001e e e our organizational meeting uh the first meeting of the year so I will call the meeting to order at 7:00 we're going to start with with the Pledge of Allegiance I guess I'll lead it if everyone can stand 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 [Music] all thank you can we please have a roll call April and I'm sorry Salmo and Selmo presid Mary Bush here Rebecca chamblas here Cindy holder here Mark Kimble here Chris stara mcel Taylor here Gloria Thompson here next we have public fundamentals with comments public input is fundamental to the operation of Madison District Public Schools our public has an opportunity to speak at every Board
002of 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 Board of Education 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 3 minutes School Employees will not you will will not use this form to discuss job related topics the Board of Education accepts comments made during public comment from anyone who follows these guidelines public comment is one of the many information resources that the board uses before making decisions in the best interest of the children who attend Madison District Public Schools the board also work with the District staff to address citizens
003questions and concerns do we have any comments thank you we are going to move on with the public swearing in of our newly appointed board members we have trustee Rebecca chamblas truste cristar meaan Taylor and truste April and Selmo and we have our mayor rosin grafstein here to um swear in our board members and we're going to do it individually so maybe we can start with Rebecca trusty and I apologize and Cindy holder so it's four board members we taking pictures yeah do you guys want pictures okay G to make sure that I'm heard on this um okay so I'm going to say this and you're going to repeat after me okay all right so I I Rebecca Jam okay do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United
004States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Michigan and the constitution of the state of Michigan and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of school board member and I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of school board member in in and for the Madison District public schools in and for the Madison District Public Schools according to the best of my ability according to the best of my abilities congratulations you are now officially sworn in as a member of the Madison District Public School Board of Education thank you for your commitment thank you all right you want to a picture there thank you we will have Cindy sler I'll share it with you you stand next to me all right
005so I I Cindy holder do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of Michigan of the state of Michigan and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties and I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of the Schoolboard member of the office of the school board member in and for the Madison District public schools in and for the Madison District Public Schools according the best of my ability all right [Applause] congratulations ail and come that's okay I yeah can [Music] okay all right you can stand next to me and you can read it too if you want okay so we should have done that first time okay
006so I I April and Selmo do solemnly swear solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of Michigan of the state of Michigan and that I will Faithfully discharge and I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of school board member the duties of the office of school board member in and for the Madison District public schools in and for the Madison District Public Schools according to the best of my ability according to the best of my abilities all right congratulations you were now officially sworn in as a member of the school board all right then we've got chera melin Taylor proud of you you are just the best sister ever
007you know I did do you want do you want me to pull the Bible for you sure thank you hand on all right so you have to thought I got it it's okay okay I I fora Mel Pine Taylor do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of Michigan of the state of Michigan and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties and I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of school board member of the office of Schoolboard member in and for the Madison District public schools in and for the Madison District Public Schools according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability
008congratulations thank you all right so I want to congratulate everyone um who's just been sworn in you're now officially sworn in as members of the Madison District Public Schools Board of Education and I want to thank you on the behalf of the residents of Madison district for your commitment to serving our students for the staff in the community and I look forward to your leadership and your contributions and I look forward to working with you happy New Year everyone thank you Happy New Year thank you Rin really should she's limping too everybody's limping these days okay we are going to move forward um before we do our presentation of awards we do have to have an election for the 2025 officers for the Board of Education and the first item is I need someone to
009nominate a temporary chair chairperson oh I am I'm sorry I okay trusty Bush yeah I nominate Gloria Thompson to be a temporary trustey temporary chairperson is there a second I'll second it roll call vote accept April and and Selmo you're voting what am I voting on I couldn't hear we're voting on Nom uh on Gloria Thompson being a temporary chair and who is that Gloria Thompson oh yes yay Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblas yes Cindy holder yes Mark Kimble yes chrisara yes Gloria Thompson yes motion passed okay I would like to start with the election of our president I need nominations for the seat of President Mrs chair I'd like to nominate Cindy holder for president I accept anybody else a second a second second okay we have a April seconded are there any other
010oh I'm not cheer anymore I'm sorry any other let me put this down are there any other nominations for president Mary I'd like to nominate Rebecca chamblas for president okay do we have a second second it April yes I second anybody else Cindy holder let's move on to voting then we'll vote first for Cindy holder is there any discussion we have to have discussion okay all right if if I may go yes you can uh I have to object to Rebecca chamblas being president being that she has a history of drugs and it's a public record and uh the last person we had as chair of this board is now sitting in federal prison if we are to re rehabilitate this District's reputation further it should be somebody different more discussion Mary yes um one
011I'd like to give Rebecca a chance to rebut that but I would like to ask both candidates for their vision for the school district how they intend to accomplish short and long-term goals on the board and what do they think their leadership style is that would forward a unified board so I would like both candidates to answer those questions can I start with that not common practice yes you can thank you does that mean you're declining to answer the questions I have served on this board for 25 plus years and I think everything that I've stood for has been brought forth anybody else Rebecca uh Mr Kimble I would make sure that there's document proof of me ever using drugs before you make slanderous statement there is in the State Hearing that's attached to your
012nursing file no it's it's yes the judge flat out says word for word although we could not prove you did anything wrong it comes down to your word versus hers you are under question she is not and the state deems you as a person so for Public Safety moral please one time it's Rebecca's got the floor the judge said we could not prove you did anything wrong I voluntarily offered a polygraph I offered drug test they declined said it was not necessary at that time even the judge questioned why would you not do that I have six years of random drug tests where every morning at 4:00 a.m. I check an app and it tells me whether I have to drug test or not Monday through Friday six years with not one positive can you
013say the same can every board member on this panel say the same could pass that test yes I have six years of document approv there is not you will not find one drug test in history where I have drugs in my system with the exception of when I had a child or I had surgery not one if you find one I'll sign my house over to you so find a drug find drug use in my history I was accused of it by someone that I got into an argument at my job we had an argument she filed a complaint the judge flat out said we could not prove you did anything wrong but it comes down to your word versus hers you are under question she is not so for Public Safety we're going to
014ear on the side of caution and we're going to go ahead and monitor you if you complain complete that monitoring and you don't have any positive drug tests or anything come back and we'll appeal it I finished that last summer I got out early I have a letter from the state of Michigan letting me out early because I finished it and I had not one issue I had therapists addiction pain management doctors all arguing and fighting for me to get out early because they all said it was erroneous that I was in the program because again there was never once document appr Pro or prove at all that I had ever used drugs in any way that was not appropriate that's not what the report says can I that's a complaint that a ex best
015friend wrote that was a hearing the state held a hearing that was their findings from the I'm sorry were you there no I can read call to your Mary would you like the floor I would um to to Mr uh Kimble's point we have had a president in the past P that had not only drug charges but a drug conviction I would like to point out that at no point in this um nursing license contention episode was was there ever any criminal charges or anything brought against M chamblas I think as the parent of six children two of whom have gone through and graduated from this District three of whom are still here one of whom is probably going to be coming here that she deserves the opportunity to get the benefit of the doubt
016that she is of good moral character and can definitely serve in this board she's communicative she keeps copious notes she understands the bylaws and the purpose of this board is to en enrich the education of the children of the district I think under the leadership of the board we need somebody who's communicative to all of the board members so somebody who is sophisticated enough to develop long-term and short-term strategic thinking for this board given what the district is doing to rehabilitate its reputation and I think Ms chamblas is the best person to do that so I would I would dare you to find any criminal conviction that would would assert this woman is of low moral character she's married she has children and she's doing just fine as a mother of this community how dare
017you sir how dare you Rea she was not charged because the nursing home know anything about it yes I do choose not because you stalked me not to charge her because they did not want the publicity because you stalked me you went and spoke to my neighbors you've stalked me for years because I was I did not talk sir I have the floor I have the floor I did not talk I have the floor we were running against each I have the floor if you should not be president that's all I'm to Kim I'll give you the floor when she's done I'm done we were running against each other in 2020 you went to my neighbors you went all over the place you spoke to ex family members you have stalked my family for years
018you did the same thing and chased away every other parent who was going to run for this board that's why no moms or dads will run for this board delusion she has the bo Crystal Beaver that Basler you went after them and said that they were stealing from the PTO so they would not run for the C the board or they left the board because they didn't want to deal with it Crystal did Nanette ended up leaving and saying she was never coming back when there was opportunities to come up on the board and be appointed and when there was appointments available she would not come forward you accuse them of stealing from Sports boosters you accuse them without proof of stealing from the PTO you chase away every parent that wants anything to do
019with this you don't have children you just live in a home by yourself or maybe with your brother um that you grew up in and that's it you're not married you don't have kids you have no investment you have no interest in this District other than being a taxpayer and that's fine but the problem is you have openly stated that this District should close at different times I've never said that if we're talking about accusations would you like me to bring up the other one and what's that let's not let's not let's not I'm not let's not but let me just say if we wanted to bring up accusations that's not you don't want to go there with me you're bashing me because you're trying to protect your friend you want Cindy to be president
020because you guys have been friends for decades so what you'll do is you'll go to the lowest point possible and you'll try to dig and hit as low as possible because that's what you do I want anyone to be president other than you including in one of these new people would instead of coming and say order please I have the floor I know instead of coming and saying I have done something wrong that has anything to do with anything in this community or the school district you hit low and go to the lowest point of my life where I had to fight for a degree that I fought my butt off to get against an erroneous accusation that I was guilty the minute that complaint was filed check the statistics of the likelihood of being
021ConEd icted when a licensed complaint is made cuz it's high they tell you that it only is for the worst of the worst that's not true when you get a complaint filed against your license you are almost always convicted they will find a reason because it's for Public Safety as it should be so instead of coming up I am on the historical commission parks and wreck human rights and Equity I'm the president of the PTO I coach the varsity volleyball team in have for five years long before I came on the board I'm a mother of six two of which are graduated valedictorian three others that are all straight A's a 15-month-old and I'm member of this community I run a nonprofit that helps over 150 kids every December get Christmas presents over 40 kids
022get Easter baskets every Easter over a 100 kids get school supplies every September I donate school supplies to this school and every building in this school I do it the high school and the middle school I send school supplies to I organize Trunk or Treats and not once has there ever been an event or a moment that anybody in this District or Community can say I acted odd I didn't act appropriate I did anything wrong or they had any reason to question my moral character my ethics or my Foundation you are stretching to try to protect a friend and you went low but that speaks higher of you than it does of me now anybody should be move Mr Kimble yes are we ready to move on one more thing chairperson okay and I will
023not say the other accusation that could be said about the day of the election in 2020 Let It Go for trustee holder but I won't go there because I'm not like you and that's because it never Happ houses Mr Kimble never happened Mr Kimble would you like the floor I think I've made myself very clear I think anybody but Rebecca should be president even if it's one of these new people I'm not doing this to protect Cindy I think Cindy's most qualified I certainly don't want the the job but I think reputation has a lot to do with the school district and here we are going down that path again are we done I'm done Mary yes I think as long as we're going down the path of reputation I would like to congratulate Miss
024chamblas on not only uh overcoming what must been a personal and PR nightmare to just keep demonstrating What a fine character and contributory Community member that you are and I thank you for your intelligence your uh conscious awareness of everything that's going on in the district as well as your ability to uh learn new things as we go through the process you are one of the best qualified and certified educational people on this board to be your board certified by the Oakland County and Michigan school board Michigan Association of school boards yeah and and that I think counts for a lot so while all of us might have one thing in our past that you know it's like okay that that might have been kind of sketchy whether it was true or not I think
025if we take the totality of who you are this is the person that I think should be the president of the school board now we all have one vote and that's what it will come down to who do you want to be the school board president and for those of us who have been on the school board we have sat in session where things have gotten tense we have sat with people who will pick at scabs and and try to bring people down and what we need are people who would who Elevate people and Empower them to make good decisions Empower us as a board to make what's right for this community to happen and that's why I'm throwing my vote behind M chamblas any more comments before we take a vote I'm just going
026to say one thing because this has the um kind of way more than it ever is or should be I have let this board um with thoughtfulness even when provoked by other school board members my opinion um people that have intentionally dispersed um bad information bad information about maybe each and every one of us I have tried to stay middle of the road do I respond when people are trying to just start trouble nope because it escalates and it escalates and people who choose not to necessarily follow the rules want to say that I'm not doing my job so um I am here to make this District move forward I have no personal animosity against Rebecca I would hope at this point she doesn't with me either um if I'm elected I will serve as
027school board president and if I'm not I'll move seats that's it thank you that being said can we move on to voting everybody agree yes all right we're going to vote for Cindy hold her first since she was nominated first can we take a roll call vote please Rebecca chamblas no hang on um Cindy holder yes Mark Kimbell yes Chris star mcelin yes Gloria Thompson yes it is Mary Bush no April no motion passed thank you I will do my best to uphold all of us personally and professionally okay moving on we're going to elect our vice president do we have any motions for vice president Mary I would like to R nominate Rebecca chamblas as vice president I need a second second is that ail second yes okay and I'm just writing it down
028so I don't forget um are there any other nominations for vice president okay any um comments all right we're going to move forward and do a roll call vote for Rebecca chamblas as vice president Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblas yes April yes Cindy holder yes Mark Kimble no Chris Dara yes Gloria Thompson yes motion passed okay now we elect our secretary do I have any motions for secretary Rebecca I make a motion for Mary Bush to be secretary accept I'll second it okay of there she at that I you I yeah that too we have a new discussion having heard nobody for discussion we're going to take a roll call vote for secretary Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblas yes Cindy holder yes Mark Kimble yes chrisara yes Gloria Thompson yes and April and selo yes
029motion passed we will move on to the election of our Treasurer I'll make a motion for Gloria Thompson to be treasure I second anybody else any discussion do you accept I'll accept any discussion okay we'll move on to a roll call vote for treasurer Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblin yes Cindy holder yes chrisara yes Mark Kimble yes Gloria Thompson yes and April and Salo yes motion passed so I can take the meeting over we just need actually herar and Mary bush need to switch places where are you fine where you are I'm fine where I am I can swich um just wanted to give you the opportunity oh I appreciate that thank you with that um I will turn this back over to our superintendent for the presentation of awards good evening we are going
030to present our students with their student of the month Awards and we just ask that you stick around because we have two special presentation for our staff members of the month and they're sitting on the stage so we can start with um Madison Early Childhood Center thank you guys for being patient okay we are starting with our gsrp students in Miss um Bartlett's room Miss Kayla's room our first one is going to be Aurora paric thank you is that good good evening my name is Kayla Bartlett and it's my honor to present to you the ECC students of the month from my gsrp class first I have Aurora parik don't let her size fool you Rory has a big personality she always comes off the school bus with a smile and is eager to greet
031her friends her clever sense of humor lights up conversation at my small group table when she sees a classmate struggling she immediately steps up to help and always cheers for others when they make an achievement on on their own Rory came into gsrp as a very selective eater but with time and encouragement she continues to make Daily Progress in trying new foods even the green ones and I know her parents and I are very proud of her growth and we're looking forward to seeing how much farther she'll go yeah [Applause] next I present to you Ezekiel Smiley Zeke not only goes above and beyond in the classroom but he is the child on the playground who seeks out the lonely child and befriends them if a problem is presented Zeke will find a solution and
032he'll often try to help other children find a compromise when they need it he embodies the concept of 1% better as he is a hard worker and will stick with a new task until he Masters it all the while saying it's okay if I make a mistake because my mom will love it anyway I can always count on Zeke to help when I ask for it and I'll often see him contributing to the classroom Community without being asked we tell him all the time that he's ready for kindergarten but I'm glad that we get to keep him a little bit [Applause] longer even the green ones thank you Madison Elementary School he not happy somebody's not happy was one of the employees good evening um this month we honored our first graders so I'll have
033my two first grade teachers come on up that'll be a great hello this is my friend JJ happy New Year uh when I was informed that I needed to select a student of the month from my classroom JJ came top of Mind JJ consistently completes his assignments with care and shows a great understanding of the material we cover in class he approaches each day with a smile and encourages his classmates to do their best JJ listens attentively follows our classroom social contract and treats his teachers and peers with kindness and respect JJ is a wonderful friend and leader within first grade he constantly works well with others during group activities and on the playground and is always willing to help a friend in need we are so proud of you JJ for being a fantastic
034member of our school Community keep up the great work buddy we love you [Applause] y this metal for you for your family huh look over there look at your family they a so great couldn't make it tonight but we're still going to celebrate her for sure yes I would love to tell you about Juden Anastasia um I chose her as our student of the month because she is just everything extremely thoughtful inquisitive hardworking empathetic anything wonderful you can think of she is constantly curious about the world around her and takes her learning very seriously and just there's so much that piques her interest she always has questions her hand up in the air wanting to know more it shows her dedication or in her dedication to her independent work projects as well as our usual
035group lessons and activ ities she listens closely tries her very best isn't afraid to make mistakes or messes along the way and actively proves she's mastered subjects on a regular basis I can count on Anastasia making connections between stories we've read at any point in the year we'll read a new story tomorrow and she'll remember and make those connections excitedly sharing these um new ideas and concepts with her classmates she's quick to raise her hands share ideas wonderings and often correct answers she's an active participant in her own Learning Journey she's a confident reader mathematician scientist writer and more all in just first grade she is brave kind honest and helpful been an all-around rock star in our classroom and I cannot wait to see how she continues to learn grow and Thrive throughout her
036school years and Beyond thank you Wilson Middle School principal Jones good evening good evening I am here to present our student of the month award to miss AA Riley Miss ASA Riley could not be with us today but ASA Riley is a star studied student at our in eth grade um she's also an athlete but Asia is one of our students who performs very very well on every assignment in every class she is an honoral student Mr Perera says that Asia challenges herself in class she does everything that she needs to to make herself better and after um recently after a test she said I know I can do better she strives every day to be 1% better and that's why we're honoring her tonight thank [Applause] you Madison hi school so our theme for
037January from our core values is 1% better and this month's theme is exemplified by two of our ninth graders on and Ari um an and her family could not be here oh they made it oh yay okay good good okay so um I didn't even see you over there oh good okay so uh an and Ari have shown us bring that progress doesn't always happen in a straight line it can happen in increments they've approached please bring them up oh yeah um I'd have a speech for each of them separate okay um they've approached every test every assignment and every learning activity with the goal of being just a little bit better than the day before so um our first recipient is an V come on [Applause] up all right come on up my dear
038an teachers say she is awesome she works hard every day does her assignments with so so much thought and integrity she never needs reminders or any redirection and her work is always done to the best of her ability and she makes our entire class more than 1% better every day Anna is an amazing student always an improving and willing to help people around her and an is the kind of student who makes me want to be a better teacher she is fabulous loves working the teacher loves working with her and learning more about her academically and personally and lastly she is fiercely independent and the type of student who would do the assignment even if the teacher wasn't there so congratulations [Applause] on congrats yeah all right our next recipient come on up AR Lee
039Li Lee [Applause] okay Ari so are your teachers had to say that you have an amazing work ethic that is headed in the right direction and that you use technology to your advantage and your gray continues to rise and you're a consumate professional he is almost always the first to arrive to class he is focused from Bell to Bell and is really good at helping the students around him also you know how sometimes when the class energy is low and you're struggling Ari knows just what to do he enthusiastically has an infectious way that fuels the whole class he has strug to improve his academic performance and has always had a very positive at attitude he is friendly and collaborates with his classmates so glad to have him every day congratulations [Applause] good all right
040very good very good so our staff um members of the month this year we decided not to do individual buildings but to honor our Tech Team so we can can we have Andrea and Travis come to the podium please [Applause] before we have the building speak I just want to say thank you to Andrea and Travis um they go above and beyond every day for the district for the staff for our students for our families and I just really appreciate the work that they do and the the energy that they bring to Madison is just amazing so thank you guys for everything all right I'll start us off all right Our topnotch IT team Andrea and Travis have stepped up to create our Madison District to hug for use by our family students and staff
041as well as sending new and exciting strategies each week with their Tech tips on Tuesdays to empower our students and our teachers to try new learning techniques and methods they hold monthly Tech integration meetings with each building's leadership team to help meet their annual Tech goals and a special thanks from MHS to both Andrea and Travis supporting our December PBS challenge by creating our amazing leaderboard that was updated and projected to our cafeteria TVs um every other day so our Eagles could track their class progress throughout the month and encourage their classmates to meet their daily goal we saw so much excitement around it thank you guys again [Applause] there we go as our Tech integration leader Andrea is conducting um many lessons for our teachers at staff meeting she's coming over she's meeting with
042the teachers in and out and we're just so grateful for all of your expertise and all lending hands and here and there and just picking up things and Mr Travis for us at WMS he's an invaluable resource we're always calling him every single day like Travis can you come help Travis can you come help he never says no um he's always striving to help us at WMS become 1% better and we just thank you from the bottom of our hearts than so here for ECC Andrea is always willing to step in and assist with technology she provides professional development for our staff in order to help our staff and students grow with their technology needs um always communicating with me seeing what we need Travis is always there whenever we need know we're always calling
043him to um if you call him with an issue when an issue arises he's right there and he helps us come up with a solution both Andrea and Travis have warm caring and inviting personalities which opens the door for staff to reach out when needed we at ECC want to thank both of you for your hard work and support and look forward to continuing this partnership yeah very you [Applause] good Andrea and Travis are always so helpful and more than willing to fix help organize and plan anything you ask of them uh our stem Lab at Mees is a huge hit and enjoyed by every student their dedication to keeping our technology running smoothly is invaluable and your expertise and problem solving skills ensure our staff and students have the tools they need to succeed
044you don't just make us 1% better that would be the understatement of the year it's so much more than that so thank you [Applause] get medals that's nice for a photo y [Applause] with that we will take a five minute break everyone is more than welcome to stay I know some people have to get home thank you for coming and have a good and healthy New Year yeah it is 7:44 we'll be back at 7:4 e e e Oakland County School Board Association dinner on January 29th the topic I think I sent the out two weeks ago but before I register I just wanted to check the topic is the keyw work of school boards and so basically they're just going to talk about how we should work together how we work together so if
045anyone else want to go I'm going to secure our registration I know trusty bush is gone um if you can let me know by Friday okay I'll send it out again in the email okay so um yes thank you this is this is the presentation it's also going to be displayed on your screen okay screens up we thought that it would be a good idea that we discuss funding especially since we have two new board members so you guys can know how Madison District Public School receives our funding oh yes thank you funding sources yes you can share marks I'll move this over here good evening trustees and staff board president assistant superintendent superintendent I'm ebony Thompson director of business and finance and I'll be presenting the fiscal year 25 funding sources this is just
046a preview of um my budget amendment which will be presented next month so um all right so the state aid is one of our funding sources um our enrollment increased by students um $968 per pupil so we went from 878 fiscal year 24 to 939 fiscal year 25 so our state aid that we get our monthly report it also includes our Foundation allowance and then other other funding from special education and at risk funding and give me one second and then I'll pull up the spreadsheet of the state aid calculation so you can see some of the numbers of our current fiscal year and then the previous fiscal year do you guys um have any questions about what qualifies a student to be special education or what's at risk funding because we can expand if
047you guys need us to so most of our you want to talk about okay you got it Pam I why don't you go ahead and do it for our new folks yeah so the special ed funding um we receive extra for students who have um an IEP or an individualized education plan um these students are um considered certified um with a specific disability and the money that we get um we get additional funds for them students that are considered at risk it could be many factors they could be um consistently failing doing poorly on state assessments it could be anything from um coming from a homeless situation um even sometimes that they qualify if their U parent was a teen so so there's many different things that can qualify somebody for at risk so at
048the beginning of the year I send um the system the the system that we use for student information myar it will give us a list of at risk students and then the students that are not listed at at risk I then send to the building principles with columns and ask them if any of the students qualify in any of these columns please check it off and then I can go in and make that change and so this year we um we were able to to provide basically um the reasoning and the the data to show that we increased the number of students that are considered um section 31a are at risk this year okay so at this time we're going to move on to the next slide which is the local and property tax revenue
049um so as you can see it's a fiscal year 24 actual de second column is fisc year 25 estimated based on what we have now and what's estimated for us to receive in the um in the spring and then you can see on the last column is the change so overall we um the change in revenue between fiscal year 24 and 25 were due to an increase in property taxes uh miscellaneous revenues estimated athletic Admissions and revenue from Department of Health and Human Services so the change was a negative 17291 15 and once again all information is based on current information available as of now we will have more updated numbers um next next month when we get more of our funding that comes in especially with the the millage and then the sinking fund
050so this is just a local and property tax revenue next we have the federal revenue um once again this is a estimate for fiscal year 25 but we compare it with the fiscal year 24 so our Medicaid section 11bb which we did not have last year because it's a new Grant we we used the funds this year to purchase items section 2023 C was a grant that was last year and it was not awarded this year so as you can see because the loss of Esser funding and Co related grants we do not have so that also affected our general fund where we had to move uh items that were covered with the grants we had had to move to general fund so that did impact our um our general fund our Revenue so for
051last year we had 2 million in fisal year 24 and this year we only have 782,000 so that's kind of a a drop but we are still applying for Grants and trying to see what else we can get so we can kind of uh work through that um our other Revenue which is our indirect costs this our transportation payments um we received a little bit of a change from for this year um our County Special Education taxes we got a little bit of an increase Transportation cost went up a little or Transportation Grant went up a little bit um we lost a couple of Grants nothing but education special ed autistic impaired it was a program that was 50% funded by Oakland schools so this year um with that not being a new prog program
052we weren't able to use it any funding for an existing program um then you know we have Leo material that was a summer program and one we received this year and then one we didn't receive from last year we have our Career Development grant that we use from Oakland schools that we fund for the buildings and then we have indirect costs which we did get a little bit of increase so this one we kind of had an increase of 250,000 so total revenues we got our local sources um our state sources I apologize I wasn't able to bring up that spreadsheet um which it did show that we had an increase in funding from our enrollment I can get that to you at later date um our federal sources we went down a little bit
053and then un other indirect costs we did have a little bit of an increase but overall we have a a decrease of 1.5 million for this fiscal year can can you explain to squ our federal sources what would affect that to 1.5 million just so that everybody kind of understands so for Esser like um if you look at the the sheet Sr funding we had 1.3 million last year and with it expiring uh in September of this year so we lost that funding for this year so what was paid last year we had to transfer it to General funds so that did actually all the uh Co progam M are gone and so that's reflected in that screen I I just wanted everybody to understand because that looks like such a big difference thank you
054and and also I just want to mention like our title funding we had a little bit of a decrease in that um and then um we have carryover but we have to use it by a certain time if not then we'll lose it so it's title has been affected you know with the loss of the SR funding so Thompson I would like to know why our title money went down so it did that's just what was awarded to us when we applied for the the grant the application but we do have um the the amendment or the consolidate application due on the 15th and that and I will request more funding so we'll just submit it and then see what they say m go so usually your title funds are kind of based off of
055it like um kids that are like free and reduced lunch or low income and I think that we did find an issue in our enrollment where a lot of our kids now that lunches are free for everyone a lot of families don't complete the form which is called the education benefits form yes so there's a new form called the education benefit form and that's when you identify if kids are from a lowincome household so since Co we have to remember that lunches have been free so that form has not been completed but we are or Pam is really trying to get families to complete it cuz title is usually based off of your enrollment for low income and even though we know we have it I think a lot of families just have not completed
056that form because lunches have been free and if I can just add so I sent out an email um before the winter break to to parents and families letting them know that if they wanted to find out if they're eligible to get the summer EBT or bridge card this has to be completed in our student information system that I have to upload by Friday so they need to complete it by Wednesday I'll send out another reminder tomorrow to let them know and I have had um just since then 10 families that have completed it and then two others that turned in paper documents so we are I we're still getting them in um but I think that's going to help parents know that if they do want to find out if they're eligible for those
057Summer Bridge cards they do have to get this completed so hopefully that will increase our number so it's just making sure that our families are educated as well and I feel like in the past maybe that hadn't been done um so I'm just trying to make sure that they are as well as the building administrative assistance because they're the ones who usually get the phone calls so I've showed them also how to go in and check to see if a parent has submitted it or not so that has been very helpful to them because they feel like now they're empowered to be able to assist parents as well okay bu I have a question on that um do we have an idea of how many PE how many families are outstanding that have not completed
058that yet so it's hard because when it says 210 have completed it there could be five kids in one of those families so when we have 900 and some kids 210 doesn't mean 210 students it's 210 families but I can run a report for each building to see where we're at and I would say we probably have at each building maybe 20% that haven't so it's not we've really worked hard this year to make sure and the secretaries are working hard like I can tell you miss Scott for she literally checks off every single parent so she knows exactly who has so you're doing Outreach to the 20% that were on it previously that haven't responded to say hey please fill this out yes gotcha that's all I needed to know thank you thank you
059Miss Pam I appreciate you anybody else thank you so that is all we have next meeting we will do our budget amendment or present it to you guys um and that will cover our expenses so we can talk about that at the next meeting and I'll make sure you guys get it at least like a week before so you guys can send us any questions you may have so president holder so we will have the added uh sinking fund and the uh Headley millage on the next report correct yes so that will show how much more money we have plant Moran will present on the syncing fund because the syncing fund is totally out of this budget so yes plant Moran this general fund only okay thank you okay next up is the consent agenda
060all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine and need by the Board of Education 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 requests 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 cons consent agenda includes approval of the to the board of education for the regular meeting December 2nd 2024 approval of the December 2024 expenditures in the amount of 1,670 26870 approval of the Personnel report submitted by Human Services on January 6 2025 I need a maker and support please Madam president truste Thompson I'd like to make a motion
061that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda as presented I'll support truste chamblas any [Music] discussion hearing none roll call vote please April anim all yes say yes and no micophone yes iy I couldn't hear what they were talking about Rebecca Chamas yes yes Mark Kimble yes Cindy holder yes Chris Sara yes and Gloria Thompson yes motion passed next up is the organizational meeting designations first is the designation of the depositories by law one second it's it's here I just didn't right here 21 there we go yes thank [Music] you thank you got it thank you uh the description the or uh in accordance with bylaws 154a mdps must designate official depositors in the organizational meeting it is recommended the Board of Education approved the following institutions as designated depositors excuse me did you
062say 54a 54a 54a it's that one 22 on the back of the policy from page we got to have just one thing for per sheet there it is okay I found it thank you so Fifth Third Bank pfm in parentheses m i LF and Huntington National Bank need a maker and support please president holder trusty chamblas I make a motion that the Board of Education approve the following institutions as designated depositors Fifth Third Bank pfm m i l a f and Huntington National Bank I support truste Thompson support any discussion see none roll call vote please Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblas yes Cindy holder yes Chris star yes Mark Kimble yes Gloria Thompson yes and April and selo yes motion passed next up is in accordance with bylaw 154b mdps must must designate an authorized
063individual to sign checks contracts agreements and purchase orders it is recommended the Board of Education designate the superintendent and or the CFO as authorized signatories for these documents in alignment with board policy I need a maker and support please truste Thompson I'd like to make a motion that the Board of Education designates the superintendent and or CFO as authorized signatories for these documents in alignment with board policies I'll second um and just because we have um new board members is there a time that both of you need to sign or just one or explain just CU this says Andor so that then understand what they're agreeing to so usually when we print out checks we are the ones that sign the checks and all checks usually have two signatures the only oh sorry um eony
064Thompson and I we have a electronic signature on file and we sign checks so we only um submit checks for vendor payments in terms of like Personnel like employee checks we do not run employee checks so it's only for vendor payments anybody have question thank you roll call vote please Gloria Thompson yes Christa yes Mark Kimble yes Cindy holder yes Rebecca chamblas yes Mary Bush yes April anso yes motion passed next up bylaw 154c in accordance with bylaw 154c mdps must designate dates times and meeting locations for regular meetings at least one month mdps regular meetings will take place on the Mondays listed below starting at 7 7 p.m. at Madison High School located at 915 East 11 M Road Madison Heights Michigan 48071 January 6 February 3rd March 3rd March 17th April 7th May
0655th May 19th June 2nd July 7th August 4th August 18th September 8th September 22nd October 6th November 3rd November 17th December 1st it is recommended the Board of Education approve the meeting dates time and location as presented I need a make and support please president truste Thompson I'd like to make a motion that the board of education approve the meeting dates times and locations as presented I'll support trusty chambless supports any discussion can I just ask a discussion question sure okay so I just wanted to see if possible if we can change the time to 6: p.m. I knew that's what you were going to do sorry um I'm just thinking it's basketball season and I know basketball games usually start at 700 football games start at 7 um what time does volleyball games usually
066start or do you guys not have games on Mondays those are usually uh five five do you have games on Monday usually I can move any that we do okay so I was just going to ask if we can consider changing the time to 6 PM president holder trustee chamblis I think if the majority of the trustees are okay with it we should I think we should try to do what as time and things change in the district we should try to accommodate so if the majority can Madam president trusty Thompson should we finish the motion that's on the floor and then go back and change the time or do we have to change the time before we vote well let's see what the discussion brings us is that President holder truste Bush yes I'm
067in favor of changing it to six o'clock and I'm pretty sure we can just amend the motion to reflect the six o' but yeah I'm in favor of that there anyone else that this would interfere with their job this fairy M May interfere with me but it's the you know it's the will of the the majority so did you make it work I I can't say that I can that's just it I'll just have to mess that's all Sara how does this impact it doesn't great day okay 6 p.m. is great for me all right I'm I'm going to say I'm willing to try it we're going to get some Kickback from everybody that says I I you know got on at 7 I know I got on at seven and you know you guys
068were done um all I can say is um we will publish it like legally we have to and like we always have and if it becomes problematic we can you know look at it again if um if everybody is in favor of that then we will amend the motion to say 6 o' um but the maker and support both have to agree I'm okay with it I'm okay all right I do you want me to resay my motion um you can if you would like I don't think the time is in there oh yeah it is no I'm it's up the top I'm saying it's not in the actual motion part I'll just change the motion I make a motion that the Board of Education approve the meeting dates times and location but with an
069amended time start time of six o'clock yeah okay ready that's all roll call vote please um April yes Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblas yes Cindy holder yes Mark Kimble no chrisara yes and Gloria Thompson yes motion passed up by law4 Al in accordance with bylaw 154f mdps must designate dates for regular study sessions of the board it is recommended the re regular board study sessions occur on Fe February 3rd 2025 March 17th 2025 May 19th 2025 and August 18th 2025 need a maker and support please president holder trustee Cham bless I make a motion that the Board of Education approves the regular board study sessions scheduled as listed support trusty Thompson support um before we go any further then what is the will of the board as far as the start time for study sessions
070be assumed I would say six o'clock and question truste yes um I noticed that the study session dates are the same as the um meeting dates and the study do they occur before the meetings or after the meetings no what happens is because it's a separate bylaw it needs to be addressed twice I think the question is about the schedule so can I address it sure so usually we have a regular meeting and within the meeting we have a study session so it's at the same time got it thank you I get it anybody else roll call vote please April anelo yes Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblas yes Cindy holder yes Mark Kimble yes chera yes and Gloria Thompson yes motion pass uh 1054 G in accordance with by law 154g mdps must designate an
071administrator to to assume specific responsibilities of the treasurer and secretary it is recommended the Board of Education designate the director of business and finance to assume the specific responsibilities of the treasurer and the superintendent to assume the specified responsibility of the secretary I need a makeer and support please Madam president triste Thompson I'd like to make a motion that the Board of Education designate the director of business and finance to assume the specific responsibilities of the treasures and the superintendent to assume the specific responsibility of the secretary need support I'll support TR Bush any discussion [Music] you okay I was just showing her how to make a motion oh I was explaining it to her real quick while one was being made so she could see I'll let her to the next one get her
072don't do that to her because of me I'm so sorry I'm so sorry so sorry all right with with that discussion being done roll call vote please sta MC albine Taylor yes Mark Kimble yes Gloria Thompson yes Cindy holder yes Mary Bush yes Rebecca Chamas yes April andem yes motion passed bylaw 154 in accordance with bylaw 154 mdps must designate an electronic transfer officer it is recommended the Board of Education designate the director of business and finance to assume the responsibilities of the electronic transfer officer who is authorized to invest School District funds and make fund wire transfers according to the Board of Education policy I need a maker trustee McAlpine Taylor would you like to make that motion you just did me dirty I made it as easy as I could for you I
073make a motion that the Board of Education designat designates the D director of business and finance to assume the responsibilities of the electric transfer officer who is authorized to invest School District funds and make fund wire transfers according to the Board of Education policy get easier from that point on we did all the hard heavy lifting uh triste Thompson had supported already thank you and any discussion hearing none roll call vote please April anelo yes Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblas Cindy holder yes Mark Kimble yes chrisa Mel Taylor and Gloria Thompson yes motion passed thank you authorization of legal council the board of education is requested to authorize the engagement of legal council for the upcoming organizational meeting legal council will provide guidance on matters such as board governance compliance with applicable laws and regulations
074and any procedural requirements related to the meeting this authorization ensures the board's actions are conducted in alignment with legal standards promoting transparency and accountability approval of this action will enable the district to secure the necessary legal support to facilitate an effective and compliant organizational meeting it is recommended the Board of Education approve Clark Hill to provide legal services for the district need a makeer and support please president holder truste chess I make a motion that the Board of Education approves Clark Hill to provide legal services for the district I support trustee Thompson support any discussion have we used used him before or okay thank you um I have a question I know um that we had talked about possibly adding um the new company that um our old attorney went to and in addition uh
075TR do we still need them for the study accounting so do we need to add them as well so this needs to be ended I don't think we actually pay money directly to tr um I think we are kind of connected with them through setag because that's who our insurance carrier use but I have not never received a bill from true well that's not true cuz we paid one $2,000 but that was through sets that was for that was for lawsuit fees anything that we really work oh that was through St that was through our Director of Business they use them but um we can amend Amendment amend it to add true I don't deal directly with Dro but they send so much valuable resources out just like today we had a meeting with our
076staff our principles reg regarding um non-renewals for the school year and for me they educate me so they're newsletters are amazing I've never received a newsletter from Clark Hill so but I also never received a bill aside for the state a note for from trun I think that they're connected to us through setag okay I just know they've always been at they have been on the list so I'm just asking I wouldn't mind but I like I said I don't receive a bill for those newsletters all right what's the we have U trustee Chamas and trusty Thompson would either both of you like to amend or leave it the way it's present Madam president trusty Thompson I see no reason not to add them are all of our lawsuits are done right no then I
077would add them and keep them well Clark kill L is still in charge of the last one that we have right no the pupil accounting lawsuit that is the one through TR yeah okay so we're talking about adding trun then yeah we could should add shun yeah just because I know that's who set that use can we just say Clark Hill and trun to provide legal services and and we understand Clark Hill is our is our main provider TR our secondary Council TR if if there's if needed yeah if there's a very specific reason cuz we don't want to get double built we've had that problem are you okay with that Mrs what's a question adding TR is okay with you adding Clark Hill and TR to priv for well it is Clark Hill so
078then it would just change it that we'd make a motion that the Board of Education proves Clark Hill and trun to provide legal service for the district m is true in the legal name th th are you in right I don't know if there's more to it I can a person or a company name it's a company oh Law Firm okay thought it was T you in any other discussion while they're looking up the spelling no I think so okay all right you guys can make sure that that the spelling gets correct Perfect all right we're going to move on uh roll call vote please April and selo yes Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblas yes Cindy holder yes Mark Kimble yes chrisa yes Gloria Thompson yes motion passed auditing firm the board of education is
079requested to authorize the selection and engagement of an auditing firm to perform the annual independent audit for the 2425 fiscal year the auditing firm will be responsible for examining the district's Financial records ensuring compliance with applicable accounting standards and providing a comprehensive report on the District's financial position this audit is essential for maintaining transparency accountability and public trust in the district's financial management approval of this action will allow the district to proceed with securing the services of a qualified auditing firm it is recommended the Board of Education approve yo and yo is the district's auditor for the 2425 school year here I need a maker and support please Madam president truste Thompson I'd like to make a motion that the Board of Education approves yo Ando as the district's Auditors for the years 2024 through
0802025 fiscal year I support Christa supports CHR mine find her own voice here I got you any other discussion yes Madam president Kim is Yo and yo our only choice that's what they're bringing to us right now if we want to look at another auditing fir I'm on the record of how I feel about yo and yo their past performance so for me it's going to have to be an O I was hoping that they'd be more than one choice can I can I say something sure yeah go ahead sorry um well I I work with yo and yo um for like five audits including my previous District um they're very helpful um every time I work with them they're always trying to help us and and work with us so we would have a
081good rating in our audit and and I do have relationships well not personal but I've grown to have professional relationships with the staff there so and then they're also coming to help us for our next audit just so we're better prepared since I have new staff well for me during the years of corruption here when I went to Yoo two years in a row pointing out this corruption they failed to do anything about it um I'm not I'm not happy with them as a choice so just understand why I vote no just Chamas um I just wanted to mention that Steve our past CFO spoke extremely high of uh yo andyo and if ebony also speaks highly of yo andyo I feel like since this is their wheelhouse and their expertise and I'm going to
082respect and Trust the CFO I add one thing too I just want to mention sure ahead um two three no two three years ago we used um um no Raymond yeah we used Raymond three Raymond three years ago um and four years ago we used plant Marin so when we had all the issues in our finance department we called on Raymond to do some Consulting and then Raymond refus they couldn't do our audit because they worked so closely in it so then Raymond recommended another company that we used two years ago well that company last year didn't want to work with us again because we no longer worked with Raymond then we did put out um last year an interest to see if we can get plant Maran back but they did not want to
083work with us because of the prior issues that they had with previous people in the business department not actually getting them information so we did try to get plant Marin back and we tried to um continue with the firm that we used with Raymond but they didn't want to work with us without that contract yeah but there's other there's other companies out there did we approach any other companies this time or are we just settling for yo and yo is it's my question trusty Bush go ahead trusty Bush did you uh within the past 3 to six months put out a request for proposals from other accounting companies and did anybody respond thank you so we did it a couple I can't remember when we first agreed to Yo and yo around that time I
084think that was maybe 6 months ago when we started the auditing process and we did not get any so um and then another concern is that I have with switching so many companies as us not getting a consistent company is when you switch companies these companies charge you tens of thousands of dollars to translate the old language into their software so we did not do it this time because we didn't want to have to incur that cost of translating the files which I didn't understand so this time we did not but we did six months ago whenever that issue came up at the board meeting can we make sure that annually we have a request for proposal so that we can at least do cost benefit comparisons I think it's a little late for this
085time but for uh for the future do you I think it's a little late in general because for those two years that they could have done something about this this District was buil out of millions of dollars so I find it very difficult that we reward yo and yo by using them again and and now again even the last time Steve said there was not enough time to get anybody else well we've had a whole another year can I add one more thing sure can we remember when yo and yo was here and they presented they said that they tried to present their findings they did have findings that specific year and they said the superintendent shut them down out the meeting and didn't allow them to present when yoan yo came they stated that
086they did have findings they just was never given the opportunity to present because the superintendent was like no it was something going on and he shut the meeting down but if they had those kind of findings and they reported that report to the state the state would have jumped on it at that point trusty Bush um with all due respect Mr Kimble I don't think we can relitigate history at this particular Point yo andyo is a reputable company we have used them before uh they have presented presented to us a financial audit and I'm perfectly satisfied with using them so I would request that we move this along and stop trying to rehash history and put our hands firmly on the steering wheel and drive forward into the future anybody else I I will just
087say I I understand um the concern I know last year we used them I struggled myself last year they seem to have done a good job I Know Tiffany um we're now for eony I did that before and I apologize um I know she is working diligently with them I think the RFP every year should be a standard I think that's a good idea and um because we now are in January and June's right around the corner I would say that I will support this but I do understand the concerns made and I do think that ours um should be um automatic done it's never good to have too many years within auditing firm um anyway but I don't know if having three in two years was helpful either I know I personally talked to
088the people at plant Maran and and um it was lack of Staff in our business office that caused them to to go so um I don't think we have much of a choice right now I know that ebony is um she's the one that is essentially responsible for making this all work and if this is what you need to get us through till the end of June I will support it but I would like to see the rfps come out um anybody else no is everybody in agreement about the RFP yes yes all right August thank you all right roll call vote please April and Selmo yes Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblas yes Mark Kimble no Cindy holder yes Chris SRA yes and Gloria Thompson yes motion passed okay we now have committees um the
089board Tristy um volunteer to go to and bring back information first one is the OC csba government Relations Committee and that was crystal right there's not an action item it's just um we just need a volunteer and or a um president holder trusty Bush I will volunteer to be the government Relations Committee person all righty do you need an alternate n I'm pretty good okay anybody else want the job everybody's taking a step backwards so Tristy Bush um designation of the Board of Trustees to the OC csba diversity equity and inclusion committee that's no longer there they dced that two years ago all righty thank you designation of board of trustee to Parks and Recreation committee if I recall correctly trusty Chamas yes do you want to remain yes anybody else want to be back
090out alternate find what page we're on this one we're on the back page agenda uh board trustee to the enrollment committee we did have two volunteers on that already and I'll be happy to resume and trustee chamblas I'll stay up with her all right um would either of the two new board members like to be a volunteer on anything it's not required but if you have a passion for something speak up diversity equity and inclusion that one it's been dismissed they got rid of that they two years ago well then I'm back well they they just mentioned that a little bit ago still busy trying to find can I share with them when we meet maybe that may help so the enrollment committee we meet the second Monday of the month and is virtual what's
091left at 4 p.m. uh finance committee finance committee meets on a Wednesday at 100 p.m. and it's the second or third Wednesday of second Wednesday of of the month trusty Kimble did you want to remain no I don't trusty Thompson did you want to remain yes um trusty Bush holder hang on one second I am on it and I want to remain um truste Bush I would love to be on that committee so I can be educated by the powers that be we're going to go back to everybody is good no one wants something that they don't have left what's nothing nothing well you can be an alternate for a bunch of them be the alternate for the finance committee then okay yeah on a Wednesday there is the night Watchman position if you want
092that um I would love to learn more about the government Relations Committee I mean I know Al alter would that be okay and you can go you can go as well absolutely we both can go or if she can't go you go no we'll go together I like that thank you nobody so I'm just GNA rehash what I have to make sure that we're good trusty Bush and Mel Pine Taylor for um government relations um chamblis for parks and R Bush and chambless for enrollment holder Thompson and Bush for the finance committee and I think we're good April is going to be an alternate on the finance committee April yes is on the finance got it sorry thank you it's okay that's why we did it we just can't have more than three people at
093the committee meeting so so like she and I can go as an alternate but if the only reason you could go to a finance meeting is if one of us couldn't go then you'd be filling in right because you can't have a quum right right okay okay so um I'll add everyone to the all righty we are good we will move on to the solent social worker contract yeah due to a shortage of qualified social workers within the district and the broader job market we are currently unable to meet the growing demand for social worker support we are requesting the board's approval to contract with solent to provide social worker services for Madison District Public Schools this initiative is intended to support student mental health and well-being addressing increased needs for Behavioral interventions crisis management
094and Family Support Services the thirdparty service provider will work in conjunction with the school staff to ensure that students receive timely Professional Care the additional support will be provided at no additional cost to the district it will be funded through 31n six grants from Oakland schools which provides mdps with1 20,000 in funding it has recommended the Board of Education approve the contract with sent as presented you need a maker and support please Madam president trustee Thompson I'd like to make a motion that the Board of Education approve the contract with soent as presented thank you support I'll support truste Chamas any discussion I have a discussion president trusty Bush couple of things one uh this talks about social worker and I did the research on Katrina Stokes she is not a social worker um I
095understand that the initiative is to support student mental health and well-being but the student is K through five and that age group um is not it's they're not adults and her expertise has been in employment Assistance programs uh addictions working with adults uh she teaches Human Resources not even Clinical Psychology so my concern is is that while we have this contract I don't think she is the best candidate for this and I notied that we do not have any comparative requests for proposals from uh companies other than salant and I did submit that there were at least two other companies that we could contract with I had an extensive conversation with Miss Perry who explained to me that this is to a certain extent time sensitive and that we have grant money for the position
096and that there are very specific reasons why we don't hire internally for it but I think at the cost of of where is it in here I have it in here it's extremely expensive for us uh to be shelling out this kind of contractual money when we haven't had any comparison of other contracts um I think that you know while it's it's imperative that we have somebody shortly I don't think that it's imperative that we have somebody who's not qualified to work with children and that's my emphasis is they need to work with children now if they work with Children and Families that's fine she's going to work with their parents that's fine but I'm not certain that she's got the experience to work with and recognize behavioral issues related specifically to add to mild
097forms of autism to anxiety to trauma in children because that manifests very differently there's no play therapy understanding of how that these things can be uh worked through in a very uh shortterm type of in school therapy if we're going to have her for that so I have some very specific concerns about this and as a result uh unless somebody can give me a good reason for it I'll be voting no on this m yes please so I do want to apologize I sent out an email earlier today regarding the um incorrect language so um we are not hiring a social worker this is for a mental health counsel that will work with students in grades K through 5 we did have the job posting up for 12 days so it's not that we want
098to Outsource it's just that in this field the availability of Staff members is very few this candidate was the only qualified candidate because according to the grant we had to have certain parameters and I have Mr Andre here who can step up and give you guys more details um the interview was done completed with Mr Andre um the elementary principal who was a part of the interview process and he can explain so people who work with our students our K through five students every day was a part of the interview so Mr Andre can you step up and elaborate on the process for selecting this candidate yes thank you superintendent Perry thank you uh sorry my name is Aon Andre I'm the director of uh special education so when we interview Dr Stokes um she
099indicated and her resume reflects uh work at Evergreen children services earlier in her career uh she was an Outreach juvenile delinquency therapist she was a supervisor of the family's first program uh she worked for St John Health Systems Open Arms uh which is a a grieving Children's Program she's a clinical coordinator so she has some earlier experience in that and uh we um believed her experience there and then also her experience with adults because the families adult caregivers and the children we thought she was well-rounded uh for this position she's also in uh clinical uh Private Practice um as well so we um the interview team was myself uh dror Hemingway and Lisa Julio who's our uh those are our directors at the or principles at the other Elementary and Early Childhood Center um Mr
100what is her PhD in what type of psychology um is it counseling psychology uh she's a uh s uh licensed counselor well I know she's a licensed professional counselor but I'm asking specifically about her training because we often times have people with phds who are have degrees in organizational psychology instead of Clinical Psychology and and they kind of skate through and because there's a lot of demand they're in positions but the fact that she's been through so many different jobs is not a selling point for me the fact that you know that that she's had that experience great it was early in her time but we've got no proof or evidence that she was successful all we have is that she had those jobs so what I'm looking for is what was did she have
101a degree in Clinical Psychology I know she's a licensed professional counselor but she's not a licensed psychologist she has which is different she has a certification in rational emotive behavioral therapy which is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy okay um she's certified in in cfus um Child and Adolescent functional assessment uh rating scale so that's looks at youth's functioning day-to-day functioning um yes she's had a lot of experience but she um She interviewed with us well uh we had we gave her some uh fictitious case scenarios and we asked her what her approach would be with students and we were satisfied with with her uh answers so no matter what her credentialing was you felt comfortable with between her training and her experience and her interactions with you that she would be suitable to work
102with the children in our district yes so the credential so for the grant specifically that it said that they had to have a master's level counselor degree and that's different from a school counselor degree I understand and so she we had other people who applied but they didn't have that that specific certification and she does right she's a mental health counselor I get it yeah yeah so her certification does qualify her for this position I understand okay I I'm saying that there are many people who can qualify for the position but they may not be the best person to work with children K through five we could say that about a lot of the positions but they interview you know I mean that's understand part of our process yes I understand anybody else have any
103questions justy yes go this is kind of my wheelhouse so I just have a question sure um you had talked about behavioral interventions will she be doing things like and I know it's janed but will she be doing things like fbas and bips and work I'm sorry am I quiet um will she be doing things like fbas and bips and um things like that for those behavioral interventions she would provide support through the FBA bit process but because that's generally a special education process she would just be providing some support but she would not be leading up those initiatives okay all right thank you yeah one other question how many school social workers do we have right now we have three so she would be adjunct to them yes perfect thank you that's what I
104needed to know y anybody else we'll call a vote please thank you m Gloria Thompson yes Chris Dara McAlpine yes Mark Kimbell yes Becca Chamas just leave that down yes Cindy holder yes April and Sal yes and Mary Bush yes motion passed all right last on our list for reports and committees GRC do we have any volunteers what are you talking about we already did that these are the reports like if you've gone to a meeting oh jeez yeah thank you um this is from last month I apologize um I don't believe they met in was yeah Crystal was so I'm going to assume there's no report parks and rck Report HC nothing right we're meeting this week and then last but not least his board comments trusty Thompson lead us off I'd like to
105congratulate all of the little ones that got awards today and that very tall child I hope he's on our basketball team I hope everybody had a good holiday and I want everybody to have a a really really good New Year um I'd like to thank my husband for always being here and Harold Rebecca's other half is always here and her children uh other than that um we can't wait to get out of herey Chamas um I just want to say congratulations to all the students and all the employees of the month I wanted to say that for 2025 I have a hope that everybody on the board of education will agree to become at least level one certified through masb um there's training on ethics law um the finances title money and things like that
106like it just makes you be the most informed educated voter possible so I would like to see the entire board get trained I would like to see board members showing up to District events more so that when you're voting on the you actually know the staff and the um clubs and groups and things that your votes are impacting so when we make decisions you can see how they're implemented actually in real time so I would like board members to be coming to District events more um I would like to encourage community members to come in and speak more um it is the board's duty to be the bridge between the community and the superintendent and bring any concerns back to the superintendent and vice versa um and so I would just like to see the
107communication between the board and the community open up and the community feel more comfortable coming to the meetings um and I hope that 2025 sees changes happening for Madison in the positive we've come a long way over the past year and a half two years um over the four years really but especially the past like two years um so I really have high hopes for 2025 thank you amen we second that truste meline Taylor just I thank everybody for being so kind to me tonight and I just want to congratulate of course all the oh my gosh we have the cutest students oh my goodness they just made my day um just the beautiful students that we have and our our staff that was so amazing so thank you doing their best trusty Bush um
108I want to congratulate the students of the month I want to thank all the teachers for keeping an eye and acknowledging appreciating students when they're making such great progress a rousing cheer to the IT people over there woo wooo yeah it um congratulations to our new board members and those who were reelected congratulations to our new officers I appreciate the rigorous discussion that we had to come to a a point of leadership for us as we head into 2025 um thank you to Ebony and Pam and and Patricia for your Contin excellent administration of this school district um it it is fraught sometimes with challenges but every single one of you have risen to the occasion I wish you luck as we go into our second semester and uh I know it's just going to
109be fantastic and thank you for all those new students that was pretty awesome to read about so good job and triste April say your last name one more time I'm sorry and Salmo an like anmo vacuum cleaners and Selmo thank you and Selmo vacuum cleaners and Selmo a n s e l m o got it and what would you like to say tonight I'm glad I came I'm glad to see the students there um uh yeah I'm looking forward to it was interesting I'm trying to figure out how to keep these pages in order but other than that it's that's a challenge but I think I I think I enjoy it thanks for having me I did um got it trustee Kimble uh congratulations to students of the month employees of the month and congratulations
110to our new board members and I just want to say welcome and that's it thank you truste Thompson I have one other thing Matt I apologize I had a little brain fart for a second but thanks for being here all the time um and I would just like to say welcome and we all I know we all are going to put our best foot forward and work together to continue moving forward we took an O to that we took o to do that uh the other thing I wanted to say very very quickly is um myself and truste Thompson and Herold had gone to the holiday breakfast and that's always wonderful and the kids there are always remarkable and is it Jason Pitts yes um I he's just like a fullblown adult young in a
111young man's body and um he we just um and I personally had thanked him what he does um just he himself being a ninth grader is crazy so um with that I just want to say welcome to all of us um next month everything will go smoother and it'll be a shorter agenda because we've Tak care all the the yearly business so with that I would like to say holder good night I'm going to make a motion to a journ you make a motion to a journ I already did it oh I suck all right roll call vote please Thompson Bush yes okay April and Selmo here present yes say yes yes Mary Bush yes Rebecca chamblas yes Cindy holder yes Mark Kimbell yes chrisa yes and Gloria Thompson motion pass thank you and good
112night speak into the microphone e