001[Music] All right, welcome. We are going to get started. Can I have roll call, please? Sorry. Yep. Certainly need to do that again. Mr. Antoine, yes, here. Mrs. Bonik, here. Mrs. Bowman, here. Mr. Ber, here. Mrs. Chiakei here. Mrs. Iicor here. I am here. All right. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. 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. All right. May I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Motion. Moved by Rice. Second. seconded. Mrs. Zikor, before we I just normally we've got a close session with no action. Okay. If we can move five and six up before um I guess it' be letter I close session. That
002way um folks can move on with their evening. Thank you. Okay. So, we will move up for the good of the district and the second public comment. Yep. Right. following the regular action items. Okay, any questions? Okay, all in favor? I I I Okay. All right. Let's move on to Bulldog Spotlight. All right. Mrs. McFarland, are you introducing this evening? Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone. Good evening, everyone. So, if you want to go ahead and advance to the next slide, Dr. Robinson. Thank you. So, um I wanted to uh bring our some of our middle school students and staff um to the March Bulldog Spotlight because March is middle level education month. Um and uh you're very well aware of our connection with AMLE and our partnership with the assessment that we took and some
003PD that we've offered. Um and I just wanted to make the public aware of how important um the young adolescent ages 10 through 15 is. It is the um second time that a significant uh biological cognitive and social emotional change happens with the brain. So we know the birth to age three is the first where the most learning occurs and the young adolescent is the second um stage u where the most um foundational lifelong learning patterns, behaviors and attitudes towards education happen. So, I'm very pleased to bring forward some of our students and staff from Romeo Middle School um that are going to talk about how we are creating uh a a strong culture and an opportunity for kids to expand their learning beyond our school walls and begin thinking about their future. So, I'd
004like to introduce Mr. Marts or one of the kids will probably just come up and start because they're middle schoolers. They're very self-directed. We got some slides. Hi everyone. I'm Lily. I'm Addison. And I'm Ethan. And we're eighth graders at Romeo Middle School. And we're here to tell you a little bit about our school. You ready? Yeah. Let's go to the next one. Who's got that one? Go to the next one. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me. [Music] All right, there you go. Right now, we're going to start off with something we start off every morning in advisory, which is tell me something good. When we share out something good that's happening in our life or something positive, like for example, I have soccer practice tonight. I'm looking forward to that. I have softball this weekend and
005I went for a run yesterday. Okay, cool. Do any of you guys have something positive you'd like to share? Sure. The future looks bright with middle level adolescents like you. We also do another thing in the mornings. We start off with doing something called social contract where we go over these goals that we set for ourselves and see what we want to specifically aim for that day like kindness or being engaged. And our social contract is um a list of words that we came up with as a class kids did and we put it on a sheet and it hangs in the back of the room and we all like agree on a word to work on throughout the day and we rate ourselves at the end of the each class period to see what
006we need to work on and it really helps students like realize what they did wrong or right each day. and going on with the social contract. That also brings us to our greetings which are um a thing that everyone works on and we took our own lesson to do that in Leadw worthy and it's just being professional and teaching younger kids how to engage with adults. So, we have this thing that we did at our school and it's called the nonprofit fair and we had 57 nonprofit organizations ca like come in and we had sixth, seventh and eighth graders participate and um it's a guaranteed sixth grade experience. But this year is our first year that we were doing it. So, we had all the grades participate and I just think it was like a
007great opportunity. the leadership students, which is us, we helped our nonprofits that we were assigned to and we just helped them out anything that they needed and they filled out um an assessment form and they were just they had nothing but positive things to say about us. Um there was a bunch of options. There were church options like if you're like in like a religious community, just like up there, there's a bunch of kids there. They have um nature, pets, there's like anything that you could possibly think of. I personally love this fair and I've already been looking at volunteering with a few of these organizations. It was great to get involved with them before I stepped in so I could get to know what they were all about. Yeah, it was good to have
008a lot of options open to us for future if we need to put it on our resume or like college or for high school. And I think all the organizations really love seeing us and having like introducing what their organization is and how it can impact our community. Yeah. Yeah. And personally, I got connected with the Soho nonprofit and it's student optimist helping other like helping others and I just think it was a great opportunity and I thought that was one of my favorite ones that shown up and I just think that it's a really good opportunity for all the kids and it's just a way to get community like get just like work with your community. Okay. Um, do we talk about our podcast? Yeah. Um, so we hosted a podcast kind of with
009Ford NGL. Um, and we talked talked about our school and what we've been doing for how like five like seven years and like what we've been feels like that. Thank you for the validation. Yeah. Yeah. what we've been doing and um we host like a podcast for them and we became an academy, the first one in Michigan, part of the K12. Yeah. Yeah. It was really interesting and we were able to share all of the opportunities that we've been blessed with here at Romeo Middle. Yeah. Do you guys have any questions? I just want to say the fair was very impressive. Um, so thank you to the adults, but also the students that helped facilitate that and run that. It was um very impressive and a very um it was just great for the community,
010but also um us to see all of you students in action. So, thank you. Y [Applause] All right, we are going to um So, Mrs. Of course, go ahead. I I feel the compelled to speak a little to this slide. So, after an extensive master planning process that for some felt like seven years um but was probably closer to two um the podcast that the students speak about was their creative way that they chose to present our master plan to for next generation learning. Um so it was it was an extended opportunity to talk about the plan and the plans for uh the transformation of Romeo Middle School. Uh they asked some questions um good questions uh and then took some time afterwards and on March 11th we received official notification that uh we were
011designated uh as a member of the K12 community network. Um, we're the first middle school in the state of Michigan to be designated as a Ford Next Generation Learning Middle School. Uh, and to the best of my knowledge, the fourth nationally within the network that's been formally designated. So, congratulations, Mr. Marks and those from the middle school staff and students that are here tonight. We're really excited about the future journey and grateful for all their efforts. Um, last but not least, the vision of Mrs. McFarland. she plans and organizes and um gets people to meetings and and doesn't get upset when they don't. Like um I think the time that she spent with Mr. Marts um to just scale this up and stay the course, it wouldn't be possible without her. So, thank you, Mrs.
012McFarland. That's her spot. If anyone wanted to view that podcast, where could they look for it? Um I don't know that we recorded that one because it Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Yeah. Okay. That's why she said sort of podcast. Yeah. Yeah. It was a recorded Zoom meeting for NGL. Right. Okay. All right. No problem. They did have little microphones though. Like it was it was a good setup. All right. All right. Well, we have no presentations tonight. Um, you are certainly all welcome to stay, but if anybody who is here for the Bulldog Spotlight uh doesn't wish to stay, you now would be your time to to exit. But otherwise, we are going to move on with our consent action items. Can I have a motion? So moved. Moved by Bonik. Support. Support by
013Antoine. Any questions? Just like to note that item G, we do have four things listed there or three things listed, but they are a first reading. So, it's just an acknowledgement and they will go back to policy for further discussion. Any questions? All in favor? I I Okay, consent action passes. Moving on to communications. So although it's not a bullet there um and I haven't we've kind of held it a little close to the vest because it already changed once. I'm pleased to share with the board in our community that um the governor is visiting the high school this Thursday afternoon. Um going to spend about an hour wants to spend Oops. Um the governor's staff reached out u more than two weeks ago and originally we had a tenative date of March 12th. Um
014but something changed in her schedule and that's why I think you kind of want to wait as long as you can because that just happens with visits like that. Um but um she's uh we've been trying to get her to the to the district um for a while now and it's been the intent of her staff for her to visit. So um this Thursday in the afternoon she's going to spend about an hour uh at the high school. She really wants to see some some of our version of career technical education in action and spend time with our students. We'll we'll have a short opportunity uh right after the end of the day for her to interact with some of the high school staff. No big press conference. I think maybe some local news media
015will be there. Um but uh just appreciate the opportunity to have someone from Lancing come down and see the good work that's going on. Um so we're excited about that. All right. Uh, no other communications. We will move on to committee reports. Uh, if you want to start with policy, this is Rice. We had a very good policy meeting on the 5th of March. Um, there is a few items that came uh up for a first read. Um, I will say that the bylaw 10001 is back in committee, not ready yet for a first read. Um but as soon as that's ready, we'll bring it back. Um policy 4003, conditions of employment. Um pertains to the ESTA or the Earned Stick Time Act. Um so that's a law and it replaces the current paid medical
016leave act. Uh so we we are putting that forward for a first read. Um when negotiating contracts, we'll have to negotiate PMLA out of the contracts and negotiate the ESTA. So it's it's kind of like a changeover. Uh we have uh policy 4005 for a first read that is the ideologic and political symbols policy. Um we are adding this policy to uh eliminate ideological and political symbols uh unless they pertain to curriculum at hand. Um, so that is moving forward for a first read and then the so it says policy 508 but on our agenda 53. Mhm. So is that I would go with three. We're going to go with three. One of them's a typo. I think I think we have a I think it's 503. Yes. Um if I'm not mistaken. So that
017is the meal charge and food service. Uh so this policy was vetted with the MISD and legal counsel. Um so both MISD and legal counsel says that we should not move forward with the Miller Johnson update of um the changes. So there's no changes to the legislation. So we're going to leave this policy as is. Okay. And that was it. Questions from the meeting? All right. We'll move on to facilities. Okay. We met last Wednesday the 12th and it was uh Miss Shahaki, Mr. Ber and myself um with many members of administration and Barton Mallo um and our architect. Um we talked about group two projects which is the administration building renovation. You'll see something on tonight's agenda as well that has to do with um a mechanical inspection that made us have to do
018a different type of return air ducts due to the building being old and wood. Um and they'll be doing a lot of that over spring break when many of our administrators are either uh taking vacation time or can work elsewhere when schools are not in session. Uh, group three projects. We talked about the drinking fountain replacement project. Um, this was the one that we rebid just so we could also qualify for grant funds. Um, Croswell HL and Indian Hills. We, um, and that's on your tonight as well. Um, the ninth grade academy abatement. This is the full inspection. Um, the scope is looked at and the full bid process. We had a good response. We received competitive bids. Um, and we're comfortable with the lowest bidder um, qualified which is on your uh, board packet
019tonight. And then we also talked about the furniture at the 9th grade academy. Um, as all the updates and changes are going, the finishing touches is the furniture. So that is moving forward. Um, and then discussionwise, we chatted again about the courtyard project at the high school. It is definitely something that we all still want to see come to fruition, but uh the timing right now, we're just not getting it in the budget that we need it to be in and um possibly need to relook at the design or the materials, that type of thing. Uh we also talked about um an extension for our ABM custodial contract that's on tonight's agenda. um uh the study session followup and also um that we're going to do a committee of the whole which you see um
020in the upcoming meetings on April 21st um just with a lot of discussion of our upcoming um looking at our full facility plan and upcoming um bond issue um opening up our subcommittee to the committee of the whole so that everybody can be there if they so choose. Okay. and we adjourned at 5:14. All right. Thank you for the very thorough reports. Any questions for facility? All right. Moving on to superintendent report. All right, Mr. Murray. Good evening everyone. I just have a few things for you tonight. Uh the first from the elementary perspective, although it encompasses K12, I believe, right? Yeah. Okay. Um, Romeo Romeo will be well represented at the McCall Tech Conference on Thursday and Friday of this week. Um, Mr. Antoine, I don't know if you're headed down there. I know
021Miss Bonic will be there, but uh it's always a fun time to go down and just learn about some of the new uh technological aspects that can potentially impact teaching and learning in the classroom. Um, again, nice cross-section of teachers heading down there. Uh, I'll be there as well, particularly interested in learning more about AI. um I seems like you can just never learn too much about it because it's just evolving so fast. Um ways to make um technology accessible for all of our students um regardless of kind of where they are from a teaching and learning perspective and then looking at the latest collaboration tools and so I'm excited about the opportunity is in Detroit this year which is nice because then I can commute back and forth. Grand Rapids is fine, but being
022away from home with three kids can puts a lot of strain on my wife, so it'll be easier to just head back and forth. Um, this year we are venturing into a more formalized preschool to kindergarten transition. Um, in years past, we've had some cross talk between our preschool teachers and kindergarten teachers. Um, but we're we're really sinking our teeth into um increased communication, collaboration, um really sharpening um focus um both ways on what preschool looks like and what kids maybe are coming out of preschool with and what they are expected to have skill-wise uh when they get to kindergarten. And so it's been a nice intentional effort from our elementary principles and Mary Seldon, our special ed director, and also the the staff at Croswell, Miss Beck, and um Miss Mcfetti. And so I'm
023excited to see what that will yield in terms of um our ability to um move our youngest learners into the elementary level, just make it a little bit easier, um less stressful for the kids and the teachers. And so uh that's our that's an initiative that we have going right now. And then the last piece from me tonight is related to um just some afterglow from our March 5th PD. Uh I thought it went really well. Um one of the big pieces that we are taking away and we'll continue to work on as feedback from teachers that we want to organize and share back out related to I think in the past in the district we've called them ins and outs. But these necessary skills that like the non-negotiables if you will as kids transition
024from one grade level to the next. Um the things for example that a first grade teacher would like a kindergarten teacher to know that you know are uber helpful in terms of teaching and learning at that next grade level. Obviously everything's important but also if everything's important nothing's important right so we really want to zero in on you know what are those key skills and dispositions that kids can have to continue experiencing success at the grade level above. And we did that work on March 5th kindergarten through fifth grade. So, it's our intent uh it's my intent to work with our elementary principles and to kind of get that into a nice formal document and then dump them into our elementary curriculum drive as well as share so that you know we do have a
025more intentional focus related to those important pieces um as kids move from one grade to the next. Questions for me. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I will not be at McCall because we have a busy week in district this uh this week. So um just uh secondary schools are beginning to build their schedules. So um counselors have been in classrooms and soliciting course selection from our students at all um you know fifth grade through 11th grade. And so, um, principles are looking at numbers and who's requested what. And I think we have a meeting on Thursday with Mr. Oswald at the high school still in the morning um that we, Dr. Robinson and I um will maybe hear a little bit about uh what kids are leaning towards and staffing. Um, Ford NGL, we have
026a study visit. Um, we have uh partners from Scotland. Um they arrived on Saturday um and um they will be with us Tuesday and Wednesday this week and there are three or four Ford NGL um uh staff as well um that will be with them. So tomorrow we're at the high school and um some of you are joining us for our retreat at the end of the day at the high school. Um and then Wednesday we'll be at the middle school in the morning and then um in the afternoon we'll be at Cwell in our large meeting space for some of our teachers and other staff to do some roll alike um sessions um where there's an opportunity for some two-way dialogue between the Romeo staff and um the team from Scotland. Um just a
027reminder, we don't have a board meeting before um but state testing begins the week of April 7th. So, I believe the SAT PSAT 910 is uh on April 8th, but um those watching um this uh should uh make sure they check their emails from the principles because the testing schedules have been published and sent out um for the past couple weeks at all levels. Um MSTOP, all that good stuff in in April. Um and then 8th grade, we'll celebrate middle schoolers again. Uh they um go to 8th grade Washington DC trip. I believe they leave on April 9th. Um so that's an exciting trip for them. Do we have four buses this year? Four buses. Um so that's an increase. I think last year we had three. So we've got four buses of our eighth
028graders headed to DC for for a couple days and then they'll come back tired as all for their parents. So that's all I have. Are there any questions? Will you be shaperoning that? No, but why not? I have chaperoned many eighth grade Washington DC trips. Leaving at 3:00 am in the morning having someone spill coffee down the middle uh aisle of the bus. No, thank you. Stinky boy bus. I always got stuck on the stinky boy bus as opposed to the girl bus that smelled like perfume. So, I'm good. I've lived the life. Thank you, though. any if if you haven't RSVPd and and board members if you are around on tomorrow um at 2:30 2:45 you're more than welcome to to stop by um we have aboutund and some business partners um our Scottish
029friends students staff so it'll be a great time all right you in the comments or the in the commons okay and we have signed tables all right I am not good at party planning the signed tables I'm hoping will go well. Looking forward to it. All right. I look forward to it, too. We'll give you I appreciate that. Thank you. All right, Dr. Robinson. Um, so we've got uh uh some resolutions on the table tonight. We've got some of our uh contract folks from Barton Mallow here. Uh Mr. Storm is here. I just want to give the opportunity if we have any questions in regards to the drinking fountain replacement project, asbestous abatement contract for the work at this building, the furniture proposal or our board required change order. Um, we can get clarifications on
030that before we move into the action portion of the agenda. Any questions? All right. Uh in terms of communications, uh took to the best of my knowledge in between three or four days for our uh special edition of the Bulldog Beat to um hit mailboxes. And um we're just we're just excited. I want to thank Mrs. Brush. That was a pretty heavy lift for the better part of six or seven weeks just uh to figure out the best way to to really, you know, celebrate almost a decade of facilities transformation. Uh we're grateful for the community for their support of, you know, those critical bond issues in 16 and 21 and the renewal of our sinking fund along the way. Um, but I think one of the things that we really wanted to highlight is
031it isn't just about maybe what you see when you drive by on the outside, uh, and you see a, you know, a mess around a building for a per, um, a specific period of time. And, um, we really have done our best to align facility improvements to the transformation of our overall instructional and extracurricular program. So, uh, I would encourage anyone now that it's warming up a little bit. If you regularly come to board meetings, it stays daylight longer. You know, take a walk down the sidewalk and, you know, take a look at our new baseball and our two new softball fields. Just um, super excited. Best tryyouts we've ever had because they aren't in the gym anymore. Um so uh just just appreciate it and we wanted to you know really lead this new
032year with that celebration. We certainly have some work left to do in the 21 bond, but as the board knows, you know, in our recent study session, um the opportunities there and and we'd like to um get to the finisher as as the superintendent calls it or fa phase five of our uh long range facilities plan. And and that publication didn't necessarily get in the weeds of that, but we're going to be reaching out uh in the next few weeks for input, not only internally, but also externally on the things that we're thinking. uh make sense in in this next round of facilities improvements. Um we actually traditionally have done a February um mailed district newsletter, but because of our work on the special edition, we've converted uh our traditional February newsletter that kind of
033recognizes CTE awareness month. I know that was part of our spotlight last month. So, uh we have an electronic edition that's going out in conjunction with the academyy's annual retreat tomorrow. Um, so we've really set this up to be an artifact for our business partners, but also our greater community. And you know, for those families that receive this through school messenger email, you don't have students necessarily at the high school yet. I think the opportunity to spend a few minutes with it will create some excitement for for what's to come in the future for even our youngest learners. Um, just a couple other things, you know, in terms of future bond planning. Um I'm grateful for the board for the study session and our ongoing conversations around this topic. Um we're scaling up um to
034run a series of I believe 12 focus groups. Um these are virtual conversations with our uh with our marketing campaign marketing consultant April 1st and 2nd. Um so we'll be reaching out both through our principles to fill some of those staff groups uh and a larger uh audience. Um I know that we have a collection of um 800 um regular voters in the community that we'll randomly be sending letters to to fill I believe two or three of those focus groups. Um once the focus groups are completed, we then um finalize a community survey and that'll be put out for about a week um to gather voice from a larger audience. Uh including, you know, the opportunity for open-ended response on things that, you know, that maybe we're not considering that we should. Uh and
035we'll take all of that input and continue moving forward with the goal of developing uh a treasury application for the board to give a thumbs up to as we get closer to Memorial Day. Uh and then ultimately a meeting with the Department of Treasury in middle of June and hopefully their uh their approval on our application to move forward. Uh Mrs. McFarland kind of hinted to we're well into 25 26 school year planning. Um for some of the parents that have reached out um uh we'll be pushing out the annual calendar. I hope to do that even possibly before spring break. Uh we got a few um eyes to dot and teased to cross and making sure uh everyone's on board in terms of some of the events that happen prior to the start of
036school that we know parents want that information on. So um the calendar is set. the calendar has been set because of our great work to have a three-year um contract with the REA and the calendars connected to that. So um so this probably is the earliest we'll be sharing calendar information in terms of the following year, but we know that's important to folks. Um so as you're enjoying your spring break uh and you're looking to plan the next one, we'll make sure that that we have calendar information available to our families. Uh Mrs. McFarland talked about staffing. Um, that's a big part of this year and that looks different at every level. You know, we're taking course requests at the high school level. Um, we're looking at class sizes and staffing allocations um at the
037elementary level and kind of a combination of both at the middle school. Um, we'll begin to formalize, Mrs. Zaski and I some budget assumptions to work through uh with the board, but probably set up to have a little later budget season at at the state level. Um but we have some we have the governor's budget proposal out and we have some portions of the house's budget proposal which will help us. Um we've reached out to our enrollment um forecasting company to have a a update uh based on our fall numbers being in there and then ultimately we've shared with the board that initial list of um district leadership priorities. We've done our second round of rankings and we'll thin that list down and I'll share that with the board probably the end of this week.
038Um so those are the things that I have in my report for tonight. All right. And if uh you noticed there was a nice email from MASB probably two or three weeks ago summarizing um Governor Whitmer's budget proposal. So that's a good email to look back just to kind of brush up on what's being proposed at the state level. Um I am going to um our first public comment is up but I don't have any slips for tonight's agenda. And just a reminder, if you do need to speak at the second public comment, you need to um get your slip in prior to. We don't accept them as you walk up. So with that, we are going to move on to the regular action items. I am going to begin with number resolution number 28,
039personnel update. So moved. Okay. Support. Okay. Moved by Bonick, supported by Anton. Um quite a few retirements on there. Have you noticed and read through those? Mhm. So all in favor? I Okay. Item B, employee services resolution 29. This is the board of education policy update that we read at the last meeting. It's policy 30001 speaking to how we develop curriculum and to make sure it's equitable um in regards to our different types of funding. Motion support moved by Rice supported by Bonik. Any questions? All in favor? I I post same sign. Okay, moving on to item C, employee services resolution number 30, the board of education policy update policy 4004, which deals with the evaluations discipline um discharge and resignations. Again, that was um put forward for our first reading at the last meeting.
040Motion motion by Rice, support by Bonik. Any questions? All in favor? I opposed. Okay, motion passes. Item D, facilities resolution number 31. This is the ABM custodial service contract extension, which Ms. Banick uh referred to in her facilities report. So moved. Moved by Bonik. Second. Second by Bower. Any questions? Boyer. Boyer. I think she said B up here. There's a lot of bees up here. Got you. All right. Any questions? No questions. All in favor? I oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Item E, facilities resolution number 32, the drinking fountain replacement project. Motion. Second. Okay. Motion by Rice, support by Chahakei. Any questions? All right. All in favor? I oppose. Same sign. Right. Moving on to item F, facilities resolutions number 33, the 9th grade academy abatement service contract. So moved. Moved by Bonik. Support. Supported
041by Bowman. Any questions? All right. Seeing none, all in favor? I oppose. Same sign. Item passes. Item G, facilities resolution number 34, the ninth grade academy furniture proposal as seen in your packet. So moved. Okay. Moved by Bonik. Support. Supported by Rice. Any questions? All in favor? I. Motion passes. And lastly, a facility order facilities resolution number 35, the change order approval. So moved. Moved by Bonik. Support. There you go. Support by Bowman. Any questions? All in favor? I. Motion passes. All right. We are going to move on to board discussion for the good of the district if anyone has anything. Well, I was at the robotics competition over the weekend. and I was there all day Saturday about 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Um, my uh husband went on Sunday cuz my daughter's on
042the team and they won second place. Um, so it was way over my head, but I started to learn a little bit, but it was really neat to see the excitement on these kids' faces. And I'm not just being partial, but Romeo's um robot that they have for the theme this year was the sharpest, best looking um best functioning in my opinion. and they really I'm really impressed with what those kids did. So, it was great. Yeah. All right. Anyone else? I'd just like to um also kind of comment that looking through our our personnel report, we're definitely losing some some high quality veteran teachers. So, um Godspeed that we recruit and hire well. Um and also just congratulations to them. Many of them are working through the end of the school year obviously. So
043I know we usually have an opportunity to celebrate them at the end. So that is something I will look forward to. So that time of year. Anything else? All right. Then I have one slip for public comment tonight. Uh Mr. We'd like to come forward. and you will have three minutes, please. I don't think you need to time me. All right. I practiced a lot, so Okay. Good evening, board uh members. I'm here tonight because I understand you're considering offers for 297 Prospect Street, including one from GOPS. Over the past year, I've attended community meetings where GAOP shared its vision, transforming the site into a green space that blends education, history, relaxation, and community engagement. I'd like to highlight that vision and the potential for an educational partnership with RCS. as you consider the offers.
044GOPS envisions this space as an outdoor learning lab where students engage in hands-on experience experiences in environmental science, sustainability, and technology. Smart story posts would integrate AI and augmented reality, allowing students to explore 3D renderings of historic schools, see AR overlays of native ecosystems, and interact with adaptive AIdriven lessons. This enhances RCS curriculum at no cost to the district. For students at themies at Romeo, this offers real world project-based learning. Instead of just studying environmental science, they could apply it. Coding AI guides, designing AR experiences, and developing sustainability solutions. This hands-on work builds critical thinking, teamwork, and innovation, giving students ownership of their learning. Some may argue that RCS should retain the land for future use, but partnering with GOPS achieves that goal. The district would maintain educational access while GSOPS develops and stewards the
045space as a lasting asset. Others may focus on financial offers from developers. However, a one-time payment and minor tax revenue won't significantly significantly impact RCS budget and new housing could increase enrollment costs. In contrast, GSOPS provides long-term educational value while while preserving the land for future generations. A green space also aligns with community interest, avoiding increased traffic, congestion, and environmental strain. Partnering with GOPS would demonstrate RCS's community uh commitment to sustainability, education, and community well-being. This decision isn't just about short-term finances. It's about long-term impact. A G-Sop partnership enhances education, supports innovation, and strengthens community ties. Unlike private developments, this space would remain accessible to students, families, and the public, a source of pride and a hub for learning. So, what kind of legacy does the board and RCS want to leave? In my view,
046selling to GOPs is the clear choice. The only question is whether to accept the full financial offer or adjust it to allow GSOPS to focus on developing the space for the students and the community. If public education's m mission is to enhance learning, support students, and engage the community, then partnering with GOPS is the best path forward. I urge you to support GOPS and accept our offer for the students, for the community, and for the future. All right. Thank you for that. Uh we are now um moving on to the last part of our agenda which uh will be a close session and we will not be coming back out to vote on anything. So can I have a motion to go into that motion? Motion by Anton, support by Ber. All in favor? I
047I thank you for coming.