001very important people because they take care of the very important people sitting in the front row. There has been a lot of buzz this summer at all the buildings and in human resources um as we welcome 80 new employees to the Selen area schools. It is critical that I applaud the very important people which are the building principles and district administrators for their tireless dedication and commitment this summer to bringing 80 new folks to the district. They have been committed to a hiring process to identify the best people to support teaching and learning districtwide. You've heard me say many times that it takes many, many people to run an operation this big. And all of us, no matter what our role is, play an important role. I also need to thank the four women in
002the Department of Human Resources for their unwavering commitment to the flurry so that the majority of our new staff were able to start by August 20th. We are beyond excited to share Seline's long-standing traditions with our new hires, but we are equally excited for all of them to introduce a new lens to our district through their personal experiences and to share their expertise as educators on all levels. Together, we elevate, we challenge, and we identify ways to become better tomorrow than we are today. While many are not able to be here this evening, I do want to share some of the data around hiring. We have 28 new teachers that are coming in this year. Three speech path language speech and language pathologist. Six occupational therapists, one teacher consultant, one multi-ter system support personnel, one
003behavior certified behavior analyst, 18 new pair professionals, two custodians, three literacy tutors, three transportation employees, one administrative assistant, one CTE technician, three GSRP staff with a new leader in GSRP, two onetoone nurses, three young five um aids, three office staff, and one superintendent. It is my honor to welcome while 42 of them were able to come to our new staff orientation in August. Um I will uh likely hold a make not a makeup but a alternative date in October for others to come. It is my absolute honor to welcome our new staff that are with us this evening. Um, I'd ask that they come up to the podium and introduce themselves and I want to thank them so much for choosing Selen Area Schools and for being part of our staff dedicated to educating these
004most important people. So, I have a handout up here. I've already kind of prepped them. If they'll come and introduce themselves, their position, their building location, and their years of um education together, we'll welcome them into the Selen area schools. Thank you. >> Carol, are we going to meet for a little picture afterwards over there? >> We can always arrange for a picture. >> Oh, we're in front of the bus. >> No, you can Photoshop us in. It's all right. >> When the last person Birdie, where are you? He's gonna start us off. >> All right, >> Brad, do do you need the stool, Brad? >> Captain, my captain. All right. Are we ready? >> All right. Do you miss me? Brad Gerby, uh, biology, chemistry, forensic science at the high school and, uh, I
005think this is 23 years in education. >> Uh, my name is Cali Lindo and I teach kindergarten at Woodland Meadows and this is my first year. >> Hello. Good evening. My name is Jared Delgle. I'm the band director at Selen Middle School and Heritage School, uh, grades 5 through 8. You'll also see me on the, um, Hornet Stadium at 6:45 a.m. with the marching band Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. It's been going great. It's a lot of fun. Um, and um, I traveled 2,260 miles to be here at Seline. Came from Bakersfield, California. Originally from Wisconsin, but I was out there teaching for a little bit. This is my eighth year in education. Hello, my name is Terara Sky White. I'm first grade at Pleasant Ridge. Um, and this is my seventh year in education. Hi, my
006name is Katie Syski. I'm also first grade at Pleasant Ridge. Um, I have been teaching for 23 years. My previous experience was in the Lake View schools in St. Clair Shores. >> Hi, I'm Karen Hawk. I'm a teacher consultant at Pleasant Ridge Elementary and this is my 10th year in education. >> Hi, I'm Jill Kinsey. I'm an ESL teacher at Heritage and with the Meadows and this is my eighth year teaching. >> I'm Peter Atinson. I'm a fourth grade teacher at Heritage and this is my first year teaching. >> Hi, I'm Andrea Khan. I'm an occupational therapist. I'm at Liberty School and I have been in the schools as an OT for three years going on my fourth. Hello, I am Ryan Peters. I am the newest art teacher at Seline High School. Um, and
007this is going to be year 12 of teaching for me. >> I'm uh Dave Ring. Um, I am the current district delivery driver. uh experience with the schools for at least like 20 plus years because I retired from the Selen Police Department. So I did a lot of the youth programs and involved as a resource officer. So wanted to give back. So I want to thank you very much for this opportunity to support Selen Schools. >> Well, thank you. Welcome back and welcome to all of you from the board of education. We're so glad you're here and we'll let you just let yourselves out at your own pace unless of course you want to see our next group of uh speakers. I'd like to uh open the floor to public comment, please. We have one
008public comment. A member of the board can uh address you can get yourself ready if you want. Uh can address the board for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on the agenda of a future meeting. Please note the students will be given priority to speak on any topic and the first public participation portion will be limited to one half hour. Normally second participation portion will be offered at the end of the agenda to allow for other comments. Students however can speak on any any topic not on the agenda. Individuals addressing the board should take into consideration the rules of common courtesy and uh they you cannot use this moment to uh make personal attacks against a board member, district employee or student. And I'm looking at Quinn Burns. Correct. The floor is
009yours, sir. And as soon as you start talking, we'll give you your your three minutes. We'll start. >> Hi, I'm not Quinn Burns. I am the uh my name is Dan Routton and um we're here representing the Selen boys volleyball team. Um we started in uh 2022 as a club and after uh four seasons um we've been given the opportunity um with the MHSA letting boys volleyball become a varsity sport. So, we're here today to thank school board uh superintendent uh Kowalsski, um Ashley Mantha, the athletic department, Ashley House with community ed, um current and former players. Um we just want to say thank you. um as our journey is is you know met you know our our destination is we will be a varsity team representing Seline in 2026 in the spring. So thank
010you very much. >> Thank you very much. How do you spell your last name? >> R A O U >> R O U Okay. >> Um I kind of have the same thing to say as him. Just a lot of thanks to the people in the community that have helped us. I'm Quinn Burns. I am a senior here at Seline. Uh I've been playing volleyball since I was 10 years old. Just a very long time, especially with my family. Um just a couple thanks to people that have helped us throughout our journey. Uh first of all, thank you Ashley House who has started this program through the reckoning ed about four years ago in 2022, just as Dan said, and she has supported us every single year from then on. Big thank you to Ashley
011Mantha for helping the boys team this year and getting it to be an official sport. Uh, Superintendent Kowalsski, thank you very much for pushing it through the door in such an abrupt time. Uh, thank you to my coach Dan Routen. He's been with this team since 2022. He's helped us just unfaltering faith in us and it's just been really helpful throughout this process. And I'd like to thank the board finally just for you guys' support throughout all this. Thank you very much. Thank you very much and good luck this uh spring. I have no response to the public comment from last week. I'd like to uh entertain a motion to approve the agenda as printed. >> So move stubbin >> second. Berwick. >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Good. 70.
012Thank you so much. Um we have a little student uh we have a student showcase tonight. First, I'd like to uh introduce the link crew. And uh we also have Harvest Buddies here. Have you figured out the order in which you're going to go? >> Harvest Buddies. >> Let's let the little We'll let the the We go first. >> And I have everybody's name, but perhaps you might want to introduce yourselves. Is that the way you're going to do it, Miss Sichler? >> Yes. Um my name is Emily Sichler. I'm the proud principal of Harvest Elementary School and I have five third grade buddies with me that we're going to share a little bit about our program. Um, one thing that we do is once you become a third grader, you get to become a
013third grade buddy. It is something that is very exciting at our school and it's something that we take very seriously. We started actually the very second day of school because on the very first day of school there are no young fives or kindergarters that come. So you learn about that. But starting the very second day of school we become a buddy. And I thought it was very important for our third grade buddies to teach you all about what happens and the very important role that third graders take as being a third grade buddy. So without further ado, here are some buddies that are going to teach you about this important role that we have here at Harvest. My name is Charlotte. My third grade teacher is Miss Canad. I think that being a third grade
014buddy is really important because we can cheer on young fives in kindergarten harvest hornets, especially if they are feeling a little nervous starting school. Good evening everyone. My name is Mia. My Harvest third grade teacher is Miss T. My buddies are Mara and Advika. They are very cute and smart. Buddies cheer on for young fives and kindergarten students in on the first day of school in the gym and to their classroom and read a story to them so they don't feel nervous at harvest. We also made buddy surprises for our for their lockers. We want them to love harvest. Thank you very much. My name is Gwen. My third grade teacher is Miss Pereira. I think being a third grade buddy is really important because we get to teach our young fives and kindergarteners harvest
015hornets what to do when they get older. Like the harvest for rules. The rules are we are responsible for what I say, what I what I do, how I help, and how I listen. My name's Evelyn. My third grade teacher is Miss Canadler. I have been waiting for a long time to be a third grade buddy. I want to show my young fives and kindergarten buddies what to do so they can feel comfortable at harvest and in the school. It feels good to be a buddy and support the young fing and kindergarten kindergart kindergarteners at harvest. My name is Cam. I'm a third grade buddy. My my teacher is Miss Dobins. I think that being a third grade buddy is really important because we can help our young five and kindergarteners harvest what it's what
016to expect like how to for example how to walk in the halls or open their lockers. So you can see um starting school there we have over a hundred young fives and kindergarten students and that is a lot of work but with all of this help like these five students that showed and all the other third grade students it makes life way easier for all the adults. So thank you so much for um for us being able to teach you all about third grade buddies. >> Hey well thank you for sharing. Um I know we all want applaud and everything. I think it's a great program. I when I was in kindergarten I wish I had a third grade buddy too. And the other thing I want to noted note Miss Sichler is that that
017was some very good reading I was watching as well. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you on behalf of the board and I don't know if you want to ask any question or just want to applaud but thanks [Applause] Gwen. Thank you so much. >> We could do both at the end. Maybe we have link crew present. >> All right. Well, we're going to have the link crew. >> All right. And the buddies and the link crew are going to come out together for a photograph with the board, I think. Thank you. Right. Link crew. Hi. Okay. My name's Lily and I'm part of Link Crew. Um, Link Crew is basically kind of like the buddies explained, but we help the ninth graders. So, it's a big school. It's really scary. I remember being a
018freshman. Um, you don't know where your classes are. I remember I had health and it was like at the time in the basement by the gym. I was so lost. I had no idea where to go and I only had my sister who was in the 12th grade. So she was kind of like my personal link leader even though I had my own. So that was kind of my goal when becoming a link leader is to like be that big sister for everybody else and you know help with that. So it's a nationally recognized thing. Um something we participate here at the high school in Seline and it's just kind of about helping out people and being a leader. So, um I'm here to talk a little bit about why Link Crew matters so much
019at our high school. Um as Lily already said, the high school can be a really uh intimidating place. It's very welcoming, but it's also uh very intimidating. You you first walk in there and it kind of looks like a community college in my opinion at least. Um so, uh as somebody who moved between 8th grade and 9th grade, I was coming to a completely new school. I didn't know anybody. Um, and so I would say that link crew more than any other resource that was available to me at the time was something that really helped me settle in. So, um, one of my link crew leaders was a varsity rower at the time and she offered to bring me to a practice and sort of introduced me to the team and now I'm a four-year
020rower. I'm also a varsity rower. I have the tape to show for it. But um yeah, I just it it really helped me settle into the high school and for that reason uh I think link crew is super super important. It is super significant in the lives of the uh new students at the high school. Um I know the slide we don't have them up but my slide here it says it builds community. Uh it encourages academic and personal growth and it promotes a positive school climate. and I cannot say like it definitely does those things. It's very important. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Maline Marshall. I chose to be a link leader because I wanted to make sure that everybody felt welcome at Selen High School to know that they had a place. And
021it's okay if you get lost or fall up the stairs once or twice because everybody does it. Um don't be embarrassed about it. Link Crew is for us to be leaders to show our students like you can grow up to be us one day and you want to help those like be a role model and just make sure that they're doing okay. Um and then they can always reach out to us. So for us, we lead the freshman orientation. We show them around the school. We provide some fun activities that they can do to meet their peers that they are in advisory with the entire year. and they are in with that class all four years. So, it's very important that they get to know these students and it's a more a familiar face that
022they can see in the halls as well. We run fun lessons throughout the entire school year. Um, this past Thursday we actually ran a lesson about organization and how it can look different um for everybody, but also studying habits. And so, we shared some of our f like tips and stuff and then we also opened it up to the students so they could share theirs as well. Um, we also host social events. So, one of our big social events is orientation where they get to see all their peers um and just connect with people that they might not have seen in a while. Um, but we also do, like I mentioned earlier, personal check-ins. We make sure to check in with all of our students through advisory. Um, they know that they can reach out
023to us with anything that they have. Um but we are also reaching out to them like we all reached out to our um little incleers or like little students um and just asked like told them I hope you have a great first day. I can't wait to see you tomorrow. Um making sure that they are doing well before their first test and how did it go? Um we just truly are there to support them with everything that they are doing and we want them to know that we are there for them and that they can come to us with anything. Thank you. Hi, I'm Dylan. Uh, and I'm just here to talk a little bit about the process of what it's like to become a link leader and what we do to train so that
024we can give the freshman like the best experience possible. Um, so we come to become a link leader, uh, we have to fill out an application and then we do go to this thing called Mayday. Um, where we kind of run through some of the activities and we participate in the activities that we do on orientation ourselves. Um and then from there um a lot of us will get accepted into link crew and then we will go to orient we will go to orientation training and we train for I believe it's about 4 hours um and eight hours in total so two days from about 8 to 12 um before orientation and we train and we plan and we put together all the fun activities. Um, I think one of the more notable things that
025I definitely I remember from my freshman year, and I know a lot of people do, is we will put together costumes for our groups. And so that's something that we plan during those training days. Um, and that's also um, and so those tra training days are just really essential to make sure that we can give everyone the best experience. And then I just want to like wrap up by saying I chose to be a link leader because I just think it's so important to help um the younger students in the community. I know when I was a freshman like that's something that I really needed and so I want to be that person for incoming freshmen. >> Yeah. >> Fantastic. Meline Sean Dylan and Lillian do you have an adviser of this for this group?
026>> Yes. We have a lot. And could you intro in the microphone? Could you introduce your two adviserss, please? >> We have Mr. Stookie with us today and Mr. Droer. >> Yay. Well, thank you so much for your time. I'm gonna ask if the board has any questions to ask. Not too challenging, but uh >> do you want us to mention our other ones that are not here today? >> Well, they didn't show. >> Yes, that would be great. Thank you. >> We also have Mrs. Stoie, um Mr. Brink, Lori Dawson, oh, Jen Bernard, Mr. Gayla, and all of our like staff at um Selen High School >> and the rest. Thank you so much. Any questions from the board? No, no, no. One question. >> Um, are all of you seniors? I know Meline
027is, but >> you're all seniors. >> We're all seniors, but it's a junior senior thing. So, that's what my question. your sophomore year, you can apply and then get in and then you have to reapply, but like they know you by that point. So, most people do it their um junior and senior year. >> Okay. >> All right. Thanks. >> Well, thank you. Well, we're going to take a picture and for those watching at there are people watching at home who have never heard of Link Crew before, have never heard of the Buddies program, and they I'm sure they their eyes were wide open about this and and thank you so much for doing such a professional presentation. I appreciate that. So, let's do a quick picture. Are we ready, >> Jacqueline? Thank you so
028much. [Applause] While we're all settling down, I just want to say thank you once again. >> Goodbye, Gwen. Whoops. Hi Darcy. Banana. >> If there's anybody here for AP gov. Now you can all move to the front. >> Get in the splash zone. >> You don't want to come closer. >> It's the embarrassment zone. Thank you. The zone of embarrassment. Actually, it'll the meeting is not going to go on much longer. I don't think you can stay probably right to the very end. You were very lucky. Thank you, AP Gov. I'd like we have one um action item this evening, but I think it's going to be very quick. uh is the motion is to appoint somebody as a voting delegate and somebody else as the alternate representing the Selen Board of Education to the
0292025 MASB delegate assembly being held on Thursday, October 23rd. Before we do, are there any of us who are going to that? I am not going to that. I cannot make it this year. >> I'm out of the country that week. I would like to withdraw the motion as nobody unless you change your mind and would like to go to Traverse City. Okay, we're all busy that night. Just so the rest of the community knows, many many times we do go and it's a wonderful opportunity, the annual leadership conference. I was at the summer leadership conference, but uh looks like we have no representation this year. That's fine. I'm sure somebody will take notes for us. Thank you. I couldn't make it this year. Okay. No, that's all right. Right. So, I'd like to withdraw
030that motion and get on to discussion items. And I'm going to throw it over to our board finance committee chair, Tim Austin, who's also our treasurer, taking furious notes from the meeting this evening. Ready? Thank you, sir. >> Yeah. So, we actually had a little a little longer meeting with more discussion today, but we did have a public comment. Um, Greg from Related Digital came out and um, just kind of explained their project in Sling Township that they're looking to do and wanted to kind of get that information out there to us. From a uh, discussion items, we talked about the state budget or the lack thereof the state budget. Um, it's not looking good like they're going to have anything solved. Uh Miranda mentioned that they did survey uh bunch of schools and I
031think like 200 and some schools um responded but 43 of the 43% of the respondents said if they do go into like a shutdown they would not have if they don't get the October payment they would not have enough money to make payroll. So something will have to be uh done to kind of shore that up. Um then uh the audit that will that's looking really good. they'll bring that to the full board in November. Um Miranda's not tracking any findings or anything like that. So everything looks good. We are looking to um be better than our amended budget as far as uh the fund balance goes when that comes to the but I won't spoil all that news right now. That good news. Um enrollment and headcount there also some good news there too.
032uh we're trending better than um what we budgeted for for um enrollment. We'll still probably be in the negative, you know, down but not what quite what we budgeted for. So, and we kind of talked about some school of choice things and stuff like that. So, more discussion on that later, too. So, anything else from anybody else, Jason, Nate? Uh ju uh just to point out uh since you mentioned it, the 43% of the schools that responded to that survey saying that they would not be able to make payroll, Selena is not one of them. I just wanted to stress that to everybody. >> Thanks. >> I've heard if we I don't mind if the rest of the board asks questions of you. Um I've heard that some districts like Plymouth Canton are good until
033maybe the end of September for feeding students before they run out of funding. It's been two months, one week, and a day since they were required to have a budget. And it's very, it's been frustrating at the higher ed level, at K12 level. And I appreciate you keeping your eyes on this for us. >> Jason brought up a good point. Um, asked Miranda kind of what what do we look like? And we've got about three months worth of uh in our fund balance to to operate for three months. So, it's we're in better shape than a lot of school districts. >> Yes. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Any other comments or notes? No. Thank you very much, Tim, for your work on that. Uh, administration board updates. We'll start with our superintendent and
034then go over to Nate. >> Thank you, board president Mcbay. So, as uh the last couple of weeks have gone on, I've had the joy of watching our district come alive with students. Um, the excitement of a brand new school year has arrived and we are within it. The halls are buzzing, classrooms full of energy, and there's a contagious spark that I know for our staff and for me. um also reminds us why we do this work, why we spend all summer planning. So, um lots of smiles that I've seen at drop off. Um and I'm getting to learn myself about all of the great things happening in our classrooms. But I do want to share some updates with you. Um first, we're full speed ahead getting the word out and um educating our stakeholders,
035community members about the upcoming CT Mill. This is a countywide initiative that will support not only career and technical education but also prek through 12 real world experiential learning. Um so some of us might have that old model of voced in our heads. Um CT is no longer what we kind of think of as like shop I guess back in the day I've heard I've been told. Um, so really we're looking at industry connected experiences again, experiential learning, health sciences, cyber security, aviation, robotics, and so much more. The first did you know that kind of um centered me as a new resident of county is that 86% of our CT students do go on to the college after graduation. And that was a figure that really stood out to me. We also know that the
036demand for CT courses is real. Um, it's grown 70% in nearly four years. And so this millillage would provide a sustainable funding to expand opportunities um protect some of our own spending on CTE um by cost sharing. Um so we're going to make sure that in my community message this Friday you'll have um a peek at three official informational sessions from the ISD but also myself and Cara Stemer will be continuing those engagements um around the community. I have one at Rotary um I know next week with the chamber. So, um, and we'll continue to share through Parent Square. Uh, over the past two weeks, I've been shaking lots of hands and, um, interacting with lots of folks. I just want to give a shout out to the music students, um, of Miss D's class,
037Diaz's class, uh, who proudly showcased their, um, their music at the Seline Area Schools Day at the fair. Those students who also proudly showcase their animals. It was wonderful. Um wanted to thank Seline High School um clubs and activities for an amazing open house. It was really really ne neat to see. I think it brought a lot of folks in for conference um for open house which is nice. Also wrapping up our fall open houses are amazing staff at Selen Middle School, Selen High School, young adult programs, Selene Alternative High School and our ECSA programs all wrapped last week. Those are you know were ongoing for a couple of weeks open houses. Then on Saturday, I had the chance to meet a lot of folks at the Selen Farmers Market. So, just to mark your
038calendars, um tomorrow is our first community listening lab um with myself. Um you may have had them before, but as a new superintendent, it's my first community listening lab. These are open invitations for anyone to join me. It will be at Heritage. Uh the questions that I have to guide us are um just engaging folks in conversation. What's working for us? Where can we grow? um what are the hopes that our students, our families, our parents carry with them, um in the future of our organization and learning for students. Um also, um we've been handing out these nifty calendars at some of those events and we discovered a small error. So, if you did get one of these calendars, um at a openhouse event or one of the tableling events that we've done, just bring
039it back to the district office and we'll switch it out with a new one. So, um, if not, just maybe don't look at June. Don't don't get excited about June. Okay. Lastly, the Steam Center grand opening Saturday, September 27th, 12 to 4 as that's taking shape with our team and our partners. We're going to have tour guided tours, activities. Please make sure you're marking your calendars be a great day. And boys volleyball, of course, shared with you that we've officially added boys volleyball as a self-funded varsity sport this coming spring. This reflects the student interest and community support of boys volleyball. I'm proud of how athletics and community education have worked together and thank you to AD Mantha. Lastly, the most of my last two weeks have been in school schools and school visits when
040we haven't been doing other things. Um we started off in some AP and CTE classes at Selen High School um or midweek last week and then last Friday decided to take a look at specialists classes in our elementarymentaries. Specialist classes nurture creativity, collaboration, and healthy lifestyles. Research shows that specials strengthen core academics. They improve attendance and build engagement. Beyond the data though, I saw joy, art, uh, ILAB, all kinds of fun stuff happening. And so from the future ready opportunities that we need to focus on in CTE and the upcoming millillage to the day-to-day classroom interactions and um community, it has been a wonderful couple of weeks in Selen area schools. >> Thank you. I'll pass it over to Nate and we'll just work our way down the table. Thank you, Nate. >> I'd like
041to recognize Ben Reed who is the new band director for the high school. obviously filled some really big shoes and he has absolutely hit a home run. Last uh Friday night we had our home opener and three groups that really make Friday Night Lights what it really is is when the band comes down the drum lines hitting their beat and the first note of the band plays. You get goosebumps. And then even when you want to go get a snack over halftime, you can't because that's when the cheer squad and the dance team come out. And those three groups really make Friday Night Lights what it's all about. And great work to all the hardworking members of the band, the cheer, and the dance team. >> Yeah, I'd concur with that. It was um fun
042going to the game and uh seeing all that and the the Hornet pride and Chad Tough uh all the orange. So, um that and then uh also want to thank Carol and her team because um the 80 new employees that's a lot and a lot to on board and that's uh kind of exciting for a lot of new families too that have a job here in Sleen. So, and then um lastly, uh August 31st, you know, we're up north for the long holiday. And one thing we don't do up north ever is watch TV. But this August 31st was a little bit different because we had a young man from Seline named CJ Carr playing in his first football game. And uh so all of our friends and family, we dragged a TV outside onto
043the deck and so we watched it by the lake and it was just it was really exciting to see and be the pride of Seline and um you could see it on social media too. A lot of people were engaged in that. Uh it was it highlighted the Chad TU Foundation again and um so I was really proud and uh um he actually had he had a really good game too for his first start so proud of him. So great. Uh just wanted to second the uh steam center opening at the high school on September 27th 12 to 4. Uh STEM Boosters is proud to be partnering with the district for that uh event. And then just a note that September is suicide prevention awareness month. You are loved. You are wanted and you have
044resources. If you need help, please reach out to family, friends, counselors. There is community mental health and you can always call 988 if you are looking for help. Thank you. >> So I just want to just say a couple of things. First of all, um for for the fifth year in a row, I'm participating with the pen pals. If you ever get an invitation to do pen pals with the young kids at Woodland Meadows, please do. I'm meeting with we're I'm writing to one. It's either in Mr. Williams Mson's or Perry's class. Uh congratulations also to the football. you guys did much better job than I could have. Um, I also want to say best of luck to our student representative, Jillian Hayes, who's uh at a cross country meet this evening. And also to
045the boys volleyball team. I'm the men's uh club adviser at Eastern Michigan University. And uh I don't have to do much. I just have to sign a paper once a year and I go to the game every now and then. And also, thanks for the reminder about Chad Tough. I'm going to be doing RunTuff the day after the Steam opening. We'll see if I can make it. It's only a mile this year. I think Nate, maybe we should create a team. You do trail running. All right. Look for the email from me. Okay. Thank you. And Jason, too, I understand does a little running in this >> only when chased. Thank you very much. >> I'm Yeah, chased. Okay. Sorry. I'm gonna pass it over to uh Jennifer. Thank you. >> Thanks. I hope Jillian
046and um the rest of our cross country team are doing a great job. I think the girls won first and I think the boys might have won first as well. check me. Um Savannah took first place for the um for the girls. Um it was great to see the new staff. Thank you to all of them. And I appreciate Carol saying that she would have a makeup session for those who couldn't attend this evening. So we look forward to welcoming them in person as well. And it's always great to start with kids, I think, in our in our boardroom and love those littles from Harvest and Link Crew. Um congratulations to boys volleyball. That's super exciting when we have a new varsity sport come on board and I know the hard work and journey that
047they have had to get to that get to today's date. Um this morning Rachel and I attended our foundation for Selen Area Schools monthly meeting. It was the first meeting that we had met for in a while. I think since June. Um so there was quite a few updates. We welcomed two new trustees Amy and Sarah. We um we had two new student representatives join us, both from the class of 2027, Dante and Brooke. Um let's see, a couple of other updates that I heard. We were talking a little bit about career and technical education. I have some flyers. Oopsie. Some flyers if the team wants to look at any of those statistics. We talked a little bit about how in politics, school districts um can't do some things and other things board members can
048do. Sometimes we're restricted. We're not so restricted in saying, "Please vote for this proposal." So, I would encourage us to talk as a team about maybe some type of public statement on behalf of the board in support of this for the November vote. That would be great. >> October sounds good. Um, important events coming up with the foundation include our fall lunchon and fundraiser on October 22nd, which will have a steam focus. It will be at Seline High School, so we can show off some of that new space. Um and then way in the um winter on February 20th, we have our dueling pianos uh event which was great last year. So looking forward to that. Um from the financial perspective, we have 115,000 to give away in grants this year. So I know Cara
049is working on getting that information out to um the teaching staff, but buildings and students are eligible for these as well. So please think about that. I wanted to thank out of updates today. I wanted to thank Rachel for all of the work she's doing in the community and all of the um all of the events that she's attending to really um integrate into our community. It's infinitely appreciated. So, thank you so much. Um now that our open houses are concluded, I wanted to thank all of the staff who stay late again for another reason. Um I really appreciated being at the high school for um activities night and for the open houses last week. And Friday, I got to volunteer with Junior Hornet Cheer. Um that's our fundraiser for the year and it's another
050really great example of partnership between athletics and community education and 125 littles is quite fun. Um Michael, you're going to like this one. My last thing is a request for us to consider our homecoming parade which is on September 19th. Um I think four of us, it was me, you, Brad, and Susan who walked last year. So if we want to do something, let's think about that and um show up at high school. What's up? Uh, I really, one of my favorite things is at this meeting seeing um the new educators and staff come to the meeting and I enjoy always reading through the um resumeumés of all our new um team members. Uh, and this year was no exception. I um will just put a special shout out to the um speech therapists and
051occupational therapists just because I work with uh a lot of those fine people in my regular life and uh I'm really glad that we're investing in our uh students who need uh that support at school. So uh those are excellent resources and welcome to everyone. Um, that's an exciting group of people joining the community. Um, I think I also wanted to highlight uh Dr. Kowalsski's hard work and I'm so excited to have her here with us in the school year starting uh from our littlest kids to the young adults. Everyone's happy to be back, I'm sure, and I'm glad to be back as well. Uh want to echo uh what Tim said uh about bringing on 80 new staff. That's that's phenomenal. That's a it's a big undertaking. So good job Carol and team. Uh
052congrats to the boys volleyball team for getting the recognition as a varsity sport. I wanted to play volleyball when I was in high school. We didn't have one. So that's really exciting for the boys to have that. Uh big shout out to uh uh Mrs. and harvest for the third grade buddies. I remember my youngest daughter loved being a third grade buddy. Absolutely. Uh that was the thrill of her lifetime, I think. Uh uh so that's a really great program and I think that's terrific. Uh and I just want to remind all the parents out there to be very vigilant with their kids uh with their electronics and the games that they're playing. If uh anybody follows me on Facebook uh or knows anything about my background uh with safety, security, cyber security, uh just
053want to give a a big reminder to parents to be very vigilant and uh be monitoring what their kids are doing online, especially with some of the games that are emerging. I won't name any of them from the board table, but if any parents have any questions, they can feel free to reach out to me directly and I can help them with resources on uh trying to keep their kids safe online because that's uh that's a growing threat right now with our kids. So, I just want everybody to be aware of that. >> I'd like to pass the mic over to Rachel for one more thing. >> And thank you to our AP government students from a former AP gov teacher to to you all for being here tonight. It's really more of a punishment.
054No, I'm just joking. We're We're so glad you're here. Really, we are. I'd like to entertain a motion to authorize the consent agenda as printed. Please. >> Uh, so move stubbin >> support tis. >> Thank you very much. Um, without discussion, then all in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. Thank you so much. And items on the next agenda. Superintendent a few things. >> There will be something. It's >> We have a wonderful student showcase and I'm sorry. >> Cara Davis is gonna help me out here. I apologize. our >> you saw my eyes and how I was. >> Yes, we'll be having our MYIP update and some um teacher and learning department updates and and some sharing of data and all the great work that's happening in our classrooms and in
055that department and beyond. >> Thank you, Miss Yonke. Is there any more public comment for this evening? No. Thank you very much. Our next meeting will be held on September 30th. We're missing a week. Uh skipping ahead a week uh at 6:30. I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn this regular board of education meeting at 7. Let's just say 7. Let's just drag this out to 720. >> So move tidities >> JT >> support Tim Austin. Thank you. All in favor please say I. >> I. >> 70. Thank you so much.