001all right I'd like to call the meeting to order if I can have roll call please Mr Antoine is here miss bonnick here Miss Barros here Mr Connor here Dr Dimas here miss Riley here Mr Young here we can rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all can I have a motion for tonight's agenda moved and supported are there any questions or concerns I think um if it would be okay with the board we could move up for discussion and public comment before we go into closed session that way we're not voting on anything after closed sessions so we could come back and you guys don't
002need to wait around would that be okay with the foreign the agenda with those changes I opposed motion curies Dr Robinson for celebrations yes um several tonight uh so our first celebration comes from Amanda Moore Elementary and the boots at Amanda Moore are tidy in the Halls um thanks to uh some help from some workers from Woodside Bible Church so you'll see their uh these wonderful wood organizers were put together boot racks and so the hallways are clear and ready especially once the snowflies so a big thank you to Woodside Bible Church Romeo campus and those individuals that helped build our boot racks to keep things organized at Amanda more uh Hamilton Parsons we've got a couple of of celebrations from Empire they have re-engaged their Watchdog program and this is uh well-known reputable National
003program dads of great students so there's I think a dad and a grandpa represented there so hampire's got this back up running just allows the opportunity to get some positive male role models into the building to just help with a variety of different activities so they're back up and running with the Watchdogs they're also Empire is also excited to welcome back 113 Chinook salmon at HP so the salmon and schools program we know the process won't net 113 full-size salmon fry but so the kids get excited and then there's a plan every year to launch in early spring that'll be at Walcott Mill and the entire school is is invited to participate that's I think an after school early evening thing so a combination of leadership and the opportunity to bring people together and then
004just a thank you to Andy Neeson who you know kind of supports the Green Team and provides this awesome opportunity for kids to to get engaged both in and out of the classroom um one of my favorite celebrations I heard about this second hand had a little live stream of this going on a couple weeks ago so Mr essian is a good sport and they had a fundraiser for their um to raise some money for their fifth grade end of the year promotion ceremony and so at the recent uh bowling fundraiser he actually allowed students if we think of like the 50 50 and you buy nose to your toes or 10 tickets well you could buy some duct tape to help tape Mr Essie into the wall and two and a half hours Mr
005asean was was taped to the wall so thanks for the support for the fifth grade promotion and thanks to Mr essian for being a good sport uh Indian Hills third grade students made blankets and so those were actually made for the students at Croswell and the Indian Hills parent Club put on an awesome Santa shop for the students and we get a little bit of Buddy program going there the older students get paired up and help the younger ones and then recently in our new stem class students worked on programming the Sphero robots to create their own version of the Thanksgiving Parade through the school hallway so we know those Sphero robots are those little round robots so a pretty neat thing you put it under a cup and hook a balloon to it and
006it's almost like a parade float so stem in action there at Indian Hills um uh thank you and celebration from Romeo High School um thank you goes out to the Lions Club because of a generous donation and partnership along with the Ingenuity of some of our students Romeo high school will be adding two new sensory rooms to the school for some of the most of deserving students so what started out as an idea quickly became across Academy project to benefit students in the ASP program so students from the business education architecture design and construction Pathways collaborated and presented a proposal to the Romeo Lions Club and earlier this week a check for ten thousand dollars from the Lions Club was presented to a group of students at Mr Oswald at an evening meeting there and
007so our students this is really the career academies in action our students will see this project through from start to finish we're also pulling in our broadcasting students to cover you know a video and a documentary of it from start to finish so good to see that and action and using our students to help design that we've had some unique industry tours going on recently with our students as we're re-engaging in the full scope of the the Academy's work so students from the Dem Academy we actually had two trips going on in in Detroit the same day but media pathway students ended spent some time at Ford Field for an exciting day of sports media work based learning and training and so students engaged in a variety of elements of sports media and they had
008the opportunity to spend some time with Detroit sportscaster Dan Dickerson so a good trip for our students in the immediate broadcasting pathway we we have some folks we were originally scheduled to do this last month but we had a conflict with National Honor Society induction going on the same night so so we've got some members from our world were known cross-country program we've talked a lot about them this fall but the last time we spoke about them we were sending some Runners off to the state finals and and we're happy to report they represented us very well the boys finished in eighth place and our girls team this year finished as the division one runners-up so and all of that achievement we have four All-State Runners I think all four of them are with us
009so Mr Boss if you want to come up and bring those Runners and Mrs bonic you want to help recognize foreign so he's a junior next we have sophomore violet robowski next we have senior medicine color and next we have freshman Emerson Clore Wesley sisters oh sure don't be afraid thank you okay thanks guys thank you so I often say cross country is one of the best things we do here in Romeo and it's it's always been a pleasure to to watch the kids perform so I want to thank coach buslip because this this type of success doesn't happen with a lot of without a lot of time and energy and he's he's got people working with middle school and elementary students um it's it's really quite a program and when you see that in
010Mass you know 50 60 elementary kids you see the future and and so congratulations to these student athletes and Madison good luck I know you're headed on to Western Michigan to to run for the Broncos uh and Emerson the next couple years you can show your big sister what it's all about so all right thank you to uh our Runners and coach busler for being here tonight well there's a little bit of sadness in the in the room but we do want to take the opportunity to recognize our two outgoing board members tonight so I have a couple members of our cabinet team we have a small token of of our appreciation from myself and your fellow board members and Antoinette so thank you for your six years of service on the Romeo Community Schools
011Board of Education yeah you can cut in front we appreciate all you've done for our staff our district and our families thank you all right I don't want to say there won't be any clicking of the heels on the way out tonight but uh I don't want to say I have less gray hair then either but yeah I did um so um thank you Jill and Kim it's it's really been a pleasure and um we know you're not going anywhere so you're welcome anytime and that is our celebrations for tonight all right moving along to presentations I believe we have our budget amendment Vicky Lasky okay so um we have a budget amendment tonight that I'd like to present to you because we have a couple of our original budget assumptions that have changed significantly
012since our original budget was adopted so that's made some big changes and we need to adopt a new budget based on those so I want to look back at 2022 how we ended the year so we ended our year with 1.69 million dollars in change in fund balance so we added to our fund balance for a total fund balance of 9.1 million dollars or 14.74 so that's how we started 2023 with that number when we adopted our original budget in 2023 we expected Revenue to be 65.5 million dollars and our expenses to be 65.4 million dollars so we expect to add to our fund balance 159 958 dollars it's going to change so some of the things that changed significantly is our from our budget assumptions is our original budget assumption was that we would
013have 5225 ftes increase of 15 ftes from the prior year as of October of 22 count day we had 5 346 ftes or full-time equivalents I should explain what that is that's an unaudited count but that's what our fall count increased by for 2022. so when we base our our revenues it's based on a blended count so our fte's Blended count will be 5328.76 Blended count that's based on ninety percent of our fall 2022 count and 10 percent of our previous spring count that's an increase of 118.76 ftes or one million dollar one million 886 654 or over our budgeted projection of 1.103.76 ftes or almost nine hundred fifty thousand dollars so that's a significant increase we also had a difference in our state aid Foundation allowance when we adapted the budget originally we expected
014a 400 per pupil increase from 8 700 to 9 100 and that total increase was two million eighty thousand dollars in our amended budget we have the 450 per pupil increase that the state approved in their budget going from eighty seven hundred dollars to nine thousand one hundred fifty dollars so that's a total increase of funding of 2.3 million dollars so that's another significant increase um some other Grant Revenue that we've had increases in our CTE grant funding I'm looking for my number here at 205 000 that's an increase over last year so we were in the 600 000 range last year our at-risk funding is 1.3 million dollars um I think last year was about nine hundred thousand dollars so that's a significant increase and then our 31-0 social worker they funded at 67
015this year that we had had two social workers hired under this program we had carryover from last year so we'll have a hundred percent of those two funded this year and then we have special education cost reimbursement increase of 600 almost 660 000 this year so I'm going to recap the SR funding a little bit the total sr1 funding and then we can kind of put this one on the Shelf because this is over with the total Grant was 325 957 and 21 we funded two staff positions and in 22 we funded some summer schools so those that Grant is fully expended as of this point as of the end of last year sr2 funding with a total Grant of 2 million three hundred thirty two thousand eight hundred and fifty six dollars Esther three
016four so that's broken into two pieces sr2 formula is 1.3 million dollars you can see our 22 expenditures and then in 23 we expect to spend six hundred and nineteen thousand dollars that's we're using that to prevent multi-age classrooms by positions and this is year two of funding that our RVA supervisor this is year two of funding that and an additional social worker um other than the 31-0 funded social worker and that's uh our second year in funding this also and then our sr2 funding the equalization piece is a little over a million dollars in 21 and 22 we had some expenditures so we had just a little bit left so we're going to use that for our VA Mentor support to kind of wrap that that piece of the grant up so that will
017be done at the end of this year and then sr3 funding our total Grant is 5.6 million dollars that's also broken into two pieces the sr3 formula which is almost three million dollars you can see we spent expenditures in 2022 and our 2023 expenditures are 1.1 million dollars we're spending that money on math interventionists additional paraprofessional hours we took some people from part-time to full-time additional social worker that's the other piece of that previous social worker I talked about on the previous slide uh director of teaching and learning a portion of that and a school nurse and then we'll have a balance going into 23 24 of 1.4 million dollars and then our sr3 Equalization or 11t is almost 2.7 million dollars we had expenditures in 2022 and we have some this year over of
018over a million dollars remember this is for special populations of students so it's not for all students and this uh we focused on our English language learning teachers a portion of the counselors math interventionists summer school and after school tutoring for that special populations of students and then we'll have a balance going into 2023 24 of 1.1 million dollars so we have two funding sources next year for our Esser grants and then some other new grants that are coming in these are in the budget I'll tell you about the one that's not in there yet but these are all going to be in the amendment of The 31aa which is our student mental health a 580 000 dollars our 97 improved student safety of 580 000 our 97 3 C I should say comprehensive Safety
019and Security assessments and our 97d critical incident mapping and then we're applying for the Michigan State Police Grant I don't have that in the budget yet because we don't know exactly what our funding is going to be with that's an application process so we've just completed that and we should know pretty soon what that's and we're going to use that to fund um officer Bauer at the middle school and some of the changes of expenditures for 2023 between the original budget and today is the rasp of wage increases and which that has been presented to the finance committee and to the board to Elementary teaching positions and those were because of enrollment increases speech a speech and language therapist CTE teaching positions a benefits consultant Services costs those were sent in the board on the
020finance committee minutes so that the board has that information supplies increasing in the budget based on enrollment and strategic planning there's a few other little things but that's the um that's the majority of the increases and changes in expenditures that we have since the original budget so we expect at the end of the year to have revenue of 71.3 million dollars expenses of 70 million 284 000 for an increase in our fund balance um add to our fund balance of one million ninety three thousand twenty six dollars so our fund Equity at June 30th 2023 is expected to be 10 million 261 875 or 14.6 percent and then going forward we're going to continue to look at our Esser funding and make sure that that everything's appropriate for what we need and what our students
021need and then if there's any other significant changes I'll bring us a spring budget amendment to you before we have a final June one and I'll take any questions if you have any any questions just like to say thank you and for those of you in the audience that this is very new if you were around 10 years ago it was always how much money the state was taking away from us so um while it might seem like it's just a lot of new positions and you know writing the ship of some of our salaries that is very much by Design and what I always like to say if the state gives us nine thousand dollars to educate a student we should try to spend nine thousand dollars you know on that student they're only
022in that grade that one year that one time so it doesn't do us any good to just keep putting it away for a rainy day but we also have to balance that with having a rainy day for for things that happen in a school district so this is actually a very exciting budget amendment and when we have a good audience so I just hope you can maybe share our little Goosebumps and excitement because it hasn't always been that way it's usually what are we going to cut this time of year so this this is very nice and and Vicki does a great job keeping keeping all the eyes and adding to fund balance is intentional because we do have some of when these Esser funds are done we need to have a way to fund
023those positions or design our you know our curriculum or whatever for using that money so that it is designed to to add to our fund balance correct for that case I think we're on to a consent action we are can I have a motion for consent action it's almost moved by Riley supported by Connor any questions or concerns seeing none all in favor I opposed motion carries next we have informational updates and new business Communications um so the only communication formal communication we of course have received a couple of holiday cards from some of our different contractors and auditor and um and some of that but uh just Mr Connor did send a communication today and be a summary of The Fall School boards Association conference so I figured I'd mention that but that's all
024from my office all right moving on to committee reports curriculum yep so you want Jennifer yeah are you two running that part or do you want us to do that um okay all right okay so um curriculum committee had another great discussion board all has the minutes I think they were sent out last week this time maybe um so a lot of action items tonight renaming some courses proving some new courses so that's exciting um we do have uh Jennifer you've got an update for us on the media selection utilization and coordination process because you spoke with the attorney today right and that's an update I'm not sure the board has yet um uh but also the highlights I'm trying to look through what the highlights are um Elementary updates the teacher labs are going
025well Mr Murray reported out on that November 2nd professional learning was successful principals are also engaging into professional learning again this is stuff that I feel like we didn't have ability to do for a long time with um with covid with funds so it's exciting that that they're able to do that as well secondary updates um yeah a lot of opportunities we're still you know encouraging Middle School to develop opportunities for kids they've got that great stage there so they're doing some drama and choir performances and inviting parents in I had a colleague at work who got to go see her son perform for his drama class very exciting excellent um um we had an update on the Romeo Virtual Academy um which is is increased we've increased the number of students um so we're
026fulfilling a need that's that's been in the district for a while that's good um behavioral threat assessment team and processes the the curriculum committee discussed that updated on that and I think Jennifer I would just ask you to come and just give an overview of the media collection um utilization coordination process in terms of just that report okay gotcha and I think that's it does anybody have questions on curriculum or anything to add Chris anything to add I just thought um you know I think we really um as a district especially you know it starts in subcommittee or it starts amongst the buildings to approach the idea of expanding classes or your courses so the ones that were mentioned in subcommittee including like micro scale on history and some of the other courses I found
027to be pretty interesting and I love how each year we're constantly adapting to real world excellent anything else okay moving on to facilities Mike are you going to give that yes I am good um we had our facilities committee meeting last week Monday and the fifth that was a full meeting and then we had a follow-up meeting last week Thursday which was a short meeting to update us on some Bond um evaluations for a bid that came in so that it could be on the agenda for this evening we had a report from Mark Nelson from the technology department that he's in the process of him and the consultant or in the process of bidding out the AV Equipment for the Hamilton Parsons in Indian Hills Croswell Roseville I'm sorry Romeo Middle School cafeteria um
028Elementary cafeteria AV systems and so forth they're also working on the two-way radio project a district two-way radio project that that project is part of that my deal project which is a Consortium based bidding that's already bid for you so there's no time or effort that has to be made on the district part to obtain they've already done that work for you so you can purchase based on their bid which Romeo is planning to do that project is going to be District wide the two-way radio project it's a Safety project it's gonna we're gonna fund it through the Section 97 school safety fund we decided to also include the bus radios with that system because it is pretty old and it doesn't reach all the areas within our district and I believe that money is
029coming from the general fund funding source for the bus radios so so that project is covered in anticipation is that that project will be done over the summer I believe so so we're looking forward to having that in place um other other server other projects for technology you know just uh under interruptible power supplies server and storage and system upgrades stuff that you need to do to keep um current with the technology the bus transportation building is um is in progress they've laid the ash fault just the first layer and and uh put striping down so the buses can use it this winter um we were reminded that uh there's a shortage in concrete too so they're so Bart Mills monitoring that as far as our project goes with that just a lot of stuff
030going on there's a lot of stuff going on and uh just oh great great great um yep and so just um you know the other projects that are going on and like I said Mr Storm's going to be talking about something he did bring to our attention though that as a winner is approaching that our district equipment for snow and ice removal is getting aged and he's going to be looking at uh possible uh replacement of those items so I have all right any questions for facilities and last we have Finance Kim yep we met um last week I think it was just and um so during that meeting we had a presentation which I believe all the board members received a copy of that from uh Gallagher Benefit services to look at our health
031benefits that we are offering our employees there's been a significant increase the nine percent medical coverage increase on that and so we're looking at possibly maybe some different companies that could provide not only better benefits for our employees but also would be cost effective yes exactly so it was a very it was short but it was a very thorough presentation and um all the members of the committee we felt comfortable and confident that this would be the right way to go the district to go because these people in the group The Gallagher benefit they this is what they do they analyze different programs or plans and could um really benefit the district and the employees especially and that is also a resolution for tonight for the board to vote on and then we did talk
032about um paraprofessional wages which that was part of our closed session before this meeting and um that also is part of the budget amendment which we will be voting on this evening we also discussed or we had an update on the 297 Prospect Property um Great Northern um is going to start reaching out to some developers just to see if there's any what kind of interest there is especially with the economy and the interest rates that are going on right now just to see what's going on out there and then also um to meet with the village Administration to bring them up to date so that they're knowing what is going on with that transaction that property and then of course Vicki gave us a thorough presentation on the general budget amendment that's coming up
033we're also voting on that this evening and then um there was the technology Bond audit which went fine there was no issues in that and so that should be no problem with that oh and that that was about it I just want to take a real quick moment though it was a pleasure serving on the fine uh the subcommittee for the finances and working with Vicki she just goes above and beyond her job she's always prepared and if you have any questions or you need any additional information she's always reading willing to provide that for you so thank you it was great working with you and the district is very fortunate to have you working with them so thank you minutes thank you for that we will move on to the superintendent's report so before
034we move on just reminder to the board and the public you know we re-look at subcommittees in January as an extension of an organ our organizational meeting so Mrs bionic will be working we've done a little work on that so those schedules will come out once we get through the organizational meeting on January 9th so uh it's a couple of updates just mostly connected to our action items this evening but also a little bit of a look ahead so Mr storm if you want to come on up and Mr stobax here from Barton mallow to help if we have questions or things that he can help with but uh um Chris why don't you talk a little bit about just a quick check back in on tonight's resolutions and then if there's any questions from
035the board okay good evening um as you see before you in your packets we have resolution tonight for the Middle School cafeteria renovation and exterior door package myself and Vicki and our Barton mallow construction team went through the process open bids last week we feel pretty pleased with the amount of bids that were turned in a very competitive bidding process for this project and then through the process of interviewing each of the top two bid uh in five categories we came to a recommendation letter to provide to you guys all in total we came came to a figure that was a little bit higher than what we anticipated but with the foot when you bring out the Food Service portion of it uh it falls in line with where we kind of had anticipated that
036budget to be um that project is slated to if if upon approval would be a summertime project in hopes of being ready to go next August for the school year questions on the exterior door cafeteria serving area renovation so we will be sure to get some four floor plan updates and that share in the new year so that we do a little video update on the ground to kind of give the community perspective of what's going to change within the four walls of the cafeteria at the Middle School to help because we're feeding middle school kids now and not high school kids so plus just updating a lot of the equipment and that so Mr Nelson if you want to step up there we've actually had this this two-way radio project that Mr Antoine mentioned
037in the committee report has really been a joint construction and Technology effort um I feel like we've been working on this since 2018 and we've gone through a series of different contractors but we we have a resolution for the board tonight and Mr Nelson wants to give us a little update and then any questions the board might have sure okay um as Mr Antoine explained we utilized uh RFQ requests for quote for this project to utilize the Mi deal Consortium pricing that's the same uh Mi deal Consortium that we use for the district copiers just recently so we've used that purchasing vehicle in the past um so we we went for the RFQ in mid-november and MCA mobile Communications America replied at the end of November to the quote they started out with a survey
038district-wide to just tell us what would be necessary to create a district-wide radio network that would provide coverage from building to building on all the roads and routes that the buses go on and so they laid out a network plan which included six repeaters their antennas that will be placed strategically throughout the district to provide radio coverage between the buildings in addition uh the we outlined the quantities and so I think for the larger schools the middle school and the high school we chose 18 radios for those larger buildings 12. for the smaller buildings for a total of 148 radios and um these will be handheld radios with multiple channels an emergency channel that can be used to just contact administrators only in the event of a communication for example from the superintendent just to
039the principals in addition there will be a main console radio voice over IP console at the transportation building and both dispatchers will have it's now a little bit different than what they use now these are PC based software-based console stations that they'll use for the two dispatchers and it also includes all the Chargers all the network equipment this radio system is different also than the current Legacy system in that it is all network based so the repeaters reside on the district Network they're backed up with UPS's they do require network connectivity so Mr Antoine asked the question in the event of a power failure or something where the UPS life runs out that segment of the network radio system would be down until the power came back on so it wouldn't it wouldn't take out
040the whole entire radio network but if it was school based just the area that that one repeater serves would would be down until the power came back the project also includes all labor project management programming training all of those things and the numbers I have here were that the majority of it uh 420 some thousand would be paid for from the section 97 Grant and would impact the general fund by about fifty four thousand dollars and that is an action item too so if you have any other questions I can answer so the only thing I want to add in is we we did we're in the process Bruce Township has their board has agreed to allow us access to the tower at 36 Mile and hip road which is going to get us up
041there as an in what I affectionately call the Upper Peninsula of Romeo and get us up high enough to cover that Northwest Quadrant of the district that where we have the greatest struggles so we're working with legal counsel to draft that agreement and we'll get that locked in I think with lead times Mr Nelson we're looking at late summer that's the the current lead times on the radios themselves as four to five months so that was another reason we came to the board tonight and provided that that timeline holds we would do it in the summer questions so just so the public knows Sal service you know we have issues with self-service and and our community and we have issue with cell service and and some of our buildings more than others in our community
042so when we talk about the impact of this on school safety this is going to allow us the ability to to communicate district-wide in the event of an emergency not dependent on cell service in addition to if you're in our school buildings during the day you'll see you know a dozen to 20 people with walkie-talkies whether that's noon hour AIDS playground Hall monitors you know our security staff so we'll have building No Interruption in fact higher functioning radios for within our buildings but then we'll also be able to level up and have an administrative channel to meet communicate in the event of an emergency so um any other questions all right Mr storm what's coming in January and then we start the process all over again in February yeah just to give the board a
043brief update on what's on the horizon we've worked uh several months for the on the Croswell renovation and addition project for the Early Childhood Center those bids are out on the street right now and due on the 12th of January so after we open those facilities meeting probably to meet with information on the 17th and then hopefully the recommendation to the full board on the later January meeting once those are scheduled um the other group two projects looks like we're going to use the majority of 2023 to do the planning for those projects listed the Amanda Moore and Washington Elementary editions that will be similar to Empire and Indian Hills the stem and Robotics facility at the Romeo Middle School site the health and safety Plumbing upgrades and the varsity baseball Varsity softball fields at
044the high school campus any questions on any of that thank you Mr storm thank you Mr Nelson Mr stobic always a pleasure all right academic services so Mrs Riley alluded to our media selection process guide we reviewed that with our curriculum subcommittee she also mentioned we did have legal counsel our policy a law firm that produces our board policy review that for us so last board meeting I think I mentioned you know we had a group of parents administrators teachers we had The Librarian from the Romeo District Library and we had our library assistants myself a couple principles so it was a pretty um it was a smaller committee but um it it ran the ran the gamut of of roles within our our district and I had mentioned at the previous meeting we were
045focusing on the standards and criteria used for media selection so in this resolution for the process guide you'll see that we we became much more clear on age-appropriateness we became clear on some of the reputable resources to look for those book reviews I want to remind you we we have not banned any books I don't know I don't have Facebook so apparently that's something on Facebook that we've banned books we have not we did hold some books back until we could review this process and once you approve the process we will enact the updated process to review those books in question that we're brought to us the handling concerns if if a parent or a student or other member of our district Community had a concern we Revisited that form in the old document it
046was about seven pages so we tried to collapse that and still get the essence of what the concern was from the from the concerned person and we're going to make it electronic instead of having to write things out by paper although there will be a paper one available if someone requests that within the updated process guide we made sure we included an opt-out request form that a parent could select to opt their student out of an author or multiple titles in our media center if they had concerns about their child reading anything that were in our our library um let's see again the process is is we kept the essence of what the 2002 document had but we did add some more meat to what that review committee's role was and recommendation and rationale that
047they would move up the ladder we did um we did put in the process guide to have three meetings a year some of the some of the people that were in this committee to review the process were a little concerned that that's all we would be doing um you know because it's going to take some time for people to read the material and and be informed so we sat three times a year as needed or if it's needed if it's not we won't we wouldn't hold it and we also added an appeal process after speaking with our our legal counsel he um he made it clear that we should have an appeal process so the committee would make their recommendation and rationale to the superintendent it would be then the person would be informed of
048what that that result was and then we've been we've included a process if they would like it to be reviewed by by another eyeball it's actually would be three three members of the school board so I know a lot now more than I ever have about long and legal implementation Implement implications thank you of of this whole process so if there are any questions from members of the board at this time you have a new document that I copied hard copy only because our attorney just got me some new language but it doesn't change the essence he just made it legally is about the appeal so Remain the board our policy remains unchanged on media selection however there were some evidence to our administrative guidelines based on approval of the process that we would make
049uh and you know I just want to make sure that um you know thank you for those people that have been patient and allowed us to update a 20 year old process that quite honestly was rather drawn out and and I think in this day and age we can do this as needed if needed in a more efficient manner so again the key for the audience is there has not been any Books banned despite what you might read or see on social media or who you might think is a credible Source the sport of education has not banned any books but we we do have a robust process now to make sure that any questions about books can go through that robust process and I think the a real key in it is that parents
050have a role in their own child's reading accessibility so it gives that parental peace to parents who have a concern for their own family their own age group so that that's really good and I appreciate all the work of the people in the subcommittee who went through everything and sent it to the rest of us any other questions or comments I just I would just add as a as a former librarian I did that for seven years at middle school and um I'm I'm pleased with the process that's in place I do think it gives parents who have a concern and out but it also doesn't it puts in process enough I think um thought and enough guidelines that um that every parent essentially has a choice that there's going to be a lot of
051materials in the library and and you can opt out your child but you can't immediately take away from everybody else's child and there's a process in place to review materials and it's based on um good sources of review material for young adult literature and I'm pleased with it just some more updates I'm I'm available if you have any questions about the new course proposals that the um we're bringing forward for the high school there are three new courses and then just some name changes because the high school believe it or not is getting ready to get their documents ready for scheduling for next school year so we we'd like to you know make sure these resolutions are approved so they can begin that process in the first of the year but any questions about the
052course proposals I'm ready to answer yes Mrs Browns it's on the new course the world studies for Africa and so I was reviewing the form and everything the summary on that I guess my my concern is just because it's been out and about in the news and across the country um are there any aspects of the critical race Theory no in any of the materials that are going to be presented anything on the instruction part no by the teacher so they already teach they teach a world studies east class which focuses in on all of the countries in the East so um the it's a lot to try to cover comprehensively so the social studies Department talked about splitting it so you'd have a world studies Asia opportunity for students in a world studies Africa
053so the material material that they will be using does not follow any critical race Theory because I just it caught my eye that in the summary it says the course would break stereotypes while providing students with an increased diversity in social studies so I just you know I mean if this everything is it it's prudent upon us as a public school to offer students a view of more than the United States history and really think globally and there are many different types of countries on the continent of Africa that it's important to understand the geography and the history and the and the and what's happening currently in some of the the countries on the continent of Africa all right thank you you're welcome uh just uh an FYI because I don't know that we'll have
054a informational update before our winter testing window for K-8 actually I think K10 for nwea begins on January 9th so we are excited about that to see what kind of growth our students have had since the fall testing window and Rob is here to update you in the curriculum subcommittee we talked to them about a K-5 Ela pilot and we have an update thank you so one last piece from us tonight is related just to that uh over the course of the last year building principals teachers myself at the elementary level have come to the conclusion that it's time to look at new Ela materials the current materials that we are using are going on eight years old and aren't easily updated and so um what we've done we've put a committee Together made up
055of myself Jennifer administrators teachers literacy support Specialists and our literacy coach to vet some programs we used Ed reports.org as our base to try and identify what we thought were quality programs to take a look at uh zeroed in on three programs have vendors come in and they each had about 55 minutes to do a presentation for us to kind of walk us through how their program would benefit us uh we were hoping to get to um two of the three programs that we could pilot but we really only found that there was one that was worth our time and so in resources because Pilots aren't free anymore and so uh what we've done is we have selected a program uh I'll be working with Elementary principals tomorrow to put together pilot teams represented from
056all of our buildings and then uh we'll roll the balls out there um have a pilot for a couple months and then come back to you with an update in the spring so any questions on that thank you um so to wrap up my report I'm just checking in on strategic planning the last month has really been information gathering so our next meeting of the steering committee is actually our fourth meeting of the steering committee is is tomorrow and we have a lot of work to do to to take the input from the focus groups in the survey and and we'll break the the full steering committee will break into three Focus area work groups and really dig into taking all that feedback and making sure we have solid goals to put into the final
057draft plan the final meeting of the steering committee is January 10th and we hope to get consensus from the steering committee on a draft plan and then we would bring that to the board with a presentation and approval hopefully at that second January meeting once we we get that date set at the organizational meeting on January 9th so in term terms of the data Gathering we've been through in the last month we conducted 15 focus groups that had 187 participants and that brought really healthy feedback Mr leepa our consultant had members of those focus groups sitting in table groups and each table group provided their own feedback sheet and he synthesized that into a report for the for the steering committee we've taken the opportunity just because we've had directors Council and administrative leadership and
058cabinet meetings since the the data has come ended just checking in and do an update on where the process is at with those factions of our leadership team I want to thank the 14 I want to thank the 187 staff members and and parents who participated in our focus groups and we had just over 1400 completions of the steering committee survey so all that data over the course of the next few weeks will be synthesized to make sure we have a solid set of of focus areas I think we're at you know an updated Mission Vision and some organizational values that will be part of what we present to the board in January so happy to see this this process come to a close we've been talking about this for a few years and have
059really been knee-deep in it since bringing Mr leopon and our in August so I don't know if there's anything else from any of the board members who sit on the steering committee probably more after tomorrow so Dr Demas Mrs Riley no okay all right that is all for my report for tonight so if you start to get towards the end of all kinds okay thank you there are so many things that make me uncomfortable as a student at Romeo High School the passive aggressive aggressive common sign Durham the thinly veiled racist remarks being passed as political point of view but in this country people get freedom to think say and read pretty much whatever they want that doesn't always mean that these Liberties come without consequence but they are available to us now I could
060go sit with Mr Osborne every day and read him my list of grievances I could review with him books in the library that are factually inaccurate perpetuate stereotypes and even use the n-word over and over and implore him to remove them but even as a 17 year old I understand the importance of never unilaterally making decision to limit books simply because they make me uncomfortable in the Romeo Library there's a book titled Mice and Men now from the lens of many people in this room it might be considered one of the greats there's another book called Gone With the Wind and it's likely a favorite of many people in this room as well I hate both of them I hate the way people of color are portrayed and treated I hate that the books are
061written from the lens of a white man telling the stories of enslaved and indentured blacks I hate that the n-word is used and the black housemate is written as a shrieking idiot I hate that the stories are extremely Limited in sharing the true experience of black characters but my opinion alone has no place in deciding what literature should be available in the school it's important that the book challenge policy is followed and one person can't dictate which books are removed from the shelves pan should not have the authority to ban books and neither should I am asking the school board to enforce the process for any literary censorship no book should be banned from Romeo high school without rigorous conversation literature will always make someone feel uncomfortable and I say if a book makes you
062uncomfortable don't check it out of the library but just like I'm not making my uncomfortableness your problem don't make yours mine thank you next we have Ava Sanborn hello my name is Ava Sanborn I'm a senior at Romeo I'm reading this letter on behalf of a fellow student who didn't feel safe sharing his story in person let me give you some backstory my life has not always been easy here in Romeo Community Schools I moved here in seventh grade and it's been a living hell for me ever since I stepped foot on school grounds I came from Lance Cruise public schools to Romeo Community Schools and it was a huge shock for me socially I come from a school full of diversity acceptance of all communities and a large population of students to a small
063conservative Town not diverse at all very hateful towards minorities with a very small student population my first impression of the students and staff here at rhs was horrific as my seventh grade self sat down to sit at a table for lunch for the first time I was told to move my ass those were the first words ever spoken to me by a student at RCS and I will never forget them because it set the scene for the rest of my experience here I am a transgender male and it has been a secret kept in my family ever since I moved here we didn't want me to get bullied even more than I had already been and we knew that if anybody found out I would be in for a lot of hate hiding my identity
064was mentally draining and led me to spiraling into a deep depression around the same time as my lowest low I was outed to the entire school by someone who I thought was my friend it hurt me deeply that I had zero control over when people knew who knew and how people found out that year was traumatic for me I was bullied every single day pushed against lockers called numerous slurs such as and and was verbally degraded by my peers that continued throughout middle school and 9th grade in 10th Grade The Bullying didn't just stay at school anymore The Bullying migrated to my social media accounts and to my home my house and my car got egged and hit my smoothies it was reported to the school and nothing was done my 11th until and 12th
065grade years have been the worst years ever my dead name has been written by bullies on numerous personal items of mine many of which had to be thrown away due to damage again we reported it to the school nothing was done about it the school claims that the students involved had been talked to but the harassment continues I continue to report everything and nothing has been done about it I have received three candy grams with horrible messages on them the school was alerted nothing was done I attempted suicide three times throughout the years and it is because the school has made me feel hopeless since the rest of the school has been a horrible place for me I found peace in the library I found lgbtq plus books in our school library and having them
066there made me feel represented and seen one of the books addressed bullying and harassment in schools and how to cope with it it helped me so much reading books about people like me going through the same things made me feel a little better it gave me a little hope that hope has been ripped from my hands by the very people who I've confided in and reported to who for many years about what I have been put through due to my identity the only bit of hope I had gone the only thing I had gone The Bullying continues the school continues to turn their heads to this harassment and now this why were they taken away they were not violent they were not overly sexual they were not different than any other book in our library
067except for the fact that they had lgbtq plus characters and or topics are you going to burn these books like they did in Fahrenheit 451 or the Holocaust are you going to push us into a closet and hide us away forever what did we do wrong if being in the lgbtq plus Community was a choice none of us would be a part of it who would choose to be hated harassed hidden and killed just for who they are nobody this is why kids like me are dying don't kill us thank you thank you these are going to be given to the administration too so they'll reach out to you for follow-up moving on to the regular meeting action items can I have a motion for resolution 68 which is our Personnel update so moved by
068barrows supported by counter are there any questions or concerns all in favor I opposed motion carries next I have facilities resolution number 87 which is the cafeteria service project spoke about today 1.5 million can I have a motion so moved support moved and supported any questions or concerns all in favor all right motion carries technology resolution 88 which is the two-way radio network project mostly coming out of safety funds remaining coming out of general fund motion support moved and supported Antoine and Connor questions or concerns nope all in favor I opposed motion carries next one is the employee service resolution 89 which is the reclassification proposal of a few positions so moved support all right moved by Riley supported by Connor I think he was first questions or concerns on this one all in favor
069I opposed motion carries the next one is employee services resolution 90. which is the raspa letter of agreement support by Demas supported by Barrows but this is the one updating this letter of agreement to their contract all in favor I opposed motion carries next one is the Board of Education resolution 91 which is the superintendency evaluation giving the highly effective reading and an amendment to the contract for a contract extension so moved moved by Riley support support by Demas questions or concerns just real quick um because we've kind of discussed about the superintendent responding to maybe any of our concerns that we brought up during the evaluation and potentially especially for extending his contract perhaps some of his long-term plans that he has for the district is that something yes so if you kind of
070remember the process at the December meeting is when we approve the ranking and evaluation for the audience we met twice also everyone gave written response to me I formulate that put it back out to the board and that's where we give him some of our strengths and weaknesses and that comes out in January okay okay again the evaluation process is a approved evaluation tool that we use and then we provide feedback to the superintendent for leadership priorities any other questions comments all in favor I opposed motion curious just want to State we are very pleased with Dr Robinson's work here in the district he's been a great superintendent navigated covid very well we have a lot going on as you can see a lot of bond progress um and so we're just excited for the
071future and we're glad to have them part of our team this is our academic service resolution number 92 which is the media selection util utilization and process guide that was just outlined so moved moved by Riley support by Connor any questions or concerns all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries next is academic service resolution 93 which is the rhs new course AP microeconomics move by barrels supported by Demas questions or concerns all in favor aye opposed motion carries academic resolution 94 which is the rhs new course world studies Africa can I have a motion moved by Dima support by Connor questions or concerns all in favor I opposed motion carries academic Services resolution 95 which is the rhs new course medical terminology can I have a motion so moved moved by Riley support support
072by barrows questions comments concerns all in favor I opposed motion carries the next one is the academic Services resolution 96 which is some rhs course name changes can I have a motion motion moved by Young support by counter support by counter questions all in favor all right I opposed motion carries Business Services resolution 97 which is our summer tax levy can I have a motion motion support moved by Young supported by Antoine any questions this allows us to collect our school rate on our summer tax all in favor I opposed motion carries Business Services resolution number 98 which is the fiscal year 23 budget amendment so moved moved by barrows supported by Connor all in favor aye aye aye opposed motion carries uh board discussion for the good of the district yeah I would I
073would just like to um publicly thank my two colleagues who are departing from the board um it saddens me to see them leave after all these years and I I want to thank them for their professionalism their dedication and the contributions that they have made to this District they are certainly value-added and God bless you both of you also going to add kind of pleasure and um it's not easy being a public servant we're not paid this is not our day job so you know it takes a lot to do the homework to study to hopefully you guys even got a taste of it tonight how many subcommittee meetings and and work in between public board meetings that we we do do and both of these two have served on the board during a lot
074of time of change in progress for Romeo so I hope you guys feel very proud of yourselves for the Legacy that you'll be leaving and the work that was done under your um under your leadership thanks so thank you thank you I just wanted to say real quick too I just wanted to thank my family and friends for their support during the past six years and then also to the members of the community that voted for me both in 2016 and 2022 so thank you for the opportunity to have served the district as a board member so thank you and I would just um I would just say that you know change is a little bit scary at times and I've had people have reached out to me you know just like I said change
075not about anybody in particular but just a little bit concerned about change so I would just say to everybody what I've said to them you've got you've got an outstanding board you have outstanding leadership Dr Robinson and he's brought on Mr storm Mr Murray recently and Mrs McFarland has been here for a long time she does a great job Miss Butler Miss Lasky Mr Nelson um and I it's bad to name people because you might forget somebody but um but you're in you're in good hands and and I'm confident that the board will continue to do a good work and and uh and continue to move forward there's a lot of people that are that are real happy with what's going on in Romeo and and with the academies and the the move to the
076academies you know down at the lower levels and I think you're going to see neighboring districts jumping on our riding our what do you call it tail feathers not the right word but anyway so I'll jump around the bandwagon yes so anyway it's been an honor thank you and um thanks everybody here thank you anybody else Mr Connor I went to the multi-misd meeting was at Lance Cruz it was very informative they uh they had some officers there like if students missed too many days and different things and what they did and had a lot of positive things you know good reinforcements to help the families and whoever needs help that was very informative and I want to thank John Kem for doing a great job I've always done real good on all the Committees
077and we're going to miss you all right last is public comment and I did get one more Amy Corbin hi it's been a while I'm Amy Corbin I have two kids at the high school um I've been a mom for 29 years so in 20 or 2002 it was a lot different things have changed some of us parents are asking maybe instead of opting out of certain books people could opt in because there's a lot of parents that don't even know what's in the libraries right now and while we try to stay informed in everything it's very hard being a parent and it's even harder now than it was 29 years ago um also there should be the bullying policy needs to be looked in into there should be no bullying in high schools I
078had a daughter that was bullied I had to switch schools I know what this is like so maybe that that could be addressed too is this bullying policy but there are these books in the library right now well being set aside and they do have incest they have violent sex and they have they support pedophilia and no kids should be reading about that all kids should feel safe and for those to make anyone feel safe I I just don't get it as a parent and that's really it I it was short and sweet today um Todd I just want to give you this I didn't have enough copies for everyone but I mean you can see that there thank you thank you thank you I think one more is coming oh all right oops uh
079um James say it Jamie Jamie Bauer Le creakio oh I didn't even get you know him but yeah so I'm Jamie Bauer lucricio and my daughter attends the middle school she's a seventh grader and I will start out this has nothing to do with gender it has nothing to do with any of that this has to do with sexual content okay so this is this is how I want to weigh in on this um the past couple months I've seen a great concern from parents in regards to available books of literature being read by our children during the October meeting a parent stood right here and read a passage from RX and correct I think that's how you pronounce it by Margaret Atwood I know you know the book am I listening to this parent
080read some content I was actually shocked that a book with such disturbing descriptive content would be included in our kids education last month a student gave a very well crafted articulated defending response rest assured her rebuttal did not sit well with me I am shocked that this is a topic of young minds the minds of minors being able to read in graphic detail pedophilia in a book is even a debated topic of discussion this book and books like these seem more fitting for college-level curriculum curriculums yet descriptive content of naked children pleasing an adult male is beyond disturbing to those with a moral compass Public Schools can find other books more suited for minors to read to get a point across or to have an educated discussion I will say if this book or any
081book that contains such content is required by my daughter which I now have learned today that I guess we can opt in or opt out whatever you guys decide I will not be allowing my daughter to read this parents are researching parents are taking notice that's why we are raising this concern all across the country this should be a telling sign that certain material is not appropriate for those under the age of 18. I have learned that this 12-year book challenge protocol is being currently worked on is have been worked on so I'm happy to hear the update child porn pedophilia rape and other inappropriate sexual content were in a minor can paint a vivid picture in their minds through words is completely unacceptable on all levels the Motion Picture Association has ratings these ratings
082inform parents and people about the content of a movie or a show books considered or already are in our schools should follow the same protocols if a books like the one that has been talked about Orcs And crate were made into a movie would would you allow that movie to be shown to students here in Romeo if it was in the taking that child's pornography scene and put that in an actual Vivid where they can actually see it on the screen would that be appropriate for our kids to actually see that it's no different than having that visually put through words and put into a child's mind so what that movie would be rated R or M for maturity and I was gonna say you're at three minutes so basically so basically that's my whole
083thing sexual content does not need to be involved in these schools you have a right you are in these positions to protect our kids from sexual contents that are for adults only and that includes Chaya pedophilia thank you we have Emily good evening as you can tell I didn't plan to speak so I don't have anything so it's going to be a little scattered I'm going to say a few things related to the books and some other things number one I want to make a request that I've requested a few times in the last year that you live stream the board meetings this is the first board meeting I've been able to come to because of my job in over a year and it's going to get the same way in the New Year I'm
084just down time a little bit Rochester Community Schools live streams their board meetings there are so many parents that can't get child care there are single parents there are parents that work night shifts there are parents that have ill children at home if I know the new board members talk about transparency so this seems like something we could have common ground on that more parents would be able to uh it's not live streamed though it usually takes three or four days for it to get up and in that time as you know social media rumors often come about so we could really cut that that's my first thing the second thing is I'm going to respond obviously to some of the people we hear talking about the books tonight number one I want to clarify
085something the books were pulled from the library at the high school and you did have students try to check them out and they were denied that that is a shadow ban that is a definition that is something very mature that is something that's called a shadow band they were denied that they're 18 years old they could go by an AR-15 but they couldn't buy or they couldn't check out a book at the high school so that is a shadow band I think you need to make clear to us and maybe you can answer tonight with more parents coming forward and challenging books are you going to pull them preemptively because somebody says it's inappropriate are you going to leave them on the shelves until they've gone through the review process so you can let us
086know that tonight second thing I would like to request the Bible is removed from the shelves because it makes very clear that there's gang rape in the Bible there is incest in the Bible to quote the parent that spoke in September we don't want to normalize incest or gang rape so I'm going to request tonight the Bible is pulled from the shelves thank you very much foreign Mrs Miller first name Deborah Deborah Miller yep and my kids are new to the district and I just want to say that so far we've been very pleased very happy I appreciate the work you do I have also volunteered in many positions and I understand what it takes to get up here I've spoken at various school board meetings um for me it's not that this isn't about
087banning books I'm just going to give some statistics some things that are talked about that we just don't always consider pornography is something that may strengthen attitude supportive of sexual violence and violence against women the best approach for parents and caregivers and teachers responding to a child's exposure to pornography is to encourage open communication discussion and critical thinking is that something that the board wants the administrators and staff of the school to take on when they when they allow children to be exposed to pornography in a school library and the absence of other information pornography can be a main source of a Young Person's sex ed so for someone who doesn't have a home structure where they're talking about sexual content this is where they're learning it and this is all they have the exposure
088to the use of pornography by adolescents is associated with stronger permissive sexual attitudes which I don't think any child in the middle school or High School needs to be encouraged statistics show exposure to pornography can increase the likelihood of earlier first-time sexual experiences adolescent pornography is used with stronger beliefs in gender stereotypes so if we're talking about not having stereotypes we probably don't need to expose them to violent sexual content males exposed to pornography are more likely to view women as sex objects adolescents who consume violent pornography were six times more likely to be sexually aggressive compared to kids not exposed some of the books that have no place in our school libraries have graphic sexual scenes described in full detail including experiences of rape pedophilia and incest that's a fact and I will be
089here reading those excerpts if I have to there are also books that instruct children how to perform different sex acts and encourage them to go online and find people to hook up with how does having books like this in school help students achieve academic success and that is the defining question the schools now especially after covid have kids who are so behind and every single thing we do should be helping our children reach academic success so for parents who don't know the full let website gives access to book titles and there are plenty of books that that I don't know if they're in the library or not and I hope they're not but if they become available opting out is not the choice not having because Mike I can opt out for my kid but
090his friend can go get this and read it at the lunch table so there are appropriate ways to keep these books in the right hands and I agree with the other parent who spoke and I know my three minutes is up 18 and older is how my child could go get a pornographic magazine go see a mature audience rated movie and that is how they should be exposed to content period and no school should override a parent's ability to decide that so I'm just gonna public comment is is definitely open to everybody but if if you are planning to speak if you could go over to that table because otherwise it's just every time someone comes up then we think of something else we want to say so if you're planning to speak just flag
091me down now so I can know how many more we have all right thank you very much oh goodness I'm gonna need my you can read that oh sorry this part's super small I just wanted to read a little excerpt from appendix B of the previous book Banning policy just because I think it's very relevant to everything that's been said tonight and something that's good for all of us to keep in mind can I just you're reading an excerpt of a book Banning policy we didn't have no no I'm reading an excerpt of the previous Media review policy that was developed and signed into I just wanted to sorry I did that was okay a misspeak on my part all right the right to read like all rights guaranteed or implied within our constitutional tradition
092can be used wisely or foolishly in many ways education is an effort to improve the quality choices open to all students but to deny the freedom of choice in fear that it may be unwisely used is to destroy the freedom itself for this reason we respect the right of individuals to be selective in their own reading but for the same reason we oppose efforts of individuals or groups to limit the freedom of choice to others or to impose their own standards or tastes upon the community at Large the rate of any individual is not just to read but to read whatever he or she wants to read is basic to Democratic Society this right is based on an assumption that the educated possess a judgment and understanding and can be trusted with the determination of
093their own actions and selecting books for reading by young people English teachers consider the contribution which each work make to excuse me which each work may make to the education of the reader its aesthetic value its honesty its readability for a particular group of students and its appeal to adolescents American citizens who care about the Improvement of Education are urged to join students teachers Librarians administrators Board of Education and professional and scholarly organizations in support of the students right to read only widespread and informed support in every Community can assure that enough citizens are interested in the development and maintenance of a superior school system to guarantee its achievement malicious gossip ignorant rumors and deceptive letters to the editor will not be circulated without challenging and correction newspapers will be convinced that the public sincerely
094desires objective School news reporting free from slanting or editorial comment which destroys confidence and in support for schools the community will not prevent its resources and energies to be dissipated that's it sorry obviously the the role of the board is policy and procedure so hopefully if we can all just uh leave here today with our friends and neighbors and know that you know hearty discussion is always great there are two sides to every coin and we Romeo the part that makes us unique is clearly this is is hitting some Society attention some national attention social media attention and we got to work re-looking at our our practice we're looking at the process bringing people in the room so I'm hopeful that everybody here no matter which side of the coin you're on you're gonna sit
095back and and let the process get into play first before we worry about things that may or may not even happen know that there are options for parents as well so first we have to take care of ourselves in our own home and then we can worry about things outside of that so let's just trust the process a little bit see how it works know that this board and future board member are going to come together in a consensus building action to do what's right by kids to make sure that learning is at the Forefront so if we can just I'll leave here with that knowing it's not us them he they whatever situation this is a topic that is going to have differing opinions so that's that's the beauty of democracy so with that
096I'm going to ask our board we're going to go into closed session for client attorney privilege we're not coming out of making any decisions when we do come out we'll just take action to adjourn so can I have a motion to go into closed session moved by Demas support support by barrows can I have roll call Mr Antoine is GS Miss Panic yes Miss borrows yes Mr Connor Dr demons Miss Riley yes Mr Young yes okay