Saline Area Schools: Board of Education Meeting (04.08.2025)

001Mr. Lampman, are you uh doing another thing? You meaning? Yes. Yeah. Okay, cool. Thank you. Before we before we start tonight's board meeting, uh we we would like to let a second ensemble perform for us. And uh in about five minutes, we'll start for four minutes and 32 seconds. [Music] Hallelujah. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Thank you very much. I'd like to call to order uh the board of education meeting of April 8th, 2025. Uh and standing as you are able, I would like to uh have the pledge of allegiance led by none other than Mr. Nate Lampman. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one indivisible. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Lampman. And speaking of Mr. Lampman, Dr. Lotch, do you have something to say

002about that gentleman? I do have something to say about that gentleman. Anyway, we're here tonight to honor the great Mr. Nate Lampman as he retires from the Selen Area Schools at the end of this school year. Uh, I want to start by highlighting some of his and the music department's accomplishments, which there are many. This list could go on for a long, long time, but we're going to start with a few here. Selene High School and ninth grade band, blue symphonic band, gold symphonic band, wind ensemble, and marching bands have all received superior ratings at the MSBA evaluation festivals every time they performed over the past 28 years, which is an incredible accomplishment. Second, Mr. Lantman's partnered with MSU, U ofM, and EMU as a cooperating teacher for over 50 student teachers. During his time

003in Seline 2018, Mr. Lman was honored to win the association teacher educators outstanding mentor teacher of the year award for the state of Michigan. and that really does speak to his teaching ability and his care and concern of bringing up other professionals um in this career to try to aspire to do the things that he's done over um very few educators can can say that. Next, uh the Seline High School Wind Ensemble performed at the Michigan Music Conference three times in 2002, 2007, and 2015. Next, with the help of incredible administrators, parents, students, and colleagues, um Mr. Lambman innovated and provided a strong musical music performance experience from the end of 2020 through the spring of 2021 during the COVID pandemic. And this was a time when we weren't always meeting in person. Music programs

004were being canceled or we had to have um special masks and how to play the instruments. I mean, this was a really challenging time. And somehow um Nate and Mr. Lamman and the music department figured out creative ways to keep the music going, which is really important for our students and our families and our community. Uh and and and the band program quickly rebounded in numbers and proficiency. Next, let's talk about the Selen High School bands, which have represented the Seline community on performance tours over 12 times in the past 28 years, including seven performances at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, a performance at Symphani Symphony Center in Chicago, uh, in Gatlinburgg, Valareerezo, and at Western Michigan University. Also, nearly 3,000 students have been part of the Selen High School band program during his

005tenure in Seline. Many of them continue to make music at universities across the country. Some as music educators, some as professional musicians, many in local community bands in their places of worship and in their homes. Mr. Lampman is so proud of all of them and the wonderful music and experiences they've made together. um which is why Mr. Lambman is always recognized as one of the favorite and most inspirational teachers at um Seline Compass Awards which is where um you know students bring a favorite educator. So he's just been incredible. Now I want to personally talk about Nate and speak about his leadership in the music program from the perspective of one of his colleagues. We've been working together for a long long time. Mr. Lamman has done a tremendous job of encouraging his student musicians

006in the band program and all of our music programs to be part of the local community. I've always been so impressed by the way in which he specifically has gone out and sought opportunities to play in the community to make the music program be part of our community whether it's at Memorial Day events um the Seline Holiday Parade, the various music festivals around town and throughout the state. uh you know he's just always looked for opportunities to partner and share um his love of music and our kids' love of music with others. Um yet uh Mr. Lamb's reach goes beyond the Selene community as was mentioned previously um the musicians that were born in Florida, Chicago and Gatlinburgg to name a few. But one thing that I have always been very impressed of is his

007ability to also look out for other communities that potentially are less fortunate to build the base of musicians. For example, Crescendo Detroit. This is something that Mr. Lampman has spearheaded where they go in and provide funding um to support students in Detroit. And this is from last year. I want to read an email that Nate sent to band families about Crescendo Detroit. Uh Selen band families, as you remember, we collected donations for Crescendo Detroit earlier this year at our fall and holiday band concerts. I am happy to announce that due to your generosity, we were able to make a donation of just under $2,000 this year. And this has happened yearly for a long time. Thank you so much for your continued support of this out outstanding organization that brings music, art, and dance to

008so many children in the city of Detroit. Thank you, Nate Lambman. Finally, Nate's done an incredible Mr. LMT has done an incredible job leading and supporting the very talented music teachers in our school district. And even though the community, the district, myself, we're going to miss him dearly, his legacy will be in the way that he has mentored and supported the many skilled music music teachers in our district who will continue to provide great teaching and learning opportunities for our students for years to come. Mr. Lambman, thank you very much for all that you've done in Selen Area schools and our students for so many years. And if Mr. If you can come on up, Mr. Lemon, and introduce some of the student musicians and then we want to be able to also take a

009photo and do that kind of thing. Well, good evening. Don't they sound great? They do. And Before I introduce them, two just little notes. Um, two kind of unusual ensembles. If you know what a brass quintet normally is, that's not it, right? Two tubas, two French horns, a euphonium. That's an unusual group. That's really neat. Um, a jazz combo with a French horn soloist. Also a little unique. And what I love about both these groups, and you wouldn't know by just looking at them, these are both student organized groups. They formed the groups, they found the music, they rehearsed the music. We've never worked together. We worked together about what two and a half minutes once something like that and said, "You sound great. Keep doing what you're doing." This is per two perfect example

010of what students can do on their own, right? The fact that they can choose, they can form their group, they can rehearse their group. You meet what, four, four times a week, sometimes, three times a week. I mean, this is a really, really great example of student initiative. And I think before we go on and introduce them, if we can give them one more round of applause now that we So this is the Selen High. We don't have a name yet, so suggestions would be great, but this is for now the Selen High School jazz combo. Rocus Kloquez on bass, Leo Hoffman on drums, Shiloh Livingston on guitar, and then Quinton Riggs over here on French horn. You guys sounded awesome. And then um this brass quintet was just nominated a few weeks ago at

011the state festival as one of the outstanding ensembles in the state of Michigan. They just um uh submitted a recording um and we'll be finding out in the next couple days if they were selected as the top brass quintet for the state of Michigan. If that happens, they will perform in May at u in Calamu at Western Michigan's performance. So I think they got a pretty good shot. The recording is awesome. Um, leading the group, Marcus Stannanish on tuba, Eli Zaxic on French horn, Quinton Riggs again on French horn, Ben Burke on euphonium, and Johod on tuba. Please give them [Applause] another picture. M Mr. Lampman, when they win that first Grammy, can we hold it, please? When we when they win that first Grammy, I'd like to at least hold it. Yeah. Yeah. Head

012over there. Let's see how we do. We'll be okay there. Head over. Hate to disrupt the regular routine here. That's the hill. This works though at an angle. This is good, Steve. This is good at an angle. It might actually be better at an angle to be honest. Yeah. Shift that way. But you adjust. Find a window. Find a window. Keep finding a window. There. Now I can. There you go. Can I see your faces, Tim? There you go. Perfect. Ready? One, two, three. [Applause] How are you doing? Good. How are you? Good. Good. Good. While they're settling out, 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 the students will be given priority to

013speak on any topic. First public participation portion of the meeting is limited to one half hour normally and limited to agenda items. A second public participation portion will be offered at the end of this agenda to allow for any other comment. Uh individual addressing the board should take into consideration the rules of common courtesy. A the public participation portion cannot be used to make personal attacks against board member, district employee or student. We have three uh speakers this evening. Three parents and uh I'll just list the names so you can all be ready. Susan Eastep, Amy Tesselin, and Corey Beloved in that order. Thank you. What happened to your cards? Okay, I believe you've all spoken before, so you know the dealio. 30 seconds warning with the yellow card. Thank you, Susan. At your pleasure.

014The time starts when you start. [Music] Okay, good evening. Um, as you know, I'm Susan Esteep, former board member. Um, I reached out to the full board today regarding concerns with the board versus district policy process. This past month, I was appalled to discover that policy 2264, non-discrimination, anti-harassment, and non-retaliation, including Title 9 and Elliot Larson Civil Rights Act, is not in the SAS policy manual, and is not being used. The board adopted this policy on December 10th while I was on the board, 2024, and there hasn't been board action um since to resend this policy. Um this uh specifically is a policy um that was adopted um in its throne and it uses a Neola policy number. Um so okay, additionally I discovered that policy 2266 non-discrimination on the basis of sex and education

015programs or activities has been revised in the SAS policy manual on January 10th, 2025. Um, the last time the board approved these revisions was September 10th, 2024, and there hasn't been board action um to revise this policy since, even though it's revised in the book. Um, technical corrections also needs to come through the board. Um, during the last board policy committee meeting, I brought this up to the committee's attention. Um it was confirmed that Superintendent Lotch and um Betty Yonke um that he made the decision to not add or use policy 2264 uh which was what we approved in December and that um the policy 2266 removed language that the board approved um in September 2024. Um this was confirmed, committee is aware of it. Um these personal actions are not legal legally compliant. Um

016neither of these policies can be um revised or rescended without board action. Um it would have to be recommended to the policy committee andor the board and go through the board's legally compliant process for it to be revised or rescended. Again, technical corrections count as well. Um the public and the board deserves to know what the board what board policies are being followed in the district at any given time. Also, the new throne policy that is currently not being used costs time and likely additional money um to the district as it wasn't a policy through our policy provider Neiola. This needs to be a priority. Um you all have the rest of my email. Um so um specific to the agenda tonight policy um the trans policy um just to make it quick um is

017not was propo a proposed revision um by the superintendent in the district and are not based on legally required opinion and was a suggestion that the superintendent said can be considered or not. Um, so I want you all to think about let us know answer the question, please. Thank you, Miss I'm gonna, if you don't mind, I'll send you a follow-up email because I want some clarification on 20. I'd like clarification tonight during the discussion. Susan, Susan, Susan, I was talking, sorry, I didn't want to talk over you and I didn't want you talking over me. So, uh, thank you. Oh, Amy Tessellin followed by Corey Bloop. Oh, there we go. Thank you, Seline Area School Board members. Um, I wanted to thank you and the district for your support for all of our students

018in this time of uncertainty in education and in our society. Um we have so many teachers, community members, administration, um administrators, I should say, board members firm in their commitment to human rights for all students and people. We are lucky. Uh we have a strong and loving community. I encourage our district to stand strong in upholding our excellent policies um especially with respect to our transgender and non-binary um student policy that's up for revision tonight. Um that allow all students to be free, safe and free to learn. Uh it will take courage but you have the overwhelming support of our community. Uh, and just in conclusion, happy ArabAmerican Heritage Month, Autism Awareness Month, and Deaf History Month. Thank you, Corey. There she is. Uh, Corey Balote, and I am here on behalf of myself and

019my son, Owen Balo. And I wanted to second what Dr. Lot was saying about Mr. Lampman. Thank you very much. Mr. Lampman is an inspiration to kids and in fact in particular my son Owen wants to be Mr. Lampman and he he is going to Eastern in the fall. He auditioned and has been accepted into the music program and in a couple of weeks he auditions for the marching the drum line in the marching band and that is all because of Mr. Lampman. So again, thank you so much. Thank you, Corey. What's his instrument? I'll look for him if he's in percussion. He wants to be snare, but symbols could be okay. All right. Thank you. So, thank you. I have two brief announcements as board president. Uh the first is to jump on top

020of what you said, Amy Tesselin, that this just to recognize that this is indeed autism awareness month. And uh the second equally important announcement is that as of four o'clock this afternoon, the posting for the position of superintendent of Selen Area Schools closed. And uh I'm delighted and terrified to announce that there were 25 applicants and we will be screening those. And in a future board meeting, we will be uh determining who is coming in for an interview with us or which of those candidates are coming in. It's not going to be one, it's going to be several. Thank you. Pardon me. Uh, revisions approval of the agenda. Items can be deleted or removed from the agenda at any time and the agenda has to be approved before proceeding further. There was one uh change

021brought to my attention that I'd like to put up uh for vote. Um, I'd like to move in the consent agenda item 55 uh sorry, it's policy 5500 which is fourth from the bottom. I'd like to remove that from the consent agenda to just to have a quick discussion, quick update on that. And that's the only change that I would like to make. Is there anything that anyone else needs to add change? All right. It's on the last second to last page of the many multi-page agenda 5500. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda as amended? Darcy Berwick makes the motion. Brad Gerby. Was it Was it Brad? Well, let's do it right. Tim Austin. Uh, all in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Great. It's 6 tonight. We have missing one board

022member and one student representative. Sorry about that. So, uh, student showcase, it's all you, Kate Sonnen. For this week's student showcase, we are honoring Deca and Ava Strip and Kieran Sin are here to talk about what we do in our exciting trip to nationals at the end of the month. Thank you. If you see the green light on, you're good. Green is good. Okay. Thank you for having us here tonight. Hey, my name is Ava Strip and I'm the president of DECA. And I'm Kieran Sankin and I'm a vice president for DECA. So, we're excited to tell you a little bit more about DECA and what we do. Go to the next slide. Okay. So, DECA's mission statement is that we're focused on preparing emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. So,

023we focus on primarily these four career clusters. And essentially, DECA is a competitive business organization that gives students real life experience in the business world. And it's much more just beyond the competitions. It's much more beyond the competitions and conferences. It's also a great community where you build connections with people in the industry. So, our chapter at Selen High School, we have 56 members, all made up of juniors and seniors. And this is a five to 10 member increase from last year and it's been um steadily going up over the past couple years which is great. Um we meet twice a month to go over um various things mainly preparing for upcoming competitions whether that's practicing role plays or just going over details so people are prepared. Then the other reason we meet is to

024um prep for our uh community events that we're a part of. So, some of these events this year we had a sock and a food drive where members were encouraged to donate um socks or canned food and all these proceeds went to Selen area social services and so we thought that was pretty successful. Um this is another year where we helped out at the craft show. So, we're helping set up um directing people and we've been doing that for a couple years now. And then this year, um, we hosted a cornhole tournament for the first time where the money we made helped to support students wanting to go to our state competition. And I think that was pretty successful. We're hoping to continue that in the future. Okay. So, we have three competitions for DECA.

025The first one all of our members attend, which is districts in January, and that's at Eastern Michigan University. And then in March we go to states that's in Detroit and that's for a weekend. And then in just a few weeks we're going to internationals in Orlando. Okay. So there are many competitive events that you can do in DECA, but most people participate in a role play. So essentially a role play is you're given a business situation right when you go to the competition. So if you're in a team, which is you and one other person, you're given 30 minutes to prepare. But if you're individual, you're just given 10 minutes. So you're given a specific business situation depending on which event you're in. And then you have to come up with the marketing plan and

026and solution and then present it right after that after you um get your situation. So it's really good to think on your feet and just develop skills that will help you in your future career and college plans. Um, like I mentioned before, there's tons of different categories that you can participate in, which I think is a really special thing about DECA because there's truly something for everyone that they can be interested in. So, for example, some of our members, um, one's in automotive marketing, there's retail and fashion merchandise, financial services, Kieran's in business, law and ethics, I'm in travel and tourism, and there's so many more. There's probably 20 to 30 different events you can participate in. So that's a really special thing about our role plays. Um if you can go back to that

027other slide. Sorry. So some other things that you can do that are a part of DECA are written events which is another way for us to get members to the uh state competition. So what that means is they can write um a 10-page paper about a variety of different things and then they're able to present this paper and be judged on this paper at the state competition. So, I think we had around maybe 20 members this year who got to do that. And then the school-based enterprise as well. That's a longer paper. It's anywhere from 25 to 50 pages. So, we both wrote um papers this year. Mine was about uh food and then hers was about retail merchandise. And that helps us go to the international competition in Orlando. Um yeah. So, the first

028competition for us every year is the district's competition. This is hosted at Eastern Michigan, which is great because it gives students an opportunity to um go to a college campus and and see what that that's like a little bit. And then this year, we were very successful. We were able to send 44 members from the district competition to states. So, then states, like I mentioned before, is a little bit longer. It's a whole weekend. So we leave around 10 on Thursday and then return close to dinner time on Saturday. So within the weekend um there's so many things to be involved in. Um the students do participate in their role play and then or written event depending on what they qualified for. But beyond that, we also have opening and closing ceremonies where 5,000 Michigan

029DECA members are all in a room together. And it's really special to be able to see students who are just as passionate about business and being a leader. And it's really just a cool opportunity to network with different people from around Michigan. And then this year we also went to a Pistons game which was super cool. Everyone in Michigan DECA came and it was really special to see them all there. So our chapter is very successful this year at states. Uh we got three award three chapter awards. First, we got the Give Me Five award because we increased our membership by at least five new members. And then we also received the MDA award. We were one of, I think, 10 um schools out of around 200 to receive it in Michigan because we raised

030over $2,000 to support the musculardrophe association, which is DECA's main fundraiser. And then we also qualified for the Thrive Chapter campaign. So, basically, because we participated in all of those community events that Kieran mentioned earlier, um there's a whole checklist we completed, but we qualified for the Thrive. So, we get to send two people to a business conference at internationals because of that. And then also, we have 13 members who qualified for internationals, which is much higher than we've had in the past. Last year we only had six members and in the past it's been around that as well. But because of sports and other events we only have 11 that we'll be attending in a few weeks. Okay. So coming up is our international conference where we get to spend a week in Orlando.

031And this is going to be really cool because we're with around 20,000 other DECA members um business professionals and alumni as well. So we'll get to, you know, meet up with people all across the country, even across the world, um, who are also very interested in business. So that'll be a great opportunity for us. Um, and it's another chance for us to, uh, present our role plays to practice what we've been working on, whether that's role plays or, um, the SB papers. So that's a great opportunity for us. And then we're also lucky we get to spend a night at Universal Studios and they close the park off to um, just DECA members. So that'll be really fun. So yeah, we're super excited for internationals. Um, at internationals, I'll be doing the retail SB paper

032and then Karen will be participating in the roleplay for business law and ethics and Kate will also be going. She is taking the food paper for the student based school-based enterprise project. So DECA is a super impactful organization in many ways. Obviously, just the community and connections you build with people all around you. It's super special to be in an environment with kids who are just as passionate about business from really all around the country and all around the world. It really allows us to get real life experience that we can use in the future. For me personally, when I joined marketing my junior year, I didn't really have an idea of what I wanted to do in the future. And my teacher suggested that we join DECA. And DECA has really just allowed me

033to see something that I enjoy so much. And now I want to pursue marketing in the future. So, I'm planning on ma majoring in marketing management next year. I'm really just grateful to have gotten to participate in DECA because just giving me such great experiences and realize made me realize something that I'm so passionate about. Yeah. And then um for me, I always knew I wanted to do something with law. And so having the opportunity in DECA, which is primarily a business thing, to still have some law aspect in my um business law and ethics category, that was really cool and very helpful for me. And then outside of that, it just helped me build confidence in um public speaking, problem solving, and really thinking on the spot. Also collaboration because you're working with a

034partner. So yeah, it's helped me build a lot of really helpful school helpful skills that will help me throughout my life. And then we also interviewed a few of our past DECA members for some alumni stories for a project we did earlier for our Thrive campaign. So Grace Warren, she graduated last year. She was the DECA co-president last year and now she's at Ohio State University and she actually started the Ohio State um DECA organization right there. So, I think that's super impressive. She also said that she's learned a lot of leadership and communicative skills through DECA and she's really glad that she participated in it. And then also Drew, Drew was also on the board for DECA last year and now he's swimming at Youngstown State University and he's a part of their social

035media club. So he's a really big leader in that and he said his time in DECA really helped him prepare for what that would be like. So we just think it's super special that DECA has given us all of these memories and things to look on for the future and we're really grateful to our adviserss and just that we've gotten the opportunity to participate in this. Well, that's great. Ava Kieran, thank you so much. Um I'm wondering if many any of the board members have a question to ask you and possibly even Kate since you're somehow affiliated with them. Oh, Jason. Uh, so you said that membership went up. Uh, what do you attribute more participation or how do you attribute more participation? Um, we've really just been encouraging more people to join. So, one

036at Seline, it depends school to school, but we require you have to be in at least some type of business class to be in DECA. So I'd say almost every member is in marketing but um also some members will be in like general business or accounting. So this year we also went and presented to the accounting classes about DECA and got some of them to join as well. So that's been super special because they more were focused on BPA which is business professionals of America before but now we've just been trying to combine more people who are interested in the business field into DECA. Um, I also know right now DECA is just open to juniors and seniors, but we are working to open the club to sophomores who are also in a business class.

037So hopefully, you know, in the in the coming years we'll be able to expand the club even more. Well, it sounds like you have a solid marketing strategy for Mr. Gerby. Funny Jason would say that. My kid's one of those. So, he is one of the people that joined and I guess I just have a couple things. Number one, um, I love Deca. Um, I was really fortunate to be able to be a national finalist in Anaheim. Got to go to Disney World. It is really awesome being internationals. And it gives me one thing in my house I can up one up my kid on. Like he's smarter than me. He's a lot of things, but I can always say that um until he tops me. But I want to thank you guys for creating

038such a fun environment. And I want to thank your advisor for advisors, right, for for creating a fun environment. My my son talked about being downtown a couple of weeks ago and how incredible that was and what a great experience and so kudos to you guys for just creating something that that kids want to be a part of and my kid like he was just fired up and so happy to just be with you guys and to do that. So, uh yeah. And so I always ask this, how is there anything that you can um point out that the board that we could do to support your your program? We're promoting right now and but is there anything that we can do to help you? I think we're pretty good. Yeah, the only thing would

039just be finances because it is pretty expensive, but I mean I'm sure that's with everything, but we're feel pretty supported by the school and yeah, we're grateful for everything. So, well, thank you for everything you guys do and your adviserss. Thank you. Well, thank you so much. Yay. Big hand. Thank you. Good job. Well done. Nicely done. Thank you very much. Thank you, Kate. Um, I'm looking ahead at our action items. We have several, some of which will test my ability to read numbers. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the purchase of one 2026 F750 gas regular cab from Brandis Ford Incorporated at a cost of $72,227.50. and a 10T by 96 in stainless steel dump box from Cobra Truck and Fabrication at a cost of $47,426.66 for a total of $119,654.16 as

040submitted by Rex Clary, director of operations. Do I have a motion? So move. Is that Tim? I'll support it. And Gerby? Yes. Uh any comments? Oh, there you are. Shimmerred up to the microphone once again. Uh so this is a critical critical piece of equipment for our grounds department during snow removal. Um it was it was when Jim before Jim Sult retired I think four years ago or before CO probably now um he said it was a critical piece that needed to be replaced in the next two to four years. Uh Rick Spicer repeated that and then this last winter we really saw it starting to deteriorate with the cab um rusting through the gas tanks rusting through and the box starting to rust through. So, um, this is the last big piece of equipment

041we need to be ready for next winter. Um, and with the lack of pushes this year, I'm going to say we pushed twice. We didn't push a lot this when we say push push snow. We salted um for the ice. Um, we didn't have a lot of accumulation, which is a good thing. But, uh, this is a critical piece that we need for our grounds department moving forward. I heard that knock. any uh questions or All right. I I just want to note that the truck that we're replacing is 23 years old, right, from 2003. So, yeah, we thanks for doing the arithmetic for us. Uh all in favor, please say I. I opposed. Nobody's opposed. 60. Thank you so much. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the furniture purchases for the Selen

042High School STEM edition as recommended and provided by King Scott Associates totaling $291,23 as submitted by Rex Clary, director of operations. And the payments are going to go to VS America, $3,730.80. NBS Commercial Interiors, $29,65346. Drew L, $4,45867. ISCG $83,54353 KI uh $126,1426 and a 6% contingency of $16,471.71. Thank you for those accurate numbers. Um all in Do we have a motion, please? Nobody likes furniture. I move to approve the purchase of the furniture. I'll second and Darcy B. You're gonna have to repeat the entire Berwick. Thank you. So, just a big shout out to Cara, uh, instructional director, executive director of instruction, Cara Davis, uh, working with her team, with Kelly Woodman, with robotics, um, is having them, uh, work with us on this design piece. King Scott, Dana Mcclullen, and Lori Cassie as

043well as Science Olympiad. They all had a we we collaborated with all groups. Uh we feel this is a package that's going to benefit the students uh and be flexible for for day use for our other students as well in the flex area as well as the robotics and science olympiad in the evenings. So great questions from the team. Lauren, I had one quick question. In the letter, uh, it's referenced that there's going to be a speestous removal this summer. That is in the middle school. Okay. Um, yes. And that will be bids are due tomorrow. Yeah. Okay. Um, it's mostly pipe fittings. We do have some tile which we did in 2017 2018 during the safe warm and dry, but we do have we're attacking other spaces this summer. One of them being the

044band. Oh, Mr. Latner left. Uh, yeah. I guess I kind of jumped the guns from furniture. Sorry. Oh, any others? This is High School Media Center. The new Steam Center, sorry. And Steam Center. That's right. We'll just hold that answer in the bay for the next question. Uh all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposition? No opposition. Thank you so much. Um the third uh action item this evening is to approve the purchase of middle school auditorium and music storage equipment in the amount of $103,36.80 including a 5% contingency fee from Wgner Corporation as submitted by Rex Clary executive director of operations. And this will be purchased through the Omnia Purchasing Cooperative. So we get a little discount there. Um do I have a motion please? Some move. Tim Berwick second. Berwick supports. Thank

045you. So, this is for the existing uh the high old high school space that I'm sure Mr. Lapman was a teacher in that space for a period of time if he's been here 28 years. Um but Dave Walters, uh Ron, those of you not watching the stream, Mr. Uh John, Bob Phillips, and Nate Latman. I mean, these storage areas are ancient. Um they have not been updated since the school was built in the late 60s, early 70s. Um they've been cobbled together with 2x4s and screws and nails and um it's not safe and we need to do a phrased approach to these areas and we're working through that. So, we're doing um a storage room for percussion, a storage room for the band, and then a uh music organization piece for the choir group. And

046I want to thank Brian Puffer at Community Education who helped us replace the stage floor last summer. And now he's going to help us with this new band shell, which is still original to the building from what I've been told, uh through community in the space at the middle school auditorium. Excellent. Oh, and asbestous will be done as part of the demo on this. Uh, and that flooring and that tile will be replaced. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Thank you. Um, all in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed? Hearing no opposition. Thank you so much. And uh we have I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the recommendation as submitted by Leole Planners to award Selen High School roof integration solar roof mount solar array installation bid to Yellow Light Incorporated

047in the amount of 1,52,46182. Motion Wick. Thank you. And I'll support it. Gerby. Gerby seconds it. Thank you. No golf balls. Say again. No golf balls. Don't go there. Don't go there. Um, no golf balls. Right. This is the labor piece to install the solar panels that are currently locked up into our um storage containers. Um, we are at budget on this project. Um, we're looking great on this project. Um, we should have the middle school operational sometime this hopefully this next week. Um, and have that working. um with the roofing bid and the solar installation bid. Um everything's moving as scheduled to have this solar array substantially completed in the early fall. Again, working with DT has been a challenge. Uh but we hope to have it working this solar array working in a

048much smooth smoother and quicker timely fashion to have it maybe on before early spring of next year at the high school. I do have one quick question. Um, at Western Michigan University, one of their main buildings is solar array and everything and they have a really nice readout or display of how much energy is is coming in through the solar panels. Um, are we planning anything like that? We are. Um, and we've actually we're going to have it also. It could be student led. I met with a student today who might be a part of that process. Uh, Amaresco who is our um project manager for this or our project engineer. Um, we've talked about different options. We need to get this operational before we can plug that in and start taking a look at

049that. Uh but we do have a student that's very interested in working with that uh with and to develop what it looks like from the students perspective and working with the teaching staff as far as curriculum. Uh he had a lot of great out great ideas this morning. Former his parent his mother is an educator here in the district. Um and he's working at U of M in a test lab this summer. So well I hope uh that student if things progress properly I hope that student can uh give us a quick walkth through of uh what you create. It would be great to do that. Any questions for the team? No from all in favor please say I oppose say no. All right. Thank you very much. We're actually I don't know if you're

050still on deck for the next one. H there's one more. This is fun. Uh, entertain a motion, please, to uh, approve the recommendations from Clark Construction Company in conjunction with King Scott Associates that Selen Area Schools enter into contracts with the recommended trade contractors as listed in bid pack number four for the Selen Middle School interior renovations project. The payments will be made as follows. Clark Construction 7,99,000. Is that 854,000? Uh, Betty Yankee. Okay, that we'll fix that comma. Uh Clark Construction 164,812 for the field. Kings Scott Associates 526,700 for construction design and reimburseables. King Scott Associates 34,340 for FFN design. Oops. Design. Do we have a motion from Bwick? Brad Gerby. Second Bwick. Seconded by D. Barwick. Thank you very much. Any comments about that? It's going to be a busy summer. Now, they've

051already started the work, haven't they? So, this is for the interiors. The exterior has started um at the high at the middle school uh for the Liberty Sports Liberty Middle School Athletic Complex. This is all for the interior work. Um but to that point, we've already done shop drawings and submitts for like long lead tight items that were need for special ed because we will do be remodeling four classrooms that will open in August of this summer. Um, so those submitts have already been submitted. As soon as we get the contracts done tonight, the approval, we'll get those going and make sure we have the doors to put on the new class to put on the classrooms and we're ready to go. Rex, can we expect um to see increases in prices because this is

052pre-tariff? Are you concerned? We don't know what we don't know. Um, we feel like on the furniture side, they feel like getting this in this month will be in good shape. Um, they have to honor their quotes. Um, so, you know, the chairs weren't there, but they still have to honor their quotes and it could come down to that contingency piece as to what how we get through this. If there's certain items that they want to withdraw or um during CO we did the same thing. There was times where we had to pay extra for certain items. I was just the subtotal is 9,58470 and our approved amount from the bond is 7,925,76. So the we had to we did have to go into escalation. Um we are using that fund as part of part

053of to fund part of this project and because we increased our footprint and scope of work. Um we had to move special ed up to the we moved it to the central of the building closer to the center of the building. Um so we're actually touching more square footage. So we did increase our budget and we use some of that money from escalation to cover that difference. Sorry, can you just explain escalation? Sorry. So there's uh we had three phases of the bond. Phase one, two, and three. They're all 60 million. And then but part of that was there's the cost and there was 11% factor into the first second 60 and 18% into the third series of of funds. And so that we we're still using our base budget, but we have that money,

054that funding to kind of offset the escalation of price or add its scope. That makes sense. Y I was um quite excited to see how fast things were moving. Going back to the earlier question, uh with the construction, we not we we attended the uh groundbreaking in in the building one day and the next day I was out for a little run and all the fences were gone and the the baseball field had been basically taken apart. So you guys are fast. And when we took we took a tour to the new steam center and wait room today, I took the teachers into the wait room. Um, painting finishes are going in, flooring will be within probably two weeks. So that's that project will the wait room will finish up I'm thinking in sometime in

055early July and then the steam center will be sometime in early August. Looking forward to a tour. How much does the average teacher bench? Okay. Um, any other questions please for the rest of the Nothing. All right. Please all in favor say I. I. Opposed? No opposition. Thank you so much, Rex, for your time and diligence and for keeping us under budget. Thank you. Uh Cara Davis, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the textbooks and associated ebook digital licenses for kindergarten, first and second grades from the University of Florida Literacy Institute, uh as submitted by Cara Davis, executive director of teaching and learning. Do I have a motion? Berwick. Darcy Berwick says me, please. Second. ities. JT, thank you so much. Um, oh, there you are. What can you tell us about this

056uh UFI? Uh, it's UFly actually and so that will become a household name hopefully after we hopefully get approval this evening. It's a tribute to an incredible effort on the part of uh Jen Nelson, Caroline Stout behind me, and all of the teachers who have u made an effort to look at a variety of different resources related to best um early literacy curriculums and pilot these in their classrooms, try them on, participate in lab sites, participate in professional development, um and learn along the way as to what shifts the district needed to make over the course of the last three years. we've been really well positioned to move into this next step which is a cohesive shared curriculum kindergarten, first and second grade for all three buildings. Currently, we do not have a shared curriculum.

057Um while there are pockets of similarities, we're not necessarily um providing that equitable access for all students and all classrooms in those grade levels in all three buildings. So, we're really excited about this opportunity. Um it does come under the bid thresh or under the threshold. Um, so we're really looking for approval of the curriculum, the UFlight curriculum tonight and I'm happy to answer any questions from the board. Well, Lauren, I've been learning a lot about the science of reading. Great. And experts behind me. I know we talked about it. Um, I am like this just been so interesting. Um, and I really I looked a little bit at you fly and was pretty excited about it. Um, and but the one part I didn't get to really look at and I wanted to ask

058you about tonight were the ebooks just because um I just wonder how much screen time you expect our K through three learners to be participating in. It's um the the UFly product which um Jen's going to explain a little bit about the process in our presentation this evening. Uh while there is online learning material for through slides to to actually witness it in action, you're seeing a high degree of student engagement, teacher direct instruction, student engagement around the letters, manipulations like them voicing, practicing uh using hand gestures. So there's quite a good balance. There's no ebooks per se um in there at all. It's just part of the language around the policy that says you're approving those things. So that curriculum doesn't include ebooks. we use decodables. So, I I myself have done a little

059bit of research into this because this is a really pet thing for me too. And uh one of the things that I've really been excited to hear about from the people that I've inquired with is that this is an additional tool for our teachers and it'll supplement the good education we're doing and what have you. And then the other thing is that everyone I've talked to recently has said a focus on phonics-based literacy is like what the research is currently saying is absolute best practice. And so I that gives me lots of excitement to approve this program for that reason. And this will be our tier one curriculum. So every teacher will be using it. Yeah. And I love that piece too. So thank you. And I want to also say to like the people

060like there the professional development like you know like there will be a learning curve that comes along with it and everything that goes but like hey this is good and I know we'll do incredible things. Thank you. Hearing no other questions like put us to a vote. Please all in favor say I. I opposed. No opposition. Thank you so much. Thank you. I know we'll hear from you in a bit later. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the closed session minutes of March 11th for the purpose to consider security planning to address existing threats or prevent potential threats to the safety of students and staff under section 8K. For number two, the superintendent evaluation under 8A and number three to discuss matters under attorney client privilege that are exempt from disclosure pursuant to

061state and federal law under section 8H. Our secretary, Darcy Berwick, for those of you who are new to this, will be handing out the close session minutes, which we will review and then vote on them. But first, I'd like to have a motion, please. That would be Tim Austin, second tiss. And thank you, Darcy, for preparing these. So please all in favor say I. I. I. Any opposition. No opposition. So thank you very much for the minutes. Once again uh we have one scheduled report. I'd like to call up Cara Davis and her crack team uh from the uh learning teaching and learning team. Sorry. Crack participants of the teaching of what do we call you guys? Tilt. Tilt. But that was a new one. Thank you. Wonderful. Good evening board. Um, as Trusty McVey

062said, I'm Cara Davis. I'm the executive director of teaching and learning and I'm joined by Caroline Stout and Jen Nelson who'll be introducing themselves momentarily. Uh, we are appreciative of the opportunity to provide a brief update. Uh that is our midyear report to complement our annual report that we give every fall. You'll be happy to know we're at about seven slides this evening. And um it goes without saying that the information that we're sharing in this report reflects a huge body of work um in supporting student success across the district. And that is possible. All this positive progress is possible because of the dedication and expertise of our teachers, pair of professionals, literacy tutors, EL tutors, building administrators, and members of the teaching and learning team who aren't here this tonight. And of course, furthermore,

063tonight is meant to be a highlight of information um around our district goals and action steps as well as related outcomes. And it certainly does not, if you're seeing one of these reports for the first time, reflect the full scope of work and accomplishments on behalf of all of our students and staff. Then so to orient the audience and the new board members, our district follows the state mykit process in terms of district commun uh continuous improvement and has worked to create a cohesive and consistent system of improvement across the years that we can lean into and trust and build upon so that we can sustain the positive impact um for our students. And what we'd like to do tonight is review the process of that and then cover the two main goals that we

064have as a district um at the state level and then share some of the highlights of the action steps that we've taken as well as some of the things that we can celebrate and then considerations for next steps. So in terms of our our process, we look at our continuous improvement cycle truly as that. This is at the time of the year right now where we're in what we consider quarter two, but it's sort of our end of year where we're wrapping up and reviewing all of the data and considering next steps. How well are we accomplishing the goals that we have set out to achieve? How are the building level strategies and action steps working? And what are we seeing in terms of student outcomes and needs? We're monitoring a lot of data internally

065um through a number of different assessment points as well as taking into consideration um any of the anecdotal evidence we've seen across time. Um and so we'll reflect on those. We work with the different building level teams. We work with the administrators um and the teacher leaders and we start to set our sights on um any adjustments that need to be made for the upcoming year. Um and obviously in June we'll be gathering the end of the year data and then compiling that and finishing up that picture um so we can make informed decisions and then we start to reset and relaunch throughout the summer where we develop or refine the plan that we have in place. Um our current plan has been in place for about three years and we've been making tweaks. So

066we've had the same goals for three years at this point in time and then we tweak the action steps and building level strategies to be responsive to the local needs and the data that we're seeing. Additionally, we spend a great deal of time starting right out of the gates in September all the way through June collecting data, analyzing that data. We've talked in the past about our data protocols that we have in place that our uh local teams are using, our building level teams are using in order to make decisions and monitor their own action steps. Um, and we do that throughout the cycle as well. Um, and pretty much you will see like twice throughout that year and then that compiles um into the spring and then makes a decision then we start all

067over again. So that's a little bit behind the scenes of the process itself. Um, so we're ready to dig into the first goal and I'd like to share that one of our goals is an academic goal and it focuses on the idea that it is our hope, our ultimate hope that all of our students have access to the opportunity to achieve a mastery in the content areas as reported out in the different assessment systems that we have. Um, regardless of what subgroup they're in. So, our diverse student body regardless of what their background is that they all have meaningful access to the curriculum and then obviously that opportunity to thrive and be successful academically. Um, Jen is going to turn it uh talk through some of the action steps we've taken in order to get

068at this goal. Hi everyone, I'm Jen Nelson for those of you that are newer on the board. This is my 23rd year in Seline. I worked most of that time as a classroom teacher, sixth grade, seventh grade, and third. This is my fourth year in the role of instructional designer literacy coach and I am going to talk a little bit um just about how we're meeting these goals with the work that we're doing with teachers and that's mostly falling in two categories of curriculum alignment and content specific PD. So, curriculum alignment is our curriculum review process that we spend time with teachers in curriculum reviewing our curriculum. And we recently wrapped up two years in um elementary and secondary math and science. And one of the things that we find is that often when curriculum

069review ends, that's when the work starts for the entire department. And so this year we um did a lot of different things with the entire elementary math and secondary math team and science team. So I'm going to highlight a couple of those. Um first of all in secondary science one of the things named that was that teachers really wanted some NGSS science training for their department. The next generation science standards are a set of K12 content standards designed to improve science by emphasizing deep understanding, hands-on learning. And so this year, teachers in secondary um science are participating in that PD throughout the school um school year. and secondary math. We have checked in with departments continuing to update our models um for class sequencing, communicating to families about that course sequencing. Also, we made a

070big move in secondary um math in sixth through 10th grade of adopting big ideas, a new math curriculum. And so supporting teachers along the way implementing that new curriculum that started this year and the feedback has been really positive. There's always learning curves with using a new curriculum, but it's been really positive in terms of elementary science. The feedback, they also adopted a new curriculum which you you approved a a couple of years ago and feedback very positive and needing some um supports with some of our special needs learners. And so we're looking to make some of those um supports for them actually this summer to make sure that our curriculum is inclusive for everyone. in elementary math. We determined that um some training that we did as curriculum review leaders. So the curriculum review

071team is a couple of teachers from every grade level, every building, not every teacher because we're subbing them out through the school day. We did some learning on foundational math practices during that time. And at the end of the curriculum review, it was decided that that would be beneficial for our entire K5 math team. And so this year we have been working on that on all of our half days and our building goal meetings. So we're actually wrapping that goal up this month with our last half day coming up next week and building goal meeting at the end of the month. We've been working with a researcher and um uh professor at the University of Texas, Sarah Powell, who's been doing some training on Zoom and also coming in person to do some training on

072foundational math practices, problem solving, um multi-steps equations for fourth and fifth grade teachers. And so that work came out of of a completed curriculum review. Transitioning to the curriculum reviews that we just started this year. We are um K2 Phonics was one of them. We fast forwarded that one trying to take advantage of 35J money to use to purchase the new curriculum. And so you just approved UFly which is going to be very exciting to all those participants. And our attention now is turning to how are we going to support teachers? What is the training going to be like this summer? What support can we offer them in the fall? And just to clarify, our teachers have always been teaching phonics. It's actually um Steve and Car and Caroline's leadership from many years ago. We

073just weren't all teaching the same program. And so phonics was taught, but it's really hard to support it when different schools are using different programs. And so we are adopting the same program. Just a little clarification there. And then in 35, we also launched a 35 phonics where we're not necessarily teaching phonics in fourth and fifth grade. That looks more like ver morphology instruction and spelling. And we will continue that work in a second year. This year, typically the first year of curriculum review is a lot of learning for all of us, making sure that we're up to date. What are the best practices in that subject area? Is there anything that we need to revisit as leaders? and then the second year kind of like bigger shifts are made and so I expect that

074to happen out of 35 phonics. We're also reviewing secondary ELA. In that group, we've been really looking at different research on cognitive load, how much information kids can handle at one time, how we can really be thoughtful about attention span and focused teaching and engagement. So again, doing some learning amongst the leaders. And in social studies very similar social studies we have been diving into the C3 framework which is a framework around inquiry of teaching social studies through inquiry. So we've been supporting teachers and making sure they understand that framework showing them what that can look like in lessons. Next year we'll transition to application of that in in their curriculum. And then our last one for curriculum review is early childhood. And that one um some key takeaways of that for this year are

075really connections amongst our early childhood programs. So we have early childhood programs here at Liberty, but then we also have them at each individual building and they rarely get time to talk to each other. But like what's happening at Pooh Corner or our GRSP classrooms or ECSC that's here? How does that connect to our young fives teachers that are in the buildings in kindergarten? So a big takeaway has just been that connection of time together learning what different programs are focusing on how they organize things, what their curriculum is. And then we have really looked at the research of what do early childhood learners need and starting to turn our focus to like what does that mean about our curriculum and how can we continue to work together to make sure we're creating a comprehensive

076early childhood program for our students in Seline. So, we've been busy and um in all of that, we're trying to like embed specific content PD into that in our leaders, but then ultimately to all of our teachers. And a lot of that is communicated in meetings like we have tomorrow with cross district meetings where we can get more voice in because we really pride ourselves that these conversations and decisions are happening with teachers, not um separate from them. Hi, I'm Caroline Stout. I'm the MTSS coordinator for Seline Schools and um I'm really excited to have a pyramid here because some of you are new. So, welcome. I bring pyramids. Um we have talked a lot about some of the things that we do for all students and for all teachers. the professional development, the ton

077of work that Jen has led um and and Tilt has led with curriculum um review and alignment and all of that really um concerns tier one uh primarily, right? Tier one is what we do for all students, the really solid foundation upon which we can then build upon because if we're to achieve this goal one, we need to make sure that we have a continuum of supports for students um including those who need a little bit of extra boost at some point in time. So, we've continued to layer onto that work um tier 2 and tier three supports which all happen within general education that are sort of moderate um to slightly more intensive levels of support. In this case, we're going to talk about academic areas um and connect that with the special education

078supports that happen for students with IEPs and the EL supports um that happen for students who are multilingual learners. Um as part of that, we have increased our collaboration. Tilt has been wonderful uh framework for us to really work across silos to make sure that we're making that happen to make sure that the supports for students um who maybe have multiple needs or who are English learners but also might struggle with uh reading um really make sense that they're aligned and that we have solid communication and collaboration um among the staff. Um we've also looked at staffing and increased our staff um certified staff with the addition of GABO um that uh supports students who are multilingual. Um and we've done a lot of work trying to bridge interventions from the lower elementary to middle

079elementary through the high school with things like um one-on-one tutoring, a homework hive um and some strategic classes at the secondary level which we're going to talk about in the next slide. Ben, if you don't mind. So, here are some celebrations. Sorry, the font is small, but we had a lot to say. Um, so starting in kind of the the younger kids, as Jen mentioned, there's been a lot of work with curriculum and systems focused on early childhood. So, we're excited to have posted an early childhood supervisor position um that's really going to be able to have a a big impact for our our youngest learners when they first come to SL schools. Um, we have embedded the data protocol that I know we've mentioned to you guys before in more levels of our system.

080So it's not just something that we're asking teachers to review to look at multiple sources of data to really understand student needs, but we're looking at that at the district level, at the building level as well in all levels of our administration. Um, in literacy specifically, I have the graphs, but I'm not showing them for the sake of time. Um, we have seen some really nice growth in all grades K8 since the fall with in every grade based on the Acadians composite and the percent of students who are scoring at least average on NWA. Um, either maintaining at least 80% of students in those like low to no risk categories or improving um the percent of students who are not at risk uh from fall to winter. um in math in and also in reading

081we've had the highest post-pandemic um percentage benchmark in kindergarten so far which is really exciting because I know we've had a lot of discussion about the impact of the pandemic on some of those young kids and so we're really pumped about that. Um in math in first and third grade we have our highest percent of students who are at benchmark and cadence at benchmark for those who are new this term is um means that they've met kind of the minimal expectation to not be at risk. So benchmark is just the level that we want to look at to be able to predict that students are going to not need any extra intervention based on longitudinal research. Um and it's a pretty solid measure. Um so that's very exciting. We also have seen an increase from

082fall to to winter um in NWA scores across uh fourth through 8th grade with percentages about three to seven points increase. Um so that's been really nice too. Um we have no ninth grade failures in high school biology in try one. I was 10 last year and that's really really exciting. It's something we um Beth Russo has put a lot into. Um we've also added a strategies class specifically targeting nth grade algebra um that's starting this try with Heather Malashsh and using um easy CBM which is um evidence-based uh tool to monitor progress. So that's all new and exciting. Um, and then we also have students who are participating in Homework Hive who are seeing um, lower failure rates, improved grades, and we have Homework Hive specifically for just math now, which is really neat.

083Um, next, Jen is going to kind of talk to us about what's on the horizon. I'm going to add one celebration that didn't make it to the list because of space, but Lauren mentioned it earlier is that insane we've been focused on like making sure that teachers are aware of the science of reading really for the last four years. And after three years of that being our main focus in PD, we switched to math this year, but we didn't want to let that go. And so one of the things that teachers really wanted to see is like I just want to see um models of that teaching in small group instruction versus whole group. And so this year we partnered with a researcher who former teacher um Julia Lindseay who's been doing lab sites at

084every building. We just did one today at uh Woodland Meadows and tomorrow we'll be at Pleasant Ridge. We were at Harvest in the fall. And the really cool thing about the that opportunity is that while we're able to sub teachers out, a few teachers from every grade level to be a part for the whole day, it happens during teachers planning. And so like today, every teacher at Woodland Meadows gave up their entire planning time to watch her teach and model a lesson and then debrief. And so we've been able to do that all three schools just to deepen the level of moving from like knowledge to practice. So one little more celebration. And then next we mentioned the new phonics curriculum. So really thinking about how can we support teachers in this being really successful

085that they feel like they have everything they need that they have training that as they um enter the curriculum and are using it and come up with roadblocks that we're there to support them. We are looking at revising our report card to make sure that our report card is reflective of some of the changes that we've made in curriculum review and then also looking at our math consistency and language and practice really from elementary to secondary. One way that we've been able to start to address this is that when we are working with our um staff developer from the University of Texas, she comes in for for the full day, but we're only using her for a half day and we've been able to sub out some of our special education math staff to work

086with her in the morning so that we're getting common language between elementary and secondary staff. Great. Another goal that we've had since we've started our journey with my kip is a social emotional goal. You know, our hope is to strengthen our social emotional support models in order to provide the best social emotional supports for our students because we know that learning happens best when students feel safe, supported, and connected. This year we have continued to to strive to embed consistent supports whether it's via um providing lessons for morning meetings, advisory time or during whole uh building or whole group community meetings. Um our uh that's one way we've addressed that. Our student success teams have been looking at what are called e-wims. So these early warning indicators such as um attendance, behavior, discipline occurrences, grade

087and assessment results. And then of course strengthening again as Caroline was mentioning earlier for students who have a wider range of needs. Uh providing specific student support such as check-in checkout some mentorship models. Uh there's something called check-in connect as a model at the high school. Small group support for students in infinity groups and then increasing family communication so that families have a good sense of what their students might need and what supports might be in place for them should they need it. So we're feeling really excited about the moves that we have made as related to strengthening our social and emotional support models. Thank you so much. So a couple celebrations around gold two. Um we are starting again with elementary. So we're really starting to get that sense that the lessons are more

088embedded in tier one and that's been years in the in the works which has been great. Um, we are looking at fourth grade and fifth grade is kind of different transition years because they're only at Heritage two years, but we're really seeing strength in relationships among students and um that is supported through theCCL lessons and the bridge disability work. Um the uh focusing on the middle school specifically, we've gone to advisory five days a week focusing specifically on lessons and promoting restorative practices. Um and we're seeing students report in higher numbers that they have a trusted adult in the school which is great. Um and reporting less bullying. Um our attendance data is also promising. That's another indicator. As Cara mentioned, we look at kind of e-Wim's attendance is one of the indicators of just

089engagement. Um and we are seeing uh SMS data continuing to improve year-over-year and uh at the high school a steady improvement um after last year that's continuing into this year which is really great. Um some of the next things might seem a little bit disconnected from EL or from SEAL um but they're fully fully integrated because the first one is a meeting actually we just had um a followup to today and we are really looking at technology usage guidelines. So, we already have cell phone policies, right, that are changed um as of a couple years ago, but even the governor mentioned this in her state of the uh state this um past January that the use of technology is something that we can really uh look at to improve and support um student emotional um

090and behavioral health. So we are using um a couple things number of research studies and an edtech triangle that really outlines the uses of technology that can be transformative that can be adaptive for students with disabilities to reach a broader audience and different types of learners but really moving away from anything that could be either disruptive or to be honest that could be done without technology in a much more effective uh way. We are very mindful that in the pandemic we had to move towards screens to just reach people, right? But now we know um that it is time to absolutely pull back and be really cautious, especially with our youngest learners about that amount of screen time. We know it's addictive. We know it's it's can be problematic and so we're doing a lot

091of work with that and excited about it. Um why what does a data warehouse have to do with this? Yeah. Well, we've had a lot of conversations with you guys about how some of those um some of the barriers to really building a tiered uh support model are just getting access to the data in real time so we can make real decisions. EWIMs is the perfect example of that, right? If we want to see in real time all of that data around attendance, around um course failures when they're starting, around behavior, it's really important for us to have a tool that doesn't take 35 clicks and a lot of um transformation to see the trends so that we can respond to those trends. So, we're really really excited u to be looking at a new

092data warehouse. We're down to probably two options. Um that's going to replace illuminate um but allow us to in a couple clicks see some really powerful graphs looking at um attendance, looking at behavior data, but also hopefully um pulling in some more indicators of this is a really tricky thing for us to do. Uh we've also had conversations around specific things like using a student's preferred uh versus legal names and these are barriers we currently have in our data systems. Not in the people we're all trying to do it um right but it's just the way that the data is flowing to us is clunky and problematic. Um so I'm really excited about that. It's going to save me hours and allow us to focus more on um supporting students. Um a couple other things

093to look forward to at the high school. We're looking at increasing advisory to twice a week to allow for some student uh resource, sorry, some um targeted support where teachers can meet with students who are starting to show maybe some course failure but also who may be getting disconnected and have some of those conversations, build those relationships. And then we are really looking forward to continuing to tighten those practices around lessons and supports. And this is information we had shared last year around the same time, but I wanted to give it another shout out. We have around $2 million right now that we've leveraged in grant funds in order to be able to support the progress um on our district goals and to provide much of the information that you've been able to see here

094in terms of the curriculum hours, the work and the project time that teachers are taking on their own accord to be able to compensate them in order to provide the resources in the classrooms to purchase the curriculum. It's all being funded. much of it is being funded either through 23G or 35J. 23G is the My Kids Back on Track uh grant. We were awarded approximately $385,000 for that. And then 35J as targeted literacy and we awarded approximately $630,000 for that one. And then we've got the 31A mixed in there that gets at safety and wellness and does hit at some of our social emotional goal um um action steps as well. So I wanted to give that a shout out because it takes an army to lift that. um thank Miranda for all the work

095that she does behind the scenes keeping track of all those numbers as well as Betty who's done an incredible job um in terms of keeping us on track with all of our orders. So, thank you so much for your time. Um if you are new to the board, the teaching and learning team is on the next slide, which we refer to as Tilt. I'm just going to say that again. Uh Tilt teaching and learning team. Um and these are the folks who help support our teachers behind the scenes. So, um it all is a system that we feel really proud of. So, thank you. one question from at least one. Oh, look like you were poised and ready to ask a question. Anyone else from the board? Brad. Okay. Uh, okay. Yeah. Um, I have

096more like just like I know this was just a overview. Two things that are kind of continuous continue still be on my mind. Um, we had talked previously about inputs and supports for students with dyslexia, right? And so I just want to kind of make sure that like that's on the forefront still of focus for us. Um I don't know if you could give me a 30 second like hey yeah celebrate this or that. Yeah and actually I was reviewing my notes and that's one of the things I was like ah I forgot to mention it. um a lot of if I don't know Ben if it's easy to go back to slide um three maybe um the work that if so we've talked a lot about dyslexia but not just dyslexia as a discrete

097diagnosis but dyslexia as um kind of a category of um thank you um types of reading difficulties right we talk about students with characteristics of dyslexia meaning word level decoding challen challenges. Um, our model has been uh predicated on that long before PA 146 was passed, but we were certainly excited to see I was certainly excited to see that now there's legislation um even more legislation around MTSS and around this tiered level of support. So, um yes, we are absolutely continuing to do that. Um, a lot of what's in that law and a lot of what's in the dyslexia handbook that actually predated the law um, from MDE, it are practices that we've been doing as well. Um, screening students at regular intervals using evidence-based um, tools that get at some of those foundational literacy

098skills. Um, putting in place targeted intervention in addition to tier one to focus on phmic awareness and phonics. Um, monitoring progress closely. um roughly every other week and graphing that to make sure we're closing the gap um when we're not adjusting those making sure that our tools at all tiers instructional tools are evidence-based. Um so our work with the hexagon um what we talk about is the hexagon tool our innovation um kind of review process um is one that's in line with that as well. Um so we are very much on track with that. Um but we are also continuing to um promote professional development uh with that. As Cara mentioned, it ties in with some of the 35J pieces we've done and as Jen mentioned, some of the um lab visits that we've been

099doing. Um the we are waiting a little bit further definitive guidance. In January 2026, we are supposed to be getting these kind of lists of approved assessments, list of approved curricula. Um and also at that point we'll find out like for instance do we need to add um a measure called um rapid automatic naming RAN which is one that um we are ready to um that could be part of our Acadian suite um that's basically just saying well one of the characteristics of dyslexia that we're not currently measuring is students tend to have trouble with um quickly naming things um and so that would be another indicator that we could add and we might choose to do it even if it's not required. But yeah, I don't know if that awesome. Um, yeah, like you

100just now continued to we're a destination district for for education and for those kinds of things and you just nailed that. And then you talked earlier about teachers who give up their prep times to be able to do professional development. Like these things don't just happen, folks. Like they're really points of pride. So thank you for that. And then the last thing that's just always on my mind, and again, you might not have anything specific because we're staying away from specific graphs, but just I think a lot still about those kids who now would be fifth graders, now would it be, you know, sixth graders, 19, 2019, 2020 about just interventions and anything we might need to do because our work still might not be done with particularly those individuals, right? Like I just think

101of them a lot. Um, so that's that. Thank you for your time tonight. Okay. Thanks. Looking around the table, I hear no questions. So, thank you once again. Tilt. And if we do, I was just waiting to see like how fast she if we do have questions uh that that that pop into our heads, I know we can reach out to any of you at any time. Thank you so much. Thank you. We have uh two discussion items tonight. Updates from two committees, finance committee and the policy committee. And I'll let Brad start us off. Yeah, I met with our awesome uh folks. At five o'clock today, we had a pretty packed agenda. We covered a number of things. Um let's see. I will give try to keep this brief. We have a project that

102we're kind of taking on right now. We uh Jennifer Stebon I'm sure is going to watch this meeting from wherever she is. Uh one of the things that we talk a lot and she is always in my mind about this is revenue generation. Well, one of the things that we came across was there's something called Michigan class C ls and it may may we have to do our homework on it and this is going to be a little bit of a process for us. So it's our recurring project. It might be a way for us to optimize some of our fund balance and some of the things to be able to utilize that money to be able to make shortterm investment gains. Um, in this Michigan class, just to give you an idea, they generally

103have about a 4% return on investment and it's only available to government entities. So, it's only available to local governments, school districts, etc. And so it has a really good reputation and it's really well um like I think I read somewhere that like no no district or nothing no one that has put money in it has lost money. Now I'm not going to hold it to it but but yeah right but like it might be a way for us to generate 4% or so on money that is our fund balance and we might be able to do some of those things. And then it actually kind of perked a discussion um that Miranda shared with us about we already kind of do this a little bit through um it's called my laugh the Michigan liquid

104asset fund plus. So even as the third year is the treasure and stuff I'm learning I learned a little bit about my laugh today and and how we utilize some of our we put some of our bond funds through there and again we're able to capture some of those things and I guess what I would say mostly out of that is Miranda I again am assured that like you're on it and and that's a way that we again take these bond dollars right and just maximize them as much as as possible. So, so thank you to her for her commitment. And then here's another thing that Jenna or that responds to her commitment. The next thing we talked about is um with our series 2 bond sale, um our S&P our credit our credit rating

105matters, right? Right. And so we want to have, help me make sure, we want to have a high credit rating so that we can maximize our bond or our borrowing ability at the lowest possible interest rate to be able to maximize the dollars that we actually put into things. And so um so that's that. And I will tell the seven of us, one of the things that um makes us an attractive um partner for doing those things is the fact that we do have um a good solid fund balance, right? So we're seen as being quote unquote less of a risk, right? And so one of the things that we might want to do and the the finance team will continue to talk about this is we might even want to have some conversation as

106a board so that we can like maintain those kind of commitments and we can go out to creditors and say you know our fund balance is is something that is important to us and maybe we come up with some kind of commitment or some kind of goal to say hey to that we want to stay above this level so that we can remain attractive to creditors. and lenders. So, just it's something that I'm kind of planting a seed on that we might want to do as like a long-term like thought process and a longterm thing. All right. Uh we talked a little bit about the 2526 budgeting process. We're hoping uh right, you know, they're they're starting to bring some information out. The Governor Whitmer is going to, you know, want this per pupil increase.

107The House and the Senate will want a different and they're starting to try to hash out some of those details. And we're hopeful to get more information on that and we're hoping for something that maybe even might be a little bit easier than what they did this past one. So like where they decreased the, you know, percentages and then didn't put it on per pupil. So anyway, that's that. And then the last thing we talked about were some things that came up during um during the bond, you know, actions and items. We we get dorky about things like aluminum for pickup trucks and some of that kind of stuff. So there you go. Anybody have anything they want to add, Brad? Your next meeting will be tomorrow and next meeting 5:13 at 5:00 pm. Thank

108you very much. I'd like to introduce uh So there were no questions for Brad. No, thank you. I'd like to introduce uh Lauren Gold who will be uh leading an update on the policy committee. So, um we last met, we'll have a couple policies that we're talking about tonight. Uh but we last met on uh March 18th. Um and we uh reviewed policy 8321, which uh is on the consent agenda tonight. um which is just looking at the way we keep information secure um and it's a requirement of the Michigan State Police. Um so we talked about that. We also uh talked about some Neiola updates uh near and dear to my heart. There's new um a new option for kids with food allergies where uh epinephrine can be given through nasal uh spray versus

109only injectables. And so being on the ball with that uh Karen Harvey um had changed some of the language in our policy to uh say epinephrine delivery systems. Um so uh that is also going to consent agenda and then um she and I met about another policy update just regarding medication. Um and that's going to go on a future policy meeting um to be discussed further. Um and then 8320 talked about keeping personnel files complete and is on the uh consent agenda tonight. We also had a discussion about uh potentially uh moving our policy manual or service from uh Neola to Trun. Um and President McVey presented about that. We are going to uh continue to look into that at this time. Um, and so that was uh the past meeting. Our next meeting is

110going to be April 22nd. Um, I don't want to comment too much uh about uh the policy um referenced in public comment tonight. um except for to say that um there were some changes made because the policy was revoked by trun um and we will I'll discuss further with the president whether that needs to you know be officially brought to the board um for a vote of approval um versus unofficially. I think that's something we're still working out. But um the policy was um the one that we debated in December and passed shortly thereafter while Betty was getting ready to post it through themselves uh decided to bring back that policy since law no longer the law no longer it was no longer legally correct essentially um in the way that it was written. So,

111Trun had pulled it back. Therefore, it didn't get added to the policy manual, but uh we can talk about it at a future meeting about whether that needs to come to the whole board. Just to clarify, that's the policy 2264 at all all of the there are like five sub policies ago. Thank you. Um and then show we have two discussion items uh policies 54 5540 and 5517.02. So uh it was that was sort of a novice mistake by me. So, it was it is a Neiola update which we will sometimes just do because they're rather brief in Scrier's um changes in consent agenda, but it was pointed out to me by a fellow trustee that there is quite a lot of addition of information. Um, and I think looking back that probably Niola updates

112that particular policy pretty regularly because I tried in the time I had to do a bit of a search as to but we have not as a policy committee updated it along with Niola. So it looks like for us like a large chunk of information. So to be true to our uh intent of having the full board uh discuss items with more changes than uh we decided it was no not really appropriate for consent agenda and we'll put it on a later agenda. I'm sorry for that error. Yes. So we will mark 5500 dealt with tonight. Well, dealt move table that we're taking that out of consent and we'll put it on a future meeting to discuss as a discussion item. We don't even need to vote on that. So, it's just we're going to

113table that until the next a future meeting. Thank you. Um, give me just a second because I'm pushing between policies and I want to very quickly pull up 5540 for the first reading just so I have it to reference while I'm speaking about it. And we should all be doing that probably. It's on page 28 of your manuals. So, I have so many windows open now. Um, poor packet. Yeah. Okay. Tell me the page number again. Okay. Sorry, I opened up a lot of policies that I lost the one that we're discussing for tonight. I apologize. Happens to us all. I'm getting through all the quotes. Okay. So, this was a policy that administration asked us to look at again. Um and uh this was brought to the attention that uh perhaps our policy wasn't

114in line entirely with how we were actually handling when child protective service teams come uh to the schools in order to interview a student. Um, and sometimes that's for suspicion of abuse or neglect made with reports made by our uh dedicated teachers or administrators and sometimes it might be outside uh concerns of abuse or neglect. It also sort of references a bit law enforcement coming to the school. Um and so we wanted to be clear on what the procedures would be um and also um how we would go about who would decide when parents were contacted. So uh for obvious reasons if there is a concern uh that there's parental abuse or neglect child protective services does have the right to interview students without a parent present. But if that's not the concern, then our

115preference would be for parents to be made aware. Um, and so I guess everyone can read the the text, but uh this says essentially that it's up to CPS to let our administrators know when it is appropriate or not appropriate for uh parents to be involved because sometimes our administrators will not know the details. Actually, usually um they may not know any particular details. Um so that was changed. Um we did elect though to ask um we did elect after some discussion. Um so it says the building administrator shall ask the investigator whether they may contact the parents prior to the interview. Unless the investigator specifically requests that the parents not be contacted. The building administrator shall attempt to contact the parents prior to questioning. So, we really wanted that decision uh as to whether

116or not the parents would be present to be left to the child protective services professionals and then our administrators to kind of go from there. Does anyone have questions or comments? Looks like Did you use Thru's language on that? Is that what the throne is up there? That's what you say. I'm not certain. You got it. We looked at um one part of this policy and felt that um some of the guidance from Tron uh made more sense for this part in terms of how to implement it and so added that part in. Um but then we and then we took out some parts of the NEOLA part so so they didn't kind of contradict each other and then um kept some other parts of the policy that we debated which were documenting the process

117and um and I think we landed in a spot that we felt more comfortable with in terms of how to implement this. I've since gone back to the administration and given them the updated polic assumed it was going to be supported and then also the administrative guidelines. So we discussed how to implement it moving forward. We really tried as a committee and as parents and educators to strike a balance between um how if your student was involved in um you know some sort of investigation and you could be made aware as a parent you would be. But uh also realizing that the protection of the student is our number one priority and so when you can't be then uh we had other safeguards in place. Uh so there there is a portion that is struck.

118Uh the building administrator or designated guidance counselor will remain in the room during questioning of the student unless prohibited by the agency investigator. Uh is there a reason why that is struck? So it was my understanding that the reason we took that out was because the administrator said that that was not what was specifically always happening. that sometimes it might be a teacher or and and so I got to find it now. I I I looked through the rest of the policy. I didn't see anything that specifically talks about that. Um, the reason I'm asking is even even in situations like this, I believe that the student needs to number one have a witness to the questioning and number two uh have a have a trusted adult from the school district in with the questioning.

119being the parent of a student that was improperly questioned. I can assure you that that that should be a necessary component of this policy. I questioned that as well. Yeah, actually I do think we need that back in there. I'm not sure. I question that as well. And I thought that the answer we got was that the principles did not want it quite this prescribed that it might end up being a teacher or something else. So, I don't know if we want to consider putting in language that says a school repres a a tr a school representative or I thought I thought that was the answers we sort of got that we had it in the administrative guidelines that someone would because I said the same thing and they were like, "Oh, of course we'd

120have somebody there, but it's not always us or the stool school counselor." But if the board feels more comfortable, we could. Well, I the question is is is if CPS is actually leading the charge and stating that like they they don't have the administrator in there. I think there was this balance between who's sort of running the invest in investigation. Is it CPS or is the district? Um, and maybe we just need to go back and discuss this more with CPS officials to determine how that process is taking shape because what you're saying just trying to protect the student too and make them feel more comfortable. Exactly. So, I think uh to Lauren's point um and it makes sense not to be a building administrator, but a lot of our students have uh have a

121trusted adult in the schools and uh a lot of our students have several of those adults in the schools that they can call on uh to be comfortable. If CPS is for some reason prohibiting a school employee uh to be present during the questioning, I'm not sure what we can do from a policy perspective, but I think I think someone from the school should be able to witness the questioning if not in the room. I wonder if part of the reason for that is that our teachers may not want to be hauled into court as witnesses. So I don't I I think there was some level of discomfort that CPS really once they come to do their investigation is sort of in charge of the investigation. Is that correct? And so um I I certainly

122see both sides of that. I think we should go back to the back to the drawing board a little bit though on this one to clarify some some of these components spec specifically about that line. and the bill building administrator or designated guidance counselor will remain in the room during questioning of the student unless prohibited by the agency investigate gator. So why don't we do that? I will go back and dig into that a little bit further as to why we would potentially strike that out versus adding something that does provide more support for the student per se during the process. So, as a Oh, do you have something to say, Brad? I just want to offer my concurrence. Okay. I was going to say then without objection, let's uh return this to policy pending

123further research. Is that acceptable? All right. Great. Thank you. Thanks for the catch, uh Jason. Okay. So, next up is uh 5517.02. Um the 2020 uh title 9 um did not list specifically gender identity and expression. 2024 did uh 2020 is now back into effect. Therefore, uh as a basically technical change, uh the illusion to title nine in our uh transgender non-binary students policy is no longer accurate as a supporting the policy is still intact. Students still have rights under Elliot Larson. but uh to site our sources uh as we would tell our students that source is no longer one of the sources. So uh this was a uh change there. We uh also talked about adding Elliot Larson very explicitly as a reference since we are referencing state law. Um, and the only reason

124it's not listed there is because it is listed earlier in 5517 and this is a subset policy of 5517. Um, so is there any harm in leaving it at the bottom as a cited out? Well, we'd have to add it at the bottom as a cited, but that was my intention and it didn't end up on there. But I'm I think it's really appropriate to have the state legal guidance listed. So add Elliot Larson to the bottom. Yeah. In terms of like showing our citing our there was there were microphones off. So the statement is to move the Elliot Larson LCRA as cool kids call it to the bottom of that uh policy under cited cited statutes. Correct. Under references. Under references. And and I would just like to make clear that regardless of whether

125or not we as a body add these references, rights still exist, ElCra is controlling, Elliot Larson Civil Rights Act is controlling. Um and I would actually say that we could leave in the um first reference to Title 9. We do need to remove the reference um to the letter to educators that it's at the very bottom there. that was what was um revoked under that's that's been removed. Yeah, but the one above it, the title nine is still there's still good law in there. Um so I I would recommend that we leave that that we add Elliot Larson um just for consistency purpose. Um, I think I I am intrigued by moving to Thrun at some point because we do have a lot of policies that overlap and a lot of references that could be

126updated um at some point in time, but um it is listed above if that's if that's an issue for someone else. The rights don't go away just because we don't list them there. So, oh, finished. Sorry. No, no, I'm not rushing you. I'm just making sure you're finished. So what I'm hearing then um policy chair is that we are going to unreove the title n reference in the references. Well that's what Darcy is suggesting. I think we should get rid of title n in the I mean like we had said at the policy committee meeting but she's asking we could discuss that. I think well again title 9's listed in and this is a sub policy of that and at least a dozen other policies though too. I mean, you know, we're missing. So, yeah,

127to clarify for some members of the community who have expressed I went through every single policy that referenced 22 um that referenced Title 9 and the ones I mean the reason this one is coming up was the the specific change between 2024 and 2020. There were a few but it was mostly in the way uh assault claims are dealt with on a college campuses which isn't applicable here and the protections uh regarding gender expression and identity. So it wasn't anything nefarious in terms of what it's just that the 2024 guidelines for Title 9 are no longer applicable. So I just it's it was under some advice of council that we be accurate. So I I think there's a I mean Darcy and I have a good faith disagreement as to whether or not it really

128matters. And honestly, in terms of what is going to protect our students and uh and how our kids daytoday life goes, I don't know how much I mean I don't feel all that strongly one way or the other if it's mentioned once or not at all in a policy because right now we still have state law protecting the rights of our transgender students. And I think um what you know this isn't probably it doesn't probably make a huge difference one way or the other whether title N is mentioned or not and if it's mentioned once versus not at all but so so I guess just clarify for me. So we're removing title N from this policy because of the gender the change in the 2020 for 2020 But it still has meaningful title N still

129has meaningful part components to it. So yeah. So I don't know if we have to remove should remove it at all because I I question then all the other policies and just cherrypicking. Well, we're not removing it from everything. We're removing it from 0.02. We're not removing it from 55 5517 the parent part. Yeah. So I just don't know if we even have to remove it from this one. It's a duplicate in my in my opinion. All right. It's a O2.02 is is a sub policy to 5517 and it in there it references Alra and Title 9. So that carries through in some ways. you know, if you're not familiar with the policy, it's nice to have that additional reference if you want to go and do some nerdy research. Um, is it absolutely necessary?

130I don't think so. Um, you know, I'd get into an argument that, you know, our rights still exists whether we list them there or not. Um, I guess the thrust of this argument is that the content of the policy stays the same. Um, and it is covered under good law, be that state, federal, and uh relevant case law. But the one reference to that um guidance from the department of ed does need to come out. it's it's been revoked and it that was, you know, based on Prun's advice to us and so I just didn't want anyone to say like, oh, this policy isn't properly referenced for clarification. This was advice from council and it's a technical change specifically because of how we are referencing title n in this specific subcomponent. Right? So it is

131not incorrect and to Darcy's point it's already referenced in 5517 which carries down to all the subp parts of the policy anyway. So since the reference to title 9 in this particular subp part of the policy is now incorrect or sorry did I misstate that? I'm sorry if I'm not being clear. So if you look at the references at the very bottom we've got federal law title N that is still relevant to some degree and in some parts. That last one was an interpretation from Biden and that has been revoked. And so truly that part needs to come out and the paragraph at the very beginning that references that should come out. Title 9 is still relevant law. Um and so isra and there there are many other laws that are not referenced here that

132are also relevant. Um it's I love that things are referenced and people can refer to them. Um again we're not taking away or granting any rights that aren't already provided. Um, it's it's I I enjoy that they are there, right? I I I was I was trying to clarify because I I believe the board's gotten a number of inquiries from this from the community. Yep. I uh Yes, I understood what you said. Thank you. So, so thank you for re reexlaining it. I'm just saying the the paragraph that we have in this particular part of the policy is now deprecated. So it that is why that is removed. We're not removing title N from any of this policy. We're simply removing that paragraph because of how it's referenced. Thank you. That's perfect. I just wanted

133Darcy to agree on the record. So it's a good clarification. wrap it up. So, we're talking about so we can have the discussion of whether or not we leave the title N reference. Um, that's I think probably preference and along the same lines for me as ELCRA because again it's referenced in 5517. I don't to me it doesn't hurt to have them referenced. Yeah, we're in I think we're in agreement about and I just would like to keep for this part would would like to keep the state law that is most accurate and most at this point in our history most strongly supports our students as if you look at this policy that is the law on which we are. And so uh any kind of new interpretations of federal law are are not going

134to you know at this point our state law is what we are clearly referencing. So it's a first reading, right? Yeah. So I don't think we're voting on it anyways, but I would suggest that when we bring it back, we could bring it back with the Elliot Larson reference for reading, too. Are we okay to move on? Are we Well, I don't know. Just I think this is it for policy, right? Well, thank you. Uh yeah. No, thank you very much, Lauren. Um so, I'd like to uh like to move to without objection, if you don't mind, to have a quick bio break uh for about five to seven minutes and we'll reconvene in at 8:40ish. Pardon? Whatever. Seven. 34 plus seven. You were What's wrong? We have a lot to cover still yet afterwards.

135Well, we have one objection to a bio break. We're good. We'll get there. Thank you. We are back. Thank you very much for um for that uh administration board updates. I'll let Dr. Lotch start. I'd like to be the tail of this one. Okay. I have three quick ones. Um, as was mentioned earlier, we had a great groundbreaking at the middle school on the 20th and really excited about the direction of both the SMS updates, the senior center updates, and the Liberty Recreation Complex. I think that's going to be great for our students and our community. So, it's great to see how well we're progressing with the bond work under the leadership of, you know, our entire core team and our teaching staff and administrators and we just um thrilled to be able to um

136see all this come to fruition. Uh secondly, congratulations to all the steam programs for incredible seasons. I was able to go to the awards uh ceremony for this middle school science olympiad team this weekend and just proud of all their accomplishments. A lot of top three finishes and all their events and then therefore excited to be part of the May 5th steam recognition ceremony which is coming up. Um, the other thing we're doing in the community that I think is important work is as part of CQC, which is a community coalition group, including the schools, is we're working on dealing with or helping people that are in transitional housing situations in in the community. And so, we have another meeting this Thursday and feeling like that's a um collaborative effort that is really looking at

137this problem of um people being unhoused. So, that's what I have today. student son and day. Um, I don't have any updates tonight, but thank you to the band and for DECA for coming in tonight. Thank you. And thank you for bringing them. That was that was awesome. You brought the band in as well. Oh, sorry. Sorry, Mr. Austin. Um, just want to give another shout out to uh this superintendent recognition, Nate Lampman. Um, you know, he has touched many lives. He was my sister's band teacher and then my kids band teacher. So that just kind of tells you the the length he's been around. And then the human resource report right now we see a lot of uh influx of uh and well retirements and resignations and stuff like that. And uh this one

138we had Dr. Superintendent Steve Lotch was on there and uh that was kind of a a real thing to see. So, thank you for all the work you've done too and all the students you've touched, Mr. Gerby. All right. Uh, I also want to thank the band members and the the decad individuals who joined us tonight. Um, I love it when we have music here and it's just it creates such a positive environment. I'm just I get really excited and I just have tremendous admiration for for those individuals and and then to hear how they're like so independently motivated to do it was just totally fantastic. So whether it's vocal, whether it's band, whether it's orchestra, I just, you know, those are examples of incredible programs that we provide for kids. And when you hear

139about creativity and I remember my kid like uh recording himself right at home, sending off a video and then getting back like an entire band concert like so like just totally like creative. Mr. Lampman spoke to it like they really did like go above and beyond for kids and even though the kids sometimes had to wear weird things on their faces and all that but whatever. Um anyway, so I want to thank Mr. Lampman Lampman who you know is leaving what I called I told him earlier a Shaquille O'Neal sized pair of shoes but we both agreed that uh the future's all so bright though for for kids in in music programs here. So and he he he and it you know his commitment to um to student teachers and to his colleagues like assures

140me of that. So thank you Mr. Lampman. Uh I also want to speak about quickly about retirements, notable retirements on our board packet, including that guy over there. All right. Um these are people who have given their lives to students and to our families and and to my families and to my family and my students and my kids and thank you. All right. Uh autism awareness in in April. So, um, some of the most cherished moments I've I've had I've ever experienced as an educator have been with students with autism who, you know, and these stu I I hope that these students feel loved, appreciated this month for being exactly who they are. Um, and then I guess I would say state testing week. So, now I'm going to back it up with um, but

141kids, it's almost over. you know, SAT kick butt on the SAT, crush it, get it over with, and then we'll get back to normal business. And then the last thing is that I just want to acknowledge for about 30 seconds that there I know there's a lot going on in the world right now. And uh there's with that comes heightened feelings and anxiety and you know, I see through protests and I see through our emails that just individuals are struggling to to understand what's happening right now. And and what I will tell you as a trustee and and as a teammate, I really believe that we fight for kids here and that every kid matters to us and we want them all to have rights and to be the students just be loved for who

142they are in our schools. And so, all right, that's all. Good night. Okay. Um uh not much of an update. Um, I think that we're going to be looking at CARES grants maybe the next time around. Okay. And no knock to any of us, but Brian Puffer knows how to run a tight ship. 30 to 45 minutes. Just saying. Yep. Um, as to uh awareness of any issue. Um I think that it's great to highlight that because um whatever you are bringing to someone's awareness opens a door for understanding and uh outreach for inclusivity. uh when I work with my autistic kids every day um as we walk the halls and the general ed students um engage with them or my students engage with the environment around them and I think to u Seline with

143the the murals um the things that we do in our lives do affect other people and um if someone is bringing something to your awareness uh take that chance to just or that moment to look and see how you can include them in your Thank you. Thank you, Jesse. Um, I'm going to briefly echo uh the shout out to Mr. Lampman and the musicians. Um, I think for a lot of kids, um, I included uh, music is the continuity uh, for four years of uh, their high school. You know, they may move through different teachers and different classes, but you know, they're seeing Mr. Lampman or M every day. Um, and so I really appreciate that kind of safe, warm, uh, musical place, uh, that kids have here. Um, I this month got to hear

144some concerts, uh, both band and orchestra. Um, I want to shout out all the spring athletes who are getting started and hopefully we'll have some spring weather for them to get started in soon enough. Um, I have heard that there were some really great shows put on by our drama uh students and clubs. So, lots of great happenings. Um, one of these days I'm getting to a play. Um, and then uh I want to speak about autism awareness month and uh uh diversity, equity, and inclusion together because equity and inclusion and honoring the neurodeiversity that we have in the community are all really uh very tied in with the best of what we can be as a school and as a district. Um and so um our uh kids and teachers and uh staff who

145may live with autism uh bring their talents and their strengths. And we also need to meet challenges. And that is all um what equity is about is helping people um uh reach their full potential. And uh celebrating diversity means celebrating our students with autism as well. I'd also like to shout out uh families and parents of students uh with autism this month. Um the parah educators, the educators um this is all a part of us doing that kind of extra support that uh students many students need in our district. And um just because this month is April, I will shout out autism awareness as part of that uh really important work and I will shout out my um one of my favorite little relatives as well. And you know I wouldn't change one thing about

146him including his diagnosis. So April is a big month. Uh thank you to the parent that uh mentioned autism awareness and deaf history awareness. That was a good one. I didn't know that one. Um uh April uh is a couple big uh months uh for what I do uh for a career. So April is second chance month uh as well as alcohol awareness month. Uh so those are big uh things, but it's also a huge month for schools. So it's uh school library month, which uh which is a big one. We have uh great media centers here uh in Seline. Fantastic. Um Lauren just mentioned uh the parapros that uh work with all of our students. Uh last week was pair of professionals appreciation day. So um I missed that one. I apologize everybody for

147missing that one. Uh school librarian appreciation day was also last week. Um this week is National Assistant Principles Week. Uh I'd like to give a big shout out to the middle school principal. I know we shouldn't single out anyone, but uh she does a fantastic job uh especially with uh with my daughter. So like to thank her for that. Um also in a couple weeks we have public school volunteer week and we have had a number of volunteers come in uh over the last couple months that we've been able to see what contributions they make uh to our uh to our district and volunteers are the cornerstone. Uh, and then finally, uh, one of my favorite ones, and is Rex still here? Yeah, Rex is still here. So, uh, on the 22nd is school bus

148driver appreciation day. And let me just say that our bus drivers are fantastic. And, uh, they are not appreciated enough. They deserve more than just one day. But, uh, thank you to the whole transportation team for, uh, keeping all of our students moving. Thank you. I appreciate the uh reference to school librarians. I I did not know that but I wanted to comment on it because I I read Bill Gates's book uh recently source code where he talks about his his his formative years and he's absolutely beholdened to a librarian who recognized the skill set that he had and when he transferred schools uh he he was most devastated at not being able to work with that particular librarian who was noticing his his strengths and his skill set. Um I any old time. Ben,

149uh, I'd like to make a statement. Um, as you are aware, the SEA and the district have been in salary negotiations for nearly a year. Uh, significant progress has been made and the negotiating the team negotiating on behalf of the board of education. US uh, continues to work collaboratively on the salary schedule. I just want a quick shout out to Carol Baky Diglio, Miranda, Cara Davis, uh Rex Clary, Teresa Stagger, principal at the high school, Megan Degrand, principal at Heritage, and Emily Cichler, a principal at Harvest, who are on the negotiating team. On February 26th this year, many of you go back one, please, Ben. Many February 26th this year, many teachers attended the board of education meeting to show their support as the SEA president made a statement uh on their behalf. Uh the

150presentation led to some articles in the Seline Post and the Sun Times which were great. The negotiating teams then entered into mediation on March 10th and uh mediation was held again on March 18th with very little movement. And a third meeting is scheduled for next week, April 14th. I'm not sure how many more meetings they have scheduled. The board of education would like to share the district's most current offer as of February 4th, 2025 with you. now and I'm going to just walk us through the three slides without comment but this are this is the offer uh Ben anytime. So the original collective bargaining agreement basically an accepted the lanes and steps granted for eligible employees. And for those of you who aren't a teacher and aren't familiar with these terms, let me just mention

151a step is that each year that happens that you stay with the district, you move up a step, up a step, up a step um until a certain point. Uh lanes are mean a change in salary basically if you've earned a master's degree or a doctoral degree. And in fact, we had a couple of faculty here who had earned two doctoral degrees, which is quite interesting. That's what we refer to lane changes to and double masters as well which is well anyway don't distract me. Uh all the steps every step indicates a 4% increase in salary on the schedule and that is in effect this year whether there's whether the contract is um renegotiated or not. It's we've agreed to that one already. Ben if you can go to the next slide. Uh here's the

152most recent offer there a during this year a $600 off schedule payment to all certified staff active as of the end of February. What that this this year what that means is it's just a uh piece of money uh $600 uh with no strings attached during this uh year 2526. the the district has offered to eliminate step one from the salary schedule and we're going to be looking at that in the next slide which means that you get to start as a new teacher at step two. They've also included they've added a step 16 to the salary schedule which reflects a 2% increase. And at the end of September, there will be a 3% increase uh of the salary schedule and as of September 1st, a 4% step increase uh in lanes for all eligible

153employees. Um let's go to the year. The next year they've offered a 2% increase on a salary schedule and a 4% step increase and lanes for eligible employees. Longevity pay remains the same from the previous contract. The bottom line is that this is this will the amount of money that the district is adding to salaries and I'm hoping I'm getting all of this right is 5.4 million 30% increase for certified staff on the steps and 7% increase for certified staffs on a step increase over two years. And if you could go to the next slide, Ben. Uh what you're looking at on the the table on the far left indicates the lanes, bachelor's, masters, and mast's plus or PhD. And um and each of the horizontal rows indicates the uh salary step. So you can

154pick pick a a lane if you want. And as imagine yourself as a teacher, let's say starting at lane five, and we'll look at comparisons in just a second. uh next year you would earn 529 uh the year after that 5541. The district is offered uh the increases and they show up in these schedules. So for 2025 if you're on lane five, as I understand it, you would then start at 52416 and the year after you would go to one over 55602. Um so you can play with this and follow around along to see the increases. The first row has been slashed off on those last two uh tables because that's the first step and they're just going to they they're offering we are offering to eliminate that. At the very bottom is line lane

15516 uh which is newly added and Ben if you can go to the very last slide is just these are just examples. Um, if you're in steps one to 13, there's a 13% increase. Uh, 7% next year this year, one would hope, and 7% the following year. If you're on step 14, it's an 11% increase uh because they shift into a different set of step system. And uh, employees on step 15 through 25 will see a 7% increase over the next two years. And I believe that's the last slide. And I just wanted to offer these all without comment and thank you and the negotiating team very much for all of the efforts you put into that. Thank you. The consent agenda, you can take the slides down anytime, Ben. The Oh, uh, one thing

156I did want to add is that all of these slides will be available on our district website in the next day or two. Uh, yes, I'm getting a nod from our communications director so you can study them at length. Uh, consent agenda. I'm not going to read it aloud, but uh I'd like to entertain a motion to authorize the consent agenda as amended. So move Berwick. Burwick. Second. Uh Austin. All in favor, please say I. I. All right. Thank you. 60. We Very good. Uh items on the next agenda. Dr. Lotch. We have we have a Seline Community Education annual update and we'll also talk CARES. Um Darcy mentioned that before and then we also have two superintendent recognitions. One is the United girls hockey team and then we also will be honoring the state

157champion boys swim and dive team. They did fantastic this year. Thank you. Both of them did. Uh public comment. A public member of the public can address the board briefly for up to three minutes or request to be put on the agenda for a future meeting. We have pardon Susan step. It's all you. This thing shocked me. Um so just real quick um policy 5540 that was discussed um there is an administrative guideline I did point this out um during the policy meeting that policy meeting um but there's an administrative guidelines um that were posted last year and it actually is specific relationship with governmental agencies is specific to the principle and so um let's see so it says the the principal um will remain in the room during the questioning um and that's specific

158for like the law and everything. So that um I encourage you all to to look at that um when you're looking at you know um because there's two like Niola and um Thun so make sure that that's accurate. Um, I know we don't approve administrative gu or sorry, you all don't approve administrative guidelines necessarily. Um, but that's a good thing to keep in mind because it it answers that question. Um, so, uh, regarding, uh, policy 5517.02, 02. Um I don't know if I I meant to say it in my last comment. Um but uh at the meeting when it was discussed um the proposed revisions um from what I heard um are not based on legally required opinion. Um and it was a suggest suggestion that the superintendent said can be considered or not. Um,

159so I don't think that was something could have changed between then. Um, but I don't know. Um, so this policy was actually adopted in 2021 and so at that time we did have NE neola policies. Um, and so the 2024 um is irrelevant with those dates um regarding Yeah. Anyways, that was mentioned earlier. Sorry. Um and so since the board has adopt since the board adopted NEO NEO policy packet in 2018 their policies have always been inclusive with sexual orientation and gender identity in their language. Um I do want to say there was a Neola um the previous board received last year um when there was an update about Title 9 um they were specifically talking about the cases and the question of you know 2020 2024 regulations. So not a dear colleague letter um

160but the regulations and so um there the question was Bosto um in that decision. So, Niola um has that they interpreted sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity um that they have for a number of years predating BOSC. Um and then also um so they were looking at a decision from 2016 um holding that discrimination against transgender students likely constitutes sex discrimination under Title 9. Um so I want to I want to put that out there that Thank you. Yes. Great. Yeah, it's out there now. Thank you. Uh, the next board of educational meeting will be held on April 22nd, 2025 at 6:30. I can hardly wait. Uh, I'd like to enter a I'd like to entertain a motion to enter into close session with the board at 9 at 9:07 with intent to

161reopen at approximately 10 9:45 10 o'clock. I always underestimate at approximately 10 o'clock for the purpose uh to discuss uh matters under attorney client privilege that are exempt from disclosure pursuant to state and federal law under section 8H. Uh under section 8H a two-third roll call vote is required. I'm going to just call you alphabetically reverse reverse alphabetical. So moved. Oh, we got we got a um we have to move it though. Good. Good call. Thank you. Berwick, Tim Austin, Darcy Berwick. Uh, but before we can go into that, let's have the vote. Thank you very You're You are on it. Oh my gosh, you are. Uh, Tisidus, I I step Oh, Ste's not here. McY, Gold, I Gerby. Yep, he says. Berwick, hi. Austin, thank you very much. Thank you for your service this

162evening. Uh, Kate, appreciate it. And uh good luck in this the You're not doing SATs tomorrow, are you? Senior I don't I just resend it. just resend it. Yes, please. We're back. I'd like to entertain a motion to return to open session at 9:53. So moved to seconded. Burwick 53 and who is it? Tis it is in Berwick. All right. All in favor please say I. I. I would like to entertain a motion to adjourn the regular board of education meeting of April 8th at 9:53 and a half. Motion. Tissidus. Tissidus and B Gerby. All in favor please say I. I. Bergie. Bergie. We get so punchy. All in favor I have 60. Thank you very much. Uh I get to tap us out. Thank you.