001All right, we're good. Like to call to order the budget hearing of June 10th, 2025 uh for the Selen Area Schools. So, first though, standing as you are able, we're going to begin with the pledge of allegiance led by Darcy Berwick 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. See, Darcy, I knew you could roll with it. Member of the public may address the board. Are there any uh comments from the public, madam? All right, we're going to skip right over to uh the approval of the agenda. Uh I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the agenda as printed for just for the uh budget hearing. So moved. Is that Darcy Brewerick? Support tit.
002Thank you very much for saying your last name. All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? All right. 6. We have ourselves an agenda. Thank you very much. And I'm going to pass the the podium over to our chief financial officer, Miranda. Good evening. So, um, we are going to do our budget hearing um, presentation and then in our regular meeting, you'll see those adopted items. So, if we go to the first slide, I like to start. This is kind of an organization of our funds. So, in general, we talk a lot about our general fund and we see a lot of movement on our property and bonds and things like that. So, I wanted to take a minute to kind of go over these. The general fund is that first box is just
003kind of all in there. We talk about the instruction, the in the classroom throughout the school. Um, 77 million roughly dollars in there. We talk about special revenue funds. All these are tracked separately in separate bank accounts, separate funds. um within community ed we talk about the taxing millillage of the recreation fund. So that's kind of has that separate box underneath there. All of these separate funds come with their own rules, their own accounting principles that we have to follow. And so all of these pieces um just kind of shows you an organization of the the greater detail that goes into making everything that we see happen here on the exterior work on the interior. Um, another thing to point out and so we see the debt funds and we see those building in sight
004some refunding. Those are us paying back once we draw the funds for a bond. We get the money to go out and do the work. So, we get it all at once. We came to the board um a couple different times for approval for for the sale of the 2025 series 2 bonds. those um as soon as we get those funds, we start to instantly need to start paying on the like the mortgage per se of that fund. So that's why all of those are still out there because we're still collecting taxes and then paying those funds. So we have payments in May and November of every year where we pay principal and interest on those. So it's kind of we're hosting all those seven millages at the at the same time or seven mortgages
005that we're paying on. And again, those are all tracked separately, separate bank accounts, very specific rules that we have to follow to to make that happen. Um, as well as the bond, you kind of see those kind of come in and then roll off as every one with different authorizations that we have um are tracked separately. Um, syncing funds also in there as well. Those are all um the bond, maintenance, and equipment fund and syncing fund. They all categorize them. The title kind of above them is just capital project funds. In each one of those, there are no salaries. So, in general, it's very different from our general fund. We'll talk about that a little bit later. That is comprised mostly of salaries and benefits and people. There are no people that are in those
006funds. It cannot be used for salaries and benefits. They're purchase services to organizations who actually do the physical work, plumbing, um, and different people that have come to you. um kind of explaining our our partners at Clark Construction that help us with those projects. So go ahead and go to the next slide. Um so the the what and the why what we will need tonight is the action for we are amending the final budget for FY25 and this is um also the time for amend or adopting the new budget for FY26. So FY26 is referencing uh 2526. So we use that last the year that the school year um captures is what the FY is used for for fiscal year. It's kind of what that abbreviation stands for. Um the action we are taking are
007just those two funds. So in the summary document you saw in the big long packet that you got for um the budget packet we utilize those um especially in our finance committee and things like that to kind of look ahead and some roll ahead just some very we don't know what is going to happen in those years from the state budgets and things like that but some roll ahead to say where would we be if we took these numbers in a very financial way um did that so those are for reference only not approval uh these are all requirements by law. You cannot amend a budget after June 30th and you must by law pass the new budget before July 1. So that's why we're here tonight. The calendar complexities. I like to leave this
008in because we operate on a July to June um date and it's kind of a cash kind of modified acrruel per se how a school operates. So in general when we pay teachers in July and August those get those wages get acred back to our our June 30th date because those are wages earned in that year. So that kind of gets that complexity. The same thing happens with our state revenue because the state year is October through August. So when we get a July state aid payment our our big method of cash flow that July gets acred back to the year. So that's kind of a little bit why it's so long when we do audits in, you know, they come and present to you in um November, end of October, November is because we
009are doing those approvals for July and August. We will have two fiscal years open that we are counting for things in both of those years at the same time. So the other piece that you're passing tonight in that action item is our taxes. And so it it's called an L4029 tax document and Selen area schools is 100% summer taxes. That's not the same for all schools. Some are 50/50, some are winter levies. Um we this document then gets distributed to our seven taxing authorities that are listed there and then they that gives them authority to go out and do those tax rules. The nonhomestead piece of the tax rule is our operating millillage which is 18 mills. And again that like when we did our renewal for another 10 years we kind of focused on
010this is where you are do not have homestead on your tax um or you do not have homestead on your home. So a second home a business are examples that would pay that tax. Then all taxpayers pay on the debt, the sinking fund and the recreation millage. So on the slide it has approximate how much they bring in each year. It changes every year um but that's an approximation and it's also on the mills. So I said what's exactly is a mill. So for every thousand dollar of taxable value something's valued um you're get the appraisal for your home that one mil is $1 for every $1,000. So you can see that kind of multiplies out and that's why so you see in syncing fund it's even less than one mil. It's 3421. uh those
011syncing fund and cares millillage are subject to headley roll back which means as a taxable value grows then the millillage comes down and so it kind of has this temperance on it that doesn't let it get grow um substantially faster than the mathematical calculation for that on the next slide um just talking a little bit more about the state control in general some people say uh Um the myth of their taxable value is so high in Seline why don't we have extra money a taxable value growth for us does not equal general fund higher revenue that is not true the state and currently set in part of proposal A in 1994 established the foundation rate that formula that they use they modify it every year but the premise of how schools are funded in Michigan
012the state in this example on the slide the red bar is what the state says. It says this is how much schools are going to get by this per pupil allocation. Then inside of this example, the blue bar and the yellow bar are are interchangeable. The state set the outside. Then the taxes are set by your straight millage that I just discussed in the last slide. Then the state will chip in the rest. And they will do this regardless of you collecting that 18 mills or not. They say we are going to assume you are going to collect that 9.4 million. it's your job to make sure you do or don't collect that. We will assume it. We will not pay you that 9.4 because you should be collecting that. And so it the the
013bar of what is for Seline is yellow and is blue every year can slide depending on the the state setting that red bar back and forth on how much they deem that we get and then also how much our taxable value does increase or decrease will set that yellow bar on how wide that is. So we go to the next slide. So again, this is only talking now we're really focusing in and zooming into our general fund. So as we talk about the general fund revenue sources, the pie chart gives you kind of a a picture of we really are state funded in that concept. we do collect local taxes or other local um donations or um another local revenue is paid to participate or gate fees at athletic events. Those would those would fall
014under a local source. Um another the intermediate source is really mostly our ourd collects their local um millillage for the tax and then distributes that throughout the county. Um so that bar itself does change from year to year but the majority still is funded by the state. Um and then as you see the small sliver we do have federal funding. Most of that in this fund has to do with IDA uh federal grant. We do have a small amount of title grants and other things that pull into that piece. Um, and then then the same thing is the data on the right is just kind of a reference of what you see in the pie chart there. And so you can kind of see a little bit of time. The data is from the green
015column, the June amended budget. So if I took the same pie chart for 2122, it might look slightly different, but the tenants are relatively same year overyear. If you go to the next slide. So here we are looking at now kind of the revenue assumptions at the bottom. What goes into those numbers? How are we figuring those? What are the estimations that get us to these numbers? So you'll see on the top the green column is what we're amending the budget. The yellow column is the original budget. And then the purple and the other blue are the ones that I'm just saying are for reference kind of a roll up. Um if we see trends are going up and we just look at those and financially just roll those kind of forward those are what
016they would be. So the big tenants to the things that went into those revenue assumptions. The first thing is um this year it was a loss of about 80 students when we originally passed the budget and what we kind of were counting on was a straight rollup number of 110. So I kind of put that in there just for reference so that we kind of roll back to what we started with. So you'll see the next year the straight roll up when I say those words. What I mean is that we take and assume exactly the amount of kindergartens we have now is exactly what we're going to project next year and we are going to graduate out those seniors. So I'm just taking the numbers and rolling them up. That's been a re reasonably
017um close estimate these last couple years. We have seen some growth in some class cohorts. As the year goes on, some moveins, move outs, but it's been for the now in the current trends, it's been a pretty accurate um measure for us. Um so that's the same thing about 6772 in the next year. Um as we look at the foundation rate, that goes back to the state setting a per pupil in general. This is how many kids after count which again count is in the fall that counts as 90% of the funding that we'll get in this year and then they use 10% of the previous spring. So right now we have already done a spring count that will be used in the calculation for our fall um uh foundation rate. In general, we had
018originally budgeted um at the time the budgets that I came to last year. At this time, we passed a budget with 217 per pupil um increase. All three budgets, the House, the Senate, and the governor's budget all had per pupil increases in them. So, we felt comfortable taking a guess that we would have some per pupil funding that way. It came out eventually when they passed their budgets that it was a zero per pupil. So, in general, that was a little bit alarming in that point in time. are we going to be okay? They're also just so happened to be another brand new line item in the state aid budget because not only is there foundation rate then there's a lot of what they call categoricals we're going to pay you for this you can
019use it in this way we pay you for that there was a new OS line item that was for $2.1 million that we never had before and and you see in the next FY26 it's no longer there. So though we got zero dollars per pupil in a cash flow basis, we got extra money that we weren't counting on. So it's kind of a shell game. Devil's in the details though because it's really important to point out that when foundation rate then they add a number to it, it compounds. The next year you are that much higher and then you add to it and you add to it. We got zero dollars in the per pupil. We got a revenue source that then went away. So, it's kind of an important factor on how school funding
020kind of perpetuates yearover-year. The other big swing I'd say in revenues that we're kind of monitoring um intermediate sources, like I said, there's a couple other things in there, but the bulk of intermediate sources is our ISD county uh special ed mill. And so, in general, we do get paid in that year, but then there's also a true up in the very following year for actual costs. And so as we see that revenue did jump up quite a bit in that our amended budget in this year, it's because when we finalized last year's special ed cost, the expense side of things, we had a significant increase in special ed cost. So therefore, our funding then also is following that increase of cost. Um, and so I did carry still some of that forward and you'll
021see on some of the other slides um later that you'll notice. Go ahead to the next slide. I like to keep this in here. It's kind of a little busy. Uh, if you look at the blue line, that's the per pupil foundation rate, you know, going all the way back to 2006. That reference goes to the left for the foundation rate. the the category or the I don't know the bars. Then the blue line if you go to the right that's saying the OS percentage. Now as you can see on the left we're talking about dollars the right is talking about a percent. There is no set exact relationship between them other than just watching their trends on the same chart. So when they're hitting together there's no reference to why that that is because
022one's a percent and one's a dollar. It's just taking two charts and putting them at the same time so that you can just see trends. Um the the main source of funding is that per pupil. So you can see you know those dips when our expenses increased significantly for our staff and also the same time our foundation rate. That was you know when Michigan school saw a really big you know hurt in the finance times of things. As you can see those have still both grown over time but we're kind of in a historic time right now. we did see an actual decrease. You'll see that ORS percentage from 31.36 down to 29.91. And so that's pretty um I'm not going to go into details. There's lots of different actual percentages for employees. There's many
023different ways that they can be a member of the pension system, but I'm stating the the one rate that's the the highest percentage of our staff is on just for simplicity sake for these slides. So could do a whole separate presentation about complexities in OS. So we won't dig into that too much. And so yeah, we're seeing that blue line also continue to increase. So those are good trends for just schools in general. If our ORS is going down and continue to go down back to different rates if they the pension system is funded, that's a good trend. Uh as we go to the next slide. So now we are flipping over to general fund expenses. So this slide is kind of talking about a breakdown of how you can look at our expenses on
024the general fund side. So again, these are referencing these percentages are based on our FY25 amended budget. So it's kind of just this concept of there's lots of little slivers in there that kind of make the school happen. um a lot of our basic programs and adding needs those reference the summary um document that you'll see in your budget packet but you'll see it takes it's as I said it's a whole school community to make it all kind of operate so sometimes we forget about those behind the scenes that really do um support all it is that you know we see happening here in the next slide um this again kind of looks at the exact same data you just saw on the last slide and it just looks at it in a different So
025in general we said like departments or kind of purpose of what the funds were spent on. This is the types of types of funds. So in general our general fund is comprised of 85% salaries and benefits. We are in a people business. It takes a whole village of people to do you know what we do as an organization. And you'll see there are some purchase services, supplies and materials. And you can see those are are are significantly um lower. So, and on the right the we have a lot a list of um employee types just to kind of same thing to give you a roundabout um idea of what it takes to to operate. And I say approximately this many direct employees. It was just a quick snippet in time to give this slide. I
026did not go into detail in into um the exact amount of positions. One might ask about pair of professionals. That one does significantly change. Sometimes even throughout the year, a student moves in with an IEP and those are always um being addressed on on the fly. So staffing is a 20 247 kind throughout the year thing and and this is kind of just like I said a snapshot in time and this is also our like main positions. There's a lot more that are less hourly temporary employees that come throughout the district. We have a lot of edges staff subs that come through. There's through community ed. We have a lot of hourly employees through our before and after school care or our summer classes that you know comprise that don't necessarily get always captured in
027in a snapshot like this that are still out there. So even though this says 583, if I watched our our payroll, we pay way more people than that holistically. But I'm kind of t zooming into our main um full-time regular positions in this slide on the next slide. So now we kind of get into the revenue um assumption or expense assumption sorry this is um the same thing of what went into those into our expense numbers as we do it. So again I'm referencing that one of the big changes was a reduction in the RS rate. So that is a s um a significant shift that we had seen. I would always budget for a little percent up, a little percent up. And I would take a guess at what that will be. This year
028they've already actually come out and put out that they this is the new rate. So that's um kind of one thing that's not an assumption that they actually have finalized. But the other budgets are still left out there. We have three budgets. They said do not wait. It's probably going to be into October before they um pass those budgets. we see a trend line of our benefits increasing, you know, in general, not only just what we're giving for benefits, but also how many people take our benefits, how many people opt out of our benefits, do you switch on on qualifying events from two person to family or down to single. So, there's a lot of things that affect benefits beyond just um our specific offerings. Um, and then the new positions. So, if we look
029to the side to the right, these are new positions that were not in the, you know, the budget before. So, they're actually um brand new positions except for the case of um our OT, our occupational therapists right now that we utilize occupational therapists through our contracted service currently and we have made the decision to move forward and have post positions and people are applying to those positions to have internal um direct employees. So that's not a whole it's a new position for the district but it's a shift in the model of funding for that there it will be more funding though. So I really wanted to put it here because it is more expensive to do that model in that way but there's different pros and cons and the concept of which model to utilize.
030Um most of these positions are in the special ed realm of funding. So when we talked about those increase of funding, these are kind of what I'm basing those on. Our resource room, social worker, a BCBA is a board certified behavior analysis, um speech, the OT, all of those are are in the realm of our special ed funding. Our elementary teacher, we we watch our class sizes and we are having that point to where the breakdown of where those students are and what is needed. Um there MTS is building coordinator. were partially grant funded. Um the EL is is needed for our numbers in general. Our different variety of different um languages that um come into to Siciline that they're not speaking English is not their first language and we have those numbers are growing
031and it's a significantly complex um group of needs that our students have that are not special ed but in another department that need um other interventions. the and then in general we have unaffiliated that special ed support also goes into that funding as well as the paras to RBTs are kind of doing a pilot program to give specialized training if a parah wants to earn that certificate it's an actual um um training that they they can do to to kind of move into a different paid position um because of their training and and a certification that they can receive. So that's a little bit not all of it would be a replacement. Some of it's just kind of um helping our staff to to better meet the needs of students. So you'll see in there
032this these numbers that I have produced are including the sea's the steps that are in the contract as well as our last negotiated offer of 4%. So we've already offered that out if they were to take it. That 4% is built into this budget at this point in time. So, the last negotiated offer on the district's behalf, the ones posted to our website is in this budget. We've put this in, we've already offered it there. It seemed important to to get that illustrated. Um, we also had 21 um known lane changes. And so, as we talk about that salary schedule, there's columns that are for bachelors, masters, and like double masters. There's people that we already know of that have submitted information that makes a significant salary change for those employees. And so that that's
033reflected in this budget for the fall, the ones that we know. There obviously could be more people that turn it in over the summer, but if at 21 it was a significant enough to really point that out that that changes our line items. Um this also included 19 kind of resignations, retirements and those are ones where we have hired or offered. We've put those those um dollars in there and then other ones we're estimating at what we think that for that skill set or that um certification what we think they might land on in the salary schedule. And the same thing for ESP and SASA union groups that their steps are into these contracts even in the future years. I've stepped people along to make sure we're capturing those future costs. Um, and really those
034negotiations with those other two unions will start soon. And so because that expires in the middle of this upcoming year in December. So that's also a little bit of a it's an assumption but also an unknown that we don't we don't have that isn't reflected in here because we don't have anything out there for it right now. on to the next slide is just a real quick picture of the the thing that gets posted on our transparency page that's in your budget um packet. This is just a breakdown of another way of pulling up those funds and kind of tracking it over time. Each and every one of these expenditure um like sections include salaries in them, benefits, materials and all of the things that roll up there. Um some of the things to note
035um in the budget packet itself there are definitions of what these entail. So if you're like what is an added need or what is an instructional staff services there's examples that you can read up and kind of see what are in there. Um a lot of special ed um rolls into added needs. Um in general the uh one of the other things you might notice in um or might not think about maintenance affiration includes the districts uh we pay electricity, water, gas. We have to to to run all of our buildings and another one is insurance. We have to you know ensure our property and things like that. So those costs um do roll into there that you're not thinking about holistically. Um and again we are passing the green column for the amended, the
036yellow for original, the two illustrative purple and blue columns are are a kind of a roll forward um conservative estimate. If you just kind of take the numbers and roll them forward, there's not any we don't have any staffing models built in into those and things like that. is schools are on a kind of this basis of we're we're we've got next year where we are and then we'll start to make those priorities more um as the year goes on and then I as we amend our budgets throughout the year I will continue to try to get those estimates closer and closer versus a just roll forward kind of finance um type of illustration budgets if we can go to the next slide. So then this is a summary that's just the breakdowns I gave
037before the same numbers just in a summary format with the revenues lined up right with the expenditures for each of those years and then the the net of if is it did we have enough revenues to support those expenditures or did we did we fall short in dipping into that fund balance and it's rolling that fund balance um forward for each of those years. um in this case. So you see in June the the projected our June 30th that like I said we'll still be doing acruals in July and August. So it's not finalized but our estimates think that we will post 1.3 million still to fund balance. So in the year our structural um we are balanced in this current year and 1.3 million would go into fund balance. We see a starting fund
038balance of 17 million and then we add that 1 million back in and so then we're at 18 and that is a 23.8% of the total revenue for the general fund only. On the next slide, this kind of the same thing kind of takes a a history um view of Selen's fund balance all the way back to 98. So, it kind of gives a very um 10-foot view of just the history of Seline School's um fund balance. So, we can see in the green, like I said, there's they're very straightforward roll up assumption or um projections on those. So, they're very yes, still very conservative. I don't have any concerns that we will land there holistically. We will adjust as we go as we do every school year. But it kind of gives a starting
039point to say that things need to be watched and we need to continue to to hone in on on what our priorities are and what we're going to do in those next years. On the next slide, one of the other pieces is that we are passing all these funds budgets. So, it's we talk a lot about and focus in on the general fund, but you are passing the community fund, the food service, student activity, debt, bond, capital projects, and syncing fund budgets. A lot of these references being a June 30th end date isn't super helpful um in my releance because schools were doing a lot of construction right in the summer and so that cut off of June 30th isn't really um super um helpful. Um, for example, you will see the capital project funds.
040And if you look under bond, you'll see in 25 we have 61 million of revenue. That's because we sold the bond and received that cash. And those go towards the slated projects that we voted for on in 2022. And so you'll see in the next years are very small revenues because we'll just be spending down that pot of money that we went to the bond to sell those bonds for. So it's it's a little bit of a different reference um in those funds um for year end. And next slide and that's it. So now open up to questions. Well, thank you very much Miranda. But considering that it's 6:34 if we're anyone who has a quick question to ask Miranda, please feel free to ask it now. Well, it sounds like Darcy No, I I
041appreciate uh the presentation because I think you answered quite a few of my questions that I had emailed in and I just wanted to say that I really appreciated that you took time to meet with me to uh go uh into some details on the budget. Um, I did want to say now I'm not sure, Ben, if what they're seeing, if what we were seeing on screen was being projected to the live audience, but you and I had talked about like a couple of just uh number adjustments just it got misrepresented. It was fixed on the Google slides. Okay. Yep. So, yeah. So, it should be in there. Yep. The type Yeah, we saw the old ones on the screens up here and so in case that was what was seen in the audience. Okay.
042Just know that Miranda had has corrected them. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you very much, Miranda. I appreciate that. Uh, let me just go back to the agenda for this special budget hearing meeting. Uh, without objection, I'd like to move to adjourn the budget hearing at 6:35. So, moved to Well, it's without objection, so we're just going to do it. Thank you. That's No, no, that's good. If you want to do it for I'm not objecting then. Okay, without objection. Great. Thank you very much. Uh we'll just tap out and I'd like to request five minutes or so just to reset uh before we start the the proper meeting. And could I ask Jason and Lauren to snuggle up a little bit because well well Kate is very pardon me. I'd like to call
043to order the regular board of education meeting on June 10th uh for the Selen area schools. And standing as you are able, I'd like to begin with the pledge of allegiance led by for his very last meeting with us, Steve Lodge. Thank you. I don't believe you've ever done one of those before. I have no I'd like I'd like to uh pass the microphone over to colleague Brad Gerby for a quick statement. Sir, um all right. Thank you for the this opportunity. So, um it's no other way to just than just do this. So, here we go. Um on Monday, June 2nd, I was offered and I accepted a teaching position at Selen High School instructing biology, intro to chemistry, and forensic science. Um, it is nothing short of a dream position and it reflects
044the numbers of times I've taught these subjects and I I I'm just so thankful. Um, I went through a comprehensive hiring process and I am incredibly humbled to be selected for the position. Seline is a great school district with incredibly dedicated staff where the heartbeat of this school district and whom I will could soon be able to call colleagues and teammates. It also has tremendous resources and of course families and students who are just top-notch. Um, if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, I would now get to experience all of the last handinhand with my senior Graham. Plus, I would get to be fully immersed with Bryce as he enters his freshman year. And he needs a little more insight in his life from time to time. So, that would be good. Um, but
045really this past week has been filled with a lot of emotion. mostly um gratitude and humility for how blessed I am and uh potentially saying goodbye to 21 years in Manchester is difficult but I'm excited about what is ahead in Seline. The people of SEM will see and my board teams will be voting on the consent agenda tonight which includes the HR recommendation. My name is on it as such I will be recusing myself from the remainder of tonight's meeting. I wanted to see the fiscal year responsibility of finance chair and treasurer through with the budget hearing and we have completed that. If the consent agenda is approved, state law provides that I am not able to be an employee and a board member. As such, my resignation from board service is required. I have
046presented, if necessary, Dr. McVey with my resignation letter that upon confirmation of the HR report tonight as required will become official. I will leave it to the board team to navigate then from there. Okay. Um, but yeah, but I'm going to recuse myself just in case of any conflict of interest. While I have your attention, I would like to state that I am grateful for the opportunity to have served Seline students and families for the past four and a half years. If confirmed, board service is a big commitment, but is also gratifying. I hope that in some small way, as a teammate of these six individuals and of a few others who have transitioned on from board service, that we have made an impact on the lives of Seline families and students. I am proud
047of what we have accomplished over the past four and a half years. Finance is kind of my baby and I think we're leaving it better than how we found it with a 24% fund equity, mostly thanks to how incredibly good Miranda is at her job. I am thankful for the mentorship of my board teammates. If my resignation is required tonight, my official recommendation to the board would be for Tim Austin to be considered for treasurer and finance chair. But each trustee can and should vote your conscience. Thank you to Jenny Miller. I don't know if I can make it would have made it through the first four years without your support and counsel. Thank you, Dennis, Susan, Aram, and Candace. I am also thankful for the leadership team and the tremendous staff of this school
048district who make being a board trustee a point of pride. A number of these individuals are female leaders. And though I don't want to get too into the weeds about recent events, I want to make it quite clear the high regard that I hold females in positions of our district. I have learned from my words. I meant no offense and I am sorry. It is important to me I say this as this could be my last opportunity. I brag to everyone that I am from Seline. I am a Seline Hornet. To everyone who works for Seline, thank you. You have my admiration and you have my respect. I know you serve students at a high level and deserve my deepest appreciation. From the beginning, initially as a part of Girl Squad Plus Brad all the
049way until now. I am thankful for every person who voted for me and has given me this opportunity. The clock could start soon on 30 days. If you have a heart for this work, please consider applying. It is a great team. My last message as a trustee is one of hope. I hope that in our world we can find a way to all come together for kids. I understand that we have different priorities, but something that unites us all is that we all love our children and we want their lives to be better than our own. That common purpose should drive all of us to hear each other and care about one another, even when we differ in opinion or thought. Every student in our school district deserves to be able to live as he,
050she, or their most authentic selves. I encourage us to always do what is right for kids and to keep kids at the center of our decision-making. In closing, Selene is a great place to raise a family. At its backbone is a great school district, a district that has a bright future ahead. I am excited about what comes next for Seline and I'm thankful if it's if it happens for any time I would have been able to serve as trustee. Thank you and happy pride to all who celebrate. Good night. Good night. Well, thank you Brad. A couple things. Brad, would you do us a favor and come back on July 8th so we can uh say a couple nice things for you? Only if Yeah, you're Yeah, come back. Come back. I'll come back. Look,
051we I think I interrupted a standing o for you, sir, but I'd like to entertain a motion on the part of the board to accept the resignation of Brad Gerby effective June 14th. That gives us our proper 30-day clock. effective immediately is fine even though well the problem is we have a 30-day clock so I'll have to ask for an extension from Naomi Norman otherwise she gets to put in our next board member I still think we have to do his resignation correct all right we'll change well I this is just letting us know that he is uh trying to resign and he's already done it So, okay. What is your statement then? If it's effective immediately. I I think so. Effective immediately and then we can ask for an extension if we need it.
052We'll deal with that after we get the resignation. How's that? Effective immediately. Betty, if you're following along. Do I have a mo do we have somebody moving this? Sadly, I will make that motion. Darcy Brewerick. Second. Tidities. Tissies. Thank you. Any discussion about this? We already had kind of a discussion. Miss Brad. can't ask Brad. All in favor, please say I. I. So now five zero. Thank you very much. Uh yeah, we'll say some nice things about Brad next time we see him. Uh I would like to move to a special representative recognition. A student representative. Got to get it right. Kate. Um Kate, could you come up to the uh podium for a moment? We just want to spend a moment to say thank you, Kate. You weren't here at the last meeting sadly
053uh with with Tommy Almond, but you are here tonight. I just want to say thank you for being our student representative this year. It's been such a great pleasure and a treat to meet you. And we have a little certificate for you and an Well, in fact, it's you're going to say something, right? Please. I'm taking away your words. Well, hi Kate. We are pleased that you're here tonight and want to present to you a plaque for your service uh that says Kate Sandday with gratitude for your time, insight, and leadership as a student representative to the board of education for the 2425 school year. Thank you for bringing student voice to the table and helping shape the future of our schools. with appreciation the Selenary School's Board of Education and we have a $500
054scholarship to present to you and Kate is headed to the University of Tennessee next year to study business. So congratulations Kate. Thank you. Thank you so much. We want to take a picture over there. We are going to take a quick picture of you. We're gonna take a quick picture with the rest of the board. The remainder of the board uh over to the side here. And I didn't ask, but you're okay with being interim. Thank you very much. Okay. And for the rest of the board, Jillian, come up to the front for a second. Ordinarily, Jillian's going to be sitting over here uh next to Tim or whoever's going to be sitting at the far end. And I just want to introduce you to the rest of the board and to the Seline Area
055Schools community. This is Jillian Hayes. She will be our student representative for next year starting in uh I guess late August. You'll begin in her application. Jillian expressed a deep enthusiasm for serving her community and expressed a genuine interest in the workings of local government. She shared that she brings enthusiasm, creativity, curiosity, and responsibilities uh and responsibility qualities that will serve her very well in this role. Jillian's excited to contribute by engaging with students across the district to gather feedback and ideas. And she describes herself as someone who thrives on collaboration and values diverse perspectives and is committed to showing up and doing her best despite her busy busy schedule. I know it's going to be quite the year of athletics, music, theater, and and clubs. You may have to knock a little bit off
056the plate, but we'll see. Let's give it a crack. Um, and we're we're very much looking forward to uh you being with us this year. And if you want to come around and just to say hey, howdy, hey, for a split second and then we'll let you go. Okay. You don't you're not you're not on the clock until at the end of August. Did you want to say anything before we uh Thank you for letting me. Uh, I was very excited when I got the call later that day at my D and D club. Actually, had to step aside for a quick second. For those of you who didn't see, I gave Kate Son and Day her little name plate, which is pretty cool. We always like doing that. Um, and I've got one for
057Tommy floating around somewhere. Um, right. Public comment. A member of the public may address the board briefly for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on the agenda of a future meeting. Please note, students will be given priority to speak on any topic. First public participation of the uh portion of the meeting is limited to one half hour or 30 minutes normally on agenda items. The second public participation portion will be offered at the end of the agenda uh to allow for other comments. Individuals addressing the board should take into consideration rules of common courtesy and the public participation portion of the meeting cannot be used to make personal attacks against a board member, district employee, or student. First person I'd like to call up is Cody Steedman, please. Class of 25 alumni.
058Cody, I don't know if you've done this before. We have a yellow book and a red book. At two and a half minutes, the yellow book will get held up and in the 30 seconds remaining, uh, when your time is up, you'll get the red book and the big hook. This we go. All right. First of all, I'd like to congratulate Jillian Hayes for being honored as one of the uh honored only one. Oh, I like to congratulate that. As a former editor-in chief of yearbook and a 2026 sports editor for the yearbook, I would like to congratulate Jillian. Thank you. And on to the notes I have today. As I get used to my alumni status, I have looked back on my contributions to this high school very fondly. With my teachers and classmates,
059we were able to create two incredible award-winning seasons of both SHs today and Hornet Nation, even having Hornet Nation being inducted into the state high school journalism hall of fame. Win the first Spartan Award for the Selenian yearbook in over 11 years. when the broadcast category for over three years in a row for the state high school journalism scholarship and I was very proud to represent Selen High School in the state of Michigan as Michigan's journalist of the year held at the National High School Journalism Convention in Seattle. However, today I'd like to bring a similar but different matter to you. As new programs emerge and the waves of change approach every single school year, I cannot forget the aspect that has scared me years ago. I like to think back to 2010 where the
060newspaper course was around taught by Mr. Hill. At that time, the newspaper entitled The Golden Sting had already had its eighth Spartan Award under its belt. As the next school year approached, they were on track to be inducted into the same hall of fame that Hornet Nation is now in. Sadly, the course was cut from the catalog in 2011. With many budget cuts and a deficit in the millions, it was seen as a viable option to ax the course to save money for the district. Now, coming back to today, I asked this board to see what modern-day Selen High School journalists have done. Everything I've listed was just in the past three years. Sure, we might use expensive equipment, the entire Adobe suite, and other aspects that cost enough as it is to maintain. I
061ask, no matter how many years pass, I plead do not forget how high school journalism has affected this district and this state. Maybe in the future there could be a self-funded newspaper class or maybe even a journalism class as an English course alternative. Either way, I thank Selen Area schools for being so welcoming and warm for the last five years from my experience. But even though I depart this place that I used to call home, journalism is a small but key aspect in Selen High into the SCES compass. I hope you take all my words to heart while entering into the 2526 school year. Thank you. Thank you very much, Cody. I'd like to call up Georgia Frost from the office of Congresswoman Debbie Dingle. Okay, I think that's on. Oh, yep. Sounds like it.
062Oh, I shouldn't that that much. Okay. Um, yes. Hi everyone. My name is Georgia Frost. I'm from the office of Congresswoman Debbie Dingle from her local office in Ann Arbor. And what I have here today is a framed copy of a congressional record statement that the congresswoman and her team wrote in recognition of Dr. Lotch and his retirement. Um, and I won't read all of it because it's a little long and it's mostly biographical, which I feel is probably not something I need to just say uh at you all. Um, but I will read the first and la last paragraphs because this is the exact language that's now entered into the official congressional record which is published by the government publishing office. Um, and so you have to imagine that I of course am Mrs.
063Dingle on the House floor for this part of it. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and commend the outstanding work done by Dr. Steven Lodge during his tenure with Selen Area Schools in Selene, Michigan. After 27 years of tireless service, he will be retiring. Steve's unwavering commitment to serving the students and families of Seline deserves recognition as he concludes his distinguished career. Then it goes on to the biographical part and at the end she says, "Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me today in commending the incredible service done by Dr. Steven Lotch over the past 27 years at Sleen Area Schools. His compassion and dedication to fostering the growth of the whole student as well as the major improvements made to the schools in the district have truly been remarkable and should
064be celebrated. We wish him the best as he enters this next chapter in life. Thank you, Dr. Lotch. So, yep, this is just the framed copy of it, and you can access the congressional record online should you like. It's obviously published publicly. Um, but this is a nice thing that we actually have to present folks with. So, this is for you. Walk around. Steve's gonna walk around for a picture and we're gonna do bunny ears. Oh, it's too late. Thank you, TR. It was nice meeting you, Georgia. Thank you for coming tonight. I would like to call up now parent Amy Tesselin. Oh, there we go. Thank you, school board. Um, I am here before you today in support of the Selen Area School teachers. Um, I uh did not write this down. Usually, I
065like to write what I'm going to say down. Uh but I did want to share with you and I've shared this many times the value that I place uh on our Selian area school teachers my my kids and I know the grant the big community I am not the only one that feels this way uh feels so strongly about the excellent work that they do here in this district. Um so it's been 155 days without a contract or plus I should say. Um, and we know that the teachers haven't received a raise over the last 2 years and in the past 12 years, they've only received uh less than 1%. And as we just saw in the budget hearing, we know that the funds are in the black. And so, I'm not I do not
066profess to be an expert at this, but I really um join the vo voices of so many others. I implore all of you, while I do know that there is a negotiating team, I ultimately hold the board responsible um for figuring this out um supporting our teachers and so um our teachers deserve better. Thank you. Thank you, Amy. Appreciate that. I do not have a response to previous public comment from the last meeting. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the agenda as printed, please. Oops. So move. Tim Austin. Support gold. Gold. Thank you very much. Uh all in favor, please say I. I. I. I. Opposed. Oh, hearing none. We have an agenda. Thank you. I'd like to uh entertain a motion to approve the food service management contract with Chartwells for the
0672025 2026 school year as submitted by Miranda, assistant superintendent of finance. Berwick. So moved. Darcy Berwick. Seconded. Tim Austin. Thank you very much. Um is there any discussion on this that we can throw to No Miranda shaking her head? No discussion. Tim, I I think we have four years we can um renew. So, this just kind of a renewal. It is a renewal. Thank you. Great. Without uh well, all in favor, please say I. I. Thank you very much. like to entertain a motion to adopt the general appropriations act for 2024-25 final amended budgets 2025-26 uh original budgets and the 2025 L429 tax rates as submitted by Miranda, assistant superintendent of finance. So move Tim support tides tides. Thank you. Any discussion on this? We just had the presentation. So well thank you very much.
068All in favor please say I. I. I. Thank you very much. Opposed. Thank you. That objection. Then uh I'd like to entertain a motion. This is you, Darcy, to approve the closed session minutes of May 27th, 2025 for the Oh, we can go to the next one. Thank you. I'd like to entertain a motion before Darcy gets back to approve the recommendation for the reuse network IRN to uh project manage and coordinate the logistics of the removal of up to 2,932 pieces of furniture at uh a cost not to exceed $63,68 as submitted by Rex Clary, executive director of operations. Do I have a motion? Lauren? So moved. Gold. Thank you. Support to Thank you, Jason. Is there any comment? Oh, there's Rex. So, um if you're able to see the link in the board
069packet, you'll see that Reuse Network will redistribute the furniture across several charities across the state of Michigan, um the nation, and overseas as well. So, it's a neat process. Um we are paying a little bit of a premium for that, but the furniture will be reused instead of being recycled. I did have one quick question. I think line like one or two you said something about it could be donated like if we the cost could go down if people if we were able to reuse first. Is there any like thought of talking to Seline social services or anything local or like so we do have a we've talked to Brown and Helmer. We'll have an auction on the 19th and maybe I can have Steve share that with his notes this weekend where you guys
070can publicize it to your friends and family. Um, but we could also reach out directly to Seline Social Services as well. We do have the furniture in an auction along with grounds equipment, wood shop equipment, stuff that we are no longer using across the district as we re um remodel those spaces that have become available since the operation center has moved out. Um and so that we do have quite a bit of material online. Um they just finished up with a U of M um auction last week and then that gets a lot of traffic. So hopefully people see saw our name attached to that as well. So and then for every 300 pieces they're going to give us a discount that we can get rid of ourselves. So just since we have a pulpit
071here, where is that auction information for people? So it's on the Brown Helmer website. Bron um Helmer was a former graduate of Selen Area schools 1992 maybe um he's a little younger than I am but um 93 um and so it's the Brown and Humber website and we'll put a link on the facilities website as well that you can link to it to check out all the upcoming auctions. Great. Thank you. Y thank you Rex. Hearing no other discussion. All in favor please say I. I post hearing none. Thank you very much, Rex, for your time. Thank you, Darcy. It was uh gold and tisidas. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the close session minutes of May 27th for the purpose of collective bargaining 8C of the open meetings act. So, Dim support
072is Thank you so much. Those of you who are new to this, we're going to do a quiet read of the uh minutes from a closed session, not open to the public, and just to see if we're on the right track. I'm gonna make this comment before Jason does. There's a small technical spelling error at the very last word. So, we'll just correct that one. It's taken me two and a half years, but I've got it. In fact, I was going to tease you and call you Tazidis. I can't do that. Don't want to pick on tease people about names. So, we caught two scriers errors. Is that it? All right. Thank you very much. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed? Hearing none. Thank you very much, Darcy. I'd like to entertain
073a motion to approve the Neiola and district updates to the following policies as submitted by the policy committee. Policy 5330.01, epinephrine auto injectors. Policy 7540.09, artificial intelligence. Policy 7540.04, staff technology acceptable use and safety. Policy 5500, student conduct. And policy 7440, facility security. I'll make that motion. Berwick. I appreciate the work Lauren did on that. Lauren, I'll second it. Oh, Tim here. Any uh discussion? I think you started to say something. I just Lauren did a lot of work. So, I just appreciate her diligence in this. I just have one question only because it is not highlighted, but we we did add the cross references to the AI policy rate that we discussed last time about the acceptable use policy. They're just not highlighted in green, but I I do believe that those are additions.
074Okay. If you are ready to vote at this point, I'd like to put it to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed. Great. Thank you very much. I Betty Yankee now has her marching orders to move this up to Niola. And thank you so much for your time. Oh, it's me now. Uh we have two scheduled reports or is it three? Let me just check ahead. Two scheduled reports. One is the presentation of the athletic 53 athletic consulting department review. I'll read that properly in just a second. If you just give me a moment to uh get my notes here. We go. Just want to say thank you first of all. Um you can uh go to the next slide, Ben. So, on behalf of the board of education, I'd like
075to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to Scott Robertson of 53 athletic consulting for his diligence in authoring the comprehensive review of the Selen Area Schools athletic department. The ad hoc committee consisting of Lauren Gold, Tim Austin, and myself with input from the rest of the board provided Mr. Robertson with a a charge. Could you go to the next slide, please? A charge to review a detailed list of topics as shown here. Let's go to the next slide. To accomplish this, Mr. Robertson reviewed a number of public documents shown here in very very small print just to give you the sense of the documents. If you want to see the full thing, please look at the survey, look at the report. Scott visited the district on three separate occasions, uh engaged with numerous members of
076our community, even saw a couple of games and conducted two targeted surveys, one for coaches and one for student athletes. In our Could you go to the next slide, please? in our limited uh communications. Uh he noted and wanted to publicly thank athletic director Ashley Mantha and assistant athletic director Jeff Pike for their full transparency and cooperation throughout this process. Uh their willingness to provide Scott and his team with everything necessary was instrumental in ensuring a thorough and effective review. So I'd like to share if you can go to the next slide a few um key observations from the report not many and then I'll invite the board to say anything if they have anything to say. Uh could you the next one please? Regarding communication feedback tools the the report included some criticism of
077the current use of the grit survey for postseason feedback. It came up a number of times in discussion with parents and uh sorry with coaches and it recommends exploring alternative tools that may provide more actionable insights. Next slide. Coaching resources. The review highlights the value of the coaches toolbox and orientations which support our coaches in their organizational responsibilities. Notably, this level of support exceeds what is typically found in most school district athletic programs. Those are the words of Scott Robertson. Next slide, please. He also did a two surveys. The sports climate questionnaire, the SCQ, is a statistically validated and reliable instrument. It was administered to both student athletes and coaches and reflects a broadly positive perception of the athletic department. While the response rates were modest, approximately 40% of coaches and 15% of students, the
078results indicate that the department is largely meeting stakeholder expectations. Next one, please Ben. Title 9 compliance. So, I was really pleased to read that Selen Area Schools is considered a leader in Title 9 compliance in sports. According to the Southeastern Conference administrators, our athletic department is frequently looked upon for guidance in this area. So well done. Next slide, please. Professional development. Our athletic department remains actively engaged with the MHSAA and participates in multiple professional development sessions each year. And additionally, I want to recognize that our athletic director, Ashley Mather, recently earned her certified master athletic administrator certification, which is both exceptional and rare. And the next slide, please. Coaching, recruitment. Uh the process for recruiting, hiring, and onboarding coaches is both comprehensive in this district and consistent across district subsidized sports as well as self-funded
079programs. The review also noted the increasing difficulty in finding and retaining coaches and commended the department for leveraging its extensive network to successfully recruit a varsity gymnastics coach. The report offered several recommendations uh to enhance communication and the overall functioning of the athletic department. And I just want to say one last word. Here it is, the next slide. I really believe our community should be immensely proud of the outstanding work being done by our athletic department and its leadership. Their dedication to supporting our student athletes and maintaining highquality programs is both noteworthy and commendable. The athletic department in terms of athletic team success has had one of their best years ever with the boys swim and dive team winning the state championship. Yay. 10 conference championships this year. And two teams are still competing in
080softball in the state quarterlies. Is it softball? Softball one tonight apparently. Well done. And two and uh girls soccer in the state semi-finals. Well done. So, uh there's your your your news blast. Um and so I do want to say thank you to everybody and I I had asked Brad to draft a message, but he's no longer with us. A motion that somehow uh I'd like to I'd like to entertain a motion that acknowledges receipt of this report and closes out the uh third party review that we had initiated. and um notes. Can someone help me draft this? Notes that we uh we recognize the uh outstanding uh work of our athletic department. We'll just we'll go with that. I think Betty's probably got it. Do I have uh anyone willing to back me on
081that motion? Thank you, Tim. I appreciate that support. Thank you, JT. Do we have any discussion or questions or comments about this report that we received a week ago or so? I just want to say um I want to thank Ashley, the whole entire athletic department for all that they've done through this process. I think it was pretty um it was well done by Scott and um we had not only coaches, parents, and athletes that participated in this and it was very um I think it it gave the district some things to think about here at the board table so we can uh some action or things at least to talk about going forward to to maybe help the athletic department. And um yeah, no, I thought it was really good, really well done. With
082the athletic department being as big as it is and having touching as many people and impacting as many lives as it does, I I thought this was really good and um I don't know, it uh it's helpful for us to see from a different perspective, right, from an outsers's point of view. Thank you. Michael, could you just uh let the public know where they could find that report on the website? I'm not sure if it's posted yet. It's posted Monday to Oh, it's in the It's in the packet, but I think we're going to be posting a copy of it on the board page somewhere. Okay. We can do that. We haven't made plans yet to do that, but it is part it's in the the board packet and so it's available online as we
083speak. Thanks, Darcy. Uh, I I just had a question as I was looking through. I didn't seem to find any reasoning for it, but do we have any idea why the response to the survey for the student athletes was only 15%. Was there any reflection on that? From an academics perspective, 15% is is pretty good. uh from a from a high school survey. I think getting students to uh click on links these days is a is a tricky endeavor. So I I'm not willing to read into the exact rationale in the minds of the students, but uh I think they receive most 90% of their responses within the first 24 hours and and I don't know if he sent out regular reminders. He may have been able to juice up the numbers to maybe 20
08425%. Same with the uh I mean for the for the coaches and assistant coaches by the way 40% is pretty good. I think that represented um about 54 or so. Then the N is in there. From a marketing perspective, anything over two% would be fantastic. But uh I I was just curious because uh uh this had been talked about for so long. Um and it's I I'm just wondering if that's not a reflection that the the students didn't feel that this was as needed maybe. Um I shouldn't say as needed, but uh that this the students felt that that uh Ashley and her team, the coaches were doing a sufficient job. So, I I was just wondering if Well, it seemed like those they were encouraged. It seemed like those who wanted had something to
085say it through the survey and it was like as I noted earlier, it was overwhelmingly supportive of the team. Lauren, uh that survey response rate seems to be a problem throughout multiple committees and ways of seeking uh feedback. Um, so if anyone's listening out there, please fill out surveys. Um, but also I think you know that was one of the biggest takeaways for me which Dr. McVey highlighted is that uh finding non-servey ways to communicate with families, coaches, students will be I think in building those relationships will be um useful in moving forward even though it's not maybe you know it's more subjective versus objective data both can be useful. So, um, but yeah, I, uh, thank, uh, the athletic director and assistant athletic director for their support. I think it's an interesting process to
086go through and have outside validation and I hope that that is how um, our athletic department sees it. Uh, I think, you know, um, Trusty Austin, Dr. McVey and I said several times like we we expect that this will be largely positive and uh you know we would like constructive feedback and it was not ever meant to be a um punitive or you know and that is exactly what we got and I think you know it's the proverbial second opinion that says hey that's a pretty good you're doing a you made the right diagnosis you're doing a pretty good job here's there's always things anybody can improve on, but this report is u really validating for our department. So kudos. I did uh one interesting note to me was uh I'd read the report in
087the morning and it said that the hall of fame was stopped after a certain date and I walked by there on graduation day and there were there was a start coming soon and there were images of some of the athletes and I said I talked to to Jeff Pike and he said oh yeah that was like two ads ago they stopped doing it and said they and Ashley I understand is taking up that mantle to to keep that because it's a great thing for guests and visitors in fact there's a conversation about an electronic hall of fame uh that we're going to look into and they're not enough hallway. That's right. Um on on just a side note on one far I was looking at them all the names very carefully and one of the
088names on the far far left is my uh sister-in-law who graduated from here Katherine Cost I think it was G or do you know that name? Oh yeah. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how what we do with that. And regarding surveys uh I'd also like to add note Dr. your lo reminded me we have a new tool called parent square which we're going to be um perhaps there'll be some surveys going out through parent square that might get higher response rates. So let's just put that to a vote the uh the recognition that we have acknowledged the completion of the survey and or sorry of the report and acknowledge the uh positive work of the athletic department. All in favor please say I. I opposed. Well, thank you very much. uh 50. I appreciate
089that. Thank you so much and thank you Ashley who happens to be here tonight and we didn't I I pinky bet I didn't think you'd have any questions and you didn't but I appreciate seeing you and I hope that that we won't be strangers in the future. We'll see you when you do your athletic uh report in the fall. I think it's the fall, right? Oh, day after tomorrow. I'd like to uh invite Dr. Lot to the podium, please. Well, thank you, Board of Ed. My final report, uh, what I wanted to do is ultimately sort of recap where the district has been, um, in the past and where we're at now and where I see a really bright future moving uh, for the Selenary Schools. Go to the next slide, Ben. Um, to recap
090where we are right now with um, a little over 4,700 students 700 plus staff members and you know assistant superintendent Oley was going over the number of teachers in Perez. You start adding all that together that's that's a pretty impressive group and it takes a a really big team to make uh such a great school district tick. So we're really proud of that. Um you look at some other rates and 14% free and reduced lunch that's certainly increased over the years. um a graduation rate of 95% plus and a little enrollment date. Um uh assistant superintendent owley is properly budgeting for flat growth um with kindergarten yet at this current moment we're ahead of where we were last year with young fives in kindergarten enrollment and I just made a note of that because I
091think that's you know a positive trend that we want to keep an eye on. Um, with that said, let's let's move on. Ben, in terms of superintendent goals, these have stayed the same for all um the four years plus that I've been superintendent. And that's important because we talk often about how when you set goals, you're working on them for a series of a period of time and you're always trying to improve in those goal areas. And these goal areas don't just end. You you you keep working on them. And we're hopeful that the um you know Dr. Kowalsski will also carry on similar goals. She does need to come in and and and set set the stage upon which um she feels the district needs to be led. But I'm very confident that these
092are all um in her wheelhouse so to speak too as to important things that we need to be working on in the district. So if we go to the next slide then we're going to take a peek at each one of those four. Um, we talk about academic rigor and the importance of that within the compass and you look at these really high statistics um, often boating the number one AP pass rate in the state of Michigan, meaning that we don't have the most students that would take AP uh, tests in the state of Michigan, but we're often at the very top of 93% plus students getting a three, four, or five on those rigorous exam. exams and I think that says a lot about our, you know, quality teaching staff and obviously our our
093very smart students. We're consistently in the top 20 in the MSTEP SAT composite of scores and we now have students out performing preandemic cells and state assessments and we have had to work to get back to that um upward trajectory in that area. Um the other thing our curriculum department has spent a lot uh quite a bit of time over the last four years working on science curriculum and science scores are improving in the area and we just have a more engaging curriculum which is great for our students especially as we you know open these new steam centers and such. So really feeling good about the direction there. If we go to the next um slide I think this is important too that we talk about academic rigor. certainly more than test scores. And you
094look at all the things that are going really well, specifically targeting um our CTE programs and I think we all at this table talk a lot about the importance of CTE. Um but the numbers speak for themselves and how well our kids do instate competitions. Uh you see these first, second, and third places in manufacturing and then technical drafting. Um, and then Ashley Cody was here tonight to talk about the Hornet Nation receiving 11 years in a row of the Spart Spartan award. And we had an official from MSU come and present that award this time to the um broadcasting team and a number of alumni came back to see it which was really cool. Go to the next slide and this is another one of our goals. This culture of equity this is always
095a work in process. We continue to work on this. Um Dr. Kerr is clearly dialed in on on seeing that we continue with supports and then figuring out methods to accelerate that for certainly our marginalized students but all our students. And we look at our um EL program has certainly grown over the years and is doing very well. Um you saw in the report tonight from Miranda that we are hiring another EL teacher. We need to do that. We need to expand and we need to make sure that we're providing the proper supports. We also clearly through the pandemic have seen some social emmer social emotional learning issues for you could argue all of our students. I mean that's been a very difficult time socially for most if not all. And our SEAL coaches are
096doing a nice job of coming in and providing the necessary support interventions. And then we continue to um work on increasing supports for our marginalized student groups. And one of the ways we are always talking about that windows and mirrors approach in literacy is by expansion of our literacy libraries to include more inclusive text. This is very very evident when you go into our elementary schools that you see just teachers uh daily reading more diverse text for students and students engaging in more diverse text which we think is great. Go to the next slide, Ben. This is another important area that we've been working on and that is um helping our students understand what it is to have conversations to support civility and unity when we don't always agree with with different things. And I
097really love the heritage example of how they've taken the original bridge disability and have made their own version so that the kids can actually understand it at terms and then they can practice it in a way that makes sense for fourth and fifth graders. So that's been great. And we go to the next one and then we talk about you know the fourth goal and that's improving selenary schools for the future. I think that everybody knows that our our bond work is is really geared towards that, but it's also about improving our staffing model. And I think we've done a terrific job in operations specifically where we had some real gaps in service and now we're, you know, close to 100% or at 100% in in all of these departments. I specifically want to point
098out the buildings and grounds component that our grounds crew and our buildings crew take so much pride in the buildings that I hear often how wonderful the buildings look. People tell me, "Your high school looks brand new." I'm like, "Yeah, it's 20 plus years old, but we have um our grounds crew and buildings crew take such good care of it that it does rub off on our students and our community and then therefore they take good care of it. Same thing with the the building here. We we had a rep in today who actually helps us service our tile floors here that have been in the existence from the beginning. And there's certain ways to finish them and take care of them that we've been doing for years. and he even said, "You would have
099had to replace these a long time ago, but because of the care that your buildings grounds crew provide, that they've really taken it to a new level and just speaks to the quality of staff we have here. Um, we talk about increased safety and security measures. We feel confident that we continue to improve in that area. And obviously the passing of the $180 million bond in 2022. We're starting to see a lot of that come to fruition this year in the over the summer with $45 million in projects ongoing. So, if we go to the next slide, Ben, we're going to actually take a look at some of the most recent updated pictures that Jackie got from me, which was great. And so, Steam Center is coming right along and is scheduled to be open
100in August of 2025. And I know that both the um first robotics teams and science olympiad teams are really itching to get in there and establish themselves in those space spaces which is really important. We go to the next slide. Um the wait room will open um the same time, potentially even a little earlier than uh the steam center, but that's going to be a great addition with the um movement towards individual fitness in our PE classes. that really does allow for multiple classes to be in there at the same time and really focus on individual fitness so that when students leave us, they already have that regimen of how to how to, you know, stay in shape and um healthier eating options and all of that. And so there really is this push more
101towards individual fitness versus team sports. If we go to the next slide, we also know that we have well, if you step outside, you see a lot of dirt being moved. The Liberty Athletics Complex is is torn up and is um being renovated and we're really excited for this space. It's going to be fantastic if we keep moving here, Ben. And then the senior center itself is going to have a a really nice upgrade. And um we're looking forward to being able to, you know, provided more um square footage than originally planned and to make sure that that's a space that um our seniors can go and are proud of and can and do more things in there. Expanded fitness areas, places to convene, and just upgraded facilities across the board. If we go to
102the next slide, um I want to talk a little bit about this is more of the future. So this is part of the renovated, revised, updated compass. It still is going to incorporate the four C's and and all those what we call soft skills or durable skills, but it's trying to get at it from a a couple different angles. Uh the first one is through these cardinal directions, the north, southsoutheast, east, west, which I'm deeming the uh two P's and two C's. We talk about purpose, possibilities, challenges, and connections. And then there's a little road map of what those mean. Um on the right side there with north, ignite, um east, explore, south, embrace, and west, build. And then it talks about the importance of doing those things. And then if we go to the
103next slide, Ben, the the other part are the supporting values um that you see in the yellow highlights on the outside. So it's a more simplified um compass. And in this the supporting values talks about what values does Selen Area schools hold and it maps that out there. And then the next step that I'm excited about is the implementation of this with um Cara Davis and the teaching and learning team. They are working towards implementation where our teaching staff know how to integrate it into the curriculum and use this vocabulary with students so that they're not creating brand new lessons. they're doing it right within their science lessons or math lessons or or any lesson that they're working on where they can make sure that they are talking to kids about okay we're going to
104ask questions about curiosity when we do this experiment and you're going to come up with three ways in which you're curious and then they have conversations about it. So a lot of this is about implementation of how you talk and work with students differently to incorporate these skills so they get practice using them through the academic content. So we're excited about that that renovation. And then if we go to the last slide, it's just a great time to be uh a student uh in Selen area schools. So I just wanted to leave with that. I don't know if there's any questions, but feeling great about the direction of the district and um with Dr. Qualsy coming on board and have been having some great transition days with her already. You you and uh your team
105have left this district in remarkable hands or you passed you passed passed on to Dr. Kowalsski some uh some excellent work already. So, thank you very much, sir. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. We should do one of these every year, little state of the uh state of the district. I'd like to uh now Tim wasn't expecting to do any speaking at this point, but I'd like to invite Tim as our interim finance committee chair uh to provide an update of today's uh meeting. So, first I want to thank Brad for uh his work as treasurer over the years. he's um puts a lot of time and effort into that and uh he's he's served it well. Um also want to thank Miranda for all those that were here earlier for the um budget hearing.
106There's a lot of work that goes into our budget and um so many different line items. Very confusing. Some things are just projections and uh kind of a dart just being thrown out there. Um state requires us to set our budget now, but they don't set their budget till later. So it's somewhat some unknowns there. Um also um we looked a little bit deeper in our budget committee meeting uh finance committee meeting into some deeper into the line items on a couple different areas like instructional staff services and maintenance and operations. Uh Miranda has in the budget hearing given us an overview of it in our packet, but you know, you can dive deeper and we could even probably dive deeper into more weeds if we wanted to. Um and then just the next finance
107committee meeting will be in August 12th. We won't be having one. It'll be at four o'clock on August 12th to accommodate the fin or the policy committee. I was just wondering if you could speak as to like the increased needs of the district upcoming financially over the next two years and looking at the fund balance in terms of what you talked about in committee. I I don't want you to go into the and you know uh you know uh assistant superintendently talked about the English learners and the new hires. Is that the kind of stuff that you talked about at the meeting or is there more you can tell us about um those projections and you know as we're trying to figure this out. Yeah. So we did talk about some of that stuff and
108one thing when talking about that slide where you saw the a lot of those um because I brought that up as well and um a lot of those positions are being funded through grants and or special ed funding. So um act 18 type stuff. So, so a lot of those there's only two positions that are the elementary school teacher position is a new hire that's not funded outside, but that's a need. And then um I think the art the art teacher was also um but then uh one of the things that was important for me to see too in the budget projection going out was not a Z increase per pupil. So she did build in $200 per pupil increase. Now she also um did straight line assumptions for enrollment. So we do have some
109losses in enrollment there. But at least we built in some kind of assumption for um per pupil increases because I think you know we don't know what we'll get. It might be more, it might be less, but there's something there. Did that answer that was excellent for being with Yeah. No, that's what I wasn't questioning like the um you know the necessity of the hires. I just was just trying to like gain more understanding of um and sort of speak publicly more to understanding of what the limitations of the budget are moving forward, what the projections are looking at and how um how the team is really kind of forecasting and all that goes into it. So, one of the things I guess I'll just kind of go off on a little bit of a
110tangent here is um I I went through in this budget package and kind of looked at like okay 1819 and then our 25 26 picked out some of the things that I saw really big increases in some uh 43% increase in added needs. Um but that directly relates to intermediate service sources in funding. if you look at our intermediate sources that went up 40% and that's a lot of our act 18 money. So they kind of go hand in hand. Um then the uh basic programs went up about 5.2% um pupil support 28% instructional staff 39% general administration six. So I I looked at some of those and then when we dove into like maintenance and operations, let's say, we looked at that and then we just from 21, so this is kind of crazy
111from 21 through to the uh 25 budget. The trash disposals went from $18,000 to $58,000 just in trash. So it was kind of neat to kind of dig down into some of those. insurance went from 118,000 to 540,000. So those are some big numbers in just everyday expenses. Thank you. Well, great. Well, thank you uh Tim for that and uh if you have more details, we're looking forward to hearing after the August 12th meeting. Was it you said 12? Thank you. Um administration board updates. We'll start with Steve and then over to you Tim. Okay. Well, I really will give my final fair message farewell message right now. Uh I just wanted to um read something similar to what I sent out to the staff at the well the last day of um school with
112students. Uh but it's really been an honor to work alongside of all of you for these past 27 years. When I was first hired here in 1997 as a teacher in Heritage School, I really did feel like, wow, I have come into the best situation and best district in Michigan. And little did I know that I would stay here the entire time. But it's been it's been great. And as I've grown over the years in my leadership capacity, I've always tried to provide the right amount of guidance to put people in positions to be successful and encourage them to um really accomplish goals that maybe they didn't know if they could do or not. And I and I've tried to do that with really everybody whether it's board of education trustees and working with all
113of you or um students or teachers or various staff members because I really do think that one thing that is somewhat unique about this community. The community does educate all the students in various ways. I mean, whether it's Darcy helping out at some of the Steam events or a lot of that support you see on the weekends from parents or community members getting involved or even in Rotary Club that I've been a part of and helping, you know, with a recycle club at at the high school level. Th those kinds of things show sort of a commitment from a community to really come together and recognize that it's all our jobs to educate our kids and all of you have been exceptional with that and and I just want to uh thank you for that.
114U with that said my next steps I am looking forward to getting involved in some educational consulting leadership and mentoring roles. Um but I'm very confident in Dr. Kowalsski's ability to come into the district and do really well. Had some great transition days. We have three other transition days set up in the next couple weeks and then I feel like I'm I'm passing the torch on to someone who's going to come in and do do very well and work well with the community. So, with that said, um thanks for your support and go Hornets. I'm sure we'll see you here and there, Tim. Um, just want to thank Steve again for his uh 27 years of service here. He's really poured his heart and soul into this uh district and thank you. Um, thanks to
115all of our staff uh for their hard work this year and uh hopefully they can get a little bit of a breather. Um, and attended graduation and that is uh probably one of the highlights of being a board member is going to graduation and watching all those kids walk across the stage. That's pretty exciting for him. Darcy, yes. Thank you again to Steve for your your guidance and support uh through the years. Um, we will miss you. Uh, we are excited for Rachel to come and, uh, it looks like we will be getting a new board member at some point here soon. We miss Brad already. Um, and I've known him uh, about four and a half years now, five years now. And um, I know that his heart is really with the students and
116we will benefit with him as a teacher in the district. Um, thank you to all of the teachers and the support staff um for taking care of our children and educating them and um look forward to a new start. Thank you, Darcy. Um, I just want to note a three quick things. First of all, uh, thank you for the other board member who joined me at the pride flag raising. Uh, I know you forgot about that. Uh we were joined by council persons Dylan and Gerbach and the mayor as well as representative Foreman and um and two former school board members were there as well. And you know who you are looking at you I did mean to say happy pride to those who celebrate. That's okay. Uh thank you. Also I'd like to note
117that the WISD election there was a runoff vote uh a week ago Monday. Uh Dorcas Msili uh was ran on oppose for the partial term and uh the Diane Hawket had a plurality. She she won the uh uh one seat and we had to have a runoff between Eric John Roberts and Mary Jane Tramanton and in the end of it was 72 for Mary Jane. So thank you for uh letting me be your elector. There will be a press release going out really soon uh probably tomorrow morning early in the morning uh talking about some of the steps the next steps for finding a replacement for Brad and uh yes so I think the the window is open right now I'm I'm going to I've shared this with everyone I didn't get any push back
118so uh we'll open the window for two weeks for members from the community who live in the Selen Area schools district and are eligible to vote so no 17year-old sadly and um uh and the details to come about how that process works. Okay, I'll pass this over to Lauren. Okay, there's a lot going on in June, but I'll try to be brief. Um congratulations to uh Superintendent Lodge uh on his retirement and um I'm thankful for uh his leadership and um helping on board me as a numer um board member. Uh sincere thanks to Trustee Gerby um who um helped mentor me even as I was running and trying to understand the finances of the school district and beyond. Um what we would call in my uh culture a mench um of highest order. So
119uh I'll have to explain to him what that means. Um, on uh a more serious note, um I do I do not have any orange in my closet, but uh June is gun violence awareness month. Um and gun violence uh continues to be a leading cause of death uh for children uh including uh unlocked guns and homes uh uh children and families uh experiencing death by suicide um and uh homicide uh accidental deaths um and that doesn't even get into the morbidity and the generational trauma that is caused by gun violence. So, um, I'd like to just remind the community that, uh, gun locks are available at the police station. Um, I love, you know, Michigan, up north, hunting culture, all great. Just please, uh, store your guns safely. And, um, you know, be sure
120to ask if your kids are going places if, uh, those places are, um, having the gun safely stored. I often tell my patients families that they can blame their pediatrician when they have that awkward conversation. Um, and that isn't just little kids. Don't forget teenagers. Um, and then I would like to honor the LGBTQ community during uh, Pride Month. Um, they make our community better and I hope it's a happy, healthy, and safe Pride. I will be quick. Uh just uh congratulations to Steve on his retirement. Good luck with that. Uh congrats to our now former colleague Brad. So good luck to him. Uh looking forward to that. Uh and uh congratulations to all the 2025 grads. So uh good luck uh on your futures. And that is it for me. Thank you very much,
121Jason. I'd like to entertain a motion to uh uh authorize the consent agenda as printed. So moved. Tim Austin. Second per se. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Thank you very much. 5-0. Appreciate that. Um items on the next agenda, sir. Oh, who you're not setting the next agenda? Dr. Kowalsski's next meeting. Her first meeting. First Yeah, first meeting. So, well, so far what's on the agenda? approval of bank accounts, tech update from Jay Gman and his team and FSAS um extended comment from Stacy. Well, thank you very much. We're going to miss the having you at the table, Steve. Public comment. Uh any member of the public can in No, there are no public comments. So, I would the next board meeting will be held on July 8th at 6:30. Um, we
122I'd like to entertain a motion to enter close session of the board of ed at 7:52. Yeah, we're going to take a little break with the in Well, okay, we'll say 7. We'll say 8 o'clock with the intent to open reopen at about 8:30, Tim. 8:43. Thank you. 8:30. Uh, our guests for this evening. Oh, and it's a for the purpose of collective bargaining 8C of the Open Meetings Act. Under 8C, a simple majority is necessary. Uh, sufficient to enter into a close session. A guest will be Tim Gardner and some members of the negotiating team. Uh, do I have a motion? So, move. Jason. Tim. Thank you very much. All in favor, please say I. I. Thank you very much. So, we'll get back here in close session at 8 o'clock. Thank you so
123much. Without uh without objection, I'd like to uh return to the uh open session at 9:52. And uh okay, we are back into open session. Now, I just wanted to say to clarify something. Uh at the beginning it was quite chaotic uh when Brad uh hit the resignation button, but I did want to point out that Brad's resignation letter was dated uh June 21st. June 21st. Here it is, June 21st. And uh that will put us within the 30-day uh time frame to get a replacement. Uh that'll be clarified in the um in the uh press release that'll come out tomorrow morning. Just wanted to clarify that it's June 21st. Uh Brad did the uh the right thing by recusing himself and stepping away from the board meeting from here and it's been a great
124pleasure working with Brad and that's one of the reasons his his high his high ethical sense uh is greatly appreciated. Uh I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn the board meeting of whatever date this is. I've lost my agenda. Thank you. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Some moved. Gold. Gold. Do we have second? Tim Austin, you want to stick around? All in favor, please say I. Oh, at sorry at 953. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Thank you. I And oppose. Thank you. Thank you very much, everyone. See you in July 8th. Congratulations.