001foreign I'm not sure I support that we're going to spend the money I'd rather we've delved deeper into um our marginalized and are at risk families and family to try to dig deeper on what kind of communications they need gotcha foreign are we ready Miss Cashmere like to call the order of the Milan Area Schools Board of Education regular meeting for Wednesday September 14th would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good evening thank you for everyone attending thank you if you're watching online all board members are present except for Miss Macchio she is excused as is her open house for her school
002that she teaches at this evening so um we wish her well at that open house we will start off with public comments and just a reminder that this is a meeting of the Board of Education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and it's 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'll be asked to state your name the board determines the amount of time granted individuals or groups to speak each person shall be allowed to speak up for three minutes and I'll give you a 30-second warning and I'll ask you to finish your thought when the timer goes off board members May question speakers but are not obligated to answer questions or
003make 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 is there anyone who would like to address the board hello Rachel Hobbs um so the summer in the middle of the summer I was like oh we haven't received our son's um report card and um beginning of the school year came around and we still hadn't received his report card so during open house I went up to Mr shin and I asked Mr shin um hey we did receive a report card this year um can I get one and he informed me that we're no longer sending out report cards and I said well why is that and
004it was explained to me that there's such a short period from the end of the school year to the reporting period that we can get our grades from PowerSchool well PowerSchool is shut off the last day of school so who knows if there's changes made but I was offered to receive a transcript which I gladly accepted but my question is communication is an issue around here it's something that's been discussed many many times it was discussed in the big red board chat and I wonder how many other parents are aware that Port cards aren't going out anymore or is it just the high school is it all the schools but I think that it's important for for parents to know if their kids are doing well in school and if they're not how they can
005see help because this is a clear communication Gap and we need to close that Gap so I welcome any comments that you have on that thank you thank you Miss Hobbs thank you Miss Hobbs are there others Janet McFall concerned taxpayer stakeholder in early August I wrote a letter to the school board to you and addressed it to Andrew sislow the subject matter was school safety um there was then a copy made for Brian gerbera girbaum specifically the fact that I was talking about the fact that the paraprofessionals from the high school are not given a key when they pull their IEP or special needs students to another classroom so in the event of a shooter they're told just to run or barricade the door and that was at the Alice training that question was
006asked and that's what they were told so um then so Brian did promise me after the August 10th meeting when this has brought to their attention to my to the attention by myself that this would be rectified before school began and so some of you may know I am um a past employee as a parent so I have many para friends and I am told that no they do not have keys they were not given keys they were not given a plan there was one person that said that maybe go to the cafeteria but that is not a secure area in that type of situation I realize the funds are not available yet or you're going to have the audit coming up in October and then something good could be stable could be put in
007place but what about until then let's make sure that the kids are safe that the pairs are safe these are IEP and special needs kids and they have as much value as our general education students so the only key that the pairs were given were one something to do with the cafeteria here at the high school and I was looking at the Strategic plan for my linear schools and in the belief statement it states that you believe in providing a safe and nurturing environment so that's would definitely apply to this you also believe in offering relevant learning so if and and when I talk about relevant learning I I'm very very concerned about the books that are basically trashed and x-rated that are needing to get out of the libraries um anyway this strategic plan
008is true then these Paras would have been given a plan or a key or something to keep their students safe thank you thank you all are there others all right next up on the agenda is routine matters for approval I need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of August 23 2022. moved by pharaoh support by kyger it's been moved and supported to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of August 23 2022 discussion hearing none it's been moved and supported to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of August 23 2022 Miss haika Kiger yes yes haika yes motion carries 6-0 next I need a motion to approve the minutes of the closed session of August 2020 23rd 2022 moved by pharaoh support by Kiger it's been moved by moved and
009supported to approve the minutes of the closed session of August 23rd 2022 those minutes can be found in the manila folder oh well manila folder inside the color folder it's double double contained um any questions or concerns all right it's been moved and supported to approve the minutes of the closed session of August 23 2022 Miss Ika Rosen liacher yes Cislo yes Pharaoh yes Freight yes hika yes kyger yes motion carries 6-0 if you could pass those down to miss haika I'd appreciate it next up I need a motion to approve the bills and reimbursement of expenses moved by pharaoh support by Rosen liacher it's been moved and supported to approve the bills and reimbursements of expenses discussion hearing none it's been moved and supported to approve the Bill's reimbursement of expenses Miss haika teacher
010yes hero yes Freight yes hika yes kyger yes motion carries 6-0 next up on the agenda in support of strategic plan business of personnel and Leadership we have the following teacher appointments I need a motion to appoint the following people to the teaching positions listed in the base salaries listed effectively Angie Wagner for Paddock young fives Lori fluke for assignments t-shirt consultant Jared Aikens from Milan Middle School teacher consultant and Daniel Adler for a Milan High School Ela teacher moved by pharaoh support by kyger it's been moved and supported to appoint the following people to the teaching positions listed the base salaries listed effective immediately discussion welcome to Milan Mr gearbox can you run us through the process that was used to post this position and interview these individuals yeah so we have a defined
011board approved hiring process for certified positions it requires that we post the positions out on all of the state websites as well as our own Milan Area Schools website we also more recently have been reaching out to universities and student teaching advisors other districts any possible candidates that we can find we look amongst the sub pools that we have um we post the position everywhere we can possibly get it we then have a first round interview process that takes place at the building and involves teachers and the administration at the building sometimes there's multiple steps in that process and then the final candidates are brought to me I interview those candidates and we make a determination as who we would like to hire a couple of these positions are for TC's we are using a
012new law approved by the state of Michigan that allows a currently certified teacher to be emergency certified to be a special ed teacher because the the number of special education teachers available in the state of Michigan is very very low most districts are down numerous people there is a law that now allows you to do that and then the state is actually funding the first half of that person's master's degree towards getting a special education teaching certificate so they have to be a certified teacher we then ask for an emergency certification for Special Education certification that person starts in a program the state will pay for the first half we are working with the ISD to use special education funds to pay for the second half so we've gotten creative and we're using all of
013the tools at our disposal to make sure that we have the supports in place for mylinary school students thank you Mr kibble yes um so most of the the direct teacher the young fives and the ELA are just replacement like refilling correct correct and then the TC's are they also stepping up to refill they are refilling or they are adding where our caseloads require us to have additional okay so no additional new teacher correct no and then if I am informed correctly we still have a seventh grade long-term sub that we're still looking for we have a seventh grade long-term English position I do know that um we've had two people that have been in that position and then accepted full-time teaching jobs elsewhere um I know that interviews were conducted today I have not
014had a chance to talk with the Middle School principal to see if we have a new long-term substitute we basically need to cover that position until Thanksgiving okay that's a substitute situation that's a substitute situation I appreciate any other questions or concerns all right it's been moved and supported to appoint the following people to the teaching positions listed in base salaries listed effectively immediately Angie Wagner to Paddock young fives where he fluked to Simon's teaching consultant Jared Atkins to Milan Middle School teaching consultant Daniel Adler to Milan High School Ela MS haika Cislo yes Pharaoh yes Freight yes high cut yes kyger yes Rosen leacher yes motion carries 6-0 next up in their strategic plan area of communications and community community engagement we have a strategic plan scorecard update as included in attachment a we
015reviewed this with the Mr gearbaugh as part of his routine evaluation um um check-in and he's going to walk us through that at this time so the scorecard is updated following each of my quarterly evaluation updates um this scorecard was part of the board pack that was put out on the website it has also been uploaded to the Strategic plan section of the milanary schools.org website earlier today so a couple of different ways this is updated first for each of the objectives under each of the Strategic plan goals they are color coded by the Board of Education during my evaluation update if something is green it is determined that objective is met but we need to continue working in order to maintain that level of support for that item If an item is ranked as
016yellow that means that the objective is on track but we are not necessarily completed with it and if a item is code or coded as red it means that the objective is not met and there is still work to do throughout the school year so you can see under each of the academic goal areas and this is all linked to the Strategic plan so there's an academic programs there's a goal and then there are three objectives that we are working on so you'll notice that the color coding may have changed it may not have changed and on the website you can go back and look at previous versions of the scorecard the other thing that I update is as information becomes available there is information that we were asked to include under these categories so
017at this time we still do not have the m-step data we just received our data files and we've provided that in the last couple of days to the software company that then takes those files and turns them into a piece of software that allows us to pull out all of the student growth percentiles and all of those things that we look at so by the next update we should be able to have those scores to you we do have the nwea math and Ela scores at the three buildings so those have been updated in the three-year weighted average has been updated as well we were able to provide the myelin and the state average for the SAT test but we are not yet able to determine our peer schools as determined by masb as again
018we don't have that file to be able to upload it into the software that does that for us I was at my last update asked to include AP course data and so I worked with Mr shin and you can see for the 2021 school year what we included were the total number of students who were taking AP courses the total number of students that had a three or higher on a test that they took and then the percent of AP students who had a three or higher on a given test um for 2122 we provided that same information and they also now providance with information on AP Scholars with an AP Scholars with honors and the number of AP Capstone diplomas that we issued um we do receive other data on AP test scores but
019it's never appropriate and it's highly recommended by the state of Michigan and mde that you never divulge information on groups of students that have less than 10 so giving any kind of information on each specific class would would not be appropriate so this is the culmination of the data that we have and will provide on the scorecard on the next page those numbers for the number of participants in all of those sports are still last year's numbers as we haven't started to collect those numbers yet and a lot of the sports haven't even started so we will throughout the year work on updating those numbers um we did update the promotion and retention we did have a kindergartner that was retained so that is not 100 promotion at the kindergarten level we are still waiting
020for graduation rates to come out for 2022. um the date is there and right now we have the ability to review that data and question any individual students and that process is happening I think that's due it was either due at the end of last week or or middle of this week and so hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will get graduation rate data from the state of Michigan once it's finalized and I'll be able to update that at the next scorecard um under learning environments just uh we do at the big red board chat it was brought up we need to make sure that we add robotics as part of an extracurricular activity okay so I can do that and I do I I believe this is the first AP Capstone diploma
021that we've had at Milan High School so that's quite an honor as well yes we are proud of that um in the next section learning environment under attendance again the only month that we have completed is August there were three days of school in August so I did give you those attendance percentages at each of the four buildings and I was asked at the last um update to make sure that we maintain the previous year's data so um I just left last year's data in and then I I put this year's data below that and we'll just continue to fill those in as we roll throughout the year with the discipline actions I did the same thing so you can see all of last year's data there and then I began inputting this year's data
022so you have the information for the three days of August and then in the communications committee I do not believe there were any updates as to the forms of communication you can see the lists of methods that we use to communicate with our community um and the personnel and Leadership you can see this teachers who we have hired all of those have been board approved and then you can see the resignations and retirements that occurred and then other under finance and operations we did update the scorecard to include the fund balance and fund balance above 10 percent numbers based on the June 30th um Amendment to the budget and soon we will be able to provide those based on the audit and then start working on that as we do a new amendment in December
023January on the 23 budget so again if there are any questions I can answer them and I will make sure we get robotics added it's it's in the elementary schools the Lego league and middle school and middle school all right I will make sure that we add that and just for transparency as Mr Cislo mentioned there were a bunch of topics that were brought up in the bigger board chat that I'll up forward to you Brian about suggestions of adding to a few things so any other questions regarding the scorecard thank you Mr gearbaugh next up I need a motion to recommend Andy rabbenick to the Washington Intermediate School District Board of Education for approval to the Washington Intermediate School District parent advisory committee motion by Rosen liacher support by kyger it's been moved and
024supported to recommend Andrea Bennett to the Washington Intermediate School District Board of Education for appointment to the Washington Intermediate School District parent advisory committee discussion Miss Bennett is here yeah thank you for attending she was also at the big red board chat thank you for attending that as well are there any questions or concerns regarding this motion does that committee meet monthly thank you we appreciate Mrs Benny volunteering um it's been a while actually since Milan's had someone on that committee and so we are excited the way this process works is we seek volunteers we got one we're excited to have that you then make a recommendation to the wisd board and at their next meeting after receiving this recommendation they will then vote on appointing her onto the committee and then she can start
025attending those meetings as a member of the committee so thank you Mrs Bennett for your your offer of time and and input into that important committee thank you all right it's been moved and supported to recommend Andrea Bennett to the Washington Intermediate School District Board of Education for appointment to the Washington Intermediate School District parent advisory committee maseka yeah yes great yes hi guy yes kyger yes Frozen leecher Yes Cislo yes motion carries 6-0 next up we return to public comment and just a reminder this meeting is a meeting of the Board of Education in public for the purpose of conducting the Sewell District business it's 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'll be asked
026to state your name the board determines the amount of time granted for individuals to speak each person shall be allowed to speak up to three minutes and I'll give you a 30 second warning and ask to finish your thought when the timer goes off 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 will be referred to the superintendent for advisement investigation study and our recommendation are designated as future agenda items for board consideration is there anyone that would like to address the public or address the board I apologize Andrea bennick thank you I look forward to being a Pac representative assuming that the wisd committee approves membership as well I'm excited to start you know
027working as a liaison between the wisd and Milan area schools I'm looking forward to learning more about the process and and and helping parents and staff work together and collaborate so thank you for that as a parent I will say that possibly you could add into the scorecard that their milanary schools does have a trap Team for seventh and 8th grade as well as 9th through 12th grade as an opportunity that's you know not necessarily art and not necessarily sport but an extracurricular that's an option for students who may be looking for something else to do did you say trap I'm sorry that's what I thought I just went because when I first I was like we do have a track team but sorry yeah yes absolutely and so I I just thought that maybe
028that could be added as well um thank you thank you Miss Bennett are there others hello Rachel Hobbs again um so I was really happy about the big red board chat um I was late um so I missed a great portion of it but I think it's important for the board members who weren't present that there were a lot of issues that were discussed that aren't necessarily appropriate to bring not necessarily appropriate but um board member board meetings aren't necessarily the place to discuss some of those issues um so I appreciate you guys giving an opportunity giving us an opportunity to talk I really truly hope that you consider what was being said and realize that you're not going to get this information in the board meetings you're not going to get them necessarily in
029the grocery store at the bank or whatever you know when people hear some of these discussion they piggyback off of each other so it's really important that you guys are listening um I I have noticed a lot of new hires I'm curious um that seems higher than what it's been in past years so I'm curious if the district is doing any sort of exit interviews and why we have such a high turnover rate because that's not good for our students we need stability um trying to think I have one other thing but [Music] slipped my mind but anyways I appreciate tonight was great it was very civil and um I think good discussions were had so um you guys hopefully enjoy them too thank you Miss Hobbs are there others hello George Elder I was
030wondering if we could look into the middle school lunches because my daughter's packing double lunch for a girl that gets free lunch and the lines are too long and you know I'd hate to see somebody go without cha because they're not having time to get in line for the lunches thank you Mr Elder hi Holly blade um yeah what Rachel said I thought the big red board chat was really good um even though there might have been some anxiety ahead of time I think it was handled really well and I think we all um we all were able to have some really good discussions about things that people are concerned about and just ways that might be able to make things better for some students and parents um I know there's been an issue that's
031come up over the last few days about something going on with the seventh grade class with a forum that went out to the students asking them if they had a nickname to use and if so um was it something that that the teacher could share with the parents and I know that form was given to the students and then retrieved from the students before the end of class so it wasn't a form that actually went home that parents saw and obviously there are some parents that I think is reasonable that saw that and thought well this is concerning because that's not something that normally would have happened that we would have been aware of and I just would like to express what the concern was the concern this story came up and and someone contacted
032me from a neighboring District about what's happened in their family and I think it's important for you guys to understand that this is how it's impacting families that are just a few miles from here and in that district there was an eighth grade girl who felt left out and didn't have a group didn't have somewhere she belonged and in that district there was a large group of kids in eighth grade that are LGBT and they invited her in and but in order to really be a part of their group she had to all she had to to be a part of that so she decided that she identified as transgender and changed her name I'll use her name uh instead of her name being s she said her name was T and so when she
033was asked about it from the teachers she told them and then she said my parents don't know about it so it was held from held back from the parents so there's It's a Small Town some of the teachers know the family and they know the parents and also they've never been expected to do this before so there were some teachers who raised concerns you know I'm going to have parent-teacher conferences and this person's going to come in and you're saying that I'm I'm calling their child tea but when they come to meet with me I have to call their child s and the leadership of the district said absolutely you do you absolutely have to do that whether you agree with it whether you feel good about it you have to lie to those parents
034and hide this from them and then the principal had an issue the principal was told that they had to do that um so from the superintendent school board was notified of it the school board checked with the attorneys the attorneys said well you know yeah it's probably better you just don't tell anyone so the school board didn't tell the family even though they have personal relationships this went on for nine months until finally one of the staff members it was too bothered and when the mother contacted them for something else they ended up expressing their concern about this they went home they talked to their daughter they are very loving family they were not condemning their daughter expressed to them that she just she really liked having friends she's not transgender she's not considering herself
035that way but she just enjoyed the fact that she really felt like she belonged to a group so she said but I I'm not so I mean yeah it's fine I I won't I won't be called tea I'll go back to being called us um she now hasn't doesn't have that group either so I mean so she ended up losing all those friends my point in saying this is that there was a counselor that retired over this because she absolutely could not stand the thought of having to be put in a position where she could not express this kind of stuff to parents where she was withholding information there were teachers who were caught in the middle of this feeling like they had to do things that were against what they felt was right there
036were administrators who were also told not to do that and they didn't feel right about it either and they were threatened with disciplinary action if they were um all in all the while this family this was going on in this child's life and the parents didn't even know about it and it wasn't because the child was in danger it was just because there's a policy to withhold this information from parents that's a really dangerous precedence to set that um that we never majority of parents that I've talked to never gave you any school the authority to do that and to withhold that kind of information so this is something that's happening in in people's lives that you you may cross their paths even at the grocery store so I just wanted to make sure that
037you guys understood that's where that concern is coming from these are real life experiences and this is not about people who are not accepting of people who are in the LGBT community that's not what this is about this is about the fact that we have concerns about teachers and other adults in this in the district who are complicit in keeping secrets with our children from us and that is just a I mean if you don't see why that's a dangerous precedent then I I don't know what to tell you so thank you thank you Miss William are there others hello Jamie mcelvaney um I just wanted to say I don't have anything prepared but I just wanted to share a story with that first of all I do agree that the the big red chat
038was it was great it was great for us to all kind of just sit there and not be uh at each other's throats the way we always are and it's something that I just wish Milan could set the example for the rest of the state I mean if we could if we could just learn to communicate better with each other one another I mean it's like I am on the extreme on this side I I'm not Extreme as far as my views and that kind of thing but I mean my stance and the complete opposite of let's say you know one of the guys over here and but the thing is is we we all just love the kids the kids I'm sorry I have a love for these kids just the same as these
039other people do just because we raise our kids differently you know I I raise my kids to try and save themselves till marriage so I personally am not okay with the books that are in these schools and I do have them lined up to um for the challenge it bothers me that we have to go through such a long process to challenge these books when there's other school board meetings where the superintendent left crying after she heard the books there's another school board meeting where the superintendent said get those books out of that library right now and put them in my office like it's just why do I have to fight why do other parents have to fight to get a book out that because they're claiming it's because we don't want lgbtq kids in
040in the in society or we don't want black children to feel welcomed in society that such bold-faced lies I don't think a black child needs to see a book where a little girl is sucking her daddy's d-i-c-k I'm so sick of even saying these words because the shock value just doesn't even matter anymore I mean after the last meeting when I read the book about the little girl going down on her mom and dad the the other side of the community went on Facebook and showed the book and said I love this book we're all gonna read it we're gonna sit in our garden and drink tea and make sure my husband doesn't bother me well good for you because you're a grown adult you are an adult and why should my children I'm lucky
041my kids are all grown but I care about everybody's children I care about children in general and the innocence in their mind that these books well why did the lgbtq child need to see that the 17 year old boy raped his seven-year-old cousin by having him give him a blow job and and having anal sex with him what does that have to do with us not wanting lgbtq kids to feel welcome that has nothing to do with it we don't want sexually explicit pornography being shoved into our kids brains at their school I went to a library today that had a display that had banned all over these books the first thing you walk in and I said what's this all about she said these are it's Banned Book week so these books I go
042these books are banned from where well they're being challenged I go then why do you have a band all over it you should have challenged all over it well because it's Banned Book week I go that's a bold-faced lie and you want kids to come in and be drawn right to this big red display I said do you know these books have and I went through some of the things these two Librarians an older lady and a younger lady had no idea they didn't even know that genderqueer had pictures of blow jobs they didn't know that funhome had pictures of oral sex on a woman they didn't know that Jack of all Hearts talked about anal sex and lubing up your a-hole and switching condoms before you switched holes they didn't even know these books
043existed the Librarians we had a 20-minute conversation that was amazing and both of us saw eye to eye I would love to come together with these guys I'm willing to speak with these guys and sit down and try and understand why they think it's okay that kids across Michigan have books that teach them how to have anal sex with their older cousin and what talks about going down and sucking their daddy's dick while the white drips off of it why is that okay it's not [Applause] good evening my name is Beth Vandergrift I live in the city of Milan and I have two children who currently attend Milan area schools first I would like to update the board about the fundraiser that we had over summer over the summer to raise money for our school
044libraries and to show our support of our library staff as they continue to endure baseless accusations of pushing pornography on our children the rhetoric online around this has become so escalated and so derogatory toward our library staff but I fear it's become more than Reckless that it's now become dangerous and I'm concerned that social media sites that post about this frequently calling anyone who supports schools earning books that they personally don't approve of quote perverts disgusting groomers pedophiles sick twisted and predators that these sites might through this repeated misinformation and defamation convince a follower that they should act on their inflamed anger and I fear that someday our staff might be physically targeted I hope it never comes to that but it is a very real concern that I have so the fundraiser I'm leaving
045for a few days and I set what I thought was a lofty goal of 500 on the morning of July 20th by the time of the Boe meeting that evening our community had already raised 400 a concerned parent was streaming the meeting from home and saw the public comments and they decided right then to donate 100 during the meeting which caused us to reach our goal in less than 12 hours over the next few days we received even more donations and after fees I'm happy to report that I was able to deliver a check for 660 dollars and one cent directly to the district librarian for the library staff to use in any way they like with nose Trends attached it makes my heart fall to know that we have such an amazing Dynamic and
046supportive Community here in Milan and that so many community members are willing to show up to support our schools I'm very proud to be a part of Milan right now and I am grateful to everyone who donated shared and sent messages of support regarding that Facebook post by a public figure targeting the 7th grade science teacher for passing out a form in which the teacher inquired what name they'd like to use and ask the food is okay to use that name in front of their parents this teacher is following state of Michigan Boe guidelines issued in 2016 and I personally am so happy that they are I think any kind should be able to be called by whatever name or nickname makes them comfortable but this is especially important for our lgbtq kids as these
047guidelines have been in place for six years now Statewide which is why I'm surprised that anyone was surprised by them these guidelines advise teachers to ask if it's okay with the child to use the child's preferred name around the parents this is not anything new other teachers have done this before as they should both in our district and all across the state according to these well-established guidelines however not long ago another Mas teacher asked her students for their preferred pronouns and it blew up into this like crazy controversy that I wish could somehow have been called by a statement of support of the teacher by the board or the superintendent's office I don't know what you're allowed to say or how your hands are tied when it comes to public comments but these teachers are
048following Boe State guidelines and I think they should be applauded for doing their jobs this accusation of a teacher encouraging students to keep secrets from their parents which is not what this is at all and the comments under that Facebook post that of course quickly went to grooming it frustrates me I don't think it's um responsible of a public figure to allow that commentary to continue I wish it hadn't been encouraged but it was it happened it's out there so now I would hope that either the board or the superintendent's office could issue a statement explaining that asking for names and pronouns are well established guidelines issued by the state Boe and that our district supports our teachers who are following these guidelines I appreciate all of these teachers who are looking out for all
049of our kids and who are showing respect for our lgbtq students and are doing their best in an understaffed District like all the area districts and an uncertain World emerging from a pandemic we need to stand up for our teachers before we lose them all and I really hope that the board can find some way to communicate to families that this isn't Rogue Behavior by an activist teacher that these are simply well-established State guidelines and I hope that the board and or the superintendent's office can continue to encourage teachers to use these practices because they make a world of difference to our kids thank you thank you Mr Vandergriff [Applause] are there others Janet McFall she didn't show you the book it was called push why are we putting trash and spot in front of
050Education come on Educators stay with education and think first about the children not the smut that's in these books and teachers are asking for information about children and offering to keep secrets from their parents wrong that is grooming that is I'm just sick and I'm my heart is sick foreign I respect you guys but you know there's just a lot to be said thank you Miss McFall Ashley St Claire I'm one of the parents one of the community members who sat in my garden sipping tea asking my husband not to bother me so that I could read this smut book pornography is meant to turn somebody on you know it when you see it and I'm sorry I read this entire book and this book is heartbreaking and the things that this little girl had
051to go through in her life are heartbreaking but if you read a part of a book and mind you when the parts of this book are being read those are sentences randomly throughout the Book of this little girl having horrible memories of growing up and what she had to go through but if you read a part of a story where a little girl is being sexually abused by her father and you think that someone is being turned on by it you are sick and there is something wrong with you if that's what you get from reading this book this book is one of the most heartbreaking but powerful books I have ever read I am a white woman I went to school here in Milan which has been consistently 98 white my entire life I
052had no idea the things that people had to go through who didn't get to grow up as privileged as we are you read the book and her her spelling is wrong and and and the way that she phrases things is wrong in the beginning because she is illiterate and she can't read and she can't write and she does everything she can to get into good schools and better schools schools that are meant to help teenage girls who can't read and can't write and she has a child and she's doing everything she can to make herself better so that she can have a better life to give her kids a better life and if you think that that story is pornography then there's something wrong with you and please actually read the book and stop just
053listening to the excerpts that are taken from it and take the time it took me less than a day to read this book and when Mrs mcelvaney came up here and she was reading the descriptions of these books and these excerpts I felt ill and that's why I wanted to read them because I wanted to know the basis behind what these stories are so if you're going to come up here and say that this book about this girl who brought herself up when she was brought down by her family and forgotten about her schools and forgot about her community and had to walk to school and had to and had to get change enough to be able to get food and needed to borrow a pencil from somebody so that she could go to school
054and get herself an education to become a better person read the book thank you Miss Sinclair [Applause] foreign are there others please order order all right next item of business is superintendent comments Mr Dearborn thank you several things to share this evening I've been sharing this uh for months but we want to remind everyone that the program that provided free lunches for all students in the previous school year is now no longer in place messages were sent out to families about how to apply for free introduced lunch we do urge any family that feels that they qualify for free or reduced lunch to fill out the application that's available at milanareeschools.org it will get reviewed and then we'll get approved if it meets the standards those standards were included in the email message that went
055out to the community and they are available on our website the district also wants to remind all community members that we offer a free preschool program to eligible families eligibility for the great start Readiness program requires that families incomes be below 250 percent of the federal poverty line that is a criteria set by the state of Michigan if you have any specific questions about this program or our other Early Childhood programs please feel free to contact Miss Lisa mellinger at 734-439-5159 um it seems like it's been a while since we've been together at a board meeting actually the last boarding was prior to the start of school so um it sounds a little weird now but the first week of school was an amazing week the facilities were cleaned and ready to go Transportation drop
056off pickup went very smoothly food service was up and running most importantly it was great to see life back in the hallways of the buildings teachers were teaching students were learning our staff and students did an amazing job to make the first week a huge success prior to the start of school we had three days of opening professional development we opened on Tuesday with a reintroduction of the Strategic plan and a huge thank you to our staff for their dedication throughout the pandemic on Tuesday and on the remainder of Tuesday and Wednesday the buildings had their own professional development in their schools and on Thursday we had a full day of trauma-informed instruction provided by Dr James Henry the teachers and paraprofessionals attended that session I had several folks approach me and say that it's
057some of the best professional development they have attended we will continue to work with Dr James Henry and have him involved in guiding our committee that is providing training to all of our staff on trauma-informed instruction um since our last board meeting all four buildings had highly successful open houses the principals reported that they had larger some of the largest turnout that they've had in years and they also commented on the Positive Vibes of the students and parents in the hallways the milanary Schools Board of Education meet the candidate Forum hosted by the Milan Area Chamber as scheduled for 7 pm on Thursday September 29th here in this theater The Forum will also be streamed and made available on the school board YouTube channel this is a community's chance to meet and hear the candidates
058speak about important state and District educationally related topics the candidates are George Elder IV Sarah Murray Murphy payer and Betty rosenleacher election day is Tuesday November 8th and the polls will be open from 7 A.M to 8 P.M at The Forum each candidate will respond to five prepared questions in a speech format following that those speeches on the prepared questions the candidates will answer questions collected from the community prior to the event if you would like to submit a question you can visit the current events section of milanareaschools.org and there is a link to a Google form that will allow you to submit a question to the Chamber of Commerce during the 2021 and 2122 school years Milan area schools like every other District in the state was operating under an extended continuity of learning
059plan the ARP Esser 3 act requires each district to now have a return to in-person instruction and continuity of services plan the district has developed a draft version of that plan and we will be seeking Public public input on that plan this plan is required even though mylinary schools has been providing in-person instruction for over a year the components of the plan must Encompass all of the things that are dictated by the act however the content of the plan is developed by the district and must be considered um by the public and we have to provide the public with the right to provide feedback the district will be hosting a community Zoom session on Monday September 26th at 6 PM information about the zoom session is available in the current events section of milanareaschools.org in
060regards to the school safety and the doors at the high school the high school principal and I prior to the start of the school year did tour the building determined which rooms need to be looked at we had a locksmith in it ended up being more than what the locksmith anticipated we are currently awaiting quotes for different methods of addressing that and as soon as we get those quotes we will move forward this is not something we are waiting until the funding for school safety is released by the state this is something that we will address as soon as we get an answer from the locksmith on the best way to proceed I'm a pupil count update I've been working with the building offices to begin the process of determining our pupil count the first
061of the two official pupil count days is October 5th at this time it does appear that our unofficial numbers are very close to the district's projection of 1900 students that was used for the preliminary budget this will be good news as we work on our upcoming budget Revision in November in December I plan to have a more detailed update at the next board meeting regarding our pupil counts thank you Mr gearbaugh Mr McMahon yep good evening I just have one comment and that's to share with you our updated Benchmark assessment goals I have a copy in front of you and they will be posted on our transparency page of our website this is a requirement through some federal funding that we are required to provide benchmark assessments this is something that Milan's been doing for
062a long time before the user fund started and made it a requirement in fact the requirement is that you do a benchmark assessment twice per year once at the beginning the first nine weeks and then once at mid-year and then we provide an update it's by like the first meeting in February and then by the last meeting in June but we've been doing that for a long time so we're just following some guidelines to make it to be in compliance with the law but there's our goals as we get our scores in we'll we'll do a pre and post so the students are already testing we started NWA this week and then they'll take the second round the winner in the you know starting January and then we'll in February give you an update and
063it's all based on growth so you have your goals there in front of you it follows the same template as last year thank you Mr McMahon uh next up is board member comments it's just slow that's right thank you um I just wanted to on a happy note to give a shout out to all of our um uh academics or I mean our athletes this year so far we've had some great successes I know our Equestrian Team has done really well um and I'm just really proud of our students that go out and represent our district I also want to thank the community for coming out to the big red board chat it was we it was very well attended it was very nice to talk with you and have the two-way communication and to
064gain Insight from you I appreciate what you were willing to tell us and look forward to being able to continue that type of discussions and to take back the feedback and and you coming out and sharing your evening with us I also want to thank Mr Guerra for giving me the trauma and um day the PD event that we went to I attended that the entire day it was here um it was invaluable the gentleman was up here and he spoke with us and interacted with all of us and I think the staff walked away with great deal of information and guidance one of the things I found very profound is the gentleman that we had the trauma that did the I can't remember his name doctor James Henderson thank you Dr Henry one of
065the things he worked with um Oxford schools here in Michigan very closely he's been over there we've been with them for um over 16 different meetings with the administration with the students and so forth and one of the things that he said when he met with him is he walked in and asked them why Oxford's strong why strong that it was okay to admit that you are weak that is okay to admit you have disagreements and that you will not go back to a normal to think that you're going to just be strong and get over it doesn't really give way and give credit to the moment that you were weak and that you're still going to be weak and that it is okay to be weak and to reach out when you need that
066help and to find it and I found that a very profound statement and would like to think that and we mentioned in the board red our big red chats um some of the things that we present to you in the scorecard don't look good our scores don't look good our suspensions don't look good we are trying desperately hard to be very transparent with that admit that and fix it is there gonna be an instantaneous mix probably not nothing goes that well nothing gets that quick and we have to work with a multitude of different Dynamics but I think it's important that we admit that we are weak but we are focused and we are determined to do the best that we possibly can with your support moving forward so I thank you for coming out
067tonight to the big reward chats I look forward to even more big report chats and I appreciate our students and our community working together with us thank you Mr sister thank you Miss fruit oh there's Mr sister yes Mr Fair so I do have a finance update before I give the finance update I did want to address um Miss mcelvaney's uh comments at the podium so I'm not sure that I've met Miss mcelvaney but to me um Your Presence at the microphone is a bit different than um on your website let them play um in my opinion you have an aggressive following um and I wouldn't say that everything on your website a Facebook page whatever is um respectful like you're asking um at the podium for everyone to be respectful I couldn't agree more
068um but again uh in my opinion Your Presence at the microphone is far different than what we read online I also wanted to just comment on the fact that in my opinion uh let for those that don't know let them play as this um in my opinion this group that got started as a way to combat the state of Michigan covid restrictions in my opinion it seems to have shifted to let them pray which is um has nothing the group doesn't seem to have anything to do with fighting um covid restrictions in fact it appears that the focus has changed this false narrative that books in our library are pornographic and that certain books are um intended to indoctrinate or groom students the books and the short verses that you quote are not required reading
069the parents are getting parental Choice the students are getting a student choice on what they want to read and not read just like they have the ability to read things on their cellular phone just like they have the ability to get on their laptop computers if you want to manage what they read and not read do that as a parent don't have them check out the books that you don't support and these books that you have quoted I doubt very much that you've read all of them from the first page into the last page um so I'm going to just move on um by the way for those interested some of these books have been in our library since 2017 2019 uh to date there's not been one single book Challenge on any of these
070books that some of these folks are coming to the microphone speaking about with regard to finance the first audit payment to Raymond Robson for the audit has been made and the audit is nearing completion the final payment will be made when the audit is finalized a first reading of the financial audit will be presented during the October 12th board meeting for fiscal year 22 the district has was fairly closed on anticipated Revenue our state revenue was lower than budgeted currently it's in excess of three hundred thousand dollars the bulk of this is due to at-risk Grant funds that were received but not utilized you'll see that this is predominantly offset in expense under added needs on the expense side it appears the district will fare better than projected in terms of overall spend against our
071fund balance the audit has not been finalized but we anticipate depleting the fund balance by approximately 1.1 million dollars also at the moment it appears costs associated with operations maintenance and transportation would be better than budgeted for fiscal year 23 costs associated with operations maintenance and transportation could change based on inflation and other factors as a reminder we will be considering 23 budget revisions in the month of November or December also I just want to remind the community about the Kennedy Forum uh which is September 29th at 7 pm here at the high school also at the Middle School Miss Jasper and Mr Sandberg has scheduled a coffee with principals at 8 45 in the middle school conference room if you're interested please RSVP finally the high school recently disseminated an email about the sunshine
072Club this group is seeking donations via Sign Up Genius The Sign Up Genius consists of the top requested items by teachers students counselors social workers paraprofessionals and secretaries some of the items being requested would would not be what you expect while some items might not be typical supplies listed the items requested are intended to build the high school culture and morale if you have any interest in donating please contact the high school thank you very much thank you Mr Farrell Mr Cislo may I I one thing I forgot I'm sorry for sure Tom reminded me um I was asked as me and Mrs rosenlichar the representatives um for Simons to remind everyone that Simon's is currently doing a fantastic Fall fundraiser it'll go to September 29th you can donate or they'll take your and your
073money in any form you feel free to bring them cash check PayPal or however it's all being ran specifically through our Simon's PTO so no Outside Agency is doing anything if you have any um need to find any more information please contact the Simon's school and they will be happy to help you guide them in the fundraiser it goes with the day of awesome they did a day of awesome last year and all of our kids three through five had a fantastic time so we'd appreciate your support sorry Dan no thank you to Simon's PTO and Miss Jody Franklin she was at the big red board chat so we appreciate her passing that on to you sorry I forgot are there others Mr sislow yes Mr rosenlacher I would also like to thank the community
074who came out today for our big red board chat that was my first time at a big red board chat and it was very insightful it was very respectful um and I really appreciated the insights that we learned during that time together today so thank you to everyone who was there thank you are there others just want to give another thank you to Mrs Bennett for volunteering her time to represent our our district thank you for sure thank you I'll just I'll go I'll Echo the uh the big red board chat uh I appreciate the community coming out we did have a large turnout which was great um we were we weren't able to get through the entire strategic plan but we did have a lot of good dialogue um back and forth which I
075thought was very valuable um most of the themes were around school security communication and then potentially some peer-to-peer opportunities that we can nurture within the school which relates well to the the mission statement involving community of Learners so definitely look forward to those I think Mrs Powell for being present and helping us along with that as well is Avery we did have a student in participation which was helpful in regards to some of the things that were discussed so I do look forward to that um to those to having those in the future so a psycho um first I want to welcome our new staff members that we approved tonight welcome to the district and I look forward to the great things you're going to bring to the district I want to thank everyone who
076attended the big red board chats tonight as you know only three board members at a time can attend so I wasn't there for that reason but I appreciate all the community members that came and I look forward to a rundown of the topics that were brought to everyone's attention uh I want to congratulate the girls swim team they beat the Dexter swim team last night pretty heartedly and so it was a great win for them um the girls were all fired up and it was just nice to see um The Swim Club came to support them Chelsea was there also so there were just a lot of people in the pool a lot of cheering a lot of teenage girls supporting each other cheering each other on and helping each other when they did well
077and helping each other when they didn't do quite as well as they had hoped and so it's just nice to see all those kids even kids from other teams supporting each other and being there especially girls because I know that that especially high school and middle school that that can be a problem sometimes so I was very proud of all of them um I agree that we need to have some appropriate discussions about many of the issues that our our district faces um that's really hard to do when you as someone who disagrees with the position is labeled a pervert sick gross and a groomer um I've made it very public I've read all of the books that were brought up I read them with the exception of one and I keep meaning to pick
078that up with the exception of one I've read them all and I read them because I thought it was very important to understand the context of everything that was going on and I still encourage the community to read these books from cover to cover um and after reading them I would agree that my I'm not sure why that's funny but I would agree that my freshman is not emotionally ready to read push she isn't but that's why as a mother we talk about the books that she's reading I monitor the things that they're watching the books that they're reading their check the books they're checking out from the school because I know my child and I have that relationship with all three of them that we have those conversations I do believe she's emotionally ready
079to read all boys aren't blue and identical but we would still have conversations about the content of those books um in the Prelude to all boys aren't blue the author States and I'm paraphrasing here that he didn't think he was old enough and he didn't have enough life experience to write a memoir but people encouraged him to write the memoir and he said that eventually he wrote the Memoir because he had wished that there had been a book as he was growing up that he could have read where he would have seen himself in that book and while the book does recount an instance of where he is sexually abused by an older cousin some of the portions that were read out loud and were mentioned again today are separate events that are pushed all
080together and while he recounts that instance of abuse he talks about it much later and he talks about it in the context of how he dealt with that as an adult and how he through through therapy and learning about himself was able to forgive that cousin because he realized that cousin had probably also been abused he understood there now as an adult that there was a cycle of abuse and that it needed to be talked about so that you could break the cycle and that's why he wrote the book and the vast majority of the book those are two very small sections of a larger context and the larger context of that book is about the importance of family the importance of forgiveness The Importance of Being Who You Are and how you persevere through
081trauma and I think those are all very important lessons that we want to send to our students so I am going to make the personal parental choice that if my daughter my high schoolers want to read all boys aren't blue I will let them if you have a different Choice that's okay but that doesn't make me a groomer it doesn't make me a pervert it just means that maybe my child may be in a different position than your child and that's all okay but we can't have these conversations if there's going to be name calling on either side we can't do that and have a good productive conversation so I think that's where we have to start that's that's all I have to say thank you Miss Aiko any other comments concerns meetings adjourned at
0828 12.