next year. They're looking at what didn't work, what they can make work. Our time is very crucial. We take a lot of time away from our families for other people's families. We have um more duties, less time, and less pay. Every year we don't make anymore. We're actually taking a pay cut because we're with the economy the way it is, most of our teachers can't even afford to live on their own. You have to work not one extra job, sometimes two and three. And how effective is that for
012our teaching and or our students? We there was an agreement with our last contract that um in the fall if we had a 7% fund balance we the headley was passed the um bond was passed our FTEES went up and we had more um per pupil funding we would have a meeting to open our contract and talk about raises all of those things happened. even the 7% at the time even though we were at that time told that it was not 7%. Um but there was a um report done by MEA and it showed that we were at 7%. We were told that we did not have the 7% even though we had all the other things we still got nothing. So that part of it was not um honored. There are so many other
013things. Again, we know need to respectfully tell you, yeah, your time ran out, but I wanted to say thank you for coming in and we do appreciate and understand. All right, I'm going to say one more thing anyway. Even though my time is out, I give a lot of my time, so I don't think me going over three minutes is more to ask of you guys because we give all of our time for you and for our students. I didn't stop. I know. I'm just letting you go. One other thing is that you have to consider that a teacher's working condition is your students learning condition. So that's really important to keep in mind. Absolutely. Thank you. [Applause] Next one is Lisa. Welcome. Hi. Hi everyone. My name is Lisa Alexanderitz and I serve as
014the literacy coach at Madison Elementary and Madison Early Childhood Center. This upcoming school year marks my 11th year with Madison district. I wanted to speak today to share a bit about our literacy work history and the importance of having reading specialists in our district to be able to continue improving literacy achievement. This focused work in literacy has been in progress since Madison's partnership with Oakland school's LEO project. This project created my grant-f funed role as a literacy coach in the 2021 school year. So, as a coach, my time is spent with teachers in and out of the classroom working on essential literacy practices, providing ondemand support and PD to increase teacher confidence, and in turn improve student outcomes. My work would not be possible without having a literacy team behind me. This includes administration support,
015teachers, and most importantly, our reading specialists. We closed the 24-25 school year celebrating significant literacy gains. Thanks to a strong researchbacked literacy team and system, all of our K through third students received highquality small groupoup phonics instruction, whether they were behind, on track, or excelling. Our results speak volumes. Second graders jumped from 7% to 61% mastery of phonics skills, now ready to start their third grade year reading grade level text. Third graders increased from 26% to 70% reading at or above grade level. Again, this growth would not be possible without the consistency, expertise, and dedication of our highly trained reading specialists at ECC and MEES. Their work directly supports our students and ensures that no child is overlooked. The strong foundation set in kindergarten and first grade allows us to have students at grade level.
016We will truly miss Danielle Sulfridge and her literacy expertise as she has retired this year from ECC. However, the work Katie Sackner has done since joining me over a year and a half ago deserves to be recognized and is vital for our continued literacy success. If we no longer have reading specialist positions, teachers are going to be forced to juggle tier one instruction and small groupoup intervention without the support, meaning fewer students will get what they need. Tier three Orton Gillingham reading intervention for our most atrisisk students will be eliminated. Fourth and fifth grade students will continue to be at a disadvantage of not receiving quality reading intervention and support. Meeting the literacy testing and reading plan requirements for the Michigan K through2 literacy and dyslexia law will become an enormous challenge. And then most
017concerning, we risk reversing the momentum we worked so hard to build. the momentum our literacy team was eager to start the year off with and excited to see how this work with students reading at grade level will shift statemandated test scores. So we cannot afford to compromise in an area as critical as reading. Thank you for your time and your continued support of our student success. Thank you tonight. just like to thank everybody that came and shared with us because I don't think that we have any disagreement. This is going to be team ultimately it's our decision but hopefully we can have some team um conversations with that. Um, our deficit reduction plan uh is next on the agenda. Um, while that's coming up, I need a motion to add a close session strategy for
018negotiations under HC. And I would like to add it uh 4 A, please. 4 A. Yeah, I want to do it before um we approve any contracts. President Holder. Yes. I'd like to make a motion to go into close session um under discussion of new or continued business for strategies for negotiations. You trustee Thompson supports to move to add it to our agenda on 4A. So that's all we're voting on right now is to add it to the agenda. Any discussion? Seeing none, Mark. Trusty Kimble. No, I'm good. Okay. Roll call vote, please. Missy Dodge, yes. Carlos Harp, yes. Cindy Holder, yes. Mark Kimble, yes. Gloria Thompson, yes. Motion pass. Thank you. Now we will do the deficit elimination plan. Good evening, board members, trustees, and community. Tonight, we're going to go over the proposed
0192026 deficit elimination plan. So, in your red folder, you have four documents. Is this going to be on the display? It's not. No. Good. Only so they can at least follow what we're looking at. Please. Thank you, Rusty. Rusty, I have three copies left if you guys want three tangible copies. Otherwise, it's going to be impossible. He's going to project it, but it's going to be like an Excel document, so it may not be meaningful. Thank you. Are we starting this, right? Yeah, she's putting putting long as I keep my glasses on. So, while we're waiting, um, this format was given to us by the state and for the D plan, it requires a 2 to five year, uh, timeline for us to get out of deficit. And so we filled out this information based
020on our budget. Um we have our revenue, we have our expenditures. Um we have our total expenditures and then we have our ending fund balance on the left side. And then on the bottom section we have our student count, we have our foundation allowance and then we have our staff numbers. And then each year those numbers will change depending on what the what our plan is for the year. So I can go ahead and get started with um with the breakdown of the calculations from the spreadsheet. So the 2425 budget the actual the first one it shows our fund balance of 1.4 million. This was as of July 1st of 2024. And then we have our this is our estimated ending um amounts for our revenues, our local, our state, and our federal. And then
021our total revenue was 17.9 million. The next column is our expenditures. And then that's our instruction. And then our support services, and that total to be $19.2 million. So that puts us at a negative um uh operating deficit for this year of 1.3 million which takes away from our fund balance of 1.4 which leave us with $84,000 to be carried over to the next year. And that's with our student count of 929 um our foundation allowance of 9608 and then our staff count of 152. So for next year's budget which is a second column um start off with 84,000 of our fund balance and then we have our revenues and this is estimated based on what we know. We also got to take into take into consideration that we are losing revenue from our federal
022and our state because some grants and then some sources will not um be funded next year. But we don't know our final numbers until the budget, the state budget is approved is still up in the air right now. So anyhow, um we did make cuts for at the end of fiscal year 25 to reflect fiscal year 26. So that we did have some cost savings in our expenses. But however, at the end of the year, we're still over by 1.1 million. And this is based on an estimate of 949 students. uh the foundation allowance 10,08 per student but this has not been approved yet so this is a guesstimate of what other districts are using and then our student our staff count decreased from 152 to 140. So then the next year we take our
023beginning fund balance of -1.02 million and then our estimates of our revenue and then our expenses. So this is how we did the breakdown. for fiscal year 26. These numbers are based on the original fisc year 26 budget that was approved a couple weeks ago. At the end of fiscal year 25, we made cuts to align our staffing with enrollment. With the D plan, more cuts will need to be determined during the year based on what we will receive as of far as far as revenue from the state and federal sources. our estimated enrollment which is 949 an increase of 20 students and a foundation allowance of 10,08 and this shows that fisc year 26 we will have an ending fund balance of negative 1.02. So if you look at the third column it says
024the prior year difference. So this is the um the change in percentage from fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 24. So, as you can see, we did uh we estimate an increase in local revenue of 5% for fiscal year 26, and that's due to our property taxes um our property value increasing, which it did increase from last year to this year, of 10 million, about $9 million. And then, um we did have a decrease in federal revenue, which we're unsure about our title funding, um and things of that nature. Here it is. And then also if you look at the prior year difference for after fiscal year 26 you see that we did make decreases in our instruction of 8% um added needs of 15% so we are making cuts to to try to get
025the deficit down and then also through supporting services. So we're trying to align our enrollment with our staff for fiscal year 27 through 30 is the estimate of what of how we plan to make changes yearly to eliminate the deficit. According to the calculations, we plan to eliminate the deficit in fiscal year 29 with estimated fund balance of 570 thou 570,000 but hopefully the deficit will be eliminated sooner. Also, we plan to eliminate the structural deficit by having a positive operational surplus at 134,000 at the end of fiscal year 27. This could be the first year since fiscal year 21 when our revenue exceeds our expenses. Are there any questions before we move on to the the yearly plan narrative? See any? Okay, Travis, can you go to the next um the next document? So
026as he loads the second document, it's our um deficit elimination plan narrative which is the second page which shows how we plan to eliminate the deficit for the next five years. So on the second page is a plan narrative for fiscal year 26 to fiscal year 30. We must provide specific details to the state on how we plan to decrease the the deficit within a two to fiveyear period. Some cost-saving measures for fiscal year 26 include freezing travel and conferences and professional development. That's the estimate savings of $20,000. Eliminating all district overtime unless given approval by the superintendent based on need. Streamlining transportation routes. Avoiding multi-year vendor contracts. Possibility of classroom rentals at ECC to generate more revenue. Utilizing grant funding as much as possible. initiating cost-saving discussions with union groups and conducting staffing audits
027twice a year in November and March to align enrollment and staffing. We have to make a collaborative effort with everyone in order for Madison to eliminate the deficit. For the next few years, we will follow the same format to eliminate the deficit and once we are in a better financial position, we will be able to provide better resources for our students as well as our staff. Are there any questions on the plan narrative? So, thank you. So, I'm looking across the plan here on the larger spreadsheet, and it looks like we're not reducing a lot year-to-year in like central office or school administration or general administration, but we're going to reduce down to 19 teachers and add we're reducing 19 teachers over these years, and we're adding 41 students. And that doesn't seem to really
028make sense to me why we would cut where staff is touching kids the most. It doesn't say that it's teachers. Yeah. Well, it's instructional staff. So, what would that be? That's just that's just an I just gave a estimate number because we had to align our enrollment with staff. F total staff FTE is typically teachers, but that also includes social workers. Um those are still like hands-on with kids though. Okay. But last year we had a grant where we had extra social workers. So sometimes we do have extra social worker staff or support staff. So in terms of central office, if you tell me where to cut in central office, we can talk about that. But we are already spread thin in central office. Who who else would do all the duties in central office?
029We already have just two business specialists that help that does payroll and accounting things. And then you have Ebony. We don't have a director of curriculum. We have a director of special ed and support and it's Pam and I. I mean, if you guys can come up with creative ways, we don't we don't even have a board secretary. So, if you guys can come up with creative ways as where you can recommend making cuts, but we have cut because we have taken on duties after duties without any complaint. So, if you can tell me where we can cut and we can get a a different plan, I'm more than willing to hear. Just want to add that even our office put in a lot of hours, especially myself coming in trying to figure out what
030the previous administration had done prior to and then having to figure everything out and then try to develop a plan. It's I put in a lot of hours. So if you want to cut then it's also going to affect our livelihood as well. Like we're doing the best that we can with what we got and trying to fix what happened over the previous years. And I do want to add that um in fiscal year 2425, the reason why we did cut some teachers is because our class sizes were now overloaded. We did not change or ask for an increase in class size in the contract. The contract is still being negotiated. We have not increased any class sizes outside of the contract. And if we did, it was something that we agreed upon together with
031the union. But some of the classes, for example, our GSRP program, we should have shut two of those one of those classrooms down because they were not ran efficiently. So, in order for a classroom to function efficiently for the district, they need to be somewhere at least 80% towards the class size. Well, I know most contracts allow for when you're over and you can negotiate and have additional compensation. So, how many classrooms do we have where we've um allotted for additional compensation for those? Rusty, if you want to correct me, but I think it was three. One was a class that we agreed to have a split and we wanted to try an honors program and then the second the other two were electives we had. Was the honors program because we had to because
032of the numbers or was it just Yeah, I think yes, it was both. It was like, hey, we need maybe one more a half a teacher. You can't afford a half a teacher. No one is going to work a half. So, yes, I came up with the idea to let's try a four or five split to see if we can build the honors program because we don't have an honors program to speak to our students that are higher performing. And the teacher did an amazing job with those kids and brought them up to grade level. So, yes, it was yes to both. Oh, sorry. Trustee Kimble. Yes. I have a question. What uh is covered under community services typically? So, one, we had a contract with community and schools. It was an organization that brought
033in one staff member per building. It was a 4-year contract. and the staff members supported. The purpose was to support 20 students and to also bring different programs in the building. The pro the contract was probably brought on four years ago, but half of it was paid by MDE. So with all the cuts, the other 50% of the payment was no longer going to be available from MDE for 2526 school year. So we had to cut that program. Okay. The other question I've got, this goes goes back to what uh Rusty Rogers said. Is is that accurate that our payroll with teachers is only 47%. I will have to do a fact check and I'll let you know. And and it is it correct we were at it correct we were at 7% fund balance
034at some point last year? that was after the audit, but come to find out it was um like $300,000 of fiscal year 24 expenses on this year's budget. So that wasn't accounted for. So we kind of ate some of last year's budget on this year's budget. So that that also was a culprit to why our we are in a situation that we are right now% of our fund balance is quite large. I'd be shocked if we had 7% fund balance. Yes, it was a 7% fund balance at the audit and when the audit was presented and all parties was on board. So what then what happened to that 7% fund balance? It was ate up based on ate up by what? The pre you want to explain? So you had last year's expenses um this
035year expenses we were still operating like we still had the esser fund. we didn't have ESER funding anymore. So, what most districts uh went through this year was they didn't plan for this year when the funding wasn't there. So, a lot of districts are ending in a negative. Excuse me. Who didn't plan for that? I'm just saying districts in general. I'm I'm confused. Well, we didn't plan for it because we have had four business directors interruptions in the last three years. So it seems like when one business director leave the individual does not communicate to the next one and says like hey we'll be available but then but so so the so the reply is it's someone else's fault. No it's absolutely our fault. I mean but we don't have the funding. So we should
036we should have made cuts last year when we should have had a conversation at the time when count was done in October and realize hey we have these classrooms that are not filled to capacity that we need to make cuts. So it is absolutely our fault. I was Steve. I don't think we should talk about anyone else. But no, it's just overall just the past it's several years that we've been operating, we've been spending more than what we're bringing in. That's been happening since 2021. So, you can't blame this person or that person. It's just the communication wasn't being brought to you guys like, hey, we got to make changes each year. So, so now we're going to be in a situation. The problem is when you're running the district though, you need to see
037these things in advance and make a course correction, not after the fact. And I can understand the frustrations of the teachers and not being able to get a raise because we simply don't have the money. And part of the excuse is a course correction wasn't made in time. And as a business owner, I think that's terrible. I really do. I have to say that just touch and I guess I'm trying to understand why wasn't the board aware. Yeah, I'm newer. like so at the end of when we did the budget amendment in February, we were I presented that we were already overspending by a million dollars and that our ending fund balance is going to be $300,000 and it was an estimate and we still went over. So it was and then even with last
038year's budget, original budget, it was communicated that we probably be going into a deficit. So the information was there. I just don't think we acted on it as we should have. And I I do want to say that the board was aware. We tried to hold um budget intervention meetings where we invited everyone. Like I said, I didn't figure do this on my own and I can't figure it out on my own. So the board was definitely aware. The community was aware. All hands was on deck. We were very transparent about where we were financially. Now, maybe the transparency didn't was not considered truthful because I think sometimes people don't believe, hey, maybe we're trying to so-called hide money, but everyone has always been aware of how we have been spending. Are we currently right
039size for the uh teachers to the classroom sizes? Well, based off of enrollment, yes. But you also have to consider that sometimes you may have numbers and you can expect a 10% increase or de decrease depending on what families decide. So that number really is a estimate until the first day of school start and really until count day the week before when we cannot take any more kids out of district. Thank you. Yes, I'm I'm done. I'm sorry you said it so quietly I didn't hear you. I apologize. Next up is the consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda considered to be routine in nature by the board of education will be acted upon by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items. any member of the board or any
040citizen 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 this agenda. Uh first is approval of minutes of the board of education truth and tax series taxation hearing and sorry the special meeting of June 23rd 2025 approval of the personnel reported by submitted by human resources July 7th approval of the June 2025 financials in the amount of 1,632,198.85 and I need a maker and support for our consent agenda. Trustee Thompson, I'd like to recommend that the board of education approve the consent agenda as presented. Support. Also support trusty heart. Any questions? None. Roll call vote, please. Gloria Thompson, yes. Mark Kimble, yes. Cindy Holder, yes. Carlos Harp, yes. Missy Dodge, yes. Motion pass.
041Next up, discussion of newer continued business. Uh, Superintendent Perry, do you have anything? No, just for the close session and uh, close session strategies for negotiation under 8C. I need a maker and support, please. President Trustee Dodge, I move that we go into close session. That's the number on the agenda for 4 A. 4 A. I'll support. Trustee Thompson supported. Trustee Dodge made the motion. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Missy Dodge, yes. Carlos Harp, yes. Cindy Holder, yes. Mark Kimble, yes. Gloria Thompson, yes. Motion passed. Thank you. Let's go. My mom. What time is it? Gloria. 7:44. 7:44. through the issuance of individual contracts for the following critical techical support positions to adult transition support assistance at the metro program, one English as a second language paraprofessional at Madison Elementary. These positions
042are essential for providing direct student support in both buildings. The adult transition support assistance will support students in the metro program as they develop life, work, and community skills. The ESL paraprofessional will provide vital language acquisition support to our growing population of English language learners at Madison Elementary. There is no change in pay rates for these positions. Contracts are being brought forward for approval solely to secure the necessary staffing to meet the academic, functional, and social, emotional needs of our students. It is recommended the board of education approve the individual contracts for the two adult transition support assistance and the English as a second language pair professional. Any maker in support, please. Madam President, Trustee Thompson, I'd like to make a motion that the board approve the individual contracts for the two adult transition support
043assistance and the English as a second language pair pair professional. Thank you. Support. I'll support it. Trusty Kimble. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Missy Dodge, yes. Carlos Harp, yes. Cindy Holder, yes. Mark Kimble, yes. And Gloria Thompson, yes. Motion passed. Thank you. Next up, approval of the MDS deficit elimination plan. We need a maker in support. Madame President, I make a motion that we adopt the deficit reduction plan. Thank you. I'll support. Trustee Thompson supports. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Gloria Thompson, yes. Mark Kimble, yes. Cindy Holder, yes. Carlos Harp, yes. Missy Dodge, yes. Motion passed. Next up is the engineering services for pavement reconstruction. recommended the board of education approve the attached proposal for civil engineering services to support the upcoming pavement reconstruction projects at Madison High School
044and Madison Middle School as outlined in the district sinking fund three-year plan. The proposal covers essential engineering services required to develop construction documentation, facilitate the public bidding process, and ensure project compliance with state regulations. The total amount requested for the approval is 44,200 which includes a not to exceed amount of 6,500 to be bu on an hourly basis if needed during the construction phase. These engineering services are critical to the moving forward with the planned projects that are necessary to meet public bidding requirements due to the projected cost. The projected timeline site survey and construction documentation 77 to 9:15. Public bidding and contract development 9:15 to 10:15. BOA approval of contractors 113 pending board of education meeting schedule and the contractor award and construction start following BOE. This proposal will ensure the district can proceed
045on schedule and maintain compliance throughout the project. It is recommended the board of education approve the attached proposal for civil engineering services to support the upcoming pavement reconstruction projects at Madison High School and Madison Middle School. Oh, sorry. as outlined in the district stink sinking fund three-year plan. I need a maker in support, please. Madam President, Trustee Thompson, I'd like to make a motion that the board of education approve the attached approal for civil engineering services to support the upcoming pavement reconstruction projects at Madison High School, Wilkinson Middle School as outlined in the district sinking fund three-year plan. I support Harp. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Mark Kimble, yes. Gloria Thompson, yes. Carlos Harp, yes. Cindy Holder, yes. Missy Dutch, yes. Motion passed. Next up, committee reports. GRC would be She's not
046here. Parks and Rack Rebecca HRC. It is Chris is not here. finance committee. Um, we just kind of went over the beginning of the schedule that we were presented with uh enrollment committee. I couldn't get into the last meeting. Neither could Chrisa. Uh, board comments. We'll start with Trusty Kimble. Trusty who? Kimble. You couldn't hear. I just hope everyone's having a good summer. That's this Wednesday. I'm sorry. Everyone's having a good summer. Do I have to repeat myself? Someone asked for my attention. I apologize. Trustee Harp. Um, I'd like to thank the the public for coming out. Um, absolutely valuable uh insight and information that y'all bring to us. See better with y'all without the glasses. Uh, but I genuinely appreciate y'all come out here. Um, it can only help us to do things better.
047I would also like to thank the board. We I've said it before, we may not always agree, but we can have civil conversations. I would like to thank the admin, uh, superintendent, assistant superintendent, please forgive me, Ebony. Um, I I know your name. Uh, I would like to thank you all for what you guys do. every time I've had to ask um have always quickly responded and quickly got the information back to me. So, I could better do my job to support the the school district than the the kids. Feels like I'm missing something. Um hope everyone had a happy 4th of July and enjoy the summer uh break if we get one. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Dutch. I'm always glad to hear from our stakeholders. Um, our teachers are the lifeline of our
048school district. So, thank you for coming out to speak. The union is an important partner to the school board and the administration. So, through the healthy partnerships, we can create the very best district for our students. Um, we hear you and we share in your frustration. Um but um know that the teach we know that the teachers and the administrators of Madison are some of the most dedicated and passioned and creative that are around and I know all of the ones that I've personally met just blow me away with how hard you work and how dedicated you work and the hours that you put in and the passion that you carry for the students. So thank you for that. um just your dedication is amazing and I I just really want to say a heartfelt
049thank you and I urge my fellow board members um to focus on public education advocacy. Um while the state of Michigan's constitution does have some school voucher protections, the recent federal bill that passed does allow for some dangerous backdoor vouchers um federal vouchers. So public education funding is under attack and it needs advocacy in both Lancing and Washington DC. I hope the board will share in my advocacy efforts. Trusty Thompson and I will be at Big on 11 Mile Road on July 19th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and we invite all community stakeholders to join us and please share anything you'd like to. We're there to listen and to learn from you. While things are going to be tough financially for a while, there isn't a more determined district to face it head on
050than ours. We will persevere as long as we work together. Thompson, I can't say any of that as eloquently as Melissa did, so I'm just going to reiterate everything she said. Thank you for coming out. I want to say thank you for coming. Um there's not a person here honest and truly that isn't interested in um doing the best we can for the staff, for the students, for each other. Um that couldn't maybe have been said in the not so recent past. Um we're trying to move ahead. Um, our administrators are working very hard. Um, I we want you to feel appreciated, Ebony. [Music] And just know we we're taking everything that people say to heart. We need to make these very careful decisions. Um and we just need to be be very in tune
051and and very precise in the things that we look at. So uh thank you again for coming. Thank you for talking to us and I just need one more mo. Madam President, I make a motion to adjourn the meeting. I'll support. All right. Roll call vote, please. Missy Dodge, yes. Carl, yes. Sorry. Mark Kimble, yes. And Gloria Thompson. Yes. Thank you.