001All right. Good evening everyone. We're going to go ahead and get started. Can I have roll call, please? >> Mr. Antoine >> here. >> Mrs. Bonnik is absent with notice. Mrs. Bowman is also absent with notice. Mr. Ber >> here. >> Miss Chahakei here. Mrs. Iicor >> here. Okay. >> All right. Let's rise for the pledge. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America >> and to the republic >> for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Can I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? >> Support moved by Ber, supported by Antoine. Any questions? Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> All right. We're going to move on to our spotlight then. Dr. Robinson. >> Maybe. >> All right. So,
002it is February and February is uh CT awareness month. So, we're highlighting some things from career and technical education in the district. I'm going to invite uh Mrs. Dawson up, our fabulous CTE director. Good evening board. How is everyone today? All right. Well, I don't want to be up here by myself, so I am going to ask um our MCTIA winners to all come and join me, please, first. So, um but thank you guys for having us. U we're always really thankful here for all the support that we get here um in Romeo with our CTE programs. We're really successful. Um where's Brian? Oh, you want to come up too, Brian? uh we're very successful because we have the support of the board, the community, the parents, uh the teachers, the students, um everyone here.
003So, we're very thankful. Um February also is a great time to recognize CTE because I feel like at this point of the year, all this hard work that you guys have been doing at, you know, from September on really starts to take, you know, wind. We're going in competitions. um all the training that the kids have done and the projects just really are just being brought up to light right now. So, it's a great time of year. And also in February, like Dr. Robinson said, uh MCTIA always awards um they always nominate two only two students and one business partner from each school uh to be recognized in their achievements in CTE and all their hard work. And so we are very proud today to have entrepreneurship student Charlotte Hall here and video production student
004Molly Peters and also our industry partner Brian Chagini. So if everyone would mind giving a big round of applause. So I would like to read from their nominations. >> Wait, wait, wait. Sorry. >> So I'm going to start off with good stuff. >> Yeah, this is the good stuff. So we'll start with Molly. Um Mrs. Harbison wrote that Molly leads a team of more than 60 students while consistently producing highquality creative news packages. She manages social media for Romeo's Bulldog broadcast hall of fame and art department, demonstrating advanced skills in strategic communication and content creation. Beyond school, she creates promotional videos for local businesses and produces polished professional work as a media intern for Romeo Community Schools. Molly's post-secary plan is to pursue a degree in career in media. >> Eva, do I have a
005slide for this? >> Yeah, I'm sorry. Yep. Go ahead. There we go. Yeah, there see from the awards breakfast there. >> Congratulations. Just wait at the end. >> Good job. >> Our next winner was Charlotte Hall. Charlotte Hall was nominated by Mrs. Leggman and she wrote that Charlotte is an exceptionally driven young entrepreneur with a remarkable record of initiative, responsibility, and community involvement. From launching her first business at the age of 10 to managing multiple successful ventures in high school, she has consistently demonstrated leadership, creativity, and a strong work ethic. Her future goals include earning a degree in nursing or business, opening a trademark business with a registered tax ID, and traveling the world. Good job. >> And our is industry partner of the year is Brian Chagini, director of nutrition services at Corwell Health
006for our culinary arts program. Chef Monica wrote, "Brian consistently attends CTE advisory meetings, offers thoughtful insight into current industry trends, and shares his professional expertise to help guide curriculum development. He volunteers his time in the classroom, working directly with the students in the kitchen, and generously supports student success by facilitating meaningful work-based learning placements. His partnership embodies what strong industry collaboration should look like. We are very thankful for Ryan. Thank you. >> Oh, yeah. Well, you guys, yeah, you were there at the November meal >> where Chef Monica had industry partners, five stations, and Brian was one of the key partners there. He worked with the students ahead of time on the menu. Um, he was working with them on the plating, how to take the proper photos of the food, and then while we
007were having the meeting, working with the kids to actually prepare that as well. So, I mean, that was awesome what he did there. So, thank you. I'm glad you brought that up. >> Yeah. Board members, will you please join our three winners for a photo? >> Okay, perfect. >> Sure. I love it. >> We're gonna face this way. Eva, do you want to click? >> No, you know, actually this is the only slide. So, thank you. Yep. This is perfect. So, all right. So, to continue the good stuff in CTE. So, all our CTE programs, they work really hard and strive to provide the best experience for all our kids. However, this year in particular, I would like to bring up our education program because they truly deserve the acknowledgement for the incredible work that
008they are doing. So, this evening, I was hoping that um we could have our education teachers, Miss Lorie Farington and Mrs. Katie Burick, come up along with her student representatives today, Helena Murphy and Megan Muller. All right. So, this program truly has transformed teaching and learning from a quiet little education program to a program that is robust, driven by studentled initiatives, um, engagement. There is no room for kids to sit quietly and just coast through this program. These kids are leading, engaging activities, which encompasses not only their class, but other classes in the high school, classes in the middle school, classes in the elementary school. Um, and every year they're doing something new, just gaining more and more momentum and growth. So, this is without a doubt uh the hard work and vision put together
009here by Lori and Katie. So, I'd like to give you guys a huge round of applause. However, the best part is we're lucky today to have two students, Helena and Megan, to share with us their experience on what this program has to offer them. So, would you like to say a few words? Um, so this class has honestly changed my life in many ways. And I don't mean to say that and sound cheesy. I I mean it truly because I came into this class not fully knowing if I wanted to be a teacher. It was kind of something I was thinking about along with other things, but testing it out and getting the chance to try it out and work in the field with actual students where I get to hold a sort of authority
010role with them. It only strengthened my desire to be a teacher and I feel like I have truly discovered my purpose and meaning in life. And it has made me so much more driven and focused. And it has taken away genuinely all of my stress about the future because I know exactly what I want to do. And it makes me really happy. >> Okay. I'm quite a bit like Megan. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I actually started off in the medical pathway and then decided after a year maybe bones, organs, and blood maybe just isn't for me. So then I switched into the education pathway. So I had the opportunity to take two different classes last year. I took child growth and learning and I also took intro to education. So
011I learned not only the developmental risks, function, and just overall life of the child. I also learned how to lesson plan, create like seating charts, and have strategies for communication. So right now I am in the eighth grade Spanish classroom. So I I like to learn languages. So that's part of a fun fact about me you could say. And I've learned not only to communicate in one language but also in Spanish not and teaching a language is really hard but I think it's such a great opportunity because being able to teach something to someone that they never had any prior experience about. You can just see when it clicks and I feel like that was a life-changing moment for me because when I figured out that I can make that one difference and I could
012say one thing that made them just understand. I felt that was really cool. And then like I'm also involved in a lot of sports. So being able to not only share experiences about life, education, but also like growing your confidence. I feel like that was a big opportunity and that's something that the education pathway has allowed me to do. So this program also was actually featured last week and I have a copy for you here in the Mcome Daily. Uh they wrote a really nice uh pro or they wrote a really nice article about this. This was actually written by one of our high school students as well. Um, one of our editors and chief of the Bulldog Buzz. Um, so I have a copy here I'd like to give you guys if you didn't
013have. >> So if you once you know how many how many years has this program been? About six. >> I think four and a half. >> Four and a half. >> Okay. >> Yeah. We started the year of co >> Okay. Maybe it was six. Yeah, you're right. six years. >> So after all of that, I mean, we have some of those program highlights that they have done. Uh just giving the kids the opportunities from all ranges of ages and these um two teachers here have really, like I said, transformed this program into a >> All right, ladies. I'm not letting you off the hook. Those girls did an amazing job. Please share a couple thoughts about teaching kids to be teachers as teachers. >> Well, I came into this pathway. It was not necessarily
014um a choice. I was asked um to step into this role and I was not a volunteer. I was a volunttold I guess. Um but I found that I love it. I do um being able to teach my what I've done for so long and be able to share the wealth of knowledge I have. My absolute favorite part of this is the senior year that they were talking about about them being placed in another classroom and being able to have a mentor teacher and follow a student group through the year and build their confidence and their strength. And I would say for both of these ladies and for all 18 of my seniors that I have this year in the field, they've all grown. And that that's what you really want to see. And they've
015they've found out like do they want to do this? And many have. And that's that's like that moment where you know you can inspire the next generation. I always say when they graduate I'm so excited for when they get to come back and be my colleagues. So >> that's my favorite part. >> Excellent. >> Okay. Um I was trying to think of when the program started because I um I was originally um actually Lor's position and then my son back there he's four. I was like how old? because then I um went on maternity leave and we decided um so I I I used to teach the um the two later classes and then I was out of the program for a bit next year or last year when the um Tammy Gilnak retired I
016jumped on the opportunity to teach child growth and learning. Um and I can say probably the most rewarding experience is getting the students into the classrooms. Um I took the students to um Cwell um where else did I take them? elementary school, Washington Elementary, and then recently to the middle school. And just seeing the students interact with them and like kind of giving back a little bit to the community. And it's nice to see them like we talk about all of like the child development, their physical, their cognitive, their psychosocial, and then they like see it like in real time. You know, they had them play some interactive games they designed with them at the middle school. They just created these success road maps like modeling um Maslo Blooms and um gardener multiple intelligences, something
017to give back and do something during that our leadership time. So, it's really rewarding. It's a lot of um work. Um I' I've never really done a field trip before I've done this course. So um but it's so rewarding and um hopefully we're going to get into he next uh month for March's reading month. So I'm super excited for that, too. So it's nice to be a part of the program again. >> Thank you board for letting us come here today to honor everyone. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for coming. >> And that's our spotlight. Thank you very much for coming. It's always neat to see um students in action and get to hear them speak to us. So, thank you for coming. We're going to move on now. Um speaking about child growth and
018development, our early childhood program, we have some important updates. Uh the curriculum subcommittee was able to uh meet this week and hear some of these, but now this is for the community and whole board to hear. So, thank you for coming. >> Thank you, Mrs. IRS. Um we are going to let our um director Charlene McBy uh talk a little bit. Um you you saw the presentation at curriculum subcommittee last week. Um so we'll hand it over to Charlene. >> Thank you. Um, I first want to thank the Romeo Education Pathway before I get started because some of the most incredible young people we have hired, they are probably the most loyal, hardworking employees that the early childhood department has. So, thank you. So, as you know, um over the past couple years, the board
019has so graciously um backed the early childhood department um and helped to facilitate the needs that they have. And first off, we want to thank the board for that. That means a lot. Um but through that over the past year we have began to dug dig deeply into uh the programs and we did an audit of all of the programs we offer and along with that begin to talk about the real vision of Romeo's early childhood programs and what that is going to look like for the future. Um right here. So, I first want to just review with you what we currently offer for classes in our early childhood programs. Um, we have four different discovery classes which are full day um childc care type programs, toddler, 2-year-old, three-year-old, and fouryear-old. Then we offer the
020GSRP preK for all which is the statef funded full day 5day a week program and we also offer half-day preschool programs two three and four day options. So when we began the program audit, we began to kind of separate all of those so we could see where our successes were and where some of our challenges or deficits were as far as the programming is concerned. So we came to two challenge points with the program audit um and it was the discovery 4 program and the toddler program. So, what we found with the Discovery 4 program is it is pretty much dissolving. It already has. Um, we opened our eighth GSRP classroom December 1st. It's becoming a very successful, very desirable program for everyone. All families are eligible in the state of Michigan now. So because
021of that, it kind of naturally eliminated a four-year-old child care program because we do offer the full day and we offer half-day preschool programs. So, and that's what our community is trending towards. Um the half-day preschool programs, we have three teachers that are kind of hometown celebrities and everybody loves them. Uh we actually have started registration for the half-day preschool programs and they are all full for the fall already. So and the full day GSRP is well on its way. Um then we found the other challenging point was our toddler program. Um and the challenge that comes with housing a toddler infant type toddler program is number one the ratios. Um it's a ratio of one teacher to four students. As you can imagine, that becomes very costly when you run a program like that.
022Um we also were able to look into surrounding districts just to see what they're trending towards as well when it comes to toddler programs. >> Do we want to say what they would have we would have to charge in order to be solvent in toddler programs? is I think uh Beth has that number of what we would yes need to sustain a toddler program. What we would what the um tuition would need to be >> almost 19,000 >> tuition of almost $19,000 a school year for us to basically break even to run a toddler program. So, um those being our two challenge points, uh we want to talk about how we're going to move forward um with the early ch early early childhood program and what the vision is for the future. Um number one,
023we want Romeo Community School's early childhood to set the standard right for all other early childhood programs um in the community. Um we don't want to offer the bare minimum. We're a part of the school district and we want to be the standard and we want to be what this community wants to be a part of when they consider prek programs and three-year-old programs for their children. Um what that means as well we strive we want to strive to become an early childhood learning center. We are transitioning away from child care. We're not just keeping children alive in Romeo Community Schools, right? From our youngest learners, we're teaching them. Um that does look different in early childhood, but we are teaching them um and we want to prepare them and connect with the K through
02412. So they are uh if you look at research, pardon me, um you'll see that children that are provided prek high quality prek programs have greater success K through 12 and further on in life. Um so it's a very important thing we're undergoing here to kind of set the standard for our early childhood. You've poured, this community has poured a lot of money into this beautiful building that was built and now we want our programs to match that. >> Do you want to talk about >> the structure? Yep. So what we are looking at and what we are proposing or looking at to update for the early childhood programs is um because of the two challenge points like I said discovery 4 kind of has dissolved itself. We no longer are offering that class. Um
025toddlers we are looking to dissolve that and it kind of be grandfathered out over the next school year. So, we would not take any new registrations for that toddler program for the fall. Um, we are also looking at Yes. Uh, which I believe you guys have a memo that kind of lays that out about, um, we're looking at offering the discovery programs as a school day. So, we're transitioning out of a child care facility where you can pick and choose your hours every day and we'll be running as a school day. So, the school day will be 8:30 to 3:30. Um, and then if you need additional care, just like the elementary schools for before or after, you would um add that to your programming. I >> think that's it. I don't have my curriculum.
026Thank you. I think that's it. >> There any questions? >> Are there any questions? Yeah. >> Um just a some context maybe not necessarily for the board because we've been on this journey since since last year and um discovering that some of our programming I mean the program as a whole we know the community service budget is a separate budget um that we track every year and is audited um and we know that the general fund has had to support that budget for two years in a row which is not you know is not common. Um uh we know that that budget has at times had some significant fund balance primarily because of grants that were received um during and just after the pandemic. Um so those funds no longer exist and we began to
027see some shortfall. Um I'm grateful for not just you know Mrs. McFarland and Mrs. Mcfetti, but you know, there's staff in the business office that have been working on this uh along with Vicki and and Beth. Um, so we've been able to isolate the programs and determine those that are really creating a negative budget situation. We have had the conversation about Cwell becoming a early learning center um since before we passed the 2021 bond. Um the 2021 bond, the marquee project in that bond was the renovation of Cwell. Um and we were just on the front end of universal prek for all. So it doesn't surprise me, Charlene, that Discovery 4 is phased out because people really like free. Um it has a tendency to be attractive. Um, and we also know the funding that
028we're receiving for those preschool students um, from the state, which is more than our normal foundation grant, mainly because the ratio of adults to children in our preschool classrooms is lower than it is in traditional K12. So, so here we are at a crossroads to continue to move forward with becoming a learning center, but also make sure that we're financially viable um, for the future. Uh, and we know that there's just some legacy things that people really appreciate about child care programming, but you know, we're going to have to make some decisions um for the future. Um we're also in a next phase um going to hopefully engage some of our um community agencies that provide some of the similar services because we think there might be a roadmap forward um to um partner meaning
029some of these agencies could be really good at servicing three-year-olds and we could transition those three-year-olds into our four-year-old GSRP preschool programs rather than compete to offer the same things. Um we think there might be a partnership in the future. Um but this was really important for us to get to first and so as as Charlene has rolled out um registration on a new timeline um and some of these changes um people are signing up. We're in a way better place this time of year than we have been in the past. Um and I think this this next phase is really going to solidify things. So, um, with that, I will leave it to any questions that any of the board members might have. >> I have a question. >> Um, just because I have
030a little bit of experience in the district that I work with with early childhood and I sit in meetings and hear about it. Are the teachers in um, the early childhood center, are they certified teachers? >> So, that's another great thing about GSRP and PreK for all, right? Um there are requirements uh for the teachers to have at least a bachelor's degree in early childhood education or um elementary education with teaching certificate. Um and even their assistants have to have a associate degrees at the minimum. Um which is very different than child care, right? Um child care there's minimum education. Um, we do require a certain level of education for them to hold a lead position in one of the child care classrooms. But making this shift too is about in the future making the
031shift of our um staff becoming teachers >> for traditional preschool. They're also certified. >> Traditional preschool is not. They have been with this district for a long time and they're loved. Um I think two two of them have associate degrees and the third one does have a teaching certificate. So >> are they part of any bargaining unit? >> Yes. >> They're all part of the same one. Yeah. >> Just that group. >> Yeah. Okay. So, GSRP teachers, Discovery, Day School, SAC, they're all part of the same agreement. >> Okay. >> I have a question. So, universal preK, um, it's paid for by the state, GSRP, does it come with a predetermined lesson plan in order to get funding or does it run through our curriculum standards through our committees? So the state requires there's a
032set list of curriculum that is approved through the state. Um the Mcome Intermediate School District uh requires that all um GSRP programs in MCOME it's called creative curriculum. >> Um so all teachers have to be trained in that and utilize. >> We don't get to choose for our district what curriculum is predetermined. >> It's predetermined. >> So that's different than our K12. >> Correct. >> Okay. We don't have any say at all. >> I mean, if we went to MCOME Intermediate School District, if we probably offered reasoning, we would still have to go off the state list of approved curriculums for GSRP. >> So, the ISD is the grant holder for for the preK GSRP programs. So, the money all the grant money goes to them and then it's funneled to us. So, anything we
033we need to do, we need to submit a budget to the ISD and then they approve it. >> Do we get to see it before it's implemented the curriculum? >> Um, I think when when we adopted that a couple years ago, yes, >> they went and saw I think it being used in different classrooms >> in uh neighboring districts. This is a while ago. I think when Janine first started, >> we moved to creative curriculum. There was another one that was on the state list that wasn't working for our our staff and our kids. >> The ISD provides all the training, correct? >> Yes. >> Mrs. M, thank you again for coming to our curriculum subcommittee last week. Um, I know one of the things I don't know if if you know just for those
034watching that you did work very closely with our finance department. >> Yes. um to really crunch out those numbers and to say, you know, this is not sustainable. Something has to to change. So, this was not definitely a decision that you took lightly. Um and I just also appreciate as a parent whose child went through your traditional preschool program. Um I appreciate that you're still keeping that. I think, you know, that's definitely >> it's very important, >> warranted and age appropriate. And also, um I know you mentioned like the traditional school day, the 8:30 to 3:30. Um, but just to reiterate for the rest of the board, parents can can pick up their child early, but you're looking at like there's going to be a minimum that they pay for those programs just like a
035lot of child care or other centers do, >> right? So the minimum of 8:30, 3:30 will be a 7-hour day. >> Um, obviously just like K through 12, if a parent needs to pick a child up for an appointment or anything like that. Yes, of course. Yeah. No other questions. >> Questions. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. We're going to move on to our consent action items. That is our approval of our general funds uh financial reports, our wire transfer reports, the purchasing card expenditures, and the minutes from two meetings. Our last regular meeting held on January 26 that was in your packet. And also in your packet, the meetings from the special meeting held on February 9th, which dealt with some time-sensitive construction updates for our our bond timeline.
036So, can I have a motion? >> Moved by Ber. >> Second by Chahakei. Any questions? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. All right. All right. Moving on toformational updates and new business. We're going to start with communications. I have >> none from none from our office. >> Okay. All right. Then we are going to move on to our subcommittee reports which we only have one and that is myself um from reporting out with curriculum subcommittee which met last week. Um it was quite a long meeting. We had a lot to cover. Um but on the the first docket was a lot of high school items. So we talked about a couple um items coming up this time of year getting into early spring is when scheduling starts. So, uh, we, uh, Mr. Oswald came
037and talked about, um, adding intermediate guitar, uh, class and a Google Workspace skills class to our high school courses and talking about how the guide book will be updated and revamped for hopefully easier navigation for parents and students and counselors going through that process soon. Um, we also talked about our um, advanced placement classes agreement that that will be updated. Not that anything's really changed with it, but just to reiterate um with parents before they are registering or um signing up for those classes, the understanding of how AP is different from other classes and the the expectations from there. Uh we also talked about language around outside credits that can be requested to go on high school transcripts. We have um the issue is some students who are dually enrolled um in paying for extra
038classes, they want those extra credits to be put on their transcripts which then in turn pads their GPA which is unfair to the rest of the students. So although that option for them to do to take those classes is not changing um we are not obligated to put that on their transcripts. Um, we talked about testing out clarifications for kids that can test out for certain classes uh for credit and then we also talked about how the diplomas will be different starting this year with our graduating class that they will include their academy pathway on it. Uh, we had quite an extensive presentation by Mrs. McVetty about what you just heard tonight with the child care program and the rationale behind it. Um, we also um had Mr. Nelson, come and talk to us about
039teacher Chromebooks and the need for those to be updated and how the last time they had an update was 5 years ago, which in technology terms is dinosaurs I as we understand. Um, we then talked about elementary updates, things that we voted on um in the recent uh months. Power school behavior support program talked about how principles are now working um to iron out kinks for that and that hopefully will uh roll out in the fall. uh parent square communication. The data transfer has begun um to get that information over to this new platform and parents will be given ample notice uh on how to use and download the app and that will begin in late spring. And then an update on our Bridges math uh tier one materials that will be presented to elementary
040teachers coming up on their PD day next week. Um, then we just briefly touched on the sex ed advisory board and what the requirements are for the state to be on that. And then we ended with um just a discussion about behaviors at the elementary level and where we're at with potential paras for that or other behavior supports um making sure that we don't lose sight of that and the needs that we have at our elementary building. Any questions from those of you not there? All right. That concludes our committee reports. Moving on to Dr. Robinson. >> So, um, because we just had the lengthy, um, curriculum subcommittee meeting and the minutes and in the report kind of support some of those things that might traditionally be in academic services. I just have Mrs. McFarland
041to any clarifications because we've got a resolution uh on the table for each of the new course proposals. Any further clarification we can provide for um those new course proposals. >> A request for Mr. Phillips to bring his beginning guitar players to the meeting. >> I know last year we did the basic guitar. We approved that course. Correct. >> Beginning guitar. So it was offered this year. >> Um quite popular. It's only a semester though, so kids take it and then then what? >> To go to the next level. >> So this this allows them to go to the next level. >> All right. >> And then Google Workplace Skills is replacing Microsoft >> Business, which is what we offer our current ninth graders. Um really we're a Google district so we should be teaching
042our kids the Google suite um pretty um deeply um by 9th grade. You know they they've they dabbled with Google Docs. You know they've done these things but um the intent is for them to dive really deeply into um the uh Google Sheets and formulas. Um, obviously Google Docs. Um, there's Google Sites, which our goal is for them to create their electronic portfolio with Google Sites because there's a way for kids to take their Google um account when they leave us as a 12th grader and transfer it to their personal Gmail so they wouldn't lose all of that um historical information. The Microsoft Office suite would be taught in 10th grade business occupations which where it really belongs. So if I'm going into business, our partners have said we use Microsoft products, Excel, Word, PowerPoint.
043So that will still live in the 10th grade first class that uh kids in the business academy um in the business pathway take. There will obviously be some appropriate AI use um built into the Google workplace skills as well. >> I was just wondering how relevant this will be and how long this will be in place for because I mean is the rapid evolution of AI takes over literally everything. Um things like Excel are going to be obsolete soon. So I don't I'm sure it's going to be incorporated into the class. >> Correct. appropriate use in AI. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> It hasn't taken over yet. So, there's still some some thought and logic and people needing to verify accuracy >> is still going to be there. >> Is there any teaching? Um, so
044I have an intern right now at my company. It was a Romeo grad and he had his um resume was online and he built it here. >> I don't know if that's involved at all, but it's extremely impressive. >> Yeah. So um by they by the time they leave us as 12th graders as part of our profile of a graduate and as part of Michigan expectations, kids need to leave us with a resume. So actually they're starting to build their resume now in sixth grade uh uh with some of the things they're doing with their community partners and nonprofits. Um, so within their at least 612 career right now, they'll be able to have a pretty pretty strong resume of not only the the things they've learned in school, partners they've worked with through an
045internship or a job shadow, um, partners that have come into the classroom and worked on a project with them. Um, but they'll also be able to talk about some of the community service u projects that they've worked on in the middle school. So that's an expectation that they leave us with the resume. So, I'm glad to hear that his is his is well written. >> It's great. It's huge in engineering. To be able to show some of the stuff he worked on was, you know, very impressive. >> Right. >> Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Mr. Murray's going to help me um with uh checking back in on school of choice. Um we some of this presentation is um carryover. I'll work quickly through um but we ended up tableabling the resolution
046um last month to provide some additional information and bring it back um hopefully for approval this evening. So um just a reminder 105105C interd district school of choice is for students um who reside outside of our district in Mcome County or who reside in a contiguous county. That's the 105C. Um, so not every district is located in such a position where 105C would make sense, but we're at the corner of two neighboring counties. So, um, makes makes good sense for us. Um, the board is required by the state school code to approve annually. Um, and we're requesting again this year unlimited school of choice for grades young fives through 8th and our limited school of choice program in grades 9 through 11. um those seats are restricted. Those numbers are in your packet. Uh and
047we're holding the same number um this year coming year with approval that we did last year, which I believe is 40 seats for 9th grade and 20 seats for um 10th grade and 10 seats for 11th grade. Um so our continued efforts in this area are really to get families, if you want to pursue school of choice, to choose us as early as possible. when we're beginning to see that impact um just by families joining us in the middle school um that maybe have waited longer. Um there's some definitely, you know, um transcripts, report cards, affirmation of prior discipline. There's there's review um based on the stool school code for us to accept students. Um and then once a student is accepted through school of choice, they are an RCS student until they break enrollment.
048So, we like to say, you know, after we take them the first year, they're no different than a resident student other than we don't provide transportation. Um, if something happens and they do break enrollment, then they would start the process all over again. When we think about interd district school of choice, this was based on our fall count. We've got about five 435 interdist school of choice students, 179 of those in elementary, 256 uh in the middle and high school. Um there is no school of choice for 12th grade. However, um we kind of had an unwritten partnership across um all superintendents that if a child has attended with us for school of choice through 11th grade, then they request release to finish their K12 program in the home district would release them. Just as
049if we have resident students who have been somewhere else, I would I would release them to finish. uh doesn't make sense to make a kid come back to their home high school um for 12th grade when they've been somewhere else typically for even longer than high school. Um it's about 8% of our enrollment. I'm sorry. >> Clarification there when you say no school can't apply, >> right? >> Yes. Um but they they're going to need to go and get released from their resident school district, which is uh pretty streamlined procedure. So whether we're looking at elementary or secondary, based on the overall enrollment, the number of students, we're running at about 8% of our total enrollment. Uh based on our foundation grant for this year, that's about $4.4 million in revenue um for intra district.
050Um I'm going to switch it over to Mr. Murray for the next couple slides and provide a little perspective um more specific to the elementary level. Rob, >> thank you. Uh so as Dr. Robinson noted uh this graphic is kind of a continuation of what you saw on the last slide, but we do have 179 school of choice interdist students uh at our elementary level which accounts for about 8% of our total student population. Um He Elementary School has the largest number of schools of choice students and Washington has the smallest. Um that last column too, I'll point you to kind of the average number of schools of choice students uh per class. Um across all of our buildings, you know, there's some nuance to this. We, you know, part of this schools of choice
051deal um accounts for families who maybe have moved out of Romeo, um searching for more affordable housing but want to stay in the district. Um typically that happens prior to the schools of choice really taking off in earnest over the summer. So those students are already accounted for um in in our counts, if you will, as as we're trying to better understand kind of um what class sizes will look like the following year. Um, of course I'm biased, but I think that people leaving the district but wanting to stay really is a manifestation of the magnetism that the service that we provide to kids, you know, um, you know, shows in the sense of um, they could make a choice, they could go to a different school district, but they're wanting to stay with us.
052And so that's that's kind of a feather in our cap the way that I see it. Um overall when you think of the revenue that comes in through um through schools of choice at the elementary level again interd district it's about $1.8 million per year. Um that's enough for us to pay for 18 teachers when in reality that 179 student number really requires about seven students. So this is an example of how the schools of choice program actually helps us keep our class sizes at a modest level across the district. Yes, there are some pinch points. That's what happens at times with the schools of choice program. But by and large, our class sizes are low in part because the additional revenue helps offset the cost of having to staff our classrooms with teachers. When
053we switch gears here to intra district, right, those folks who are already in Romeo and are wanting to maybe attend a different elementary school than is their home boundary school, um really has a negligible impact on school enrollment overall and is pretty evenly represented across um the district and across grade levels. Um when a family applies for intra district schools of choice, it's not like the application just comes in and it's automatically approved. If I can point you to the third bullet there um in italics are some of the reason and rationale that parents must provide as to why they may consider um a change of placement if you will from one building to another. Um we do have families uh who apply for intra district uh because where their child starts school in the
054fall may not be where they end school in the fall. think of a move. Um, if you're a family who uh currently who resides in the He neighborhood um and is moving to the Washington neighborhood, it does make sense for them to start maybe at Washington instead because they're going to be there, you know, at some time, let's say Christmas, let's say after the new year and then finish out their time at at the elementary level at Washington and and then move on. Um it's also important to note um that whether it's interd district school of choice or intrad district school of choice um when we're not able the needs of our or able to meet the needs of our choice families we do risk or run the risk of revenue loss um which is
055recurring right especially when you think of schools of choice students coming into the district at the elementary level because by when they come we find that when they come to us at the elementary level they tend to stay um through high school and so it's not just a onetime $10,000 loss. It's $10,000 times how many years they could be in Romeo if um you know we're denying their access. >> So, um one of the things I provided in your packet I want to just take the opportunity to speak to in our conversation around this um we've actually I guess put the paper in a more formal procedure what we're calling the elementary enrollment tracking sheet. Um, so one of the supporting documents in in your packet was um I know it gets a little bit
056small, but there's a lot of data on there we're tracking. So I've just taken a a snippet of just the top section around Amanda Moore and I want to emphasize that we've rolled our students up into the tracking sheet for 2627. Um, we looked at things at the last meeting in relation to where students were currently this year. Um, so you're not going to see any Young Five students. Young Five kindergarten information night is tomorrow. There's a shout out for that. Um, so we'll begin to engage families interested in Young Fives. And the only kindergarteners you see in here are those students in the building that are currently in the Young Five program. Um so you're seeing very light kindergarten numbers just because we haven't engaged those new um those new students yet and in
057many cases new families. Um but as we begin to look at you know the rest of the spreadsheet um we're tracking all enrollment. So this is going to represent the current students for example uh in second grade at Amanda Moore is the current first grade cohort enrolling them up. This es and flows. We could have students um that end up moving out of the district uh and they become dropped. We could also have new resident students, but we're really mindfully looking at intra district school of choice students, interd district school of choice, and even those students that might enroll um because they're a child of an employee. Um, so the spreadsheet is going to provide a metric that's going to allow us to really track all enrollment, but we're really concentrated on um, both elements
058of school of choice. And the formula that's running behind the scenes is authored by Miss Pereira um, not Dr. Robinson. Um, um, because we just let business people do formulas because they're better at it. Um and but it's all based off what we know from our teacher contract and what we presented um in January around target class size and max class size. Um so the tracking sheets going to function um as we track you know enrollment over time through the enrollment season and it's going to allow us at a point in time to actually alert us um when the average class size in that grade level has reached the target number. So, if I go back to my sample section or the top portion of the sheet that you have, you will see currently when
059we think about our second grade cohort at Amanda Moore next year, that average class size is at 27, which is just above the target. That immediately turns that grade level number two to orange. And now, um, our enrollment coordinator and Mr. Murray, um, are now monitoring that closely. Um so we have provided for a small portion of seats um to be utilized in this range in between target and max but we're also more importantly holding a number of seats for so if we have those last minute resident enrollments right at the end of the summer or even into the beginning of the school year and that does happen and in some case those are the elements that push us further away from target and even into max or overage um because it's just hard to
060predict. The other thing that can happen over time is as we get closer to a school year, specifically in August, we begin to get requests for records for students that are leaving Romeo and going somewhere else. And that can impact this number. So, we could have uh a grade level cohort where we get four or five students that move out and this grade level was on alert and it no longer is. Um and we might have some capacity uh to allow choice kids come in. uh of course you know with the the support from the board. So um so we use this system of when we hit the target we put it on alert and then ultimately when all of those available seats that are are used up then the grade level is going to
061be closed and it's going to turn red. I don't have that example in the Amanda Moore because we're not there yet. Um but at that point in time the grade level would be closed. Um and we would not accept students into that. So when I I think about, you know, our situation um that you see on on your full sheet, you can see right now we have three grade level cohorts in three different buildings that are already being monitored closely as we begin the enrollment season. Um and those are the ones that might stand to be closed um sooner than later. You also can see if you go over to the remaining seats um column like you're going to see some of our grade level cohorts have a tremendous amount of capacity in them. Um
062and I think one of the important things that that Rob and I have talked about individually is this notion of at some point in time when the number of students in a grade level cohort gets that small, we have to consider closing a section. Um, and the immediate thing we do is go from a a very um friendly class size that might not be ultimately fiscally, you know, responsible or affordable to one that is immediately going to be on alert because going from three to two sections. >> The fifth grade at Amanda Moore is a perfect example of that this year, right? I think there's 61 students there. Like you couldn't run three sections there. We ran two. >> Yeah. So, um, those students, that cohort is moving on. Our fifth graders move on to
063the middle school. Uh, a greater level of capacity there. Um, so each each building has some unique, you know, grade levels and and some uh less capacity than others. And what we really want to do is just bring a more um forward- facing and we would of course be updating the board on this. So, uh, I'd like to think we'd set this sheet, um, officially launch the sheet in April, um, because we we want to get to that point in time when things that people are applying for now, it's a deadline that we're actually going to consider things. Uh, and then we'd be, um, filling it in quite honestly, as enrollments happen. But the closer we get to August, the more stringent we're going to be on updating and monitoring this. Uh, and we'd let
064the board know as as we get grade levels on alert. Uh, and and certainly if we have grade levels closed. >> Can you Dr. Robinson, can you go back to the pre one of the previous screens >> where you have the table? >> Um, the total the column where it says total school of choice students. Um, >> I'm adding intra and inter up for total, but that's not on each one. Your total >> is Oh, I see. >> identical to inter district. Is that correct? Is that how you're looking at it? Because those are new students to the district because when we're thinking about total number of kids inter and intra even though we vote on them separately are >> Beth it would be both. Correct. Should be both I should say. >> Yes. >>
065Got it. >> Right. I understand that. But it still affects total class size. >> Was the also was this um formula has this been used in the past or is this something like new we're using to >> this formula has not been used in the past. The process is still the same. >> We've just now actually put a formula to it. >> Okay. >> Uh to create the formal alert and the actual when we would close it. >> Okay. >> But when it goes red, it's closed. >> It's closed. >> So you're not taking any more than that. Okay. >> Right. But let's just say that goes red in May >> and we now get four students dropped from that cohort. You know what I'm saying? It would not be closed anymore. >> Whether those
066parents will hang with us, choose a different building, you know, whatever it may be, um is a different story. But if if we have students that leave, we would want to reopen that. I just want to say that I appreciate all the work you did into this and all the information that you shared with us in our packet and the fact that you said that this is forward facing. This is I think excellent gives us an idea building grade level everything. So good. >> Um you know ultimately when you look at the sheet and we show it to you over time the blue column is the actual number of kids and that's pulling you know whether they're intrain inter um or um child of an employee that that number includes everyone. >> All right. Thank
067you Mr. Murray. Um, we've got a couple other things uh in my report tonight. The next one is is also a tied to one of our resolutions. So, um, had a couple of good questions from Mr. Ber. I thought it would be good to to share with everybody and also allow Mr. Nelson is here tonight should you have any questions about um, the teacher Chromebook resolution, he's here. He can provide clarification. Um so this is of course replacement of current devices as the curriculum subcommittee report talked about. Um the devices Mark this is fifth year for those for our teachers. Um so time for them um to be replaced. We did run a small pilot of some different devices. Um and I remember uh I think it was two or three weeks ago at cabinet
068um Mr. Nelson was not excited to tell us that the cost of the desired um Chromebook was like $300 more per Chromebook than um so um what was great is I would say within two weeks later um we got a far better price in the actual parameters that our teachers are looking for. I think one of the biggest differences that our teachers will have is our current Chromebooks are not a touchscreen uh and the new ones like um uh will have that capability um which which will be helpful for them in many ways. Um we do fund these instructional um technology purchases out of our syncing fund. Um and if you remember our syncing fund is currently running from 25 to 29 1.25 mills annually. we have a little bit of a roll back. So,
069I know it's a little bit less than that. Um, but that annual levy is is about $3.4 million. Um, and each year we set aside about $625,000 towards these purchases. So, and we hold that. So, um, if we're replacing student devices, then it takes about four years of that. Um, one of the things that we've talked about is as the syncing fund has generated more, the cost of technology has also gone up and we probably have to recalibrate that maybe even to a percentage of the overall um annual levy. Um, so the money is there um and uh and it's part of a system. Um, we purposely do not have student and teacher replacement uh on the same year. Um, but we'll we're going to be aligned to definitely accommodate another student replacement with the
070current sinking fund millillage. Uh, and maybe even maybe even teacher questions on that. >> Um, I just wanted to mention that I had an opportunity I was talking to Mr. Nelson today regarding a a problem that I'm having in my district and so we're kind of collaborating on that and um I had read through the minutes and are through our agenda and whatnot and um he he answered my questions uh and it was much what um Dr. Robinson had said. The question that I had is that forever uh Romeo has been a Dell computer place shop if you will and that these teacher stations were going to be the ASUS workstations ASUS workstations and um Mark had or Mr. Nelson had mentioned that it went through committee and evaluation and so forth and this is
071what the group had um selected which is what we want. Uh he also had mentioned that Dell did not provide a 14-in monitor and um our first set in at my district where I work at had the 11inch monitor and we when we updated we went to the 14inch monitor for our teachers as well. So um and then I talked to him a little bit about the serviceability of them, the warranty and uh so he's got it all worked out. So, the other thing is I didn't know if u Mr. Nelson if you're going to plan to see if there's any value with the ones that you're you're getting back in and seeing if you can get some money for >> them. I'm all set. >> Anything else from Mark? >> All right. Um, last
072for my report tonight is this fancy colored um document that I provided um for you, which is um a lot of work in the making to get to our um 2025 design and construction um timeline. Um and so, uh as we spoke about um recently, um really what we can set forth is really the first group of projects. Um but we we need to plan holistically everything that was in the Treasury app and align that with how the bonds are going to be sold. Um so we know $62 million um facilities bond was approved in November. We know that our financial advisors have set forth for us for the first series to be $32 million that will be sold um this spring. We actually are going to have a resolution in March um for the
073board to um consider for the sale of the first series. Uh and then what the projection is now is the second series would be sold in the spring of 2028. Um so there is overlap. Um and some of our biggest projects in this bond, the additions are actually going to cut across series 1 and series 2, which is good because it allows us to do a little bit of balancing of the funds uh as we might need to. Um, so I think when we talk about these groups, the there's two phases. There's that design phase and you'll see for example with group one, that's January of 26 to January of 27. So we've started in that. Um, we have all three of our additions um starting design in group one. Um, that's pretty aggressive. I've
074heard that a lot from architects, construction managers, and even maybe an operations super director. Um, but we've got a plan. We've added additional support uh and our professional support uh companies are are supportive uh to make this happen. Um things don't happen overnight. Um and it's interesting when I talk to our principles, especially those um who are getting the additions because we've been at this since 2016. Um their perspective is pretty realistic about when you know they might get access to some of these new spaces. Um, so that's the biggest piece here. Um, one of the unique things you're going to see in the construction timeline portion of this is we have July of 2026. There are two projects in group one that we're potentially doing this summer. Um, because they're smaller and we're going
075directly to an engineer. Um, one of those is a site work project with the repaving of the parking lot at the administration building. The other is the potential of just some exterior lighting upgrades at HEL. Um, but that's an anomaly. If you look at any of the other groups, you're you're typically starting a construction timeline at some point after the design timeline. Um, so we're designing for a year, then we're constructing for a year or more based on the depth of the project. So, in addition to our new additions, um, we're also talking about those things coming out of our facilities assessment. Um so um we've laid this um construction timeline out uh under the same four categories that we actually um presented and campaigned for the the bond issue on. And we think that
076that just creates things like we're keeping things synonymous with the terminology that we're using. So each group has a series of infrastructure improvements, learning environment upgrades, safety and security, and then arts, athletics, and play spaces. Um, some years there's more in some of those areas, some years there's less. We get to the very end of the bond, um, we're actually learning environment updates will be taken care of by then and we'll be more into completing some of that. We have um accounted for our technology portion of the bond. Uh and you'll see some of those um main initiatives. There's some smaller items that might be happening. Uh we've also accounted for um bus purchases in the later uh and the second series of the bond as we're outlaid in the bond application and our um
077campaign materials. Um so um we're kind of in process with group one to some degree, but we're ready to set forth um and make this forward facing to the community, begin to talk to our staff about it, uh after giving the board the opportunity to to take action in support of it this evening. Any other questions in regards to the timeline? >> Thank you, Dr. Robinson too for presenting this at our special meeting um you know with some of the construction um representatives because it's it's a lot a lot of moving pieces at once. Yes. To talk through. >> So all right moving on. We do not have any public comment slips so we will skip over that. We are going to move on to our regular action items and begin with employee services resolution
078number 18 personnel update. Do I have a motion? >> So move >> moved by Ber second. Second by Chahakei. Any questions? All in favor? Opposed. >> All right. Motion passes. Business services resolution number 11. school of choice for the upcoming school year. Um, this deals with interd district >> motion >> support >> motion by Rice, support by Antoine. Any questions, comments? >> As long as we're shutting down the, you know, the sections when they get full. I support. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Yes. No, I'm not I don't want >> I Yes. I don't know what to say. Nay. >> Nay. >> Three S's, two N's. Motion passes. Business services resolution number 19, the 2021 bond purchases for the buses. >> Motion by Rice. Second. Support by Chahakei. Any questions? >> All
079right. All in favor? I opposed. >> Motion passes. Moving on. Academic Services Resolution number 20, letter A. We broke this into the two different courses uh for Romeo High School that were spoken about. Um the first one is intermediate guitar. Do I have a motion? Motion. Motion by Jaki. I will second that. Any questions? All in favor? >> I opposed. All right. That course is approved. And then academic service resolution 20 letter B for Romeo High School course update the Google Workspace skills class. >> Motion motion by Rice. >> Support by Antoine. Any questions? Right. All in favor? >> I opposed. Right. That course is approved. >> Facilities resolution number 21. This is a 200 or 2000 25 bond timeline that we just uh saw for the design um timeline as well as the construction
080schedule. >> Motion motion PHA >> Support by Antoine. Any questions? All right. All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Motion passes. And then lastly, technology resolution number 22, our teacher Chromebook purchases coming out of our syncing fund. >> motion by Antoine, support by Ber. Any further questions on that one? >> Okay. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. Moving on for the good of the district for discussion. >> Do we have anything? I know we have a couple of us absent tonight. >> I can I mention something? >> Go for it. I learned something over the last weekend. I was driving around the district on Saturday and when I came by the high school, it was absolutely crowded, packed, the parking lot. There was no >> And then I learned that we have a
081powerlifting >> section having that was new for me. I I thought that was so cool. >> That was huge. And you know what? I'll tell you something. The girls had more I mean, I'm not kidding. The girls had more support than the guys did. >> It was incredible. Yeah, very cool. >> I just thought that was really neat to see that. >> It's very packed gym. >> Oh, can we mention the boys and girls wrestling teams real quick? Because my daughter's on the wrestling team and they're going to states. >> She's not going to states because it's their first year, but uh maybe next year. Yeah. Yeah. But the girls are going. >> We'll recognize them. >> I know. I just wanted to plug. >> They don't always get rice recognition, so All right. Anything
082else? Right. I know um I'll just speak really quick. We talked a lot about this at the last meeting. Um the school of choice thing is always a contentious issue. Um there's two sides of it. The financial side to have things be sustainable and keep teacher classes, but also the other piece of it. Um the learning environments. And I always struggle with that as a a teacher myself. Um you know, not just packing kids in. So there are two sides of it and I do see both sides of it. Um so hopefully we can you know put things in place um and even work you know with the teacher union to even talk about those contract numbers to make sure that we're servicing our kids but also our teachers that do the hard work every
083day. So anything else going once going twice? All right. I have no further per public comment. Can I have a motion to adjourn? >> Motion by Ber. >> Second by Chahakei. All in favor? >> I. Thank you for coming.