001call the order of the milanary school's budget board of education budget hearing for Wednesday June 7 2023 what everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God individual with liberty and justice for all good evening all board members are present um with that do we have any comments regarding the 2023-2024 general fund preliminary budget and or the 2023-2024 general Appropriations Act from the audience I don't know that will get turned on this opposite should be a switch sorry no yes there we go [Music] um I would like some clarification um as to if there's an intention to purchase a new boss during the 2020. are the 23 for more school year I believe
002that this is her information to clarify I do believe that is strictly said that there might be no purchases in the coming year and that's why he advocated for our thoughts on any other personal ized the building of the bosses takes time and suppose you know demand um another question that I have is um and also that that was hand in hand in hand with is there a need to purchase a new boss considering that there is a decline in Lumber than I got from head count was 1863 um and then um you know that was a loan and I do then I would also like the board to explain the assignment of over 60 or 86 consider consider a major D client enrollment I know from being involved in other sports within the district
003and Club it we raised forty thousand dollars as a swim club to purchase a new score accordance so I'm curious to know 86 000 coming from the district um when you're combine the eighty six thousand dollars with 177 000 roughly that's being made at a time when the district um is the only District in 2000 account for land law teachers avoiding we are facing a teacher shortage and I would like to know what that final event is to our students in the budget and um you know our kids are paying the consequences of [Music] the moment thank you Miss Ops um just to quickly respond to your questions there is not a bus purchase in as we said we purchased two last year and therefore there will not be one purchase the sound system was
004approved by the board of education at the last board meeting and that is the dollar amount that they approved and they wanted it put into an assigned fund balance this year to be used next year and I have knowledge of at least two other districts in the county that are laying off this year there are several districts that are considering it and may be doing it as well other comments on the budget real quickly when I look at the two and I think this is the time to ask now we move the assignment for the sound system correct and that's to come out of next year's polymer right they assignment money yeah that's okay last meeting when I did present I had the expenditure for the sound system in next year's budget not in this
005year's but we are assigning funds part of our fund balance from this year to be used next year if you looked at the revised general fund you'll see the final has a assigned fund balance when you go to the preliminary for the general fund you'll see the First Column is our final Amendment the second column is my preliminary at that point that assigned fund balance is being taken out because I'm assuming we have purchased it and we're using the funds that had been set aside for it is there a reason it went up it did not go up is I guess I'm lost because what I saw of our budget was 63 and what's on here is 86. it's been 86 there are there's two composition reports there's a 20 000 something component and there's
006a sixty thousand dollars so we just assigned the highest is to be safe I combined them because you need both of those pieces one is part of the installation and one is this um the sound system itself thank you yes no thank you appreciate Mr sister slow can I also point out that at the last board meeting we discussed specifically having um the clubs and sports teams that use that field and that system found system to help raise funds to pay for it so that was part of the reason that we didn't just approve the expenditure outright at the last meeting but instead assigned it so that we could have time to allow them to erase funds to help offset the costs other comments regarding the budget all right the hearing is closed at 6
00752. hi everyone thank you all right foreign thank you patient regular meeting for Wednesday June 7th would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 all right thank you to everyone for attending this evening all board members are present our uh Maya Pharaoh our student board member is uh president Avery Powell will be arriving a little bit late so with that we will be I'm going to just postpone the recognition of the student Representatives until such time that she arrives um but first we definitely want to uh we want we are going to recognize our staff retirements for this year um there was we had
008the there was a staff celebration and then we will be recognizing him then this evening is there anything else that you'd like to say Mr grierball we're just so excited to have some folks that are coming to the end of their career and we are going to miss them greatly a lot of years of experience headed out the door they've done amazing things in this District no matter what their position we're so excited to be able to recognize them tonight and we will also be recognizing them at our last day luncheon on Tuesday we hope that they'll all come there as well I I can say a few more personal things at that meeting than I do here but truly just thank you for your service we appreciate everything that you've done when you really
009think about the number of lives you've touched over the years you've been here the number gets to be pretty astronomical so thank you so much for everything and as Mr sicilo calls your name if you could come up we we have a certificate for you tonight we'll have the plaque next week but please take time to shake each of the board members hands I'm sure that they each want to thank you personally absolutely and I just want to Echo what Mr gearbox said we sincerely appreciate all the service that you have given to the Milan area schools the board knows or may not know but we think we might know we all the all the things that you go through to educate our our students we greatly appreciate it so I'm going to go in
010backwards order here and like Mr uh gearbox said um come get your certificate and shake the board member's hand and we'll go from there so first we would like to recognize what she's here Joy Smith 10 years as a paraprofessional the Smith is not here next step is blue Livingston for 13 years currently the dean of students next up is Kim goffey for 18 years currently high school counselor next up Holly Fiedler for 25 years as a social worker [Applause] [Music] next up is 25 years of for Kelly Smith come on [Applause] who also just had a daughter graduate as well so another round of applause for Mr Smith [Music] [Applause] [Music] and then Tammy zajac 26 years [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and another round of applause [Applause] so thank you for coming this evening once
011we read this resolution you are free to go you definitely don't need to sit through this meeting but unless you would like to um but I do need a motion to thank Tammy zajac Kelly Smith Holly Fiedler Kim goffey blue Livingston and Joy Smith for their service to Milan area schools so it's been moved and supported that Tammy's Ajax Kelly Smith Holly Fiedler Kim goffey blue Livingston and Joy Smith for their service to Milan area schools are there other comments that ones would like to make just a tremendous thank you for everything you've done for all of us all these years um yeah the amount of dedication and service that is sitting out there tonight and the amount of the energy in yourself that you put into this district and our students and oh sorry
012excuse me the leadership that you provided to teachers like myself who were you know working very hard to emulate you you're leaving very big shoes enjoy it congratulations and thank you said thank you Miss Murray any others I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you everyone on this list um taught and counseled some of our most vulnerable and our youngest students and without all of you you set them on the path for success and so we're deeply going to miss you and so are they so thank you so much for all of your effort and your hard work and how much you've cared for every student that walked through these doors I also just want to add yours you're so very much appreciated that might not seem like it from
013time to time I know we've had some interesting school years in terms of covid and things of that nature but you're you're very much appreciated By Us by your peers and by the students and families within this community don't be strangers come back and visit and know that we love you awesome so I think I did quick math hopefully I did it right I think we have 117 years of uh experience walking out the door so it's it's awesome that you guys chose your career to be here at Milan area schools and we do greatly appreciate it so with that I do have a motion and a second to thank Tammy zajac Kelly Smith Holly Fiedler Kim goffy blue Livingston and Joy Smith for their service to Milan area schools Miss haika yes Murray yes
014motion carries 7-0 thank you so much another round of applause thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right we will return back up one to our school board student representative recognition if we could have Miss pharaoh and Miss Powell well you guys can rise and shake the board members and I have the certificate for you ladies this is so funny thank you so much so I need a motion to thank Maya pharaoh and Avery Paula for their service as school board student Representatives moved by Pharaoh support by Rosa it's been rude and supported to thank Maya pharaoh and Avery Powell for their service the school board Representatives I want to say thank you very much to you ladies we do appreciate your service we appreciate your updates we appreciate your participation I greatly appreciate your assistance
015at graduation that worked out very well helping us with the the diploma covers that it made it much more move more more smoothly when we were handing those out so um greatly appreciate that and everything that you guys have uh the voice of the students we appreciate that other comments Mr sislo yes Mr Mr Miss free Miss free Miss Frozen leecher oh Miss Rosie I have to look now I'm sorry oh good Miss Rosen liacher I just it's been such a great addition to have you to brilliant young ladies as a part of this board and what you bring to each and every one of our meetings um so well prepared so thoughtful and great questions that you ask so keep on doing the great work we we need you um I want to Echo
016that I think um of all the years I've said on this board YouTube of our representatives and I truly appreciate that because you not only focused on the high school but you focused on the elementary schools and the middle schools as well which was something that had never happened before and um you're always willing to ask questions and you know make sure we didn't forget you were here and make sure you were part of graduation which I thought was incredibly appropriate so I do appreciate um all of your updates and your willingness to say hey what about us because I think that that's very important and I've always appreciated it so and you guys are going to do wonderful things if you just take all that tenacity and just carry it with you the rest
017of your life you're going to do great good job Mr sister yes Miss Marie just briefly at risk of being a bit repetitive but it was an absolute joy to have both of you in class many many years ago and you were you know sixth graders um and it's just been an absolute joy to sit with you at this board table and serve with you and I just very much appreciate your leadership and your example to all of your fellow students and you really are both walking testimonies to what this District yes so thank you very much to both of you others Mrs yes Miss free I will get that one right I always want to thank both of you arguably Junior years your hardest year and both of you guys are very actively involved
018in all kinds of things in the district so being here as often as you've been and helping us out and doing everything you did is tremendous and I hope I can look forward to seeing you both next year as well because you just continue to add to our meetings and just the overall atmosphere of what we have here and I appreciate you both thank you Mr Sizzler yeah it's Miss Gutierrez um Avery and my I know you are both very active and engaged students and so the fact that you are giving up um your Wednesday evenings to spend with us as representatives of your peers and of the district every other week I think is is remarkable and extremely commendable and um as Ms haika referenced not only have you represented the high school students
019but the other buildings as well and one thing that I've appreciated and have really noticed is that it's clear that you are soliciting for feedback from your peers to bring to the board so it's not just things that you're observing but you are truly demonstrating your leadership and serving as a representative of students in our district and that's really um amazing to see and I'm extremely grateful for it I think it's so important that we have student members on this board and you two are both exemplars of what this position can be for the board and be for the district and so thank you so so much for what you have done so yes Mr Farrell I'll be very brief Maya told me that I can't embarrass her I do want to thank both of
020you um and I just want to repeat and Echo what everybody else said your input things that you have to contribute the things that you contribute at these meetings are very useful very important and I think that you guys are doing a great job thank you all right it's been moved and supported to thank Maya pharaoh and Avery Powell for their services School Board Representatives Miss heike Murray Rosen lieacher yes Cislo yes Pharaoh yes Freight yes Gutierrez yes hika yes motion carries 7-0 all right next up on the agenda is public comments reminder this meeting is a meeting of the Board of Education and public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business is not to be considered a public meeting there are two times for public participation during the meeting as indicated in
021the agenda when addressing the board you'll be asked to state your name the board determines the amount of time granted to individuals or groups to speak each person shall be allowed to speak for up to three minutes board members May question speakers but are not obligated to answer questions or make statements or commitments in response to issues raised by the public in general such items will be referred to the superintendent for advisement investigation study and or recommendation are designated as future agenda items for board consideration are there any students who'd like to address the board public members who'd like to address the board foreign [Music] I've got a question for you um can you tell me what other districts that you are referring to that are in the county that are debating layoffs I can
022share that with you in private I'm not going to out those other districts it's something the superintendents have shared with me okay um so I'm just gonna piggyback off of the budget here and I am deeply Disturbed that the budget with the decline in being balanced on the backs of our students in particular we're back at the high school is shifting from the seven year to us heard from seminar to a six hour school day not not less school time but less of an opera an education opportunity for our students thank you I've yet to receive any data-driven information that supports that this isn't the best interest of our students and asked us from multiple meetings but yet to receive anything I would ask the board to not approve a proposed budget that does not
023include cuss to the administrative salary packages you all know where I stand when it comes to the evaluation of the superintendent there are two most the two most crucial points of the review are test scores and enrollment our enrollment is down significantly but there never seems to be a discussionist to the reduction of salaries of those those in charge I've yet to receive a response as to any effort that's being done to improve our enrollment and funding I don't want to hear the excuse that there is a decline in birth rates there are other things we can do and if that's the case if that's the sole reason for this why is that not being discussed by the board I expect better from this District I've come from a district that has been in decline
024in Tom Ferry you know exactly what I'm talking about how painful it was and you sat with me and those board meetings and demanded accountability of that superintendent but I'm not seeing it here I'm not seeing it here our students deserve better again do not approve this budget make the superintendent be accountable thank you for the comment are there others all right thank you for those comments this evening next up is routine matters for approval I need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of May 23 2023 support by Marie I got motion by Gutierrez supported by Murray to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of May 23 2023 discussion all right it's been moved and supported to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of May 23 2023 in the
025psycha yes Fair Freight yes Gutierrez yes I yes Murray yes Rose and leecher yes motion carry 7-0 next up I need a motion to approve the bills and reimbursement of the expenses moved by Pharaoh support by haika it's been moved and supported to approve the bills and reimbursement of expenses comments any comments or concerns all right it's been moved and supported to approve the bills reimbursement of expenses Miss heiko Pharaoh yes Freight yes Gutierrez I abstain because there's a reimbursement to me on it hi guy yes Murray yes Rosen leacher yes Cislo yes motion carries 6-0 next up I need a motion to approve the 2023-2024 mhsaa membership resolution as included in attachment B moved by haika support by Rosen liacher it's been mood and supported to approve the 2023-2024 mhsaa membership resolution as included
026in attachment B Mr gearbaugh Excuse me yes this is an annual resolution required by mhsaa if we want to participate in any of the tournaments at the end of our Seasons please understand that there is no cost to be a part of mhsaa they collect all of their funds by by ticket sales at those district and Regional and state tournaments so this is actually just approving us to allow our students to participate in mhsaa sponsored activities any comments or concerns all right it's been Newton supported to approve the 2023-2024 mhsaa membership resolution as included in attachment B miss haiko right Gutierrez yes haika yes Murray yes Rose and leecher yes Cislo yes Pharaoh yes motion carries 7-0 all right next up in regards to board organization this is a first reading of the 2023-2024 board
027meeting dates as an attachment c um the one correction that I'm going to put out there right now is the May 22nd meeting for 2024 uh that meeting right the May 22nd is going is when um senior Awards night will be and then um that also is followed by one of the musical concerts so I'm proposing that we're going to move that meeting to Tuesday May 21st of 2024. are there other comments or questions regarding the meeting schedule again this is just the first reading for us to look at get on our calendars to start planning for next year Mr system yes Miss free um other than that meaning do are all the rest of these all on Wednesdays correct yep they are all on Wednesday so that's correct thank you Mr sislow yes I
028was as I was looking at the dates and I understand November being well I guess we moved some months around the first and third and the majority are in second and fourth can you tell me why because no uh let's see November's on the third Wednesday December and January are on the first and first and third sure some of those uh specifically like the June 5th one is a is the first one uh first Wednesday because we need to get that military out to the townships and the tax collection agencies so that they're already asking the school for those items right now so that's one of the reasons that one's is the is the first Wednesday um also just with uh the holiday schedule for November um that's why there's just the one meeting in
029November um and then I was I guess I was assuming December was because of the holiday schedule the winter break in January or both because of Yeah Christmas spring okay thank you Mrs Cislo yeah piggybacking off of Mr Mrs rosenleacher is it at all since we're discussing this possible to move our November one since it's only one meeting up to the second week I don't know if anybody I have a conflict myself I don't know if that's possible I believe the the reason we made it the third week is the second week would be the night before the masb conference and a lot of you like to drive up that night so that one was moved specifically for your conference thank you Brian I try to get all those things on my calendar before I
030put this together so that we can try to avoid all of those um can I just make one observation I just Googled it very quickly but Wednesday February 14th is Ash Wednesday consider moving that one to two I swear it's not because Valentine's Day it's Ash Wednesday because that's always a problem so I try to check it so proposals that moved to February 13th 2024. thank you everyone all right so we'll bring those changes to the next meeting May 20 May 21st and February 13th all right next up in the area of strategic plan business I need a motion to approve the 2022-2023 general fund budget amendment as presented in attachment d moved by pharaoh support by Gutierrez so Newton supported to approve the 2022-2023 general fund budget amendment as presented in attachment D again
031in our last meeting we had a first reading of this Miss Hendricks provided us the detail in regards to those changes for the amendment we had the opportunity to ask her Mr gearbaugh any questions in regards to that are there other questions or comments in regards to the amendment for this current fiscal year hearing that it's been it's been moved and supported to approve the 2022-2023 general fund budget amendment as presented in attachment D maseka Gutierrez yes haika yes Murray yes Rose and leecher yes Cislo yes great oh Pharaoh yes Freight no motion carries six one you did say no right next up is the 2022 2023 debt funds Amendment as an attachment E I need a motion to approve the 2022-2023 debt funds budget amendment is presented in attachment e moved by hiker support
032by Pharaoh it's been mood and supported to approve the 2022-2023 debt funds budget amendment as presented in attachment e again we had a first reading of this budget at their last meeting and that opportunities to ask questions are there other questions or concerns regarding the debt funds budget amendment all right it's been rude and supported to approve the 2022-2023 debt funds budget amendment as presented in attachment Rose and leacher yes Cislo yes Pharaoh yes great yes Gutierrez yes motion carries 7-0 next up I need a motion to approve the 2022 2023 Food Service budget amendment as presented in attachment f I guess by Rosen lieacher so nude and supported to approve the 2022-2023 Food Service budget amendment as presented in attachment f and again this is the second reading we had in the first reading
033of the last meeting any questions or concerns regarding the Food Service budget amendment hearing none Miss haika Murray Rosen leacher yes yes Cislo yes Pharaoh yes Freight yes Gutierrez yes hika yes motion carries seven zero next up I need a motion to approve the 2022-2023 student school activities budget amendment as presented in attachment G so moved and supported to approve the 2022-2023 student school activities budget amendment as presented in attachment G again this is the final reading of this budget any questions or concerns it's been moved and supported to approve the 2022-2023 student school activities budget amendment as presented in attachment G Miss haika Frozen leecher yes Cislo yes Pharaoh yes Freight yes Gutierrez yes haika yes Murray yes motion carries 7-0 all right next on to the uh 23 24 preliminary budgets I need
034a motion to approve the 2023 2024 general fund preliminary budget as presented in attachment H moved by pharaoh support by Rosen leacher it's been moved and supported to approve the 2023-2024 general fund preliminary budget as presented in attachment h discussion Mr sislow yes Mr fair I just want to comment that the the fun the spend on the fund balance right now is that 1.882 million as I said last meeting I I do think that um we will fare better than a spend of 1.882 against fund balance for those that are not aware we have to approve a Budget prior to knowing all of our Revenue expectations so I as I said last meeting we will know more and there will be budget adjustments presented to the board in the coming year so that's all I
035have thank you other comments other questions Miss Hendricks what was what's budgeted what's the budgeted increase again for Health Care the health care premium I budgeted a 10 increase for the health care premiums that is kind of the number I have been using we've been coming in lower than that but this past this current school year that we're in we did experience a 10 across the board increase okay do we have any idea what our health care spend has been this year to know because that premium is based on our our spend in the previous years do we have any idea because of the window that they use it's not like January to January it's October um based on the knowledge that I have of claims that have gone through I have a feeling it's
036going to be another big year okay for an increase I'm hoping I am wrong um about we see reimbursements going out and there have been some substantial ones in the past couple months just to remind the board too our our costs for health care are come in two parts we have the premium to Blue Cross Blue Shield and then we also have um what I refer to as we're partially self-funded because we have a five thousand ten thousand dollar deductible that the District covers for our employees so we actually have a third party called ehim that covers that cost so when we look at our rate increase we look at both pieces obviously we get a rate increase from Blue Cross Blue Shield and then we also look at our experience in our amount that
037we had to spend on covering the deductibles and ehim and Brown and Brown are two agencies that help us look at those and an example is last year our I think if I remember correctly our rate increase from Blue Cross Blue Shield was going to be closer to 12 percent but we were able to decrease um the the portion that we pay for those deductibles and we were able to kind of bring that down to a 10 and so we do use the experience of how much we pay as we're adjusting those those self-funded pieces does that help provide some more information okay and Mr Cislo I'm prepared to vote Yes on this preliminary budget today because it is a preliminary budget but I do want to continue to have conversations about maintaining the two
038Elementary School teachers that we discussed at the last meeting in order to keep this class size down once the budget becomes or the revenues become more clear or even other potential staff movements or resignations or yeah um can we talk a little bit about the assigned fund balances and just the theory behind them and especially in regards to the bus even though we're not spending it this year even if we are budgeting for it because if we use that money for another purpose and then we didn't need to need a budget we would have to make we would have to make adjustments in future budgets in order to cover that cost so I want that to be understood correct so working through the assigned fund of balances first you have the Harkness estate and that
039is something that the Board needs to spend some time this next year making a decision on if you want to put it into a scholarship fund or if there's some purpose that you want to use it here in the district so I would recommend that over next year that you look at where you want to put those funds and make that decision again that's money that was left to the district by Don Harkness without any real specific requirements on its use um the assigned fund balance for curriculum is honestly there in case we have a year where we have to make major purchases in more than one area we're kind of budgeted to be able to tackle one curricular area a year with purchases if we ever hit a year where the state of Michigan
040altered the curriculum or something and we had to update more than one we would need to have that fund balance available the assigned fund balance for the paddock Early Childhood Center that really is just those aren't our funds those are funds specific to that program which is a standalone self-funded program so we have to list those because of accounting and auditing purposes but they're really not our funds to expend very similar with the Athletics that is an assigned fund balance in an account that they manage that are not necessarily there for district expenditures the technology assigned fund balance as you know we make large purchases each year we never know and our budget is able to handle those purchases for a new set of Chromebooks for certain grades some of the upgrades we have to
041do on our servers and on our systems one of the big expenditures we're going to have coming is our phone system is becoming obsolete and we will probably be looking at a large expenditure for that that might be a time where we say it's time to dip into that that fund balance it's there so that if we have a year where the general fund is already tight and we need an expenditure in one of these areas we have funds there to be able to cover that and we don't have to say well we'll just have to go without the same is true with buildings and grounds we have a designated fund balance there so that if a boiler goes or all of a sudden a section of roof has to be replaced or whatever the
042case might be we again we tackle the maintenance and we we keep things up we repair our roofs we we do those maintenance preventative maintenance things out of the general fund but if we had a year where something happened we would have some funds to tap that and not have a crisis if something occurred the assigned bus is there for the purpose if we have a year where we need to and the general fund can't handle it or need one and the general fund can't handle it and then obviously the athletic sound system is one that you added at the last meeting thank you Maybe I'm Wrong in the way I think about this but I always think of the assigned funds as kind of our future savings right like almost like my personal 401K
043how I I keep putting money in there for when I need it later in hopes that you know other funds will be able to cover those needs later but it's there if we need it and that's how I view the assigned fund balance too is these are savings accounts for when we really need something and remember the board has the ability if at any point they wanted to unassign some of those funds not necessarily spend it on that specific area the board has a right to do that so whenever you're approving a budget you're kind of also agreeing that it continues to make sense to you to keep those assigned amounts there because that's not Krista and I that make the decision on those that ultimately in the past it was the board that set
044those assigned fund balances up and it's the board that has the authority to make decisions about those um I know in regards to the Harkness estate one of the things that we were considering was a grow your own initiative and that's something that we'll definitely continue to talk about um with uh to reward those students that want to go into education potentially making that a multi-year scholarship opportunity is one of the things we were considering and would be supported by Mr Harkness I would I would know um in regards to the uh the assigned fund balance for the sound system I I do hear the um the public comment in regard to that I I acknowledge it in my thinking it's it's it's also a safety issue that's the largest concentration of myelin population on
045Friday nights when we have home games and to not have a functioning sound system when we have that large population in a condensed area to be able to provide updates to the people attending that event in a in a public address system way I think that's an important component and obviously it's not the only component but that's one of the things that I think about in regards to um to that sound system and I know this the swim board has been brought up to um and also I know in regards to that there was one donor that made up more than half of that donation um so that's something that you know we can also be considering looking for other funds and booster support for this system so those are my thoughts in regards to
046uh into those assigned fund balances Mr Sissel can I add as it relates to the sound system um I agree with you it can be a safety issue but also when we're talking about um which is often brought up at meetings our declining enrollment you know we have to think about our facilities and the programs that we can offer our students because that feeds into enrollment as well and so if we don't maintain our facilities including things like a sound system that can help facilitate an even larger declining enrollment so it's always a balance that we have to strike between you know the educational programs but then also the extracurricular activities which our students and families are also looking for and why quite frankly many people come to this District and also in regards to
047the bus um there is declining enrollment it doesn't mean that the boundaries of the school system have shrunk is correct I mean correct yeah we have over the last um three to four years trimmed two or three bus routes but we're getting to the point where if we want to keep buses bus runs under an hour and 10 minutes we're not going to be able to trim any more bus runs despite the number of students that are on the buses so we were able to to adjust those we have we also have had a couple of years where we have traded in two buses and only bought one bus so we have downsized the fleet some so we are we are managing that Fleet in respect to um the the pupil count part of the
048reason that we have to purchase two sometimes is we made a large purchase of buses when we passed the 09 Bond and if you think about those buses we bought in 09 and in 2010 and 2011. they're now 10 11 12 13 years old and so we're having to replace a large chunk of the fleet over a few years and that's why we've had to come for two buses a couple of times in the last few years and Mr gearbook correct if I'm wrong but I feel like the last time we had the conversation about the buses we talked about just the general lifetime of a bus and the number of miles and how our transportation department just through sheer will and talent keep those buses running much longer than we normally anticipate them to
049so I mean we're already stretching the bus fleet as far as we can and then some yes I mean the fact that we have I think it's 19 or 20 years now of 100 pass rate on our buses is a testament that our drivers and our mechanics take care of them the number of miles we usually trade a bus in with is is north of 200 000 miles usually it's closer to 250 000. um every once in a while we we do put a new engine in a bus because if the bus itself is still in good shape and we can put a new engine in we do that part of the issue too and we we spend a lot of time rotating our buses if you think about it some of our buses are
050on dirt roads a majority of the time it's not good to keep the same bus on that run all the time we try and switch them up we switch which buses are running field trips the last thing we want to do is send one of our oldest buses to grosseal and have it break down if we have a newer bus so there are times where we'll pull a newer bus off of a bus run use a sub bus for that so that that newer bus can take a long distance field trip there's a lot of management that goes in by our transportation director and our mechanic to make sure that we're getting the most life out of the buses that we possibly can thank you other questions or concerns Mr sister yes Mr Farrell I
051just wanted to comment for the public as well that um in large part the anticipated reduction in revenue is is due to not having access to covid and Essa related funds also with regard to the foundation allowance per pupil we budgeted 450 450 increase per pupil and that's the middle range used due to the different government branch proposals so once we know what's been approved if if that is more than 450 per pupil that will certainly help our budget thank you and then just one final thought on enrollment um I mean we definitely in Milan we had at least three large housing developments a while ago with Meadowbrook Uptown Village and Eagle Springs which brought in many young families including my myself both of my kids have graduated and I have not replaced them um
052so that that is a factor I mean we there is to my knowledge there's no new housing development in Milan uh short of those three I know uptown has re-started with some of their empty lots which is is great to see and is helpful and that's one of the things that in addition to birth rates is just the uh the population in the new building within Milan and perhaps there's something that we can work with City Council in regards to that I know we've had some meetings together in the past but I know that's one of the things that um I know there's a there's a lot of young families on Eagle Springs Meadowbrook and um Uptown which are again haven't replaced their kids so I think that's a very important point I can only
053speak from my own experience I live in Meadowbrook and we moved there because the number of kids that were in the neighborhood and um they're at the time my son who just graduated on Sunday went to kindergarten there were actually two bus stops in Meadowbrook because there were so many Elementary aged kids in that neighborhood and it was not uncommon to see um 20 or 30 kids at any given time just in my common backyard and there were you know three sets of those common backyards and that was the case in every set of those backyards and all of those kids have just grown up now I mean my kids are some of the youngest ones in that area in the backyards and you know my son just graduated and I had a middle schooler
054and another high schooler and you know they're just aging up and so that's also contributing to the declining enrollment and something we should keep in mind as we have this discussions all right other questions or concerns Mr sister yes um after listening to all the different comments and Mr gearbox comments I guess just moving forward one of the things we used to do was um all of the what we can't change in enrollment what we used to do was kind of um publicize you know choosing violin and having Billboards and things so I begged the board to consider maybe or you Mr Gable if we necessarily can't replace the kids right um that maybe we do something about I don't want to say branding but failing me with words on how we um advertise and
055try to do bring more in shy of Housing and things something we need to consider and I think that brought quite a few in this is Gutierrez and I had a conversation about that and that was very effective um so shy of building new homes which I don't think any of us are doing or replacing kids maybe that's something the district needs to look into I also know that um Mr Farrow and I have had a couple conversations on the amounts that we assign and as you brought up tonight the Board needs to decide that I do think like Mrs haika if that is our savings account we're doing that then we definitely want to be able to afford what we're saving for so when I look at the bus I know that's on up
056and inflation's gone up and things and at the risk of sounding kind of crazy if we're saving for that rainy day we might want to make sure show when it rains we can cover it so some of those phones it seems like it might need to be reassessed and evaluated on I agree I think in the very near future I will be talking to the board about considering developing not a large but a small advertising budget that we could go back out and think about mailers think about Billboards think about some of those things think about social media advertising or something help attempt to draw some new students in so very good point Mr Sizzler yeah it smells good years um I agree with what Miss fridge just said about the the need to think
057about marketing this district and I think that's incumbent on all of us that are in this District to think about marketing our own district and talking to families and friends um and I mentioned when I was interviewing as a candidate that I moved to Milan after seeing this really lovely bus uh wrap on an Ann Arbor city bus I'd never heard of Milan and so those things work I think is what we need to remember and we have a lot of students in this part of the state sure we have declining birth rates that's completely factual we are challenged by our real estate in this community that is not turning over and not growing that is something to speak with our city council and our city council Representatives about and that's not just for the
058board but that's for all of our constituents here in the city we should be asking those questions of our potential City Council Members we're going to have a lot of potentially new incoming members of city council but I would also like to encourage the community to think deeply about how we might market and advertise and amplify the wonderful things that are happening in this district and in fact we have a big red board chat coming up on June 20th at 6 30 to 8 in the Simon's theater and we are going to be talking about this very thing about District marketing and how that relates to budget and then budget issues in general and so I would hope and I encourage the community to come to that with not just questions but ideas as well
059many people in this community have great ideas about what they love about this community about what could be important selling points and about different populations and touch points that we could be working towards as a district to recruit and bring in new students new families and then work systemically throughout the city to be able to make that that reality for families who want to be here thank you and we also need to include our townships in regards to that as well thank you they're very important right Mr TP [Laughter] the loop so I appreciate any other questions or concerns all right it's been moved and supported to approve the 2023-2024 general fund preliminary budget as presented in attachment H Miss heike Cislo yes Pharaoh yes Freight yes Gutierrez yes haika yes Murray yes Rose and
060leecher yes motion carry 7-0 next up I need a motion for to approve the 2023-2024 debt funds preliminary budget as presented in attachment I lived by pharaoh support by haika it's been moved and supported to approve the 2023-2024 debt funds preliminary budget as presented in attachment I any questions or concerns in regards to this all right it's been supported to approve the 2023-2024 debt funds preliminary budget as presented in attachment eye in the psycho Pharaoh yes great yes Gutierrez yes haika yes Murray yes Rosen liacher yes Cislo yes motion carries 7-0 next up I need a motion to approve the 2023 2024 Food Service preliminary budget as presented in attachment J it's been moved and supported to approve the 2023-2024 Food Service budget Food Service preliminary budget as presented in attachment J any questions or
061discussion Mr sister yes Mr Ferris I just want to reiterate what was said last meeting that the governor's plan with regard to free meals for uh all students that's not been approved yet so that's not included in this budget am I correct Krista thank you yes you are correct any other comments or concerns crystal that's kind of a crazy question what's lunch cost these days do you know I don't know that's a crazy question I'm just curious but what it was actually running these days in a couple of years lunch to families or lunch cost to the district to the kids yeah for the family like when you go in and get lunch isn't it about 350 I thought I think it's about 364. if I I know my daughter had four dollars left in
062her account the other day and I was like you're good for one more day thank you appreciate Kerry and of course that doesn't include the a la carte items they throw correct that's just for the hot lunch is yes thank you Mr sister yes Mr I'm sorry this also includes the food service contract the increase that we had approved at a prior meeting any other questions or comments heart's been moved and supported to approve the 2023-2024 Food Service preliminary budget as presented in attachment J maseka yes Rose and leecher yes Cislo yes Pharaoh yes motion carries 7-0 next up I need a motion to approve the 2023-2024 student school activity funds preliminary budget as presented in attachment k moved by haika support by Marie so Newton supported to approve the 2023-2024 student school activity funds
063preliminary budget as presented in attachment k again this is basically the pass-throughs for all the student accounts questions all right it's been moved and supported to approve the 2023-2024 student school activity funds preliminary budget as presented in attachment K in a psycho good years yes haika yes Murray yes Rosen liecher yes Cislo yes Vera yes great yes motion carries 7-0 all right next up we need a motion to approve the 2023-2024 general Appropriations act as presented in attachment L moved by pharaoh support by Rosen liacher so mood and supported to approve the 2023-2024 general Appropriations act as presented in attachment l um so this is what sets the military uh Mr gearbox yes I just wanted to share some information as the general Appropriations act really is a summary of all of the budgets that
064you just approved it puts them into a little bit different format and it follows the format that the state of Michigan wants to see them in so every district has to turn in a general Appropriations act that looks very similar to this this is also the document that sets the millage rates but I think that it's important to understand that the board of education has very little leeway in what those millage rates are so the first thing I wanted to do is just talk through this document a little bit and share some history about millage rates and and let folks really understand kind of exactly what this document means and what this document does so on the first page you will see that this is really dealing with um the operating budget districts receive their
065funding for the operating budget based on per pupil counts ten percent of that is on the previous February count and 90 percent of that is on that current School Year's October count so while taxes are paid both to the district and the state of Michigan in the end the balancing comes from the state of Michigan determining how much funding we should get solely based on our pupil counts taxpayers pay property taxes in accordance with State guidelines and the first thing that happens is all taxpayers in the state of Michigan pay six Mills on their property to the state for their property taxes towards education some districts are donor districts because they send more tax money to the state than they give back and some districts are receiving districts because they send less money to the
066state than they get back um most districts and I believe all districts have passed an additional 18 Mills on no non-homestead property and this whole process started when proposal a was passed there is a requirement on non-homestead property in most districts to pay an additional 18 Mills the interesting thing with those funds is those funds actually come to the school district but then it's subtracted from the amount of money that we are supposed to get based on our per pupil counts if some of those taxes are not paid and are delinquent the state doesn't care they still subtract the total amount from our per pupil funding in Milan we renewed that millage in 2013. we had had some Headley rollbacks prior to 2013 to where we were not collecting 18 mils um and for those
067that don't know a Headley rollback is basically at some point every year the state of Michigan verifies how much you are collecting in your taxes and how much you should be able to collect and if you are collecting more than you are allowed to because of the taxable value then they will roll back how many mills you can collect when we went to a renew this millage in 2013 we were at the 17.9748 um at that point it did not make sense to attempt to renew back to 18 which we could have done but that would have then been deemed a new tax and it's a lot easier to pass a renewal and you're really talking about thousands of dollars in a million dollar in budget that deals with millions of dollars since then we
068have had a couple of more rollbacks and we currently collect 17.9694 Mills of those 18 mils when we passed that millage in 2013 the community passed it for 20 years and so that will expire in 2033 and at that point the community would have to the district would have to go for another approval from the community they could decide whether they were going to do the 16.9694 or whether the district is going to go back for 18 Mills that would be a decision the district would make at that time again that's all dealing with the operating millage and really we don't have any control in setting any of that that's all determined by the state of Michigan with the six Mills and the 18 Mills with Headley rollbacks determined by the voters in 2013 that
069continues until 2033. the debt millage in 2009 our voters approved to maintain a millage rate of 8.04 mils for debt that allowed us to borrow an additional a little bit over 49 million dollars to remodel Paddock Simons and the middle school we also had some debt from building the high school in 2003 2004. so but we were able to in 2009-2010 just basically extend the number of years that we were going to pay 8.04 Mills and the voters approved that in 2009. we maintained 8.04 Mills until 2013-2014 when during lame duck the legislation changed the ball game and they changed the rules of the game in the school buying Loan Fund there had been language in the school bond Loan Fund that um basically insinuated that if you borrowed money from the school bond Loan
070Fund then you had to have that paid off in 30 years no one had ever had an issue with that because every District's property values had always increased and it had never been an issue if you remember what was going on in the economy in 2013 2014 the housing market had crashed and housing values had dropped taxable values had actually dropped and in some districts the amount of money collected as in Milan the mile money collected for 8.04 Mills was going to cause a situation where we were not going to have our school bond Loan Fund debt paid off in 30 years there were about 30 districts that sat in that situation the state of Michigan was concerned as to what that was going to do to their rating which would affect all of the
071state of Michigan's borrowing so during lame duck they voted and they basically said you know we are going to mandate that districts pay off their debt in 30 years and in order to do that we will allow their millage rates to increase to 13 Mills with no vote of the taxpayers um there were numerous districts several in our County that were bumped up over a couple of years to 13 Mills some of those at 13 mils still have over 99 years payoff deadlines so it has not accomplished getting those districts down to the 30-year timeline it has gotten us down to the 30-year timeline and what happened was in 2014 2015 we went from 8.04 mils to 9.244 mils totally based on a formula the state of Michigan uses to determine payoff date we had
072no control over that military in 2015-2016 we jumped to 13 Mills the highest that the state will allow again based on a formula that we had no control over we stayed at 13 Mills through 2018-2019 in 2018-2019 taxable value started to increase again and we got back to the point where we were going to be able to pay our debt off um a little bit quicker than the 13 the 30-year payoff requirement so in 1920 we were able to drop that millage rate to 10.4 it stayed 10.4 in 2021 we were able to drop it to 9.9 in 2122 and then we were able to drop it to 9.75 and 22.23 I will tell you that we would have been able to drop it again in 2324 but with what's happening in the economy right
073now we are required to alter our assumed interest rate on the school bond loan from from three and a half percent to five percent um as you know interest rates on everything are going up and so that increase from three and a half percent to five percent on our school bond loan debt undid the ability of our additional tax collections to be able to meet that 30-year payoff and so while our tax collections would have allowed us to lower it again from 9.75 when you have to bring that five percent interest rate into the formula we can't drop from 9.75 um so um we're blessed that we are still in a situation where those two offset and we didn't have to based on the formula raise the millage rate again um so I'm glad that
074we're at least able to maintain it at 9.75 . so again there are formulas and there are decisions made by the state of Michigan that alter our millage rate we don't really get to pick it we don't get to set it we just have to approve what those formulas in the state of Michigan tell us we have to charge and so for this year those millage rates as shown um the operating millage rates are on the first page of attachment L and the debt millage rates are on page three of attachment l i mean again they will all be maintained at the same level that they were last year thank you questions or concerns thank you for that explanation Mr beerbaugh all right it's been supported to approve the 2023-2024 general Appropriations act as presented
075in Detachment l in the cycle haika yes Marie yes Rose and leacher yes yes Sarah yes great yes Gutierrez yes motion carries 7-0 next up I need a motion to authorize the borrowing up to 1.5 million dollars against the anticipated state aid for the 2023-2024 fiscal year as specified in the borrowing resolution included as attachment M moved by pharaoh support by Rosen leacher it's been moved and supported to authorize the borrowing up to 1.5 million against the anticipated state aid for the 2023-2024 fiscal year as specified in the borrowing resolution included as attachment M and just so everybody is aware um because we don't get our state payments until September our first state payments this is the reason that we need to borrow this we we've done this every year I believe that I've been
076on the board and there's other districts that do it as well but Mr gearbox can explain further yeah um it's very common for districts to have to borrow it's really not an issue of there's a big difference between spending fund balance and needing to borrow for cash flow and and this borrowing is really something that the state of Michigan sets up for all of their districts it's kind of interesting the state of Michigan decides not to give districts 12 equal payments throughout the 12 months of the year and because of that they cause districts to have cash flow issues and then they set up a whole system to loan US money and charge us interest on that loan so it's kind of an interesting situation that they set up a lot of districts do borrow
077I can tell you when I took over as superintendent because of our lower fund balance that we had at that point we actually used to borrow I know it was 3 million at one point it might have even been three and a half million um so we have gotten that down we've dropped as low as one million dollars um but the process to determine this again is all dictated um Miss Hendricks goes through a long process of looking at cash flow each month and then finds the lowest month and then looks at cash flow each week and then finds the lowest week and looks at cash flow each day and then based on all of those calculations we determine how much we would need to borrow all of those documents then go to our law
078firm and our Law Firm the financial office of their Law Firm reviews all of those documents because what they don't want is districts borrowing more than they have the need to borrow so this is all very managed and very controlled beyond beyond our calculations so again and you'll see the long resolution from from Troon that develops that and I will tell you you also have a letter because the state of Michigan has faith in Troon and they actually use Troon to handle all of the paperwork from the state of Michigan's side so the the state of Michigan does ask that Troon send a letter explaining that it is not a conflict of interest in the way that it's handled that true and be both working for the state of Michigan lending and school districts borrowing
079that would be true for any District that uses true law firm and also has to borrow so again we're asking this year to be allowed to borrow up to 1.5 million dollars again this is not because we are overspending this is a cash flow issue and then it gets repaid once we start getting our state agents it's just for transparency I handed Ms Hendricks a document that was the requirement to be signed by the president and the secretary to set the millage rate so that she can take that information to the taxing entities as quickly as possible because they are asking for it so that was what was handed to Ms Hendricks any questions or concerns regard regarding the this uh this borrowing right it's been moved and supported to authorize borrowing up to 1.5
080million against anticipated state aid for the 23 24 fiscal year as specified in the borrowing resolution included as attachment M and psycho Murray yes Rose and leacher yes Cislo yes Pharaoh yes great yes Gutierrez yes haika yes motion carries 7-0 all right thank you uh your excuse Miss Hendricks thank you for your service all right next up in the area of learning and environment of culture we continue the book study of why Meadow died and again this is a book about the school shooting that took place on February 14 2018 where there's a former student opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Miami Suburban town of Parkland Florida United States murdering 17 people and injuring 17 others um we're on to part four of the book which is
081uh post shooting chapters 13 and 14. chapter 13 was presented several things that happened during the week that would have been graduation for the author's daughter there was a Today Show interview with the school resource officer who stayed outside the school during the shooting you may see that right now he's his trial just started in regards to that uh some families of the victims did not like the interview because the officer changed the story a newspaper article came out about a secret service agent who performed a security assessment at the December before the shooting he provided several recommendations the school did not implement we talked about Kenny Preston before he's the student reporter who investigated the shooting and he was not allowed to graduate as he had semesters without as many credits as he should
082have the author resigned from the school's commission to investigate what wrong because he was asked to drop his wrongful death lawsuits against the school resource officer and a Behavioral Health Organization used by the school there is another newspaper article that noted the district was not releasing any records pertaining to the high school the article also released the contract of a firm that conducted the investigation of the school and part of the contract was to further assist the district in ongoing litigation matters the district initially denied media access to graduation even though they had allowed it before the Broward County Commissioners hired police foundation to do an independent investigation and then that contract was changed in order to fill any gaps in the report that came from the state Commission uh there is also a story
083during that week that the shooter had an eight eight hundred thousand dollar trust fund from his mother which some thought was um the public defender was trying to exhaust um that that money in order to gain leniency for the client the author determined that this was not the case as he volunteered volunteered to be a defense witness against the school the day before graduation prosecutors released the sworn statement of the campus security monitor who saw the shooter walk onto campus with a gun but didn't call what they deem a code red this monitor had also apparently sexually harassed several students including the author's daughter the school district's Professional Standards committee recommend that he'd be fired but he was given a three-day suspension and still worked at the school soon after the graduation the author decided
084to go to the principal with a few other parents to talk to the principal about this campus security monitor continuing to work at the school the security monitor was eventually let go during the summer so that was chapter 13 the the weeks the week the events around graduation uh chapter 14 really got into um because of those events there were several people that wanted to elect new school board members the author talks about supporting a candidate who had taught at the high school for 13 years before becoming a professor uh one of the uh that candidate's best friend was the football coach who died when he was shielding students from the shooter the newspaper supported the candidate he was running against the slated candidates that this candidate was running with fell apart he this candidate
085also met with the Broward teachers union he believed he had their endorsement but ultimately he did not because of these issues the the team of the of this candidate did a lot of door knocking throughout the district to meet people face to face in regards to his candidacy and so that was the summary of chapters 13 and 14 for the book other comments or questions regarding the book Mr Sissel I don't have any comments specifically about these two chapters um but we've been discussing this book now for several months that was written by Andrew Pollock I'd like the board I'm not suggesting that we do another book study but I like the board in the community to know that there is another father whose name is Fred Gutenberg whose daughter Jamie was also murdered in
086the Parkland shooting Mr Gutenberg has a very different path forward in dealing with his grief and loss than Mr Pollock and he's also written a couple of books one is entitled find the helpers which I've also been reading it's an amazing book and I would encourage my fellow board members to maybe on their own time look into that book and then also if you are looking for some a different take on our path forward as a nation and how to deal with school shootings Mr Gutenberg also has a very active Twitter account which I also find very helpful and informational Mr system yes Mr Farrell I don't have any comments on chapter 13 and 14. you did a good job of summarizing just in terms of current events the Broward School Board is actually searching
087for a new superintendent they have narrowed the search to three candidates and one of them is Mr Lewis Solano Deputy superintendent of Detroit Public Community Schools sister current event yes Miss rosenlacher um again and I Echo what Mrs hika said you know we have been reading and talking about this book um we're kind of past the major events that occurred and and now the aftermath but I think it's really important to note we just approved at our last meeting um the professional development committee for the district and one of the things that they're continuing to want to focus on is school safety and so I commend that committee I commend Mr gearbaugh um that we are this is very serious and and we continue to work towards keeping our faculty our staff and all of
088our students safe here in Milan area schools and we have had a security assessment performed by an outside agency and we have implemented recommendations from that is just left yes Miss Murray yeah that was actually one of my comments you know in looking at these two chapters through the myelin lens and Chinese that lie to our current you know our situation in our community and that was something that stuck out to me was that at the beginning of chapter 13 He discusses the evaluation that was offered to Marjorie Stoneman Douglas but was largely ignored and not into put into practice by the staff and that is you know gratefully not the case here in Milan um and I look forward to digging more into those recommendations from our evaluations as we move forward into next
089school year um he also like just a page or two before that too the author writes about you know continuing to raise issues with the way in which the community was informed the way in which information was shared or not shared the apparent attempts at copper-ups or kind of gaslighting of the community or trying to protect reputations over honoring the losses and dealing with the shortcomings that the district very clearly had in managing the situation so for me that was just a good reminder for us in our district that we do have a community or excuse me a responsibility to our community and to our students to always keep those lines of communication open so I'm really encouraged by the work that's happening on our communication board and the superintendent's communication committee and just the
090community members who continue to um bring that to the board as a high priority because I could not agree more the more open the more honest the more transparent the more collaborative we are the safer we'll all be and the more confidence we'll have in each other and then lastly um the only other comment I had was from Peach 260 where the author is discussing his frustration about not being able to come together as a country in light of this tragedy and the in his opinion the efforts by the media to just further divide us along partisan lines and I share that frustration with the author deeply um I would guess that we probably don't agree on some of the more intricate items politically perhaps but that is one thing that I am always frustrated
091about and for me you know bringing it back to a myelin Focus for me it was a reminder about how we personally participate in the media and the publicity this kind of relates to what Ms Gutierrez was saying earlier about how do we speak about our district how do we speak about our schools about our students how do we communicate with one another when we are faced with the challenge whether it's a lockdown or um you know a budget it's it's all related and the manner in which we conduct ourselves is critically important at all times so I would just raise that for the community and as a reminder for myself that the way that we participate in communication with one another matters greatly and there are always going to be these forces outside of
092our 48160 that are attempting to yank Us in One Direction Over the you know line of scrimmage but it's incumbent on all of us to filter that out rise above it and keep our focus on what matters here in Milan so with that okay thank you thank you Miss Murray Mr sislo yes Miss Gutierrez um I really appreciate Miss heiko raising the point about the book about find the helpers it was a book I remember picking up in a bookstore several years ago and I picked it up because it was a phrase that my son taught me about find the helpers he went through preschool at the pecc and it was something that they learned as part of their curriculum was finding the helpers and they had an assignment that night to take a walk
093in the community and find the helpers in town and so we talked about you know the helpers that get our delicious ice cream at the dairy barn we talked about our helpers that help us cross the street safely to get home from school we talked about the helpers who check us out at the grocery store and so by the time this book came out my son was six or seven years away from preschool but it was a phrase that we often still had in our vernacular within our family about finding the helpers and this is I think in line with the theme of the other comments I've made about this book before that as Miss Murray mentioned we as a society have become completely divided on it on issues being this or that and that
094it's important for all of us to take a step back and see those who are helping how we can help each other how we can be kind and compassionate citizens how we can be part of the solution not only part of echoing the problem and of course if there is an issue that needs attention it is our responsibility as active members of society to raise that issue yet in raising those issues we also need to be active helpers active participants in the conversation and I I raise this because I just had this memory jog Michelle when you said this I'd forgotten I'd read that book and I remember picking it up because that was part of the fiber of what our children learn in our district is being helpers seeing helpers appreciating people in the
095ways and the diverse ways in which they can contribute to society and I want us all as a community to really lean into that Importance of Being a helper being part of an active conversation that is productive and towards Solutions and I think in many ways although I agree there's some things in this book that I don't completely agree with either I appreciate the conversation I appreciate the attempts at a very serious dialogue about the ways in which issues um should be identified and managed and and helped and if we all lean into a way of looking at these issues and these conversations I think that it will be really important as we're dealing with these difficult things and so I Echo Miss haika's recommendation to read that book too because frankly the two of
096them in parallel are are very different but actually quite complementary in some ways so thank you thank you others all right so we will finish the book at the next meeting chapters and the two last two chapters in the epilogue so um next up in the area of personnel and Leadership we I need a motion to appoint Daniel Douglas to the position of theater manager at the base salary of forty two thousand dollars effective immediately moved by pharaoh support members of nature I heard okay sorry Tom it's been moved and supported to appoint Daniel Douglas to the position of theater manager at a base salary of forty two thousand dollars effective immediately I do want to thank Mr Kashmir she has been outstanding in this role very supportive and her student staff both student Army
097staff that do all the the ins and outs of this theater I know last time at our meeting they had to take this down quickly in order to get it prepared for the next day so there's just a lot that goes beyond Behind the Scenes and this position is difficult I've seen because of coven just because of people that have this expertise or highly subtle sought after in other areas such as Miss cashmere and that's where she's going to to the U of M to to do this there at the uh graduate school so any other questions or comments Mr Gabriel I just wanted to Echo first your thanks to Yvette cashmere and actually her husband who comes and covers when she's not available just a tremendous team and and she did such a tremendous
098job she not only managed and led all of the events in here she also worked on the facility and made some improvements we're actually making an improvement right now that came from a recommendation because when the bill when this theater was built the heat actually blows right on the curtains and is damaging the curtains and so we are getting deflectors put on and making some changes so she was just a great all-around theater manager she helped us select this new candidate she's actually worked with this new candidate and knows him and the most important part is because of events recruiting of events to the building we are very very close to this position actually being self-funding you know when we first hired this position we were only bringing in really one main renter and so
099when I came to you originally for this position we had to put money out of the general fund budget towards this I don't want to say we're fully covered yet but we are very very close with the money that she brings in that she generated through rentals and I've already talked with Dan that we've got to keep that moving and get that upped a little bit more um and at that point not only the district has no intent to make money off the theater but if we could get to the point where we can cover the whole salary of the theater manager and we enjoy the benefits of that theater manager with band concerts at Choir concerts and all those other things and maybe get to the point where maybe through our rentals we're also
100doing some upgrades to this facility you know starting to look at the carpet starting to look at some of those other things so truly that is all due to that cashmere bringing in that business and being out there pounding the pavement and getting those renters to come in and honestly keeping them happy when they come in because when you run an event with thousands of people attending over a weekend it it's difficult and she's done a tremendous job I can't thank her enough I consider her a friend and I will have her cell phone number in my phone for a long long time and just truly appreciate everything she's done and she's not done yet she's going to stay on continue through in the hourly way she has been to help train Dan and get
101him fully up to speed and ready to go so just tremendous thanks to to her and excited to bring Dan on board and get him started Mr zisson yes Mr Farrell um I was going to say this from my board comments but I too want to comment on your vet and I want to offer my personal and professional thanks and express my admiration to the job that you've done as our theater manager you've done amazing things on behalf of our district and you're so well liked and respected by the students I think it says a whole lot about you for agreeing to help in the transition to a new theater director I also want to comment for the community I have hearing deficiency and Yvette never hesitated to help me with making sure that I
102could hear making sure that I had the speaker next to me she responded to my emails and I'm just going to miss her tremendously and I know the students think the world of you I wish you all and your I wish you well and your personal and professional endeavors and again thank you so much and I and and welcome to Daniel you've got big shoes to fill I want to Echo many of the comments um I have been here for some of the community events that get hosted here um that Miss Kashmir and her team run and they are so smooth they run so smoothly and seamlessly um that you often hear people in luck in the Rotunda who aren't community members but come from other communities about what a wonderful facility this is and
103how the sound is wonderful and everything has just been moving like clockwork and that is all thanks to miss cashmere and her team but more importantly I want to thank her for all the time she has put into our students she our students truly do adore her and they have a bond with her and they trust her and I think that that's just so important that she is a trusted adult to many of our students and I'm sad that we're going to lose you and I'm sure the students are too but I just want to thank her for all the time and effort she's now been put into the building but our students as well because I think that some people in the community don't know I mean we've had a lot of really late
104meetings in the last couple of months and Miss Casmir is here until the very end and then she stays and helps clean up and break all of this down so it's just been such a huge dedication education to the building to our students more importantly and I deeply appreciate you and wish you the best of luck yes Miss Murray again at risk of repetition I will try to keep it keep it short but had the pleasure of working with Miss cashmere on a couple of productions for the middle school and you you said it Michelle it's incredible what our students have learned to do and self-manage because of your leadership when I think about the Mamma Mia sat specifically it is it was just a Triumph an absolute Marvel of high school theater and to
105know that our students did that under your leadership and guidance and and that they're now equipped to to do that again in the future like you you aren't just putting on shows for them you are building them as individuals um and for that I'm just so so deeply grateful I learned so much from Yvette and uh yeah I just wish you the absolute best okay see you up there but thank you for your time here any others all right it's been moved and supported to appoint Daniel Douglas to the position of theater manager at a base salary of 42 000 effective immediately Miss haika Rose and leacher yes Cislo yes Pharaoh yes great yes Gutierrez yes haika yes Murray yes motion carry 7-0 all right next up in the area of communications and Community engagement
106brings us to public comment just a reminder this meeting is a meeting of the Board of Education and public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public meeting there are two times for public participation during the meeting as indicated in the agenda when addressing the board you will be asked to state your name the board determines the amount of time granted to individuals or groups to speak each person shall be allowed to speak for up to three minutes board members May question speakers but are not obligated to answer questions or make statements or commitments and response to issues raised by the public in general such items would be referred to the superintendent for advisement investigation study and or recommendation are designated as future agenda items for
107board consideration are there any students that would like to address the board public members who'd like to address the board all right thank you for attending this evening um next up is a student board representative comments Miss Farrell oh hold on yeah I think you can Tamp it again I think okay mine works um we're like to give a congratulations to Malia Warman for earning Allstate honors and high jump and then all the spring sports teams for those successful seasons and then an upcoming event is the High School boys soccer meeting after school on Friday June 2nd and then thank you to the Milan High School student council for putting on another successful grillout chillout event today it was very nice I enjoyed it foreign once again congratulations to Malia Warman on her Allstate honors
108High School jump at the state finals for track um and just congratulations to all the sports for their phenomenal Seasons Maya and I are extremely proud to represent each sport and ultimately brag about all of their accomplishments and all that they do and all the progress that they make throughout the seasons there are no games or sporting events other than the soccer meeting this week there was however an email sent out to all students except for the current seniors by Mr Hall our athletic director to sign up for any fall Sports today was the grill out chill out as Maya mentioned at the high school brought by student council which Maya and I both are a part of I would say it was a big success it seemed like a good turnout Miss Frey actually
109attended um the it I feel like I should mention that it was also an opportunity for all freshmen and juniors to get there you're through Juniors to get their yearbooks Miss Keel and the rest of the yearbook staff did an amazing job on it I thought it turned out very nice there were some interesting pictures posted in there um I know there's going to be a lot of students that are going to be mad that I'm mentioning this but just a reminder that finals final exams are coming up and I personally only have two courses here so I'm only aware of when the of the dates of the two all English courses will be having their final exam on Thursday June 8th and all history exams whether I like this or not have their final
110exams on Monday June 12th um as I mentioned there's those are the only courses I'm aware of for final exam dates um but I do have one concern I would like to address with the board that a lot of students have mentioned to me um the light outside of the district office the one that keeps like flashing a lot of students have come up to me I'm not sure if they've come up to my about it but they as they're leaving sporting events and even after cheer practice um it really bothers them and they just wanted to know if that was on the agenda to be fixed yeah yes I'll actually respond to that so first if you look up their new lights we had them replaced and the company told us that the lights
111were the issue obviously the lights weren't the issue because they started blinking again today so they will be out at no charge to the district to find out what the issue is the problem was we had to to get a company that had a lift high enough because those poles are actually 70 foot tall but they were replaced about two weeks ago and I went out today and they're blinking again and so the company will be back I totally agree I walk out in the dark regularly and it is it is difficult so we are working to get it fixed absolutely absolutely yeah I just wanted to bring it up because there were some students that were a little worried about pulling out of the parking lot and hitting any cars absolutely thank you for
112bringing no problem and like I said we we've replaced them and now we need to find out what the real issue is and the company will be back up that was all I had thank you uh superintendent comments Mr gearbaugh this time of year is always busy and just a lot to share um it's only been two weeks since our last board meeting but I always go through the calendar and kind of look at what's happened so our Milan High School varsity girls soccer team was defeated by Grosse Ile on June 2nd in the district finals the game if you don't know went into overtime and was eventually determined in a shootout it was an incredibly hard-fought game our girls played amazingly well we don't always come out on top but they should be very
113proud of their their actions and their their work on the team the Milan High School Varsity softball team beat Dundee on June 3rd in the district semifinals and then they were defeated by airport in the district finals that same day on the Milan High School varsity baseball team beat Tecumseh on June 3rd in the district semifinals and then they were defeated by Adrian in the district finals that same day I think it's important to go back and hear those three announcements we had three spring Sports in the district finals that's impressive our athletes are just doing an amazing job and are and the thing that I'm proud of is when you also look at our athlete our athletes gpas they're just as impressive and so just great to have well-rounded students in our high school
114um it's also the season of graduations the young adult graduation ceremony was held on June 1st it was absolutely wonderful we celebrated two students graduating and for them graduating means they're 26 years old and they're they're aging out of that young adult program but they we just have such a tremendous young adult teacher and parapros that they will continue to help those students they're helping them get jobs they're helping them transition into the community they've helped them gain the skills to be able to possibly at some point live on their own just an amazing program and it's so exciting I know it's odd to have a great graduation ceremony during the day and I'd like to explain the reason is those students want their fellow students there for the ceremony and they know that some
115of them would not be able to get back in the evening so the students that are graduating actually determine when the graduation ceremony is going to be held and they want it during the day because they feel it's so important to have their fellow students there um the preschool and gsrp programs had graduations on Monday that I attended and tonight which Mr Des arbo was handling for me it's always fun to see the little four-year-olds with their graduation caps on and we should truly and I know we do report it um because all of the students say what they want to be when they grow up and I would love to play that fact for them when they graduate from high school because some of them are have very interesting choices for what they want
116to to do in the future um we we also look forward to welcoming a lot of them back into our kindergarten you know the five classes um Simon's had a very successful field day today I just want to thank everyone it takes a lot of time to plan a field day and it's funny as I looked out on the field today and I think back to my elementary days which I'm sure you all can we all had those field days and those experiences and some of us were better at some things than others but it still brings a smile to my face when I see when I see a field day going on the my own high school senior honors night was held on Wednesday May 24th it was very well done just all of
117the administrators teachers presenters students involved in the program just made the night so very special it's actually one of my favorite evenings of the year because it's so impressive to see the academic athletic career and just general accomplishments of our graduates it's it's kind of the fruits of your labors coming out in one ceremony and I will tell you for a small community the amount of money that organizations and the foundation and everyone gives in scholarships it's it's impressive when you see the total dollar amount that it's handed out in scholarships at that senior honors night and congratulations to all of those students that earn scholarships and Department Awards we did add a new award this year and and I'm so thankful and Mr McMahon had some some work behind this um as you know
118we put a English as a second language director in place and this year at honors night we were able to award numerous students with an award of bilingual which it's actually a state sponsored award the students have to prove that they truly are bilingual through a couple of different methods and they were actually recognized and are given a state level award for graduating from a high school with the ability to proficiently speak two languages the 6th through 12th grade concert was held on Thursday May 25th I was not able to attend because I was at another event but I heard amazing things about it the adult education graduation was that same night Connie Katz hosted a very meaningful ceremony for the graduates it's always great to see their families there and remember adult the adult
119education graduation we can graduate anyone from 19 years old to in the past we've had 75 year olds earning a diploma we did have an older gentleman in this year's graduating class and a lot of students that that just had struggles and couldn't complete day school and come back and work hard and and do earn a myelin diploma um on one of the evenings we had to double up and I will let Mr McMahon talk about why High graduation um I do want to let you know that the district Communications committee met on Monday June 5th the current remembers reviewed all of the applicants that were achieved by a survey that went out District wide the applicant review was conducted in Anonymous fashion so those five current members did not know who they were reviewing
120those five members alone the board member there and I didn't vote but the committee is excited to welcome Sochi Blauvelt William kleiber and Denise Williams as additional members to The District communication committee we will have one more meeting this year to kind of set our goals and the first task next year will be to review the communication questions from the year-end survey and start to really dive into how can we improve our communication methods and and frequencies with our community um the Milan High School Grill and Chill event today wasn't a huge success I think all of the students that were involved we did have two board members there Mrs Gutierrez was there as was Mrs Freight they can now officially work anywhere wrapping hot dogs they did an amazing job and we thank them
121we also had a lot of other community VIPs there the mayor was there some City Council Members it's just great to see those folks come in and help out um some staff news enchantra retnauer assignments paraprofessional lost her mother in the last month um as you know I announced retirements at the last meeting and somehow left Tammy zajac off obviously you're aware after our recognition tonight um and then I did want to let you know that Caitlin Earhart a teacher at Paddock has resigned effective June 13th um she's she's taking a job closer to home in her home community the professional development advisory committee met on Wednesday May 31st the committee had a date great discussion about professional development topics and in the end they approved the the list of topics that we can use
122at our qualified professional development and they include curriculum instruction assessment including data analysis classroom management social emotional learning including trauma informed instruction whole student instruction including climate and culture school safety Including Alice and the management of health issues diversity equity and inclusion anti-bullying and communication so we thank that committee for for setting that list and we use that to guide our professional development opportunities for all of our staff in the district um I also want to let you know I I was able to find the lunch prices I know that question was asked I was able to find them online breakfast is a dollar 25 lunch at the elementary school is two dollars and seventy cents for the base meal and three dollars for the upgraded meal um it's secondary it's three dollars for the
123regular meal and 350 for the upgraded meal and adults are five dollars and 25 cents the last thing I want to say is there was a comment tonight about the budget and the six hour day the six hour day and the transition to a six hour date does not save the district's money that was not the impetus behind shifting from a seven hour day to a six hour day there were a lot of other reasons that that shift was made it was not budgetary thank you Mr gearbox Mr McMahon yep my review announcements tonight thank you um one I want to pass out and if you could help pass down the covid-19 Benchmark achievement goals we've had to do that um every year since 2020 2021 those are the goals based on the NWA red
124scores we set the goals in the fall it's been the same goal for three years Five Points girls on each assessment at Paddock four at Simons and three at the middle school we were able to get the data in as a Friday and uploaded to produce you'll see across every demographic and grade level there's been growth on all three of the assessments throughout the year and we nearly met the goal in every area so we're real proud of the accomplishment of our teachers and students there these results will be posted on our transparency website as required by law you have that in front of you um I do want to share a quick review of the future um learning Council Summit that we took the principals and Brian and I went to a couple weeks
125ago I mentioned the last board meeting we're going to that it was a really great event it is it's capturing the work the Progressive work of districts in the state it's not encompassing all districts it's a select group of like 40 including some isd's and the main topic there was artificial intelligence which I mentioned so we heard some really great conversation for us it was a great opportunity to sort of get our minds around some future planning ideas and some motivation to do that work I am going to be attending a task force tomorrow actually is our meeting for the artificial intelligence task force it's right now like 10 to 15 districts it's our first meeting so we're going to see what what we can create of this but continue that conversation of us staying
126in front of this technology as fast as we can as best we can and trying to find ways to embrace it as a tool for teaching and learning so I'll report back after that meeting tomorrow to you as Mr Gribble mentioned I was able to participate in the y High Washington International High School commencement ceremony we had four students a participating in the ceremony it's a really great event it was at Hill Auditorium it's fun to be there it's very successful program it's it's well renowned they do a really great event so it's cool to be a part of that program and I'm glad we had a handful of students participate and finally I want to just formally thank our teachers principals and support staff for another year under our belt um that we were
127hoping this would be a more normal year I don't know if normal exists anymore since um the Advent of the the pandemic um it was certainly a trying year um maybe in terms of the last four well off to a better start a more normal schedule anyways but compared to previous years prior to covet one of the more challenging as well but the affect of our staff and our leaders was a little different this year instead of whining and succumbing to the pressures and the challenges we faced beginning of the year they became bold and emboldened and empowered and pushed they pushed our kids academically and they pushed our students behaviorally they responded to their needs and we ended up with a very successful outcome and I will say one of the more positive ends
128of the year that I've ever experienced covet or not which is remarkable because it was it's it's hard the teachers are tired they're stressed and they're already talking about things for next year what they're excited about doing next year which you don't always get I mean there's a lot of interesting conversations this time of year the teachers have certainly earned some time but it's really great to see how they responded this year and then the current aspect they have is is terrific and I know they're getting a break soon and I'm looking forward to them having that so that's it for me thank you cool thank you Mr McMahon um board member comments we got a couple items to look at and then we'll get into the comments uh big red chat dates um I
129know Miss Rosen liacher took a look at some of those uh so we'll kind of have a little discussion about that and we can finalize those at our next meeting as well so this Rose will meet you so I looked at the calendar I looked at our tentative board meeting dates for next year that we've reviewed today um and kind of thought how could we do this and and still be really receptive and hear what our community has said so I looked at Tuesdays off board meeting weeks for those big red cats to be held um so the two and looking at it quarterly I literally divided the year up and and and took kind of the middle month of each quarter so it would be August 29th potentially November 28th February 20th and May
13028th and that keeps all of our board chats within the academic school year um so that August 29th is the day after school starts but it keeps it all kind of tightly within the Academic Year just trying to do it in the summer I don't know how much of our community because they're they're in summer mode so um those are the dates I'm proposing I will check those against all the school camera perfect thank you all right cool um the next thing is mesb board member Awards so I do have um I have three awards for two people one of them is Miss Macchio which I will get to her achieve the Platinum board member award level and then I have Awards here for Miss Betty Rosen bleacher she has achieved level one certified board
131member and level two and award Merit so she has obviously been busy Frozen [Applause] all right Other Board member comments Mr sisler yes Mr Sizzler oh I'm sorry I don't I don't think I sound that much like Miss right I just wanted to point out that the middle school is having their Color Run on Monday the 12th and the mentors of the upperclassmen mentors here at the high school will be I believe most of us will be attending okay okay thank you Miss Paul others Mr I can that's I can do Mr Farrell ah just a few comments um earlier tonight um a Community member had referenced that I had concerns about I guess the educational experience that um my kids had at Lincoln Consolidated Schools in short I think most people are aware you
132know we left Lincoln schools because of our concerns we came to Milan because we felt this was a better fit for our kids in terms of our superintendent I believe that Mr gearbaugh is quite capable quite competent you know you don't stay in a superintendent role for an extended period of time unless you're capable and competent and I feel like he does an effective job in managing a very large budget 33 million dollars is a lot of money for our District administration especially Mr gearbon the the accounting team to have to manage in terms of accountability now the seven people elected this board do hold the superintendent accountable um you may not see it in public but we do um I take my job very seriously I know that my fellow board members do as
133well so I just wanted to touch on that also with respect to Lincoln Again part of the reason that uh my personal you know my family moved from Lincoln to Milan was that Lincoln was in a deficit elimination plan and obviously the goal for me as Treasurer the goal I think for this board the goal for Mr gearball I think is to ensure that we avoid a deficit elimination plan so we will continue to be mindful of our budget we will monitor our revenues we will monitor our expenses and we will continue to keep the community informed I also wanted to say a few words about the soccer team I know someone that's on the soccer team they did lose in overtime two over after two overtimes they went to penalty kicks um in a
134district semi-final against uh gross deal that's one of their major uh competitors it was I was not able to be there but I did get play-by-play from some folks my understanding is that the kids left everything on the field they had an amazing season with a first year head coach um I can't say enough about the kids in that program and just congratulations to all of them 8th grade graduation I don't know if it was mentioned but it is Thursday June 8th 6 15 at the middle school gymnasium ninth grade orientation is at the high school on Wednesday August 23rd from 12 30 to 2 30. this day serves as an opportunity for new freshmen to walk their high school schedule open their lockers learn about high school sports and clubs and meet current Milan
135High School students and then finally I want to Echo what Ryan said thank you so much to our teachers our parents our staff our students for a successful year and I hope you enjoy your break thank you thank you Mr Pharaoh others yes it was like um I want to start by all of the community supporters who were here on Sunday for the graduation it was an incredible event it was a great celebration of all of those graduating seniors and all of their accomplishments and it has some version of all of the people that got them to that point it was just a really nice time and then it was great to see so many Community people here supporting their student and you know just enjoying themselves all together in one place so it was
136a great time I also I want to wish all the graduates of the best of luck meant one of you I've known your entire life um many of you I've known since you were like three or four years old and it was just really nice to see this culmination of watching all of you grow up and then walk across that stage and I know all of you have great things in your future so I'm very excited um as I told my own graduate I encourage all of our students to encoding lin-manuel Miranda get your education but don't forget from whence you came we need all of you to come back and be incredible leaders in our community it is a wonderful part of Milan that so many people do come back and give back to
137the community and I encourage all of you to come back too we'd love to see you back here um I also want to thank the staff and administration and teachers that hosted the senior walk through at Paddock I know it can be very disruptive of the day but to see all those little kids in the hallway all the way from preschool up to second grade cheering for our seniors and then seeing the seniors go back to where it started for most of them it's either teachers and to see Mr Des arbo again it was just a real nice completion of the circle for a lot of people and so I do appreciate that event it's not the first one I've attended but it's just always a nice time and then also the Middle School hosted
138some of them who had siblings at the middle school so the seniors then walked over and saw their siblings at the middle school and it was it was just a nice Community event so I appreciate all of that especially in the closing end of the year when everything is already crazy I want to congratulate Echo all the congratulations to all of our spring athletes it was an incredible weekend with the soccer team and the baseball team and the softball team it it's just watching so many of those accomplishments and knowing that most of them are also incredible students it's a true Testament to all of our kids and all of their families and just the work that they put in day in and day out so I wish all of them the best of luck
139and I really can't wait to see what that softball team has next year because I think it's gonna be great um I also want to thank Mr McMahon for these test scores and no test scores come up often in these meetings and so just to give everyone just a little feel for how well our kids did this year um on Paddock if I'm reading this correctly please correct me Mr Man if I'm not at Paddock if you look at all of the students they saw a 15 Point increase from the fall in reading and a 16 point increase in their scores in math at Simon's when you look at all of the students there was a 10 point increase in reading and a 12 point increase in math and then at the middle school they
140had an eight point increase for the year in reading and an eight point increase in math for the year so this is just incredible to me especially at Paddock when you take young kids many of whom have never been at school and just to see that enormous growth in one year is a true Testament um to all of our teachers generally but particularly those at Paddock the way that they can just get those kids in and get them into a routine and the amount of learning that can happen in one year is always incredible so thank you to all of them and thank you to the parents I I don't want to forget the parents that all of this or at least the grown-ups at home because I mean if you're a parent or you
141know a trusted adult to a student you know how much work goes on or needs to go on at home in order to see this type of success too and it's reading at night when you don't want to do anything but go to bed yourself and it's making sure you know math and Elementary School is no joke it's just so I want to commend all of the families that are also helping our students with this growth because the teachers do a lot but they can't do it without the you know grown-ups at home also reinforcing it so thank you to everyone for all your Hardware work cool thank you yes most Gutierrez um I'd first like to thank our graduates across the district I'm a Corporation I love graduation and it doesn't matter if it's
142preschool kids graduating or all the way up to see the joy and the excitement of the graduates as well as the community and the amount of pride that we have of those students is just it's contagious and it's I didn't have anyone graduating this year but I was delighted to attend several of the graduations and it was just joyous and I think it's just a reflection of um the love that this district has for our students and our students appreciation of what this District gives to them and I think we as a community should be very proud of of our students and of ourselves and of the grown-ups in this District who help Foster that that love of learning and love of community as well good luck to the students on their final exams coming
143up in the next couple of days I have a house full of people that are very excited about summer break and their next couple days does not sound quite as daunting his final exams so I wish those of you that have exams good luck my house is full of people who are enjoying their last few days of the school year with really fun things this afternoon I was at Simon's field day and man that was a good time I was running the fastest fourth grader station and we have some Future Track Stars coming up in Simon's but I really appreciate the teachers and the staff who pulled that off to the many many parent volunteers that were there across the day to the PTO who contributed popsicles which were a big hit I know paddocks
144is on Friday and Milan Middle Schools is having their Color Run on Monday as Tom mentioned and so those are highly anticipating painted really joyous times for for students and and I think it's a great capping of the year I'd also like to thank Mr McMahon for these test scores I've been a bit distracted as I've been studying these because you can't just give someone who does data for a living these and without wanting to pour over them in every permutation but I agree with Miss haika's assessment of the positivity coming out of these and if I'm I'm reading these correctly I'd like to highlight for our community that it appears to me and correct me if I'm wrong that in each building in Paddock in Simon's and in the Middle School our students overall
145when we're looking at those buildings overall met the Benchmark from fall to winter and again from Winter to Spring in the reading and math categories and so I think that the message here is extremely positive I think that this reinforces the incredible resilience of our students of our staff of our community in terms of working hard and showing tremendous capacity for growth and we know test scores are not the only metric of the well-being of learning in a building but I think this coupled with what we're seeing on these on the ground in the classroom types of examples anecdotally is is just a very very positive message and so with that it's a great way to end the school year in my mind and it really reinforces my deep deep gratitude to our administrators to
146our staff to our teachers our Paras our lunch monitors our bus drivers our custodians all of the people who make this place tick and I wish them the most relaxing and wonderful summer because I think we all deeply deserve and need a really wonderful summer and a restful summer and I'm extremely grateful thank you thank you others Mr sister yes Miss Murray Jeff just continuing the theme of enjoy here in Milan I wanted to extend a quick shout out and a thanks to the staff and the community and parent volunteers at the middle school as well as some Milan High School students who volunteered at their amazing Shake event which was earlier this week yesterday I've lost track of the days but it was kind of an indoor field day type event with different rotations
147and stations focusing on all different kinds of life skills from being able to calculate a tip to you know having a great handshake and I just thought it was a really wonderful activity for the last week of school and an awesome way to kind of Infuse some of those whole person skills into our curriculum that we don't normally get a chance to focus on and it was just really cool to see again that wraparound support our parents our grown-ups our staff and then our high school students coming back to you know support the younger students and then similarly I'd like to thank the Milan High School GSA students and staff for all of the work that they've put in their big event is coming up tomorrow at Wilson Park The Pride picnic and all of
148the associated events going with that it's just amazing to see how that event has grown over the last couple of years and how it truly has become a school and Community Partnership in the effort to um create this environment of inclusion acceptance understanding and support around that community so just really appreciate all of those efforts and I'm looking forward to seeing all of the fruits of their labors and then I think that was about it thank you cool thank you I can hear you I'm sorry it's truly me um I just would like to thank um the board and Brian and Andrew for inviting the teachers here tonight because although I know we do the um retirement um where we're celebrating a little bit more and you get to do a little bit more personal
149it's nice to be able to as a board be able to see them um several of them had impacts on my life so I really appreciate the opportunity to just be able to say thank you and I do um wish them the best in retirement as well as summer to our staff just to take off Ryan and everyone else if I counted correctly we have three and a half days and we'll probably feel like 30 so I hope that the last three and a half you know go smoothly and are as much fun as me and Mrs Gutierrez had today I'm doing the hot dogs and I really appreciate the staff reaching out to us and giving us the opportunities to come in and do those events because it's it's really rather great and I
150will give kudos to was it Penelope that one tug of war pointed out you know when you remember your field day um days it is it's fun to know all those accomplishments it's nice to know that those things are still going on in all of our lives and especially in our kids lives and I really appreciate graduation for all of us it was really fun uh it always is all of our graduation ceremonies are really nice it's incredibly powerful to sit back like Michelle said and just see um all of our students walk across that stage the one in particular we had and I think I talked to a parapa today um I can remember in a paddock as a special needs student and when she walked across that Stadium it's phenomenal very very phenomenal
151um she didn't walk as well as a incoming student and so it was phenomenal to see her walking around let's go little Jaden um I also want to thank sorry um our PR groups because our ptos and all of our groups they come out and do things with our parents it's phenomenal what they do to support our kids our bilingual Awards thank you Brian for bringing those up they were rather phenomenal we had four individuals stand on this stage and also three of them are at home speaking it because they came across that naturally by birth we did have one and Ryan might remember his name who was an English-speaking individual but it tested and got the state certification I believe on the on his diploma for being bilingual in Spanish so it was really
152rather neat um a part of our ceremony to have four of our students come out and get that and receive the special cords and do all that it was very neat to experience and have all of that it was an awesome honors night and again I think the board for allowing me to be a part of that I really appreciate appreciate it and I wish us all well we'll still be here but our staff are really restful and peaceful summer and cannot look forward to I very much look forward to them coming back thank you Mr cell thank you Mr Ray Mr sisler yeah it's Mr rosenleacher so while there's so much to celebrate I do want to point out to all of our eighth grade parents please please please if you haven't read the
153newsletter from Mrs Jasper that came out please look at that your child will be getting their ninth grade schedule on Friday and it's the only paper copy they'll still be able to access their schedule later in the summer on PowerSchool but if you want that paper copy in hand they're getting it on Friday so I think that's just a really important reminder those newsletters are chock full of great information so thank you to Mrs Jasper for sending those out um I'd also like to Echo what everyone else has said about our graduates I will tell you for the first time sitting sitting on that stage looking out and being able to see the faces of our students and our families it was just the most joyous moment and hmm I don't know if it's always
154like this I have a hard time remembering from when my daughter's graduated but that graduating class that we had this year celebrated every single student who walked across that stage and that was remarkable from first to last it didn't Wane and everyone in between and the handshakes that we got were Second To None I don't know if they did that in middle school when they were going through I'm guessing well maybe I don't know but what an incredible group of young people that are going out into this world they are going to make such a difference I'm so so honored and proud to be representing them in this community I also like to just say congratulations again to our retirees September will never be the same I promise you that um and then to to
155miss Kashmir just thank you thank you thank you for all that you have done for Milan area schools I am always in awe of our student theater production managers and and the work that they do and it's it's a real credit to you so good luck on your next adventure I'm sure Mr Daniels will do a fine job under your tutoring in and Leadership and finally as this is our last meeting before the end of the school year just take time to breathe enjoy yourselves relax and come back with as much Gusto next year as you've shown to all of us this year so thank you all right I want to thank you all for letting me go last because I have nothing to say um but I do I do I do have a
156few things to say um first I just want to thank some the board members too um I want to thank uh Miss break for being on wasb uh doing the awards night going to the grilling event um I appreciate that um Miss Murray for being our voting representative at wasd to take care of that also attending the young adult graduation and then Mr rosenlitch are filling in for you at the communications meeting on Monday I greatly appreciate that we did miss Tom at graduation but he did attend young adult graduation so we appreciate that and then Ms Gutierrez with the field day and the Girling event too so I I appreciate the board going out and being a part of those celebrations and seeing the great work of the the entire District um I also
157Echo thank you to the student board member student board members look forward to having you next year if you want to continue new it's usually we have a junior and a senior but we have two Juniors so we welcome you back next year say something I actually wanted to speak with you and Mr gearbaugh about that after the meeting okay um and then obviously I want to thank our retirees as well I'm glad that some of them came to be recognized this evening um and then I mean anybody that steps on my own area schools property inside a door to grow our kids in this community thank you so much I think when I start to try to list people I always miss some group so I just want to say thank you to everyone
158who contributes any in any matter to to the growth of our kids because some of those test scores are can be related to a lunch lady or a bus driver as well to get them going on the right start so I greatly appreciate the contributions of everybody it's just not the teachers that are increasing those scores I think everybody has a role in in that and then yes then the I want to Echo what um Miss Rosen liser said about our students because I was gonna she did mention to it again Sunday about the handshakes and I totally agree it's like every one of those was a firm handshake yes sometimes they're not and it just it it makes you makes you proud makes me proud to be a big red be proud to know
159that you know that they that they're competent in in what they know you know what's what's going to be ahead of them even though they may not know exactly what it is but um they left this area they left this school system in confidence because of what they of what they learned and that is the the Legacy that we want to leave so everybody have a great summer we look forward to having you back again in in August not September so any other comments or concerns I don't have the time with me meeting is adjourned at 9 18. [Music]