001[Music] All right. Good evening everyone. I'd like to uh call the meeting to order. A regular meeting starting at six o'clock. May I have roll call? Certainly can. Mr. Antoine here. Mrs. Bonnik here. Mrs. Bowman here. Mr. Boyer here. Mr. Hockey here. Mrs. Iicor here. I am here. All right. Please 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, with liberty and justice for all. All right. May I have a motion to approve tonight's meeting? Motion. Support. Motion by Rice, supported by Antoine. All in favor? I I for Okay, because there's no action. So, do I have a motion to move? We're going to go ahead and move um I don't see it on my
002agenda. Let me look. I have a print out here. The second public comment um just above board discussion for the good of the district because we will be going into close session at the end. Motion. Second. Okay. Motion by Rice, second by Bowman. All in favor? I. All right. It's the Okay. All right. Moving on to Bulldog Spotlight. All right. Couple things. uh for the board this evening. Um we would like to recognize our state athletes in the second row of our gallery here all state athletes for this past season. So, I'm gonna ask Coach G if you would come up to the podium um and just share a little bit about the season because in addition to um coach Jim Kelly um from our high school wrestling program um in addition to some individual
003accolades that were um recognizing this evening uh we also had some pretty significant team achievement. So, um, Jim, if you can just share a little bit about the season and the team success, and then I'll have you help me honor the athletes that are here tonight. Uh, thank you. So, um, teamwise, just like a quick summary, but, uh, we are second in Mcome County. Um, won the district, won the regional, and qualified for the, uh, team quarterfinals. We had seven We had seven uh boys and was it three or four? Four girls. Four girls qualify for state and uh two girls and five boys placed. All right. So I think we have close to everybody here. So, um, for our all state athletes, uh, when coach announces your name, if you come up, we have
004a certificate for you and then we have you go down the front of the table here and the board members will recognize you individually and then we'll have you wait over there at the end and we're going to get a group photo. Then I'd ask you to go back to your seats until the end of the spotlight. We'll take a quick pause and you can head on with your evening. Sound good? All right, let's start. Okay. So, Kaylee Manuel. Yep. She's Bisia Manuel. Owen Perry. [Applause] Congratulations. Awesome. Congratulations Tommy James and Valentino Adamos [Applause] or shake their hands. Good job. Congratulations. Good job. Good job. Board members, if you want to jump in behind our all behind photo Yeah. You just want to do the There we go. every other. Look at that. Parents, if
005you want to get a copy of that, please come up and get a good picture. [Applause] So I don't want to miss sight of the fact of special mention that Kaylee was actually the state champ. So, congratulations. Something's going on with Emanuel family because I think we're going to be doing this for a few years in a row. So, um Coach Cali like spent a lot of time in this sport and guys, I you know, ladies, it it's a lot. This sport's a grind. So, I appreciate like your achievement um more than I even can talk about some of the other um teams and athletes that we bring here. So, thanks for representing um Romeo well. Uh and congratulations again on your success this past season. All right, we will move on to uh our
006adjusted studies program highlight. So, I would take the board just briefly back to January. Uh and we had a bulldog spotlight that night. lot more energetic and a lot more um busyness in the room. And we looked at really the first half of of this type of special services programming in our districts which got us through elementary. And so we're kind of picking that up tonight and we're going to talk about middle school, the ninth grade academy, and the high school and what that looks like for students in this programming to get all the way to a diploma and beyond. Okay, Mary, I'll give this to you. Okay, that'll probably just make it easy. That one. All right, thank you board for having us again. We're so happy to share what we do with our
007students every day in the classroom. The adjusted studies program or ASP classroom is a program that focuses on communication, social skills, academic skills, adaptive skills, and vocational skills. They help ASP students become their best self, their most independent self after high school. Students take a variety of courses in both the ASP program, general education courses, and electives based on their needs and interests. Unfortunately, our middle school ASP teacher had uh something that popped up and she was planning to be here today. So, I'm going to tell you a little bit more about what happens at Romeo Middle School. For Romeo Middle School, some highlights from the ASP program is that they have field trips and integrate with general education students in a learning environment where all students can thrive. All of the students feel safe
008and included and have experiences that foster friendships and connections. The classroom serves as a home away from home where everyone feels valued by the school and the community around them and helps them prepare for the transition to high school. Some of those experiences include realworld learning like field trips to the Dairy Queen, Main Street, Tilson Street to provide students with opportunities to see how the community operates and apply classroom lessons such as um ordering in a restaurant, making change, uh working with money, following a schedule, following a map. Social skills are also something that they develop, such as interacting with community members and allowing students to practice those social skills to improve their communication and build confidence. Again, those field trips are a huge help to not only learn the skills in the classroom, but
009to use them in the real world around them in the Romeo community. There's also enhanced engagement with general education students. So they have general education classes along with adjusted studies classes that promote collaboration and mutual learning, fostering a sense of community and independence while being able to navigate throughout the school building. They have intense individualized programming. They provide personalized support and tailor this to each student utilizing specialized teaching methods such as visuals, modified materials, additional services like speech, social work, physical and occupational therapies. All right. Next, I'm going to have Tiffany Wickstand come up and talk a bit about the Ninth Grade Academy and some program highlights that she has. Thank you. You want to click or Sure. If you would like to click. Hello. Thank you for having me. I'm Tiffany Wixan. I'm uh
010the ASP teacher at the Nth Grade Academy. Um at the Nth Grade Academy, we focus on a lot of different things. One of the things we work on is high school readiness. Now that they're coming from the middle school, we want to adjust to that block schedule. Um expectations for them at the high school level. um they get support from myself, from our pair professionals, social workers, speech and language pathologists. Um within the building, we work on communication skills like body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, um how to start conversations, appropriate conversations with others, um and how to have positive interactions with their peers and and connect with their gened peers. We work on independent skills and life skills. We do kitchen, we cook, we do kitchen safety. Um, they learn how to follow
011um, recipes that are a little more in-depth than what they did in middle school with Miss Hikla. Um, we learn how to clean up after ourselves and uh, wash dishes. And then we also focus on job skills like filling out applications and um, the interview process, what to to do and not to do, um, and handle how to handle mistakes on the job. academically. Um, just like in the middle school, our students do take gened electives to engage with their general education peers. Um, and we work on those academic skills like completing tasks, learning how to turn in assignments, um, and, um, and work in groups and teams with others. And then additionally, some of the main focus of our ASP program is to work on those core academics like math and reading at their
012individual levels. so we can try to bridge in those gaps that they're missing and get them um uh improved as much as we can uh to their best of their ability. So, thank you. Okay, now we'll have Mike Buslip and Allison Rosupa come speak about the high school. Sorry. First off, I want to thank the board for having us here. Really appreciate it. I'm Mike Buslip and I'm Hi Rzepa. All right. Um, as far as the Romeo High School ASP program, the biggest thing that we focus on is really getting ready for adulthood, trying to make that transition and trying to build up the skills from when the kids enter the doors with us in 10th grade because obviously Mrs. Wickstand does a good good job of like getting them to transition ready for the
013high school and the high school environment already is I just remember going back to high school. It was a big transition. So, a lot of kids come in um a little nervous about and everything like that. So, we're really just trying to support their current learning needs, where they're currently at, and build them up from where they are. And um the main focus is independence, employment, and really we want them to be functional, productive adults after high school. And that's the biggest thing, and that's pretty much the goal for everybody. So, um we just do it a little bit differently, and we try to really focus on the hands-on approach with it. Is there a clicker? Oh, cool. Um so, some of the ways that we do that is we do a lot of in-house
014job training. Um we are really really involved with our culinary arts program right now. Um if anyone's been down to the culinary arts kitchen, they are running pretty much a full-fledged business down there and it's all hands- on deck every single day down there and our our kids are a big part of that process right now. Um I know in the BEI program right now they're doing this um big projects with um Gates Cider Mill. So they're actually in the process of helping out with that whether it be the packaging and getting things ready for production down there with whatever chef needs. Um, we also were in our um, food prep kitchen kind of doing prep work and stuff like that with the ladies down in the kitchen and stuff like that. And then in
015years past, and this is something that was um, really unique and available to us, was we actually interacted with the community, whether it was at Meyers, Wendy's, Pet Supply Plus, um, we've gone to the public library before. Um, we've done some interactive um, like more socialization type field trips where we've gone to the Tigers game before. Um we've brought the middle school along with us too to kind of develop some of those skills. So we try to do things really really unique from that standpoint. Another cool thing is the electives um the electives within the academy model. So a lot of them are hands-on. So whether it be construction trades, robotics, kids are integrated and included in all those classes and they're there at their level. Um some kids will have strengths. I'm know we
016have certain kids that are like really into robotics. Um drone flight. We have actually have one kid that's really turning into a master at just drone flight right now. So, it's a really really unique um experience for um the kids going through our program. And through all this, we try to provide targeted academic support. So, wherever their gaps are um we build them up from where they're at. And in some cases, it's trying to build up that confidence where they can take more general education electives. And in some cases, they're able to build up their math and reading skills a heck of a lot more from when they actually come with us because they're building up those comp confidence and those um repetitive skills that they need to be successful. And then lastly, we really
017focus on trying to just provide a least restrictive environment. So we look at the kid, their individual needs, and try to put them in the best situation possible to um be successful because at the end of the day, it's all leading to transition. We're trying to, you know, ensure that they're working towards gainful employment. They have a vision. We kind of sit down. We always work towards their goals and what they want to do after high school, what jobs they're interested in, try to be realistic with it, but then also give them an avenue to increase from there. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. Okay. We have a lot of busy schedules this time of year, but we're lucky to have parents and students that are going to come up and share their experiences and
018thoughts on the programming. Here, we can take it down. I'll hold it for you. Thank you. Can we move the podium? Yeah. So, they can see you. Okay, go for it. Hello, my name is Bryce Flint. I'm in sixth grade. I am in Mrs. Hika's class. Miss Hika does a lot for me. Like she helps me she helps me um learn different different words and she helps me um she helps me uh multiply and do a lot of other things. And also I go to different classes like Mr. Vaneno. He he teaches me about about the world. And also Miss Hikla takes me on field trips like Dairy Queen. And also I learn about different things like how do how do they um do uh uh do uh the work. That's it. [Applause] Hello. Um,
019my son is Aiden. He goes to the freshman academy. There hasn't been a program like this. Um, we moved quite a bit from Florida to Georgia. Um, what this program, try not to get emotional, has done for him is by far one of the best things that has happened. Um, with the sizes of the program being kind of small, um, it's built up his confidence. Um, from when he started last year in 8th grade to his now completely different person. Um, it's filled in the gaps um through his reading, through his math, through him making friends. Um, transitioning. Uh, he's built up friendships and he's learning how to cook and and just the whole program in itself, I've never seen anything like it. We lived in Florida and Georgia. They kind of just threw them
020in with the wolves. kind of got slipped through the cracks and they really didn't know what to do with a boy like Aiden. Here it's they built a program around his needs and just catered to exactly what he needed and couldn't be more grateful for this program. So, thank you. And he's sitting over there. So I but I yeah I I can't wait to see what the outcome is once we get through high school and everything. So thank you. [Applause] Hello there. My name is Bella Brazzo. I'm a senior at RHS. I have been a part of ASP program since middle school. The ASP program is a good program because we have a good support system of teachers and friends and we all feel like our own little community. I feel that it has helped
021me academically by getting extra help with my work. The ASP room feels like a safe space where I can be myself and not have to worry about fitting in. I can just be myself. With my teachers, I have worked very hard and now able to earn my high school diploma. I'm proud of all my achievements and have the support system of the ASP program. My family and friends, thank you for [Applause] that. Hello. Some of you know me. My name is Lisa Joseph. I'm one of the art teachers at the high school. Um, I have the unique perspective of understanding the ASP program, both as a teacher in the high school and as a parent. Um, as a teacher, I love having these students in our school and in my classroom. Uh, and I see
022every day how all students benefit from having this program in place. The ASP room is a safe space for kids to learn, um, who often feel like they don't quite fit in. They have learning struggles that might be greater than your average student, but they are eager to learn and eager to be in school. As a parent, I'm especially grateful for this program. My daughter started ASP when she is in the middle school. At the time, it was a good fit as she wasn't quite up for the challenges of the regular curriculum. But with the help of her teachers, a good support system at home, and a great academy model at the high school, which sparked her interest in media broadcasting, my daughter is now able to earn her high school diploma. And this is
023something that brings us immense pride. Uh without the support of the program behind her, this would have been a much harder feat. So, I'm here to just publicly say thank you to all of the educators, not just teachers, just all the educators in all the buildings that helped her along the way and were able to make this happen. So, thank you, Mrs. Seldon. There's a couple other staff members. Would you please just introduce them by name? Yeah, come on up and just introduce yourself. We have to. You're not getting off that easy. I'm Christine Failen. I'm the social worker at the nth grade academy and at the high school and I work with ASP students. Yep. And I'm Tracy Bondo Turner. I'm the speech therapist and I also service 9th grade and the high school.
024So, thanks for having me. Thank you for being here, ladies. Thanks. I just want to say thank you um to our special ed teachers especially. Um all teachers have to wear a lot of hats and think on their feet every day and make lots of decisions, but you have to do it multiplied by many. So, I just thank you. you have a special place in our hearts and to the the parents of these wonderful kids too. You are truly on the front lines. So, thank you for coming and sharing your stories with us. Thank you for supporting us. Gentlemen, there's a lot of exciting things on your calendar for tonight. So, we're going to take a one minute pause and you can head on with the rest of your evening. If you'd like to stay
025and watch the rest of the board meeting, Feel free. Mr. Cali, lead the troops out. Would you? I want that sweater. When did the sweaters come back? Are do any of the other sports do the sweaters? That's it. Is it just wrestlers who do the sweaters? Yes. I love those. Oh, no. What else does the sweaters? I I mean I think Yes. All right, Mrs. Ior, I think we're ready. All right, we're going to continue on. Do we have any presentations? Okay. So, we're going to move on to consent action, approval of general fund bills, the financial reports, the wire transfer reports, purchasing card expenditures, and then the regular meeting minutes from March 17th, which were all in your packet. Um, can I have a motion to approve these consent action items? So, moved. Moved
026by Bonik. Support. Support by Bowman. Any questions? All in favor say I. I. Oppose say nay. Okay. Consent action is approved. All right. Moving on to our updates and new business. We will start with uh any communications. So uh Antonet forward on to you a letter um from Superintendent Devalt from the IST. He was actually here um for the visit um when the governor visited. So um and just complimentary of his interaction with our students and and staff in that. Uh and then secondly, we've um pushed out I am um graduation May 22nd. So if you let Antoinette know uh of your desire to attend that ceremony so we can get word back to the IM staff of how many uh of of our board and and myself will be there. Do we know how
027many students we have there from Romeo? Mrs. McFarland, rescue me. Oh, I mean, is it I think it's eight. No, I think it's more than five. Less than 10. Yes. Early early college. We have one. Yes. Sure. That email has already gone out. There we go. All right. So, we can I'll check our schedules and just get back Yep. with you on that. All right, we're going to move on to committee reports. So, we have four tonight. Curriculum, security, facility, and finance. And if it's all right, I will go ahead and start with curriculum. So, we met a couple weeks ago and we met for a couple hours. The bulk of our time was taken up by looking at CKLA, which is our elementary language arts program. Um what we were up for discussion is
028adopting a potential third addition to CLA. So we went over um some of the ins and outs of that. Uh the units that can be used with that addition. It's not a complete replacement. It's a a third edition that would allow for a couple unit replacements at each grade level. So we talked about the content of that. We also talked about um the pricing for that. The one good thing if we do choose to adopt that um that there will be some buyback from uh current materials that we would not be um using anymore from the current second edition. Um if we do approve it, it will start uh a three-year contract like the the clock ticking again on that. Otherwise, the second edition of CLA is up for renewal uh next spring at this
029time. Uh, we did go on to talk about the math pilots, uh, which I'm sure we'll hear more about in our committee reports. Um, Desmos and help me, Mr. Murray, with the other one. Okay. Bridges. Okay. So, we talked a little bit about that and how that pilot is going and those committees will be meeting in a couple weeks here in the middle of May to further discuss that. So, that will hopefully be coming up for our approval um, at a a near future date. Uh we also talked about the staffing needs at the elementary and secondary levels. And one of our resolutions tonight is uh which one is it? Resolution 44. Uh which will be um us approving or not approving um four additional teaching roles at the secondary level for middle school and
030high school. And we talked just talked about the rationale behind that. um some of that being at the middle school, how we just really want to make it a true team uh atmosphere and the need for additional teaching staff. Um and then we talked, we briefly talked at the end about um media materials um making sure that it's in correspondence with the media uh materials policy that was written um almost three years ago now. So, any questions? All right, moving on to security. Mrs. Bowman. Okay. Um, we met on March 3rd. Um, the district safety team update um is the annual district safety focus area progress. Um, the committee reviewed the progress um within the 2425 school year. The safety focus areas. This included um the emergency response team coordination. So they had facility uh
031site visits. Um this priority is based on our SRO conducting school tours for local police and firefighters and paramedics in designated areas um when school is not in session. Um Mike Thomas um our security director shared how this had helped with response times to recent incidents. So these uh first responders already know the layout of our buildings. Um so it again uh improves the response time. Um this is a continued priority in 2025 to continue and repeat these tours and trainings uh during the district spring break. Um the coordinated training the committee reviewed the outcomes from the 24 2024 tabletop exercise that were established and coordinated with the emergency response team. Um this included how we get out emergency communication, the unified command and support coordination um with reunification sites and travel routes for buses.
032Um in reference to the relocation and reuni reunification, Dr. Robinson shared how we've been working with the MISD, that's the Mcome Independent School District, um or is that intermediate or independent? Intermediate. I thought I had it wrong. Okay. personnel on a report in Power School that will help be accountable for all students reunification with their parents in the event um of us utilizing an evacuation, relocation, and the reunification process. Um the cardiac response, an update was given on how our uh new district nurse, Julie Paulie, has done a great job to take over leadership and direction of this legal requirement. Um every school now has a design designated team of staff to respond to a cardiac event. Um they're working through all the schools in the district to get everyone trained. Romeo Middle School has
033officially received a hearts safe certification and He Elementary and Romeo High School are on their way towards this certification. Um the remainder of the schools should hopefully be completed prior to the end of the school year. Um Mrs. Rice inquired about how teams are trained, including our shield employees and school nurses, and suggested that they understand the use of Narcan, and especially in light of incidents with pent potential drug use amongst our student body. Um, we talked about the safety funding update. Um, there's some state funding history. So, we looked at the numbers from 22 and 23. Section 97 money for safety was only $620,88. The following year 2324 section 31A mental healthsafety increased to1,224,349. And then in this year, the 2425 school year, the state legislature drastically cut funds in the original June budget,
034but this fall approved a supplemental to continue those funds, but then reduced them back to half of the original amount budgeted. Um, which is more like the 22 23 levels. Um RCS use of funding room community schools. We currently have $1,854 and 178 I'm sorry $1,854,178 between carryover from last year and the 31A grants. Um we budgeted for these expenses below in this current year to be covered by the 31A. Um projections for next year would be listed below here on the I don't know if they're up there. No. Okay. Um the available funds at current projections and the governor's budget proposal would need some general fund support moving forward um as a carryover would be spent. Other items uh board member topics um we discussed in school violence pre prevention. Um an incident that
035happened earlier this year was brought to the table to be discussed and Dr. Robinson ex board certain board members were asking why we weren't informed. Um Dr. Mr. Robinson explained that we need to be aware of privacy matters, which we all understand. Um, two board members stated that they would like to see a third school resource officer here at the 9th grade building. Um, so that's been kept on the table for future discussion. We also discussed if that would be too costly or maybe arming a shield employee who was prior law enforcement. This these were just all things we discussed. Um, Mr. Mike Thomas and Officer Bower stated that the data doesn't really support this at the time that the chemistry that exists um with our security staffing in this building is good and we
036cannot simply add another SRO and maintain that effective environment. Um board members requested some type of report of these incidents um to be given to us within the district in regards to drug use, violent incidents, etc. And we reiterated that um Mike Antoine had requested this last year. Um, so we have been given one report at this time. Um, but that's something we'd like to see continue just so we have an idea of what's going on and where we can uh have these further discussions to improve these incidents and keep them from happening. Um, Dr. Robinson shared how we devote a lot of our budget to security matters and and the board members requested that we put these numbers together so the public can see where where these dollars are going and what we're putting
037our focus efforts on. just so you have a better understanding of how much our district does in this area and how many funds are actually needed to maintain what we're already doing and improve from there. Um the emergency communications project emergency communications project the committee got an overview of the current project the district safety team is working on to create a structure protocols sample communications to support a series of different emergencies that um schools and districts have and will face in the future. Um we discussed a parent outreach event um with Kenny Spears in conjunction with his program positive you which already has a contract in our district. Um we were talk we talked about doing a event entitled digital detox. Uh Mr. Spears presented at last year's state of the district address and the
038proposed event would be a deeper level discussion for parents just to learn about the dangers and the negative effects of social media um and cell phones on this on their children. This is tentatively scheduled for the end of April, but board members stress that by that time of year, parents are busy. They're kind of checked out at that point with everything going on. So, we suggested maybe have it at the end of August, beginning of September when everyone's just getting back into the rhythm of school. Um, so they would likely get more from an event like that. And that's all I have. All right. Thank you. and we will be um the shield contract which was resolution number 40 will be coming out of those notes which Mrs. Bowman talked about. So, thank you. Um
039if we could move on to finance. Sure, if you're ready. Sure. Yep. Um finance has uh about five resolutions on the agenda this evening. Uh one of them is the early childhood child care fees. Um after doing an analysis of programs in the area and looking at our current fee structure, um there is a proposal to uh standardize our our fees, pay upfront type of thing so that um we can get the money so we can do proper staffing that in our early childhood programs. So, um, and the fees are increased based on, uh, the competitiveness between the other districts. So, that's on the agenda tonight for a resolution. Also on the agenda is a student device refresh for our onetoone student devices. And um this is something that the district has built into its
040budget um to happen every I guess around 5 years or so four years four years and um they've allocated budget amount with the sinking fund to replace this which so they can sustain uh those devices throughout the district. So it's a really good thing for us to do. Uh Mr. Nelson provided some data on that in our packet for us. In addition to um the food, we talked about the food service fund. Um there's some additional money in the fund that excess funds you're only allowed to carry over so much. So there's some funding that we need to spend. And uh some expenditures for consideration were are a food service truck. I guess ours is on its last leg. um some food service equipment, uh look at the quality of our food, maybe some new
041uh items on the menu, um and a reclassification of a food service production coordinator to a food service supervisor to help with um our food service director. Um there's so many state and federal regula regulations regarding food that gets brought into the district, how we buy our food, where it comes from, if we can get it or not. Um so there's a lot of work in there knowing what in my district what a food service person goes through. Um, Miss Bowman talked a little bit about the contract for the um, security that we have a three-year contract up on the agenda for this evening for a resolution. Um, the data was put in in our packet regarding that contract amount. Um, and then we also have a resolution regarding our bleachers for the baseball fields,
042the baseball and softball field and for the middle school uh tracked football field is on the agenda. So, we got some data for that as well. So, we can purchase that. That's going to be purchased from a cooperative bid that's already been bid out. Um, so we can purchase from there directly. So, that's all I have. facilities. Yes, we actually had a committee of the whole um which meant everybody was able and invited to come um to last um facilities subcommittee meeting which was April 21st and uh we were six of us were able to come. One had a conflict a work conflict. Um we also had members there from uh Barton Mallow um and my school research um there as well. We started our night talking about our future um bond planning um finishing
043up and always staying along the lines of our master facility plan. Um there was a report given on our community input. Um my school data conducted focus groups and also a survey. So we learned about, you know, what is supported in the community from our bond product projects and our facility planning. We identified items or the the survey and the focus group identified items that need better and more communication. Uh we talked a little bit about perception verse reality especially when it comes to enrollment and those results will be used to help us create ourformational bond uh campaign. Um, we also talked about the bond application overview, what that looks like, how we take it to Treasury, what the application process requires, um, um, how and why the bond would be in series, and a
044timeline for the board, um, when we would have to take action in the summer. um project groups. We talked about how uh the groups would be project or the groups in the bond would be um infrastructure, safety and security, learning environment and arts and athletics. Um the board discussed various ways in which communication um and bond messages can be delivered. We talked about the onetoone student refresh which is on tonight's agenda. It was also talked about in facilities. Um, we are using a cooperative bid. Um, the new thing with this is that Chromebooks are actually going to be used down in the kindergarten grades, which we haven't done that before, replacing iPads. Uh Barton Melo gave us a good solid overview of our group two projects which includes our administration building, the renovation there, the
045punchless items, um the RMS outdoor athletic athletic facility and uh the very unique weather conditions that we need in order to put the final coating on. Um what's happening at the shotput area, sidewalk, storage building will be completed after the spring season of sports. group three projects. We talked about the ninth grade academy renovation project. Um most of that work obviously is going to be happening in the summer months, but some demolition is underway. The crosswell parking lot and then the Romeo Middle School locker room renovation. Uh we did go over the change orders which you'll see that tonight too. um and change orders. Some of those are things that, you know, the architect tells us we have to do. A lot of them are things that we get into a project and decide for
046ourselves that it's something we want to do. Um but the good news there is it is covered with our contingency funds. So, um, the three items on tonight's agenda are the, uh, the change order and the bond equipment purchase approval, which we did talk about, um, but it's also the updated sheets on your, uh, desk that has to do with the bleachers and, uh, the Hamilton Parson's uh, change order, which is to pave the gravel lot. And we adjourned that meeting and it was very good. Any questions? All right. And we are going to move on to superintendent report. All right. Mr. Murray, Mrs. McFarland, kick us off with academic services. Oops, almost hit the wrong button. I did. Good evening, everybody. Have a few updates for you. um some of which have been predicted
047earlier u by Mrs. Zikor uh the curriculum subcommittee reports. Um our math pilot decision-making meeting at the elementary level is happening on May 13th. Um we're in the process now of collecting feedback from teachers so we can use that as a part of our as a way to have a competent conversation um on the 13th between uh what curriculum we would like to bring forward or bring through the process curriculum subcommittee and then hopefully to full board for for a vote. Um just really want to um end this piece of u my portion by thanking all the educators that have been involved in this. You know piloting in a classroom is a very tough tough endeavor. Um, and not only that, we've had some folks behind the scenes who've really been supporting uh the process,
048you know, whether it's going into classrooms providing support or even being in contact with the publishers uh just to support teachers as they try to navigate through the process to uh provide a sound recommendation so we can choose the very best curriculum for our students. So, I'm proud of the work and uh look forward to us getting something to you hopefully at the end of May or in June. summer programming. Uh our summer programming is in full swing regarding registration. Uh we have um for students entering grades one through three, uh we have our summer skills program uh which will run four days a week um for roughly four weeks and um we have kids signing up in droves. So we're hoping um at times we see sign up and then we see some kind
049of regression to the mean as summer gets closer. So, we're hoping that the signups indeed show up uh during the summer and we'll work on some contingency plans in the event that um we have some folks who have dropped off. And then students in fourth and fifth grade will um be learning soon about a virtual program that we will have for them um tied to EXL, get a posting out there and get some teachers so we can talk a little bit further about it. And then essentially um kids will be able to to do EXL work at home and pro um have a teacher in the background monitoring their work and providing support and recommendations where needed. Um that's also involves obviously communicating home with mom and dad as well. And then I think the
050thing that I'm arguably most excited to talk about tonight is our early childhood education to elementary collaboration. Um this has been a a pinch point for us for a few years. um just really trying to streamline the collaborative process um and and have our early childhood educators and our elementary especially young fives and kindergarten teachers join forces to ease that transition in students moving from Cwell to our five elementary schools. So right now we're putting the finishing touches on uh a lot of the work that's been building up to this to help those kids and our staff honestly prepare to um receive new students in the fall. receive or let go, I guess. Um over the course of the next few weeks, we have um all of our early childhood educators vis visiting our elementary
051schools um specifically young fives in in kindergarten classrooms to learn a little bit about what's needed for a four or 5-year-old to be successful, you know, at the elementary level. It's been a few years since we've done that. So we really want to work to sharpen our collective focus so that when kids are in early childhood the teachers there have an understanding of what's to come for those students and can work with them to ensure that um they can have the utmost successes as they make that move. And then in midMay, uh, we have our teachers from Cwell and representatives from our elementary schools, uh, getting together to basically have transition meetings for every, um, elementary student who will be moving on to our elementary schools. In at the elementary level, we call them move
052up meetings. So, this is a move up meeting except we're moving buildings. And so we're um I'm excited to see that play out in terms of just giving the um receiving side of it, our elementary folks a little bit of a heads up about the new crop. Um something that that we're really looking forward to. And again, this process has been awesome. Um kudos to our educators who have really leaned into this work and uh are going to make it great not only this year but for years to come. Questions for me? Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon or evening. What time is it? Um so we um have a couple updates um for our secondary schools. Um one um if you have an opportunity, if you haven't yet seen it, um WDIV is now doing
053a tradeup spotlight on the skilled trades. And so they were in our building uh last week sometime. And um if you just like Google WDIV tradeup Romeo um it should pop up for you. It's a couple minute video. They visited our advanced manufacturing classroom and our construction trades. They talked to both instructors and a couple of our students. So, uh kudos to Mrs. Dawson who saw that online and said, "How can we get on there?" Um so she sent it in and and they came out. So, um just another uh um leg up to show what our access our students have um to prepare them uh for life after high school. Um on one of the resolutions tonight, yes, I know it's April, but it's the uh Romeo High School class of 2025 approval of
054graduates. anyone listening or watching this on the recording, this is pending successful completion of your second semester and making sure that they meet all Michigan merit requirements and our Romeo high school graduation requirements. I needed to put that in just in case. Um, I'm confident that all of them will strive to do their best in the last few weeks of school. Um much like elementary, we're in a little bit of a different spot, but we have um some math pilots going on at the middle and high school. I'm not quite sure we're as far along. Um one of the providers, their new addition isn't coming out until 2627. So, it really doesn't give us a lens of um kind of some of our math teachers want to see that and not pilot the old edition.
055So, we meet on May 15th. We'll talk with our team and see if we're ready to move forward. Um, we may or may not be, so stay tuned to that. Um, I'm also, um, going to talk a little bit about, u Mr. Osbold and, um, his team for the last several years have been talking about moving away from a top 10 only and creating a Sumakumlad honors, much like some of the local high schools around us have done. um because it's really hard to look at a student who has a a 4.03 and say you don't deserve any kind of recognition for the hard work that you've done. So this is the first year of it and I'm proud to say there were 41 students who earned the Sumakumlad honors. Um so uh this year
056instead of a breakfast, that's a lot of kids to get through breakfast. Um so they're having a dinner. Um and then right afterwards will be the honors and scholarship night. So, um I think we've got some things kind of in in our little inkling of of trying to make sure we honor all 41 of those students in in some way or another. If you are a high school parent, um the Friday before spring break really um the student newspaper put an addition out recognizing all of those uh graduates, the Sum Sumakumlad graduates. So, um, we're very proud of them and I think there might be a board member, um, who's extra proud. Um, but, um, it's it it's it's really great that we can recognize more students for their hard work. Um, I know we
057talked a little bit about AM commencement. Um, early College of MCOME is coming quickly up May 7th and we do have one student and he will be walking because I emailed and double checked. So, um that is at the MCOME Center for Performing Arts, um on Garfield and and Hall Road and it's a four four o'clock start. Um but that that's also a cool ceremony. It's exciting. They earned their um high school diploma and their associates degree. So, these kids have done high school and college um in one extra year. So, I will be attending if anyone else wants to join me. That is all I have for nowish. So hang on, Mrs. McFarland. Um because uh just have you there for support in terms of um you know this time of year staffing uh
058and scheduling is is really uh in full swing. And so after a series of meetings um with our secondary administrative teams and some refining, uh we're bringing resolution 44 to the board tonight for approval. Um and Mrs. McFarland, how about the cliffnotes of what these positions are? Sure. So, at the high school level, um they've been able to do some rearranging of of what people are teaching and they really need a another um 1.0 FTE English teacher. Um I know I think we talked a little bit at curriculum. There are many many of our English teachers are also teaching then history or psychology or you know they they have a a side job so to say. So, um Mr. Roswell just tried to stream that a little bit. So it would be a 1.0 English
059teacher. And then um we talked at curriculum. There are some new guidelines or requirements from the MDE around uh English language acquisition. Currently at the high school we have two sections. So it's a.33. Um to be in compliance and really serve our students um based on their needs. We really need another 67 FTE which would equate to one full-time teacher. And it would be really hard to find a teacher that would only work like the first 90 minutes of the day. Um, and that's it. Um, but um, looking at our student needs and and where they're at, a full-time teacher, we like a full schedule is already built um, based on on the needs for that student or those students at the 9 through 12th grade level. Questions about the high school? Okay. Middle school.
060Um, I think um, Mrs. Zikor shared um you know our vision of merging two RA you know smaller um middle schools into one larger middle school of almost 1,200 students um we've done a really good job teaming having a group of teachers share the same students. Um we just have these um you know odd kind of times where we've got teachers that are sixth grade and seventh grade or seventh and eighth grade and they really are not teamed. they don't they don't they're not teamed together and and the kids are are not necessarily have all the same teachers. So to uh move further along and be able to do that and really live into the middle school model um we're asking for two additional FTEEs. One right now would be a social studies teacher and
061a science teacher. So, um, different than maybe some of the priorities conversation we'll have, um, a little bit tonight and moving forward, um, with the board's approval of resolution 44, we we will just ensure that that these funds are secured, you know, in the preliminary budget for next year um before we would consider adopting other um, priorities. So, not every year do we have enrollment driven positions um but this year we we're asking for approval of these. Thank you, Mrs. McFarland. You're welcome. So, moving on just uh our facilities connected things as normal. I just want to provide the opportunity um before we get to action on the table. If the board has any questions, we've got uh Mr. Nelson here, uh Mr. Storm is here and members of our Barton Mallow team. Gentlemen, thanks
062for coming out again. I know it just wouldn't be a Monday night if you weren't hanging out here at the 9th grade academy. Um uh so we have the change order approval um for the Hamilton Parsons parking lot was referenced in the committee of the whole. Um couple years ago when we were finishing the new addition, we kind of rescaped that part of the school site and created a gravel lot. Um, with all affection, I said people who live in the UP of Romeo are used to driving on dirt roads and parking on gravel. They'll be good with it. Um, I think one of the things that's important for the community to know is when we did that, we prepped. We didn't know when we might get to paving. Um, but we prepped the base
063there so that uh it it is not as extensive as it would be if we were starting from scratch uh to pave that area. So, any questions in terms of the change order approval? All right. Um, bond equipment purchase, uh, consortium bid bleachers for, uh, two of our most recent projects that have come online. You know, it's it's fair to say like the fields are being used. Why don't we have bleachers? Well, there's an aluminum shortage and a lot of other crazy things in the world right now around things like aluminum. Um, so, um, I would be remiss to say we weren't thinking about bleachers in the middle of December. Um, but had we been, maybe we would be able to get them before the end of the season. Um, we're hosting districts, I think,
064out here that there's a shot we might have them by then. Um, the middle school is a different situation because that facility isn't in use yet. Um, so we'll get those if approved, installed at some point this summer. Uh, that's a little bigger set and elevated and ADA access uh, and all of that. So, uh, a reminder that updated resolution cover page that has the right sum total for approval tonight. Any questions on that? All right. Uh, and then technology or student device replacement. Mr. Antoine did a good job with that. Uh, a sinking fund project. Uh, Mr. Nelson's here if you had any questions in regard to that. All right. Um so um looking ahead uh the board uh facilities subcommittee would remember and I think the full board that uh we had uh
065bid out earlier uh in the new year uh courtyard uh update project and we just weren't comfortable with how those bids came in. So that's currently out for bid again and and we're hoping with the diligent efforts of Mr. Tolles and Mr. Iran. Um we'll land that bid process with the possibility of bringing that um to the board for approval at our May regular meeting. Um because of where we're at, it's still yet to be determined whether we really even could do it this construction season, but we'll work with any of the biders to talk that through uh and be back to you hopefully at the May regular meeting um with with some sort of um resolution to to move that forward. Um, uh, Mrs. Brush just wanted me to, uh, do a special shout
066out to all of our staff and community members and parents who participated in our focus groups, uh, in the past month. There was just valuable insight shared uh, and some direction like Mrs. Bonik referred to some of that uh, and and also our community survey. Um, so you know, sometimes there's there's a there's a lot in the world and to get people to focus in enough to to tell us what they think, uh, is really important. So, thank you to everyone who participated in that. Um, although we're running maybe a little bit behind where we've been able to the last couple years in terms of our annual district leadership priorities, um, part of that is due in nature to some of the grant funding that we had. Um, so I'm not going to go through
067explaining all these tonight. I just, um, the board has seen this once and over the course of the next couple months, we'll be taking these incrementally uh, and talking about them. So, uh, our team landed on 13 priorities. Um, as we think to next year, we're hopeful that, um, at some point in between now and the fall, we could actually get to maybe as many as nine or 10 of these. Um, some of these we know are going to require us to have a final budget from the state on what kind of funding we have for next year and in some cases what our enrollment is through the count next fall to know that we, you know, can afford some of these if they are uh additional funding. So, we have a mixture of things
068that just have a financial um need to them. And then you'll also see some things on the list that have an MP, which would actually be a new position. I would direct um the attention of our guests here tonight and the public who might watch this in the board to the color shaded areas because we begin to think and group these priorities. Uh and right now we've kind of got four groups in mind. Uh and that's the four different colors that you see uh on the screen tonight. And so uh really just group one is really what I want to address tonight. And uh depending on how things play out in the next several weeks, we might bring a couple groups in one evening. But um you know, this is really I guess I would
069say a declaration of some sorts in terms of our math uh elementary math interventionist positions. So um as we work through the pandemic, uh ESRE funding and some other state grants since then, we've been able to move to a full-time math interventionist in each of our elementary buildings. Um those funds are all either expired or will be expiring at the end of this year. Um so we want to make sure that we can maintain those positions. Um and then uh equitable and sustainable contracts. We have the first of a series of contracts um that's on the board agenda tonight and and we just want to remain competitive uh in in the marketplace and also be able to um not only attract the best talent but also retain the staff that we have. So both of
070these um things tonight are really really talking about um you know uh as a district leadership team um Mrs. Laski and myself um we will build these into the budget. the B the board will see these these commitments uh intentionally as we build the budget and we would account for these group one priorities before we talk about funding any of the other priority groups two and beyond. Any question in regards to to these two uh uh items in our group one priorities? All right. If the board's got any poll in Lancing, um knowing what our budget is for next year and our funding would be great. Uh and we have also have some questions about some of the state categorical grants uh and how those might be able to help us. So, um five full-time
071elementary math interventionists uh and doing our best on our new and renewed contracts uh are the first of our commitments from the district leadership priorities um for next year. Um, last, we've got some some change coming on the horizon. Um, and so, uh, I just want to remind the public that, uh, because of the Memorial Day holiday, our fourth Monday is a holiday and we'll actually be holding our May regular board meeting on Tuesday, uh, this has been the case for the past couple years. Um, same time, same place um, for May. Uh and then because of the significant renovation that'll be taking place over the summer inside the ninth grade academy, um we're going to be relocating to Cwell in our new training room um for the June and July regular meetings. Um we'll
072be putting them out some specific maps and details to the public because uh we also have a parking lot renovation going on at Cwell. Um, but we have plenty of access off of Durham Street on the south side of the building next to the transportation building and parking and we'll have signage and everything. So, those that want to come, uh, I am hopeful that by our August regular meeting, we'll be able to be back here. Um, but we'll monitor construction. That actually is the day that staff reports back for next year. Um, that doesn't always mean that construction is done. Um but uh if need be, we would just have one additional meeting in August at Cwell. Um but we'll be moving the June and July regular meetings. And it'll be great um to have
073the public um see that renovation because that's that's been done in the last year. Uh and a good meeting place for us to have uh those regular meetings. That's all I have for tonight. Dr. Robinson, can you go back a couple slides? I just want the community who is either here tonight or watching the recording um to kind of understand the process of um you want that one. Yes, thank you. Um so we met as a board I believe was that March was our study session and those um you know it's it's an open meeting that is open to the public. They're very long. So, um, we did have a couple community members there, but, um, this was really when when you go through this process, it's a chance for, um, administrators and different cabinet
074members to come and present sort of their vision, their needs, their wants. Um, and that you guys have already done a lot of leg work at that point to kind of prioritize them and give the rationale for them. And then I know you guys have gone back since then and narrowed it down. So sometimes when you look at this list you think oh it's just a big giant wish list. It kind of is but there is a lot of work that goes into it at the cabinet level where they um you know really think through of you know reality um of finances and things like that but also needs of the district. So I just appreciate a lot of work that goes into that priority list because it's it's a long vetted process. So and
075over time things are on this list sequentially. So you might start at the bottom and you'll see our team really works to support things over time as funds are available. Um and every member of our 30 member leadership team has equal voice regardless of what their position is in the district in regard to um what we believe is most important. Um so thank you for that Mrs. All right. I have one sheet for public comment. Just a reminder, if you have public comment, you need to fill out a yellow sheet and uh turn it in prior to. But I'm going to call uh Mrs. Danielle Lee up. And just a reminder, you have three minutes. You can move that over. Okay. Thanks. Hi. Uh my name is Danielle Lee. I am at 171 Tilson. I
076have a fifth grader and Amanda Moore and I am a substitute teacher at um through edge of staff with Romeo. Um I was just hoping for some clarification regarding the determination of what constitutes political or ideological content content under policy 4005 for approval tonight. Um specifically I'm curious who's responsible for making these determinations and whose decisions um or how these are guided. For example, would a sign stating all are welcome be considered acceptable under the current guideline? There's been a lot of considerable discussion on social media suggesting that the board may be categorizing certain expressions of basic human rights and diversity as political. Given how easily misinformation can spread online, I believe it would be helpful for the community to hear directly from the board on this topic. Could you please speak to those um
077concerns and provide some clear examples of what is and is not permitted under this policy? Um thank you for your time and ensuring open and transparent communication. Appreciate it. All right. And I hopefully we'll be able to answer some of that when we get to that point which will be soon. Any more public comment? All right. We are going to move on to action items. So I am going to begin with resolution 36, our personnel update which is in your packet. Um not a lengthy list but a few resignations and replacements. Do I have a motion for resolution 36? Motion. Support. Motion by Bowman. Support by Bonik. Any questions? No. All in favor say I. All oppose say nay. Okay. Motion 36 passes. Right. Moving on to resolution 37A. So we have two policy updates.
078So we're separating them. 37A speaks to policy 4003. We had a first reading for the board at our March meeting. And this is in reference to earned sick time as um for conditions of employment uh to make sure that we are compliant with our policy provider. Motion. Okay. Motion by Antoine. Second. Second by Bowman. Any questions or comments? Okay. All in favor? All opposed? Okay. Motion 37A passes. Okay. from uh policy update or policy resolution 37B. This has to do with policy 4005 display of ideological and political symbols. Um just as a reference for this policy but all policies um I have always said that I wish we were you know transparent um because I used to not that long ago be sitting in the audience. So moving forward, we do have and it is
079already up on our website, our policy process as you see us going through first reading, second readings and the actual language um once it goes for a second reading is listed on our website. It is a link under the board of education tab. So any of these policies, these two that we are voting on tonight, you can look at the exact language and read it. Um, in reference to this, it is a policy to address that we um are we have had some administrators and even staff teachers express the desire to make sure we're focusing on curriculum and not people's personal beliefs. Um, so that is what this policy addresses and again you can see the language of the policy 4003 and 4005 on our website and they were posted at the same time as
080the agenda which I believe was posted Friday afternoon. So, do I have a motion for resolution 37B? Motion. Motion by Rice, moved by, second by Chahakei. Any questions? Okay. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say nay. Nay. Okay. Motion passes. Six. I one nay. All right. Moving on to employee services 38 uh our tenative agreement which we um have met a few times in regards to this is in regards to teamsters uh 214 Romeo and administrators administrators association which includes uh all of our principles and assistant principles in our district. So moved moved by Bonik support support by Chahakei. Any questions? No. All right. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Nay. All right. Motion or I'm sorry. Resolution 38 passes. Moving on to business services resolution 39, our early childhood and child
081care fees. Uh, this was sent out probably about a month ago for us to look at, but then referenced again tonight um in the finance report. Can I have a motion? Motion. Motion by Bowman. Support. support by Antoine. Any questions? All right. All in favor? I I opposed. All right. Motion passes. Resolution 40. This would be our shield contract update which was uh talked about in our security committee and you also have that in your packet. Motion. Support. Motion by Rice. Support by Bonik. Any questions? All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Name. Right. Motion passes. Moving on to letter G, facilities resolution 41. This is our 2021 bond change order approval. Motion. Support. Motion by Chahakei supported by Bonik. Any questions? I know we had very thorough committee reports tonight, so that helps. All
082in favor? I oppose. Name. All right. Motion passes. All right. Facilities resolution 42, the 2021 bond equipment purchase approval. Motion. Motion by Antoine. Support. Support by Bonik. Any questions? Okay. All in favor say I. I opposed motion. Sorry, I got All right. Letter I, technology resolution number 43, the technology purchase approval. Um, this was the student onetoone device uh refresh motion. Motion by Antoine. Support by Rice. Any questions? All in favor? I I oppose. Nay. Motion passes. Letter J, academic services resolution 44. This was the enrollment driven teaching positions that Dr. Robinson spent some time on and also was uh focused on in our committee report for curriculum. Motion, support motion by Rice. I think that was a second by Bonic. Okay. Any questions? All right. All in favor? I opposed. Name. All right. passes.
083Item K, academic services resolution 45. This is the approval of our class of 2025, which we get to celebrate very soon. Go ahead. Go ahead. Motion. All right. Senior parent motion by Mrs. Bowman, support by Rice. Any questions? All right. All in favor? I opposed. All right. And then I just Well, So, actually we're going to move up um we're going to move up a second public comment. Do I have any additional public comments on anything else? Going once, twice. All right, then I am going to move on to uh anything the board discussion for the good of the district. I do. All right, Mr. Antoine. Um I had two opportunities um on behalf of the board to attend the the first opportunity was to attend the budget meeting. um we were required to have
084a representative from a board, each district had one at the MISD. Um, I felt that even though that I've been in the schools and in the county for a long time, I still had an opportunity to learn a few things. And I would encourage that anybody um, next year if you're fairly new to school and what happens in education, but particularly about how the ISD supports the districts is really huge and the programs that they have to offer us um, and the school districts that are out there. So have an opportunity to learn a lot. Each of their department heads come out. They talk about what programs they offer schools and what's going on. I I felt it was really interesting. So I would encourage you. It's about two hours long. So bad. Um in
085addition um me or myself and um Miss Bowman and Miss Iikorst um attended the MCOME leadership meeting the other night which was uh fun. It's a end of the year board leadership dinner speaker type thing in a different kind of a setting um with all the board people from all over the county and um it was just I like those kind of events because we get a chance kind of casually to talk and to get to know each other. So I thought that that was really beneficial you know being there. So, and um I have a number of things as you can see. Um had an opportunity to drive by the uh Rose I did almost did it again. Romeo Middle School did it. I know the Romeo Middle School and looked at the track
086in the field and that what a transformation. If you get a chance to see it, it is it looks really good back there and to see the new uh um STEM building and stuff. That was good. And I'd like to thank uh Dr. Robertson for um inviting me to the opening day of the baseball field and having an opportunity um to throw out the first pitch and those members that joined us there. It was great. I seen that I made the record. I got a picture of myself in there. So So look good. So thanks. You could be a pitching coach there. It was good for That's right. That's right. Just outside the strike zone. Just was a sweeper. I was going to wear my uniform in spikes, but I didn't think the coach would
087like. Thank you, Mr. Shout out to the Rome Oh, I'm sorry. Was someone Oh, no. Go ahead. Yep. Shout out to the uh Romeo robotics team. They did awesome. Uh getting Yep. in the worlds. So, yep. Good job. Awesome. Anybody else? It's a very busy time of year. Lots of good celebrations though happening. All right. Can I have a motion to go into close session? Motion. Motion by Ber and support by Chiakei. All in favor? I. We need to do roll call. Can you do roll call? Mr. Antoine? Yes. Mrs. Bonnik? Yes. Mrs. Bowman? Yes. Mr. Boyer? Yes. Mrs. Joy? Yes. Mrs. Zikor? Yes. I'm a Yes.