001[Music] Can I have a uh call to order to get our meeting started? Yes, ma'am. Mr. Antoine here. Mrs. Bonik here. Mrs. Bowman here. Mr. Ber here. Mr. Hockey here. Miss Iikhorse here. I am here. All right. If you could stand for the pledge, please. 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. May I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Support. Okay. Moved by Bonick, supported by Antoine. Any questions looking at it? All right. All in favor? I. All right. We're moving on to our Bulldog spotlight tonight, which I think we got a little taste of it already. Yeah. So, uh, two, uh, highlights for you in our spotlight this evening.
002Uh, for our first one, I'm going to invite, uh, Mr. Phillips, our high school, uh, and, uh, band director. And um they're pulling I don't know to some degree I think it's triple duty tonight because they actually have a concert at 700 p.m. Um but we've asked if they could bring um some of our groups who did really well in solo and ensemble state festival and so I think we've got three of those with us. So Mr. Phillips take it away and tell us a little bit about these kids and introduce them to play for us. Sure thing. So we actually had two of our groups perform uh here before the meeting. Uh these students performed at district and state solo ensembles. So if you're not familiar um sometimes we go out as a full
003ensemble group like our band festival performances. Kids always do a fantastic job. These groups are put together by the students and uh they work on them themselves. We you know we do some coaching and things but largely this is a studentled um event. So a lot of these students performed at both district and state level. Um so we'll bring on some um up for you. Uh the first group that performed for you is uh a woodwin trio of clarinet and uh soprano sachs. That was several of our junior students. Uh Fabian Castanada, Jacob Fearday, and Julian Hill back there. They're already in uniform ready to go here. Um and our other group that performed so far was a a woodwin trio of some of our seniors that are about to graduate here. That was Sienna
004Molner, Olivia Sers, and Hadley Trudeau. So, we have uh two more uh little snippets for you here. Uh the first the next one is going to be a flute quartet. Uh this is all of uh senior members here. So, that's going to be Sierra Copansky, Kayla Martin, uh Sienna Mhler, and Olivia Cers. So, we'll bring them on up. [Applause] And I guess while they're coming up, just to clarify, in order to qualify for the state level, uh, you have to get the highest mark at the district level. That allows them to to move on to that next level. So these are some of our kids. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] If we could have the other folks that played before the meeting, can you come up front here, please? And ladies, no, don't escape out the side
005door yet. Um, if if you guys can come up and line up in front of the board table, we're going to get a picture of you and board members, we'll just kind of make sure you're in between, too. Come on. Don't be shy. That was We have one other group. When we could do the picture first, that's totally fine. Oh, I thought that Nope. We got to take one more. Oh, they're all dressed, but go ahead and do your picture there, guys. You can handle that. They ought to be good at that. Especially those scenes. Just step in front of the monitors. Back up right next to the table and we'll Yep. There we go. Squeeze in a little. Perfect. All right. Trumpet players, I apologize. Ready? Take your position and play us out. All
006right. Yep. Our final group is going to be a trumpet duet. This is our junior drum major. You probably seen her out directing the uh the whole marching band. Josephina Cutajar and Maddie Herdman. [Music] [Applause] All right. Thank you again to our uh high school band director, Mr. Phillips, and our students. Good luck with your concert tonight. Yes. Is tonight the Clash concert? Okay. Okay. So, if you audience, if you get bored, it's a very entertaining concert to head over to if you get bored with us here. All right. Continuing on, we've uh typically in our April meeting, we bring our um Romeo Community Schools teachers of the year, but one of our teachers of the year was um taking on a new role as uh a new mom. Um and so um so we
007pushed it forward to May. Uh, and we just like to take this opportunity to have the board acknowledge three amazing educators. Our elementary teacher of the year, Amber Sheiel from Hamilton Parsons, unfortunately had something come up and had a family commitment. She emailed me late this afternoon. Um, she apologizes and appreciates all the recognition that she received. Uh, our middle school educator of the year is Mrs. Wendler, Caitlyn Wenger from Romeo Middle School. Come on up. Um, so you get the row of handshakes and then you wait down there for a picture. Congratulations. Thank you for coming. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you so much. Congratulations. And our high school teacher of the year, Mrs. Fington. Come on up. Congratulations. Yes. So, board members, so you don't have the projector in your forehead, if
008you can go down and um stand with those wonderful ladies and get a group picture with our teachers of the year. [Applause] So, thank you again. Mrs. Mrs. Vangler's got some family here tonight and a proud um mother who is a a teacher of the year in her right. Um I'll share an interesting story. Um Mrs. Broomman was teacher of the year in 2020. Uh and if we remember what March of 2020 looked like, um she never had the opportunity because they didn't have the teacher of the year banquet for the ISD because we were entering into COVID. Um, so what was a pleasure um this past month is uh her wonderful daughter Katie invited her to come to the banquet so she could have a teacher of the year banquet as her guest. So
009um so that was neat to be able to to have Kim there. So thank you to um ladies for being here tonight. Uh I know it's been a couple months in the making and I know you're looking forward to landing this school year and and moving into summer, but uh some amazing educators that that represent really our teachers as a whole really well. So um thank you for being here and congratulations again. [Applause] All right, we are going to move on to consent action items. And the only thing um I just want to amend is item G for the special or the special meeting on May 12th. Um the study session rather the location mentioned that it was at Cwell Early Childhood Center when in fact it was here in this room. So just want
010to make note of that. Do I have a motion? Motion. Support. Motion by Rice, support by Antoine. Any questions? Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right, we're going to move on to new business, communications. Um so in your packet tonight um four of our five uh International Academy MCOME graduates sent really nice thank you cards to the board for uh supporting them in their four-year journey to their diploma. I had the opportunity last Thursday night uh to participate in the commencement ceremony. We were able to get a a picture together prior to that ceremony starting down at the community college. So, uh, congratulations to our IM graduates and, uh, um, we'll continue to support that program that, uh, uh, this year, I believe I am was the second, um, uh, highest rated, uh,
011high school in the state of Michigan and in the top 10 in the country. So, pretty impressive the work they're doing there at the AM. Um secondly, um is the um another memorandum that came from the ISD today in regards to the bianial election. Uh and when we get to um resolution 53 tonight, uh Mrs. Ior will talk about um the direction that they'll be given to the representative on who the representative will vote for when they go down on June 2nd. That's all for communications. All right, we want to move on to committee reports. We have three of them tonight. If uh we could start with finance. Are you ready? Yes. All right. Okay. The finance committee um met prior to our May 12th meeting and u we had really two topics. We had
012the food um the food service position that we approved on May 12th. So that's already been taken care of. And we also had um a discussion regarding the um excess fund balance for the food service fund. If we remember the food service fund is not part of the general fund. It's a separate fund on its own. And um there is a um I would have to say from the mi committee meeting that there is a severe need to have a new truck or to replace our current truck that we use to drive through the buildings. So that truck is on our um resolution tonight. Um resolution number 55. Um you could see that it is um the most of the expense of that truck is um covered under a state bid. So it had already
013been bid out and had already gone through all the processes for that. So that enables us to get the truck ordered uh quicker without having to go through the bid process and advertise and vet out vendors and whatnot. That's already been done for us. So uh that's what was at the uh finance committee meeting. All right, moving on to policy. Mrs. Rice. Okay, so we met on May 7th. All subcommittee members were in attendance. Um we are going to be discussing today um first readings for 6002, 6003, 6004 and 8002. Uh the first update from Miller Johnson is uh policy 206. Um so this isn't going to be going for a first reading, but I wanted everyone to be aware that a number of states and some districts have uh taken action to ban cell
014phones throughout the school day. So, we're aware that a proposal is under consideration in uh Miss Michigan legislature. Though, as of this meeting, no action has been adopted yet. Um, so we are continuing the conversation within the district and we're discussing potential policy changes in the future. So, um, this conversation is not going to go away. Um, but we're going to wait to see what Michigan does with it first. Okay. So, policy 6002, safety and security. Um Miller Johnson states that uh the governor recently signed legislation to enhance classroom safety for students and educators by establishing a behavior threat assessment and management team. Um we already have these things in place. Um the only addition to this policy which would be the update would be the uh definition of management team and the assignment of
015the actual members of the management team. But um we are well assured that we have over 40 staff members trained in threat assessment. So we're actually already compliant. So that's good news. Uh policy 6003, firearms and other weapons. Um this is required by 7125. So the governor recently signed legislation aimed to protect students from gun violence by mandating the information of safe storage of firearms. So the uh the language was devel uh developed by the health and human services and will be adopted. Um we're going to move this forward for a first reading today. Um basically what we're going to do is uh using the language of the Michigan Department of Health. We're going to send a letter via u mail or electronic uh to educate parents as to the safe storage of firearms in
016the home. Uh moving on to update um policy number 6004 school crisis response and closure. So there um there was recently signed legislation to basically standardize uh terminology by schools in response to emergency situations. Some of the school districts in the area use different words for different things. So what we want to do is we want to come together as a state and use the same words for the same things all of the time. That way there's no uh response when we get into um a potential situation that hopefully doesn't come. So we are already actually in compliance uh with the Michigan County EOP uh with the required language. So basically this policy is kind of done. Um so that's going to move forward for our first reading. Policy 8002 Americans with Disabilities Act and
017section 504 of the Rehab Act section 504. Um, basically there's been a dramatic increase in um, district seeking policy statements on therapy dogs. So, service dogs are different than therapy dogs. And what we're basically doing is um, ensuring that the language mandates that if there is a therapy dog that the language has to be um, sort of streamlined under our uh, administrative regulations. Um, so certain animals are in, certain animals are not. You get the idea. Um, and that was basically our policy meeting. So, thank you very much. All right. Facilities, Mrs. Bonnik. Uh, yes. We met on May 19th. Um, first order business was kind of followup from the committee um or the special meeting we had um where we discussed the future bond and the treasury application. So, our committee met just to
018finalize if we had any other questions, which we did not. And you will see that that is on tonight's agenda. Um, we discussed the group two projects, which includes the administration um building renovation. It's in the final phase of work. Uh, we talked about the Romeo Middle School site work. Um, the outdoor athletic facility has the track surface completed. Um, and stripping is being finished. Um there's a very precise weather requirement for the finalization of that. So um just so the community knows it takes a while to get everything to be seated and irrigation and everything done. So um it won't be opened until the spring of 2026. Um we still have to install the bleachers as well. Um also we discussed um site work at Cwell parking lot. the ninth grade renovation is currently
019working on the locker rooms. Um and then the fire alarm renovation project has begun and that um is happening in the evenings with all the wiring being pulled. Um the projects that are going to start up here real soon is the Hamilton Parsons parking lot and playground, Hevel parking lot, Amanda Moore playground, Washington playground, RHS renovations, and the drinking fountain replacements. Um you guys, we also you saw in the packet some discussion on the Romeo High School courtyard project. That is something that we've had a difficulty with um you know getting as many bids back and we've altered some things. Um so the bid process is set now. Um and that is on tonight's agenda and the turf portion is going to have to go back out to be rebid. So that would be like
020a fall completion and would require the um the area to be shut down for 2 to 3 weeks while that went on. Um gave we went over all of the change orders that take place and um some of those are of course things that we have no control over, right? They get going into a project and something behind the walls or underneath site work, that kind of stuff. Some of it is projects that we get involved and we say that's something that we want to have done. So, we went over all of those and the funding that goes along with that. Um, and we talked about this director's report was the administration building elevator that that is having some um some issues that they'll be working on and if that goes down, what plan B
021would have to look like to make sure we were ADA compliant. Um and then the last thing was just the um community engagement summary report from the focus groups and the survey. Um that is going to be shared with us uh very soon electronically and it'll also be in the superintendent report and um eventually posted on the web page uh on the district web page. And that is it. Any questions? All right. Thank you. A lot of work going on, a lot of moving parts right now. Uh we will move on to Dr.'s report. We have uhformational update. Um Mrs. McFarland, Mr. Murray, if you want to come up to the podium, the three of us will kind of recap. We went through a little bit more detail of of this at the study session
022back on May 12th. uh in the board has kind of been engaged in uh our journey um since back at our March uh workshop meeting. Um so uh Mrs. McFarland's going to kick us off with talking a little bit about as we enter into year three of the strategic plan work. Um we've done some restructuring which is what's taken us really the last few months uh to kind of reorganize. some tremendous progress has been made under the original plan that was approved in January of 2023. Uh, and it was time for us to kind of revisit and and update things. And and one of the things from a systemic standpoint that that we're doing is uh reorganizing from our original three focus areas um to this three strand approach um not just for strategic planning
023but we know that our leadership priorities have been reorganized by these three strands and we're hopeful that this creates some fidelity across the entire system as we work through future strategic initiatives. Mrs. Mcfarlland, thank you Dr. Robinson. So um these the three strands and hopefully the graphic are not new to the board of education members um and um we have been working within these three strands with ourmies at the high school master planning um since we started that planning. I think it was in 2016 or 17. So um the three strands aligned somewhat to what our our old focus areas were in the in the strategic plan. So transforming teaching and learning, transforming the culture, systems and structures of schools, and transforming partnerships between schools and community. Um, and and one thing to remember and
024that I think we talked about at our at our workshop in March, um, transforming culture, systems, and structures of schools is kind of the centerpiece, right? You without strong structures and processes, you can't really change and transform teaching and learning and partnership. So I just wanted the public to be aware of that. Um so this is through the work of the Ford Next Generation Learning um Ford NGL our partnership with them since we started with themies at the high school and they actually have revised the names of those strands. So when we first started the high school they were they were a little bit different um but now they're a little bit u more streamlined that fit a K12 system. It was really high school focused originally. Um we've implemented it with the master plan
025at the high school and our kind of 2.0 with what's next and um uh just uh this past year with ourmies at Romeo Middle School transformation and master plan. Um so um Dr. Robinson and I had an opportunity to go to a leadership um uh Ford NGL leadership conference in Hampton, Virginia. And um they talked a lot about how they've reorganized their system um to um meet these three strands. So everything they did is aligned to those three strands. So, we got to talking for a little bit when we were there um crossover about this and wouldn't wouldn't it behoove us to think through the three the the three um strands as we continued on in our strategic plan. It creates consistency um and if you know our mission and vision um it aligns really
026well with those things as well. So strand one is transforming teaching and learning. I'm going to talk a little bit about that. And we did have teaching and learning as one of our initial um strategic plan areas. So you'll notice um the let me get my notes because I always forget. So the the focus area is the transforming teaching and learning or the strand. And you'll notice the goals are in red. Those are the same goals that we had before. Um what may have changed are uh the strategy which is in the bold black and the activities underneath. So I want to highlight what's highlighted in yellow pre preK fifth grade that has been in the plan. Um Mr. Murray is going to make some really great progress with the elementary team um to solidify
027those activities, the signature events um at the elementary level and then we're going to move forward with developing that profile of an elementary scholar. We just solidified the profile of a middle school scholar. We're still working on the graphic. Um but the the new focus in this uh area is the prek fifth grade So, we've had the district-wide system of tiered supports or MTSS, if you've heard that before. The focus um in this year is early childhood. So, that team has already started creating um their schoolwide PBIS system and they'll continue to work within this plan to talk about tier 2 intervention supports. Um, remember these are our youngest learners, so you know, toddlers to four and a half. Um, so their interventions look a little different. Most of them are behavioral and communication. Um,
028so we're excited to see that continue to grow and and strengthen our ability at the early childhood level to um support all of our students appropriately. And I think that's it. Any questions about strand one, teaching and learning? All right, I think I'm turning it over to Mr. Murray. Good evening. Uh, I'm going to take the lead on strand two here, transforming culture, uh, structures and systems. As with strand one, strand two remains relatively unchanged. Um, the tweaks that are made are really to the strategies and action steps that we are going to utilize to accomplish the goal. Um this year we continued to provide opportunities to our staff around curriculum alignment. Um hasn't been anything formal because we still have work to do to get into that formal process. Um but we really started
029zeroing in on staff planning for student transitions. Uh we did have some systems in place but not necessarily a intentional effort PK through 12th grade um for us to be able to do this efficiently. Um zeroing in on the work that's been done in late winter um and early spring, our um CWell staff started by visiting our young fives and kindergartens classrooms at our elementary buildings to better understand what kindergarten and young fives is like in school today. Um it's much different and if you haven't had a child in kindergarten in quite some time or spent time in an elementary school, um I think you'd be surprised at the difference. And uh by and large I think teachers came back to Crowell and remarked on that that boy it's a lot different than we thought
030um kindergarten young fives would be. And so we gave them that experience. And then a few weeks later uh we brought representatives from our elementary schools to Croswell to meet with preschool and GSRP teachers to hold transition meetings, right? Similar similar to meetings that we have kindergarten to first grade, first to second and all the way up. Teachers actually sat down and discussed kids, right? kids that were coming their way as a way for the adults to be better prepared for the kids that were coming. Um, we have opportunities like that in No. Are we still No. Okay. Thank you. No, it's okay. Um, we have opportunities like that um at other transition points too. Fifth grade to sixth grade. Um, 8th grade to 9th grade and 9th grade to 10th grade. Um, we will
031be zeroing in on that transition from 8th to 9th um moving into next year because we know that's a spot um that can use some attention. And so, um, really what that relates to again is staff coming together to talk about, um, significant medical issues, 504s, IEPs. It's not we're going to sit down and talk about, you know, all um, 300 four 400 uh, uh, fifth graders who are transitioning to the middle school, right? But it's a way to again in scenarios in which we have students who will need a high need of support um to give the um school taking the baton um the opportunity to to not only learn um but be proactive in terms of their approach. So next slide please. Uh so our second goal is to improve student and staff
032feeling connected in our schools. We know that students need voice in schools and we've provided them the opportunity um to be able to provide feedback um to teachers, to administration, even to us um if if an initiative or want um moves that far. And we continue to refine the systems that we put in place from the original strategic plan. Um highlighting or looking at the highlighted piece, the student experience. Um, you know, we know that adults have to be prepared to receive the kids who are coming to them in the following school year, but students need the opportunity to to feel that, you know, natural transition as well and begin to prepare. We really break these down into three different portions of the year. We have the preparation piece, right, where we're getting ready things
033like um you know kindergarten screening, kindergarten meet and greet, kindergarten information nights um which is primarily for parents but gives parents information that they can bring home um to their children. Um the startup which is leading into school actually starting. That's where we have things like bulldog days. We have our watermelon welcome or popsicles with the principal. And then the culture and team building piece which are the systems that we do have in place currently at all of our sites related to um career college and life ready. It's a matter of assimilating those who are new to the school into the culture and then continuing to build that culture. All right. Thank you, Mr. Murray. Um strand three is transforming partnerships between schools and community. Uh and we had a focus area in the original
034plan that was safety and wellness. and you've seen some pieces of that land in strand two. Uh we also have um some pieces of that have that have fallen into strand three. So um this notion of sustaining students and staff feeling safe in our schools. We've changed uh transitioned this goal a little bit due to all the feedback that we've received through climate surveys and other student voice opportunities. So, uh, we'll continue integrating the work with our emergency response team. That's our, uh, law enforcement, um, paramedic and emergency, uh, response fire personnel that meet with our district safety team, uh, quarterly each year. Uh, we also are intending to stay intentional in terms of awareness efforts with our, uh, students and parents around school safety. Um, one of the focus areas, you'll see an a
035strategy um, that was referenced in the original plan, but we're really at a point where, um, we want to make some intentional decisions in this next year around a district application that's just going to, um, further strengthen our connection with parents. Uh, and then, um, continuing on in that, um, connection with parents, we're looking forward to our first wellness fair. um this coming fall. That'll be in early October. We'll begin um promoting that, you know, as we get to the midpoint of summer. Uh in terms of the opportunities that'll be available that'll be held at the high school. Uh and then finally, we still maintain the the goal of strengthening our community partnerships uh and the strategy that we have there. So, if I was to summarize this year three update, um, for the better
036part of three and a half months, our district leadership team uh went through kind of what we called the three Rs, and that was to review the original plan and the two years of progress that we made, uh, revise a year three update, and then our district leadership team is in process of recommitting because all 30 members of our leadership team will serve on one of three strand teams. uh and they will have a leader for each strand team like we've had the first two years. So uh I think the biggest shift is this transition uh to the three strands from the original focus area. We're maintaining all but one of our goals uh into year three. Uh and as Mrs. McFarland and Mr. Murray have said, we've really updated some strategies and action steps
037to deepen the work. The other shift that we've made uh is because the original plan was approved in January of 2023, we were kind of working on a calendar year flow. Uh and that actually served good purpose uh in some cases, but with this recent year three update coming in here at the end of the year, we'll actually consider the work of year three through June 30th of 2026. Uh we think that as we outline this work, there's probably a year four and then at that point in time, we'd have to make a decision about re re-engaging in a more comprehensive strategic planning process with a a steering committee. So as we advance the work into year three, I think the themes that should stand out um is this idea of transition transition uh in
038critical transitions in our preK uh 12 continuum both through the staff and student lens uh continued work on communication uh at a variety of levels. And then really we're in this phase of making systemic connections. um when we've done some targeted work at one level, we now want to take that best work and connect it uh across the system where it makes sense. So um we'll post the year3 update on the district website uh and make that available to the public uh any questions from the board before we close up our update. All right. So, moving into uh my report for this evening. Uh we're really starting with just a a short update in regards to um resolution 56. So, once again, Mrs. McFarland and Mr. Murray, if you want to come up the board,
039you would recognize this because this is just a snippet um from our uh timeline approval timeline spreadsheet. I wanted to start with that visual reference and then allow the opportunity for Mr. Murray and Mrs. McFarland to talk a little bit about uh the two group two priorities that are on the table tonight. Get any questions that the board might have answered. Thank you. Uh so CKLA version 3 updates. Um early in the winter, I say late winter, early spring, um we learned about the opportunity um to upgrade our ELA programming at a discounted rate. Um and working with the curriculum subcommittee, um we spent some time looking through um the updated version, the third edition of Amplify CKLA. Um and as Dr. Robinson said, it's, you know, in your hands tonight for a vote. um
040some of the highlights related to that and reason and rationale as why we believe it's a good move now. Um there's lots of them uh but I I really zeroed in on these four points. Um one that didn't make the list that should be there as well is related to workload for teachers um in the sense of the transition from the second edition to the third edition is not significant in terms of the structure of the lesson plans and the like making it um teachers are telling us this as well. It's not just me sitting up here and saying, "Oh, it'll be fine for them." Right? Um that uh the the lift in terms of making the the changes is is not that big of a challenge. Um but again, some of the highlights for
041edition three upgraded content um including local selection of two units per grade level. And so I sent uh Google forms out today to all of our teachers at each grade level so they could provide some input in the choice unit program that CKLA has. Essentially, um within each program of instruction, I'm trying to say this clearly because it can be a little bit confusing. um within each program of instruction at each grade level based on writing genre, we have the ability to make a selection of a unit locally that we want to use with kids. Um have gotten a lot of feedback already today. Um really where the trend lines seem to be going at all of our grade levels is around engagement, right? um teachers have either taught a similar uh unit in addition
042to or are looking at the content, diving a little bit deeper into it and um knowing kids best at those ages um are thinking that the unit that they're voting for, if you will, is something that's going to be more engaging for kids. So, it's a win there. Um reduction of daily lessons. Uh it is a challenge with addition 3 to get every lesson that needs to be taught in within a calendar year, especially when you start thinking at the elementary level about parties, about snow days, ice days, all those other type of things. So um seek or amplify is a company um that does take feedback um from educators. And so in this third edition roll out, they've walked back um the number of knowledge lessons. Um the skills lessons all stay the same,
043but it does provide some opportunity for teachers to take a bit of a breath um if you know things go nuts with weather and the like. Um a more uh addition three has a more intense focus on writing. Um again that was something that our teachers were longing for. Um we do understand that shifting from balanced literacy to structured literacy. Um there's a more methodical approach to teaching writing. when we are a balanced literacy district, it was voluous writing that wasn't super great. Um, and that's not just Romeo. I've worked in two other districts that have had balanced literacy as well. So, that's been an adjustment. Um, but the read the writing rope has been developed very similar to the reading rope which really highlights the skills and strategies that kids need to be good
044writers. And so, there's been more a more intense as I said focus on writing within addition three. And then last but not least, uh the a big difference between addition two and edition three is embedded engagement strategies for all students and then supports for English learners as well. Questions for Mr. Murray? I just more of a clarification on the top bullet point. I know when we met um and talked about this at length, yes, you kind of gave us units that you thought would be the choice unit. So yes, um are teachers getting to share feedback to sort of be the ones to choose that? It's it um the message was was sent out that they'd be able to provide input, right? So, we'll look at the input. We'll look at the choices that we
045kind of drafted out and try to reconcile those things. Um for each choice that a teacher is making, they were also required to provide me some rationale, right? So, we can kind of put all of those all those together. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mrs. McFarland. I would say I just want to point out Maruka is here tonight. So she's here if you have any questions for her. This priority is near and dear to our heart. It is has been an exercise in patience for probably the better part of two years. I think like the month after she started. Yes. Go ahead, Mrs. McFarland. Sure. Um so um Mrs. Maruka is our RVA supervisor and um I I you hopefully received the memo um in support of this resolution. Um I tried to give you
046um count day information from fall and spring. um we've kind of leveled off in um at our our high school and and Amy meets weekly with the admin team at the high school and so um they've done a really good job of identifying students who um need that safety net a little bit sooner um if they're credit deficient. Um so we don't have as many transfers um at at semester. But this coordinator um our hope is um that that one of the the main roles they would have is to lift up the efforts to support program expansion and schools of choice recruiting and marketing. And as I stated um in the memo um we do not have second semester open um for school of choice, but that would be something we would look at with
047this added position um because for Mrs. Maruka to do that work and enroll kids in their second semester classes and align mentors. Um it would be very very challenging to do that. Um I know that Mrs. Maruka also has been um um trying um with the time that she has to create um some opportunities for our um juniors and seniors to learn about uh post-secary options. So, she's taken kids to the career fair when it's um at the 1012 building and they come in um and she's done some um uh presented other opportunities for them virtually for them to learn. Um with this added coordinator position, um there would be more time for for Mrs. Maruka to um devote uh to that to ensure our kids when they leave our VA just like when they
048leave our InSync program have a have a plan of where they're going next whether it be right to the workforce or some of them are going to college. Um but uh we don't really have that bandwidth right now to do that. Do you have any questions about the coordinator position? So I'm going to brag about Mrs. Maruka and the mentors and our RVA program for a minute. We're of course coming to the end of the year and commencements is around the corner and our RVA students participate in Romeo High School's commencement ceremony and we believe a handful of students with a little extra time we could be close to 100% graduation rate from RVA that does not exist correct in virtual learning programs anywhere. Um, part of what we want to do is control the
049expansion of our program because we don't want to lose that close-knit relationship and between mentors and students, but we also think we have the ability to expand a little bit. Um, and we've got a pretty good story to tell. So, um, congratulations. Another really successful year of getting our kids to a diploma, uh, in our VA, over 50 of them. I just want to say I worked in this building with Miss Maruka prior to coming on the board and within 30 minutes she could be giving a tour getting a call to put out a fire whether it be a student in the lounge or working from home a mentors out. I mean I could keep going. So I she wears a lot of hats and she does it with a pleasant face and smile and
050good demeanor but I she definitely needs some support. So IEP meetings, 504 meetings. I mean, she's a building principal of a virtual program, but then she has other supervision of adults as well. So, and then if the principal here is called out to something, they go also handle a student here in the building. So, I mean, yes, just depends on the minute of the day. So, and the full moon or non full moon, too. Okay. Thank you, Mr. All right. Thank you, M. Thank you. Um, so just a couple other quick things. We heard from uh Mrs. Bonic on our uh facility subcommittee meeting. Uh it's been a bit of a journey to get to uh this place. Uh tonight we have a resolution for the board to approve the site work portion of the
051courtyard renovation project. We've got Mr. Irvin and Mr. Tolles here from Barton Mallo. if there's any further questions on the logistics of that. Uh we made the determination at our um last week, but really affirmed it at our construction meeting today that we would repursue the turf portion. Uh and that also would be and can be a less intrusive fall project. Um so, uh we're hopeful for support tonight, but any further questions for these gentlemen on this project? Okay. Thank you guys for being here. Um, and then just a couple of highlights from um, bond planning. Uh, Mrs. Bonik talked about the community engagement report. Um, so shared that with the board and we'll be putting that up on uh, the district website under the bond update page. Um, one of the things that I
052think is important to note is, you know, we run a series of 10 focus groups with somewhere in between eight and 12 people, uh, with a series of questions and then we get almost 400 responses to a community survey. Um, the report that the district has to work with, um, is about 280 pages. Uh and what we've done with uh our consultant company is distill that down to really seven or eight pages of the most critical information um that is leading us to step back and take a couple months to clarify some of the information around our current bond. Uh and then hopefully if we get that November election called in July, we'd be able to to pivot into uh theformational campaign and some feedback on how we could make that as informative as pro
053uh possible for our voters come uh next fall. Any questions on the engagement effort? Uh last but not least, our um Department of Treasury application uh is ready to move forward. Um the formal signing of that, Mr. uh Esser wanted me to tell you that that really is once there's some preliminary feedback we can get from the Department of Treasury that we would include prior um to signing on to the application to formally um be turned over. Um so um that's kind of where we're at with the support of the board through a couple conversations in the facility subcommittee. Uh our department of treasury review meeting is Friday um June 16th and it is typically 3 to four weeks after that when you hear back if the application's approved. So any questions on that process
054from the board? Just a question for me and it's not in depth or anything that meeting do you have to go to Lancing for that still or is it done virtually? They all do them virtually now. Okay. So, uh the Department of Treasury doesn't doesn't require you to drive to Lancing for those anymore. They're all done virtual. Okay. Last but not least, another reminder that after tonight, because um you can see that we're packing and getting ready to to move into some significant construction once the school year's over. So, our June 23rd and July 28th regular meetings will be held at Cwell in the training room. Um it just wouldn't be Cwell if we didn't have a construction project going on there. Um, so with the parking lot renovation there, uh, we will post a
055map, um, on the district website. Um, we're going to wait to do that because we're actually making really good progress on that job. And I'm convinced by the July meeting, we'll be able to use the new playground and enter through the front of the building. But for that June meeting, we're likely going to have to use uh, off of Durham Street and a couple other entrances um, to get in. But we'll we'll make sure we put that information uh so the public knows. And uh we anticipate being back to this facility um by August um the August regular meeting. That's all that I have for tonight. All right. Uh we have our first public comment. I do not have any sheets for the first public comment. So we will move on to action items. So
056our first action item is employee services resolution number 52 personnel update. There was a couple retirees and so moved moved by Monik support support by Bowman. Any questions? All in favor? I opposed. Okay, motion passes. Okay, moving on to resolution 53, the MISD bianial election. We talked about this in the last meeting um and agreed that I would be the delegate that will go next Monday um during the time frame to vote and Mrs. Bonnik will be my alternate backup for some if for any reason I can't do that. Um there are two positions and I know we all received uh via mail and some email some more information on the incumbents that were running and there is a third candidate. So, we're gonna have a motion. Um, I make a motion that the board
057supports the incumbents, Farley and Hubler. Okay. Motion by Bonik to support vote for the two incumbents. Support. Support by Antoine. Okay. Open for discussion. Any questions, thoughts? Did we have information on them in the most recent packet or was this an email from a was it came to you via US mail? The district doesn't have anything to do with that. It comes directly from the candidates. Okay. They sent a couple communications. There was two gentlemen that I got information on. Yeah. Okay. Y comments, questions? Okay. All in favor? I I opposed. All right. Motion passes. Moving on to see item a resolution 54, the MISD budget approval. Motion. Quite a thick packet on that. Motion. Motion by Antoine. Support. Support by Bowman. Any questions? All right. All in favor? Opposed? Okay. Motion passes. Moving on
058to business services resolution 55, the food truck purchase. This was uh discussed in the finance and also came out in your notes um after that committee meeting. Do I have a motion for that? So moved. Moved by Bonik, support by Ber. Any questions? Okay. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Motion passes. Item or academic services resolution. This would be resolution number 56, the district leader leadership priorities group two. though uh that encompasses the RVA coordinator and the third edition of CKLA which um both have been discussed at length and presented tonight. Do I have a motion for that motion? Okay. Motion by Chahakei, support by Rice. Any questions? All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Motion passes. Superintendent Resolution 56. This is policy 6009 uh to give authority approval and if you read into that it
059was to give the superintendent authority to weigh in on naming rights of uh buildings and things around the district. So moved support moved by Ber supported by Bonic. Any questions? Okay. All in favor? I opposed. All right. Motion passes. Moving on to item G. Facilities Resolution 58, the 2021 bond project approval for the Romeo High School courtyard renovation. Uh that was discussed in the facilities report and Dr. Robinson talked about it a little bit. So moved to go on with that bid. Moved by Bick, support by Rice Chaki. Chaki. All right. Any questions? All in favor? I opposed. All right. Motion passes. And we neglected to do this at the beginning of the meeting, but um we need to move uh public comment and discussion for the good district ahead of item H. Do I
060have a motion to amend that? Motion by Rice. Support by Antoine. All right. So, we're gonna The motion is to move those two items ahead of close session. Do I Okay. All in favor? I opposed. All right. So, we are going to go ahead with our last public comment of the night. If Mrs. Cahoun would like to come on up. Good evening. Uh, my name is Valerie Kahun. I have three kids in the district. Love the district. One at the high school and two at the middle school. Tonight, can you guys hear me? Sorry. Tonight, I wanted to talk about school safety around victims of studentto student threats and violence. So, I want to start off with a text that my seventh grade daughter received. I don't know who the f you think you are
061trying to be a snitch ass hoe trying to say like we threaten you. Well, this is a threat. Trust me when I tell you, watch your back. Cuz if you think you can go around talking and being a you are dead ass wrong. Now, if you were a you would stay home tomorrow. But trust me when I tell you, if you show up, I'm breaking your other leg. That text was sent to my daughter after she was told to have zero contact with her. I understand that there's middle school emotions. Girls have emotions. Text was sent at lunch and the initial incident happened in the first hour of school. So first hour markers were thrown at my daughter. A girl number two attempted to punch her. Following second hour which that teacher did not report
062anything following that my daughter went to second hour. This girl then had the same class as her approached my daughter when she sat down got into her face said I will hunt you down and find you. After that, my daughter reported what was happening because the teacher in the second class realized something was happening. Then the girls were told there's a group of them were told to have zero contact with my daughter. That's when the text came through during the lunch hour. Then when the girls, the two girls that were really bothering her, when they were removed from the class, a note was found. That note had awful wording on it. It had a drawing. That drawing showed my daughter, that girl with a knife in her hand, stabbing my daughter. In addition to that,
063after all of that and those two girls coming out of the school, we were able to convince my daughter to come back to school. She went back. A third girl was pushing her after that that was involved in that group. Now, we find out, even though I was told that we weren't supposed to find out, we find out that the girl who sent that text, was allowed back to the school after, I believe, only eight days of being out of that school. My daughter has been so traumatized, she has not returned to school. That girl, was that girl present at the school? She doesn't feel safe. Um, I'm happy to answer after the meeting more discussions around this questions. Obviously, the superintendent's office is aware of this. I've dealt with the school. I've dealt with
064the superintendent's office. I want to make you aware of some things I have learned based on this situation. Some of the good. We have an assistant principal and a social worker at the middle school who have built amazing relationships. My daughter felt very comfortable bringing this to their attention. She talked about giving high fives to the assistant principal, talked about feeling comfortable to talk to the social worker. So, I think that is amazing. Um, they also at the middle school offered a tier level return to school for her so she could feel safe, which I thought was great. So, they're adjusting to that. Some places where we missed. As a parent, I thought safeed was put into our schools to help protect children. When I talked to Safefed, they were unaware my daughter was even
065threatened. Um, there was promises for safety of my daughter, uh, to have teachers out in hallways that she could go to during passing time if she didn't feel good. She made me aware that the teacher down the darker hallway that she was the most afraid of was not out all the time during passing. So, you're making promises to a victim who needs to feel safe and they're not put in place. Uh, we also Romeo Community Schools is protecting the aggressor and making the victim make concessions. My daughter had to change her class. Um, she when I spoke to someone at the superintendent's office, I was told if when we got into it, I was told if I don't like what's going on, we can change schools. Well, I'm sorry. I love this district. My daughter
066has friends here. were involved in sports here. That's not really an option for us. So why is the aggressor allowed to continue? The length of discipline didn't fit the threat. The victim was treated as overreacting. The victim's story was never even heard in the disciplinary hearing. I understand we can't be in those, but there's no reason why the person who makes that decision can't hear from the victim. Uh there's been no communication. I'm not allowed to know when the hearings are. I'm not allowed to know when the aggressors are returning to school. I'm sorry. If you're a victim and someone's released from jail, you're allowed to know that. Why can't I know that? I don't know what any discipline has been done for these girls. Uh I also think we also need to give the
067aggressor some counseling. Obviously, there's something going on. They need help, too. Otherwise, this is going to continue to occur. So tonight, I would like to ask that you guys help make an improvement to this process. There is no reason why victims of a threat, studentto student threat or violence should have to go through this. Um, I'm happy to help. I have some great ideas since we've been through this and are stealing still dealing with this. My daughter's been so traumatized. I don't know that she'll be coming back to school this year. Thank you for sharing. All right, we are going to move on for any board discussion before we anything. All right. Can I have a motion to go into close session for the purpose of collective bargaining? Motion. Motion by Antoine. Support. Support by
068Bonnik. All in favor? I I We need to do roll. Mr. Antoine. Mr. Antoine. Yes. Mrs. Bonnik. Yes. Mrs. Bowman. Yes. Mr. Ber. Yes. Mr. Hockey. Yes. Mr. Zor. Yes. Thank you all for coming tonight. There won't be any other action or voting after we come out of close session.