001for e say the word Ben e e e to press my button I would like to call to order the uh Board of Education meeting for Seline area schools of December 10th 2024 uh standing as you are able we'll speak the Pledge of Allegiance led by Dr Brad gerby no doctor but I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much I would like to take a moment as board president to make some special recognition now sadly I don't have a speech prepared that's a good thing perhaps but I do would I would like to recognize two of our trustees who are rolling off and I in the past I
002don't think we've ever really done plaques or Awards or trophies or plexiglass but I'd like to start with Susan Eep who came on the board in 2019 I do remember when I first met you at the uh the The Forum in the Seline Middle School uh nerve-wracking event for sure but you held your own well and and garnered plenty of votes and i' it's it's been uh a pleasure serving with you so if you could this something for your living room or your office [Applause] orever thank you so much and I do have one other plaque because we have one other board member who's rolling off Jenny Miller from 2021 to 2024 um Jenny has historically received more votes than any other candidate ever and I went back 20 30 40 years no and nobody
003had had quite as much support as Jenny and I just want to say had you run again I'm sure every one of those votes would have come in plus some again so Jenny you've been remarkable on the board I want to thank you very much uh this year you're serving as secretary and were you in other leadership positions as well policy chair policy chair okay great two policy chairs off so uh Jenny Miller thank you so [Applause] much and now on to the fun uh public oh the whole meeting's fun uh public comment and member of the public can address the board for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on the agenda at a future meeting please note students will be given first priority to speak on any topic the uh first
004public participation portion of the meeting is limited to 1 half hour 30 minutes normally and limited to agenda items only as second public participation section will be offered at the end for any other comment individuals addressing the board should take into consideration rules of common courtesy and the public participation portion of the meeting can't be used to make personal attacks against board members District employees or students we do have a student are you ready okay Elise zo J Elise J oh good evening Schoolboard trustees my name is Elise CH and I am a first grader at Woodland Meadows since I started last year as a kindergartener I have learned so so much from my teachers and made lots of really good friends I love my community at Woodland Meadows I was really sad when my
005parents told me that I might not be able to stay at my neighborhood school with all my friends and teachers for my third grade year they said I might have to to go to a totally different school with all different teachers different classrooms and different kind kids I really don't want to do that if I have to go to a different school for third grade that would mean I would have be at three different School schools in three years a different School every year this makes me feel sad and scared that is too much change for me my community is so important to me that and my friends and I'm scared that my community will be broken apart I might be little but I am important please listen to me I love Woodland Meadows please
006do not take my neighborhood School away from me thank you for your time thank you Elise we usually don't comment but that was very well done thank you uh we have three older children uh uh Amy teslin followed oh my God we have three adults now Amy tesin followed by Tiffany and followed by David Hayward just so you know the order thank you Seline ARA School Board um I had the pleasure of attending several of the policy meetings where the policy committee discussed options to address the new federal guidance around Title 9 effective as of August this past summer I see that uh trun policy 20 2264 non-is discrimination on the basis of sex in education is being proposed to address these changes it's good to read the proposed policy um in full uh because
007when you're in the meetings you don't get to see um following the meeting in August I asked how past situations when parents have publicly informed the District of sexual harassment and assault incidents would be addressed with this new guidance sadly in our society these are not isolated incidents um and hopefully that will not happen tonight um in addition to all the training that staff have been receiving I was very pleased to learn from Betty yonke uh at the last meeting policy meeting in November that she and Title 9 coordinator Carol diglio we're working on a tab for the homepage of the Seline Area Schools website this title N9 tab is now visible at the bottom of the homepage and it explains different title N9 violations and states that all staff students and community members who
008believe a Title Nine violation has occurred should report or file a complaint with the title 9 coordinators thank you to Betty Yoni and Carol diglio for this great work in creating more transparency and better communication about this process as this is the last board meeting of the year I'm going to take my time time to thank all the trustees for the Seline area school board for all their extensive work this year I will never understand all the things that you do and I'm sure you don't hear our appreciation enough but thank you my last and most important thanks goes especially to trusty Eep for the courageous and capable work she has done for the last six years in championing the human rights of all students students from lower socioeconomic status students with disability ities students
009of different races gender identities sexual orientations and really all students thank you you will be [Applause] missed sorry I wasn't sure if it was me or if it was my husband okay um hello good evening so first I'd like to reiterate my question from uh the last board meeting when is it that niola stopped writing guidelines um because we were told that you know we we were uh not following uh protocol and policy by writing guidelines and were publicly admonished uh for doing so so I'd like to know after hearing that suddenly they aren't and haven't been exactly when that stopped and for how long they did um Second and something far more important and dear to my heart trusty Eep thank you for having end less and fearless dedication in the face of adversity
010and being willing to be the lone voice for children of all backgrounds regardless of it's socioeconomic status or gender identity or racial issues uh you have always come through with the best of your abilities to do so to your own detriment um I am so grateful to have been able to lend any help and support that I've been able to to do and there's no words for the amount of effort you have put in to your community uh I'd like to say that you will be greatly missed but instead I'm going to say welcome to the outside welcome back to the outside of the tent Susan [Applause] um Susan uh I'd like to add my uh own words to the last two speakers in thanks and gratitude to all the service that you've done in
011the last six years on the board um the community is is losing a huge asset uh in but the community is also gaining a great asset because I know that uh you'll rise as high as you want to go in public service and uh it was uh a huge honor for me to have uh been able to serve as a colleague of yours uh however briefly and um thank you very much for all the service that you've [Applause] done thank you Dr Hayward uh we're at the point in the agenda where we must approve the agenda uh items can be added or deleted from the agenda or the items changed at the request of an individual board member or the superintendent and we must uh approve this before proceeding do we have a motion to
012approve the agenda as printed motion Miller thank you it's her last meeting she's going to be moving a lot thank you uh um all in favor please say I I opposed great five zero thank you so much we have an agenda uh we have several action items uh I'd like to entertain a motion to adopt policy 2264 new the trune addition non-discrimination on the basis of sex and education programs or activities as recommended by the policy committee motion Miller JM yeah I'll support it thank you very much uh we'll open the floor to discussion at this point and in your packet what page is that someone who's looking at it for me this is the first page I mean thank you so I guess I'll just say uh we did um we've discuss this now
013at a couple meetings and Carol has been an expert at um at kind of updating us on uh why um choosing to add this policy to our policy catalog is the best choice and that it aligns with um the training that training opportunities and the forms that the district is using um through trun so um that is uh why the policy committee put it forward and that's what we we discussed last time so if anyone has any specific questions I'm sure Carol can answer them too but um that is kind of in a nutshell thank you and this is the second discussion we've had on this tonight then um right it's actually we've just we discussed it at two meetings but this is the oh that is the timer for the last speaker but uh
014I guess I said it again um we discussed it at two meetings and um went back and and did some more work around it Carol came back gave us some answers to some questions and then we brought it back again at the last meeting and so today it is an action item great uh Susan isip yeah um couple things um so for for one I I think it says that the board received the Neola version and I requested that and don't remember receiving it I don't know if other board members said um so I haven't been able to to uh review that um and I guess along those lines um the format is very different um you know I I this is my last meeting but um I would like to see um I guess
015this put into the Neola version as to what we're actually approving um and I would say like the you know it it's multiple Pages under like a b c um and each section sort of being its own um I know that the section with um title n uh we have listed the the Title Nine um designated coordinators like does that whole part B come out um because that's going to be removed um so what's that going to look like with um structuring it um so that's one question um and then my other component um that I was reviewing and really um brings concern um for me is that um let me look let me find it um sorry this is very long um sorry I'm trying to get to the bottom it's still going okay
016um so it it it is the the section um it it basically says that this policy um super ceeds all policies dealing with this topic and so that considering that we don't currently have thrun policy and this is going into part of the um Neola policy um that really has a lot of red flags for me um and so I I don't know if there was any because I know we do have a lot of policies like for example it mentions um you know race uh disability in here as well so I think about a lot of policies that it was because it was like if another policy gives like extra rights um it doesn't matter that this this policy supersedes all of it um so the correct me if I'm wrong Carol but um
017from what I understand the reason why that portion of the policy is written that it supersedes um previous policies is because um this is in alignment with the most current uh changes to Title 9 law and so if there are policies that are not in alignment with this they would not be in alignment with those Federal um federal laws is that and in terms of do you want to address how the names are being since we're not including specific names in the policy but the names will be on the the website do you want to address that piece I think I think the reason why we did that we did this back I don't know you can remember but we did it back I don't know two or three years ago we took the names
018off the policy and then put them just on the website and put the titles because of personnel changes so that it didn't have to be um didn't have to be the policy didn't have to be redone every time and then lastly in terms of formatting um when we adop a new policy they all go to niola regardless of the formatting and Neola formats them um for us it's it's a part of the catalog production is that budy is that am I understanding that correctly okay so you're just eliminating B and not okay um I thought it was not specific to before August 1 um but I'll find the language while you're um talking about I think um Miss Miller I think you answered everything that you had asked I I'd add that one of the
019important reasons why we felt it was important to go with the trun policy is because they are keeping up with the what seems to be monthly changes to what's what's going on as the title n updates are getting flushed out and Neola quite frankly has not been keeping up at the level we feel they need to be for this specific policy and in addition because we need to use legal guidance quite often if not all the time when we are looking at Title 9 UM situations or or cases so to speak we're always Consulting with trun anyway so it for this policy it makes more sense to be using trun version and um then we would be consistent with the guidance and they're going to default to the law and that keeps changing and so
020that that's why there's motivation for us to use the TR version for just this policy and Carol you you can maybe tell us more detail but they've been out in front of this where we have not gotten the same from Neola exactly very much so and if you watch the um how they had offered training they they would offer training like three trainings at a time so I was able to say if you did not have the time or could not fit in your training here are three more dates and to date we have all of our administrators trained at this point and it was because they had did so many offerings and really the transparency and the stepbystep um policy that provide that they provide allows us to it's it's a very I've mentioned
021before a very tedious process we don't want to miss a step we don't want to delay the process and so this is very transparent and I've been working behind the scenes with um Lindsay who is going to be our co- um Title 9 coordinator and in the case that I'm not available she is also there and then with Jackie and Robin so um if this was to be past we'd be able to get everything updated and current really quickly um so we we have been this is a a a great tool on top of a very good policy and just to reiterate um in addition to the policy that they've written that is current with that is in alignment with the current law and um and they're keeping a pulse on that as things change
022but they also have updated their forms that we can use for reporting and the training um is being continually offered and have they mentioned like if there are updates to the laws how that will impact future trainings um they they don't need to because they're so current with this we get um updates from trun they do trun blasts I'm part of that male Steve is part of that male they're very good about keeping us current um if you look at how Betty put this in she was very wise all the blue highlights are not only the pieces of the policy but they are identifying the the form that would be connected to that so in essence we're getting a board policy and we're getting our administrative guidelines at the same time um I yeah I
023found found that section thank you Carol sure um I found I found the language and and I don't think it's what um you all um had mentioned oh I don't the page of it it's under definitions um I had to find it on a screenshot that I did earlier about it so um yeah no wait I I'll read it it's it's in there um so the policy series which is the what I say a through h in different sections um supersedes any other non-discrimination anti-harassment and non retaliation policy to the extent another policy grants different rights regarding the topics covered in this policy Series this policy series controls so so that to me and just another thing that that kind of popped up that I think when you see this policy that you may have
024to go and and maybe make some changes that align with our current policy um for example it it was saying like I I had read that um if there's a complaint against um the superintendent you go to the board president and then if there's a complaint against the board president you go to the vice president so just making sure that that's all an alignment even the nitty-gritty pieces with um current niola policy so taking a fine eye and um going through that but I'm very very concerned about that section so Vice oh sorry vice president stean actually um did raise this and um it's one of the things that she um she has mentioned that the policy committee might be working on the the um complaint process anyways we've learned some things um this year
025so she had already raised that she was hoping the policy committee and she has some revisions that she'd like to offer and that's on the um on the agenda for the new policy committee to consider when they resume in January yeah that was a small example that was just I was just answering to that one she had she had caught that and was already um in tune with that so does any just interpretation just I'm just wondering if you could be more specific about what you what you're concerned which policy you're specifically concerned about this superseding because this seems like it's pretty um you know it it lays out non-discrimination fairly um stringently so I'm just it seems like this would be I I'm just a little confused as to which policy this superseding would
026cause harm well not I mean I don't have time to go through the multiple policies um no I'm just like this one any policy that's Neola that it's superseding and we're not even sure about that but this is due to law right right so it's like that's like this is it I'm just I don't understand how we could have another policy that went against Title 9 law so I'm not asking you to go through every I'm just trying to understand the specifics of your concern well there's there's title n law which is there's the law right but but there's structures that are different right like like I mentioned the complaint structure um and if it's superseding um for example if it's going over federal law well we have you know Elliot Larson where that's mentioned
027in um like in our transgender students policy and if you know there's something like very specific that's not in this this policy language I feel like that gets thrown out the window um I mean I I don't I don't know like ell Larson is mentioned in this it is in this policy in group of in groups of policies because I know whenever we when I was policy chair and we CH there was title n changes is that 2020 possibly and there was like five plus polic IES that we had to change because in each section there's um the non-discrimination anti-harassment and so some of that linking we're doing right now um from the title n perspective so the stuff that we have in draft is waiting for this to be approved should it be approved
028this evening and then we do do the linking behind this the scenes as it pertains to non-discrimination anti-harassment Title 9 Elliot Larson and so on but I see your point um and we can you know this part of it it's hard because there when Title Nine if there's a violation of Title 9 it covers a lot of things right but there can still be a violation of something but it doesn't fall under the umbrella of Title 9 so there can still be non-is discrimination or anti-harassment there could be harassment happening but it doesn't fall under the umbrella of Title 9 so this is this this I I believe um Miss Eep that this process is much more cleaner and transparent than current processes that we may have had and the work that we're doing and
029would we would like to really lift is the Outreach in the sense that we've changed and will update our parent resource to pull some of these out specifically so we're not searching around um I I think Amy for acknowledging our tab on the front page we don't have buttons in there yet because we're waiting for the policy to be passed but not only will will you be able to pull that title 9ine tab up we'll also have links that will bring you directly to the resources so I think it's improving transparency and how we meet the needs of the community and the way we prefaced it is if I'm a parent or a child or a member of the community and something like this may have happened we don't want people to be in a
030stressful situation and not able to find the right form or how to get started and I think I think you when it's all up and running and the transparence of it I think you would find it much more user friendly and and meeting the needs of people in some their most high need times we don't want it to be difficult um so it's really a much more specific I don't I don't see it going backwards but I I think I understand what you're saying and it could be where we do searches of this but they they are they do live under these same umbrellas um well just real quick it says non-discrimination anti-harassment and I know within the policy it even talks about r um discrimination so overall I'm not arguing like like how you're
031saying it'll be simpler and um make your job and um hopefully like you said the access because it hasn't been there before and thank you and Betty um for for making that um more transparent um on the website um and you know it I think making sure that everybody knows that they're mandated reporter right um and so th those are important um components it's just again I'm I'm worried about this language and I don't know if we could take it out possibly um but yeah I think I understand the concern and possibly a solution is that we have trun cross reference some of our potentially conflicting neol Neola policies with this once we adopt it because I've asked them to do that before that even though yeah they're familiar with their own policy manual they
032also know Neola policy because we often contact them and they will say okay your policy this says you need to take this step so they're familiar with Neola policy too and I think that would satisfy your concerns truste Eep that we don't want this adopted TR policy to have places in it where it's cont addicting other cross referenced policies like non-discrimination anti-harassment I I think that's what you're suggesting y yes thank you and we could have them do that and and I would prefer that we we do that a ahead of time um coming back to the table but um I won't be at the table and um you know I understand I wish all of this was passed in August I mean I think Neola sent their stuff in June I I had to
033look it up because I didn't have it but some other um boards publish their their stuff um publicly so um you know I know that was in June I think we we did update with the the date exception so pre August correct this didn't change until August 1 yes so this was the new law and then we lost our Neola rep and then there was some other things that took presidents which we totally understand but we see a sense of urgency for this so that we're update and aligned yeah I I saw the urgency a long time ago yeah and that our staff have full access to everything including our community to make sure our community has access Dr go so just on the race just because the community can't see what we're seeing so
034in terms of the concern about race it's it gives as an example of unlawful harassment unla unlawful harassment may include but is not limited to race color or national origin harassment which is prohibited by title six and title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Michigan Elliot Larson Civil Rights Act race color or national or origin harassment is unwelcome conduct based on a person's actual or perceived race color national origin that creates a hostile environment or becomes a condition of continued employment race includes traits historically associated with race including but not limited to hair texture and protective hairstyles race color or national origin harassment may take many forms including slurs taunts stereotypes or name calling as well as racially motivated physical threats attacks or other hateful conduct under this policy harassment based
035on ethnicity ancestry or perceived ancestral ethnic or religious characteristics will be considered race color or national origin harassment so I guess what I was just trying to get at not reading all of them but just so that the public or whoever is watching doesn't think that I was just trying to get to the specifics of What kinds of override because that since you mentioned race as an example that is somewhat reassuring to me that it has a pretty broad definition of racial harassment that references the Civil Rights Act and Michigan Elliot Larson civil rights act so I don't know if we have any policy on Race that's more stringent than that I understand like the theoretical concern but in terms of whether or not we vote for it and move it forward tonight it has
036a similar I won't read the whole thing out loud but just there's a similar um section about disability that talks about the Michigan persons with disability Civil Rights Act I only mention it because it's just if we're worried about this PO that line about this policy overriding other policy it is good to know what this policy includes and that does give me some comfort about this policy overriding since this policy does seem to be fairly stringent to my reading about defining yeah I mean that's consistent with law I hope it would be um I think I just wanted to reassure people who don't have this in front of us as to like what isn't it yeah I I think I brought up and thank you um superintendent lch for um kind of defying what I'm
037I'm trying trying to say right kind of those inconsistency um you know with procedural or policies that we don't have that thruns may be referring to on their policies so I just want to make sure that it's not messy so I will I will make a note on the document that I'm going to share with um uh president McVey about um some of the policy items that are carryovers for the next policy committee so I will make a note that um per perhaps one of the tasks in the new year would be to cross reference potential policies for um conflict with this new tital line policy I I think we have already asked superintendent and and Carol diglio to to do that exact thing uh with the assumption that this is is going to pass
038either tonight or in January so um I the question the question seems to be do we pass it tonight and deal with it that way and and put it through the tro process which could take two months I'm looking at Betty sorry two months perhaps before we finally get a a re a Neola version yeah we do oh okay well then I I misheard you earlier sorry all right then um is it I said I said it I I haven't received it that's what I said the ne verion okay I thought I sorry I thought it was in the last packet I could be wrong there so um good thank you are there any more comments that people wish to make uh before we put this to a vote no okay well then the motion
039on the floor is to app adopt policy 2264 the the TR addition non-discrimination on the basis of sex and education programs or activities as recommended by the policy committee all in favor please say I I I I opposed great thank you oh that's you right absolutely all right 4 one thank you very much I'd like to uh enter and appreciate the uh the conversation it's complicated and oh thank you Carol for uh I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the close that's you you're on close session minutes of November 12th 2024 for the purpose of disciplinary action against a School employee AA of the open meetings act are we doing both at the same time I'd also like to entertain a motion to approve the closed session minutes of November 18th for the purpose
040of superintendent evaluation 8A of the open meetings act do we have something to recommend either or both I'll do it motion gerby motion gerby for both of them sir while I'll second both of those there you go Brad you just motioned for both of them for those of you new to this if you're AP Gov folks we basically read this quietly and we don't share this with the rest of the public because this was a closed session and so we we keep the minutes within and then we approve them all right you got that I'm sure your teachers told you all about it right awesome thank you yes great then um all in favor of the uh November 12th minutes please say I I I opposed by zero and and uh all in favor of
041the November 18th minutes please I thank you very much oppos hearing none great thank you we have minutes uh i' oh thank you I'd like to uh entertain a motion to approve the 2024 final superintendent evaluation as completed and read at the November 18th special Board of Education meeting the evaluation with ratings is reflected in the minutes of the November 18th special Board of Education meeting meeting meeting minutes uh we'll start with that and then I've got something to say do we have someone who motion oh go ahead motion Miller motion Miller I'll support it Brad gby seconds now um I a copy of these notes are and scores are in the packet but I was going to just share them second reading for the uh for the people in attendance tonight the superintendent valuation
042was done in five different categories each with a different waiting and I'll tell you a little bit about the waiting but uh you'll you'll hear a score uh from one to three three being the highest one being the lowest and uh a very brief statement uh about what each of the categories is so under governance and board relations with a weight of 20% we have policy involvement is a three goal development was a three information uh was 2.5 materials and background for the board three board questions answering board questions 2.5 board development three under community relations with a weight of 15% the uh communication with community and with parents 2.5 Community parent input 2.5 media relations 3 District image three approachability three under staff relations with a weight of 15% staff input was three staff
043Communications was three personnel matters Personnel matters was 2.5 delegation of Duties three recruitment 2.5 Labor Relations and bargaining three visibility in the district is a superintendent visible in the district three out of three business and finance with a weight of 20% uh this was uh remarkable budget development and management three budget reports Three Financial controls three facility management three resource allocation three uh a perfect perfect score through there under instructional leadership with a weight of 30% performance evaluation system three building level leadership three staff development three School develop School Improvement three curriculum 3 instruction three student voice 2.5 support for students 2.5 and Professional Knowledge three uh they also the mb's tool which is available on our website also asks uh to a measure of student growth which is weighted at 40% we calculated an
044achieve achieved a 2.83 out of three progresses District towards uh sorry toward District size side goals a weight of 10% we achieve three out of three and uh I would oh so overall the rating was a 96% uh professional practice for the superintendent 2.88 out of three overall effectiveness was a 96% 2.89 which is out of three and I would like to ask if there's any discussion about this at this point hearing none I'd like to put it to a vote please all in favor of oh yeah you were great I I was gonna um mention um so the comments that um you included from our discussion yes um where does that go I have a document which I shared with Betty and I thought I had shared with you did okay and I read
045it yeah and that's where they go okay just I gave everyone just just to clarify I gave everyone a summary of all the comments that we crafted into a package for those who uh including the one board member who couldn't make it and they were on the left column and the superintendent's comments were on the right and they are publicly available uh for the world to see okay so my vote I guess um is sort of based on I don't feel that all board trustees comments were um put in there from from the disc session um or were um some board members or um so yeah I'm I'm I'm that's part of my vote okay uh just a point of note though point of order uh I shared everyone's comments with everyone asked you all
046to give me any edits you might have if you didn't see your your comments reflected and I would have gladly changed them so uh all in favor please say I I opposed I all right 41 thank you very much uh congratulations superintendent Lodge I'd like to uh entertain a motion uh to approve the allocation of funds for round 2425 of the car's Grant in the amount of $869 36 as submitted by Brian Puffer director of Community Education this is your chance Brad no so moved Miller second sure Me Kirby thank you uh Mr puffer is in the audience tonight just in case there are any questions and there there there were a few uh we do have a few questions from the from the board oh if you have a statement sure you might be
047well and by the way if I can interrupt for a second I we've also had a had a concern from a member of the public who wants uh the board members to remember to speak into the microphones because occasionally online it gets the the sound gets dropped and sounds good thank you very much no problem uh the car's Advisory Board met on Wednesday October 9th and Thursday December 5th to re review the 12 cares Grant applicate applications sub for round one uh we had a member of each Grant uh there in in the audience to answer any questions that the board members would have had for both rounds uh the board approved or partially approved 10 of the 12 cares grants awarding a total of 86993 they did deny two grants the first one was
048the slen parks and wck ada8 door Grant uh they denied that due to the duplication this was the same project that was funded back in 2014 2015 uh so the board felt that it was just a duplication of a request from about 10 years ago second one was a dementia friendly organization of Seline that one was denied because they requested mostly salaries typically what the car's Bo does not um approve but they are encouraged to reapply in round two minus the salary request if these are approved tonight the available funds for round two would be 10,344 27 uh the deadline for round two is January 24th questions sounded like you answered some of them uh I as you and I had a conversation about this earlier some of the the requests were were on the
049vague side and um if anything gets fleshed out in the conversations it would be helpful for the board to know like in the comment section so when the football team asked for additional funding to $20,000 we would like to know why and and you were in in private conversations you were very clear with why yeah what we could do too is we only include the front page front page of the application because it could be anywhere from 10 to 20 pages long and so we can put the whole thing in there I me make it a little longer but it'll have all the information in there so that's the board that goes over there or perhaps if if if it if it's necessary it probably isn't necessary or you can ask me questions too we'll
050be happy to answer appreciate that go ahead Shanny Miller um a number of the grants this time were for uniforms there were at least a few there um and I just wonder like how often or how frequently um we need to um replace uniforms how how frequently I know maybe you the cares Grant hasn't always done it maybe it's come through Athletics or through other um streams of funding but just wondered if that's a consideration uh I mean it's come to the cares board probably more since Co than they ever has before to be honest with you I've been on it or been in charge of it since 2008 and we really didn't have too many of them then so it's been more so since Co um you know they look at as an expanding
051program and each cares round is basically the grants are put up against each other that come through but we have received quite a few lately for um multiple sports teams so that might be something just in the in the future too coordinating with um you know boosters or other um departments um administrators just uh to try to see what the life cycle is of the uniforms because it they are um substantial um request some to the tune of um you know several thousands of dollars so um just wanting to make sure that were you know being good stewards of that funding and um and considering those things I do I think in the past we have shared that um when like say a varsity team gets new uniforms that those then um are passed down
052to replace um because the like for example the middle school is the is the uh Team those are the teams that typically have the oldest uniforms so it's it's nice for everyone to kind of get an update um so I do like that um kind of flow through but just wondered if we are keeping track of the condition and maintenance of of the equipment and uniforms well we keep track of each car grant that comes through what they request and so we know so we don't have yes we have every cares Grant from 2001 so when somebody applies for say the football team applies for a car's Grant we tell the cares board they' received a grant in 2003 2006 and this is what they received it for and Stu like that so we're not
053awarding out cares grants for uniforms every two years great that's exactly what I and the board does they do recommend to anybody that gets appre uniforms where are the uniforms going from Varsity are they going down to the JB or the b&u somewhere else great so we're utilizing all of those those assets and resources great thank you so much that's helpful yeah so just going back to the Ada doors so did they stop working from 10 years ago because presumably if we've approved uniforms before it's not that there's a hard and fast rule against approving the same thing twice because yeah there doesn't they stop working basically they approved 10 years ago when they're put in from a car's Grant so they looked at it as a duplication of a grant not existing so it's
054what the car's board determines so that's a recommendation they bring to you so if you guys decide we're not approving that then you canot approve the grant no I just I was just curious that's just what the the board decided on again I just mediate the board I don't tell them what the truth like that so yeah but I can definitely take those questions you say maybe going back maybe going back and saying if we're if we're repeating updated or duplicate grants for sports teams perhaps things that are compliant with access could also yeah definitely bring yeah so um I just was curious and also I mean we have I understand that like parental pay to playay can't cover all uniforms and and buses and things like that but people do you know pay to
055play in the district and there's boosters and other resources so I don't know I just curious I guess is not is not being someone who's at that meeting how that all works sure and we used to have a a board rep come to the meetings a long time ago so if that's something they want to do again we'd be more than happy to have that yeah I was wondering why we stopped doing that um a couple years ago well yeah cares went away we didn't do it for a couple years after Co I think it's just after that it didn't come bag so if you wanted to I can the days are public I can get them to you for sure if you guys wanted to yeah oh um so I had a question I
056guess the the Ada um doors as well um but I think that was kind of answered um because I know the cares and it would be nice in the future um I guess when I came on the board I was kind of like what is this like so I had to really do some research into um kind of that being a community Grant right um and the Partnerships um with the city and um Community ORS and the school district um so it might be I mean I'm interested I'll still be watching board meetings but um interested to to maybe have um a little information more information on that so um we can you know um figure out more and then I'm thinking about the people who are choosing who were part of the the cares
057board um I don't think it's something that we approve um or so so I'm wondering how that um process is kind of uh chosen yeah they apply for it and we approve it through the community out because we receive the money through the cares Mage that's approved through our department and so we approve the community members they apply and then we decide decide I interview and see who wants to be on the board okay it's not a lot of people want to do it yeah so be honest with you so yeah maybe I'll hey there you go there you go so that's how we yeah of course I think we're ready to put this to a vote please all in favor say I I I I oppos not hearing none thank you very much Mr
058puffer thank you I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the 20 19 2025 2026 new courses to the Seline High School course catalog as submitted by executive director of teaching and learning Cara Davis uh those five are data science grammar and composition video game design and development drone and ROV Technologies which is remotely operated Vehicles pilot program uh and a pilot program job shadowing do I have a motion so moved thank you support thank you Susan is there any discussion any questions for Cara Davis who's anxious to answer every question I actually have one I was just wondering about what percentage of ninth graders do you see as taking the grammar and composition class as opposed to like you know the current English N Fast Math Just DE um right now our secondary mtss
059coordinator Beth Russo does the analysis of our student needs using some triangulation of data coming out of 6th 7th and eth grade between NWA as well as their state assessments and then there um we don't and she's also exploring a diagnostic um tool to use so that we can screen students any number I would give you right now would be a hunch based upon some of the at risk numbers we've been using to um inform our use of grant funding um I want to say somewhere in the to tun of like 25 students um to yeah the percentage that's I guess based upon what I'm seeing right one class section or maybe two correct okay yeah yeah would that be um would that be taught co-taught would that be taught um by a general ed
060teacher or special education teacher be a co-taught class awesome thanks that's a beautiful model hearing no other questions I'd like to put this to a vote please all in favor say I I oppos hearing none thank you very much for the new coures I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the recommended award to MTD Construction in the amount of 216,000 for the Seline High School solar integrated Roofing replacement as recommended by executive director of operation Rex Clary okay gerby gby Miller second Miller are there any questions for Mr Clary who is hovering anxiously by the microphone once again talking about solar panels yes so we' uh hopefully this week uh Thursday we'll have our final inspection at the middle school and we can start generating power maybe even soon as Thursday afternoon um so
061that project is wrapping up this week um this is the replacement Roofing um the reflective Roofing uh for the solar integrated roof at the high school um there'll be this came in significantly under budget a little over a million dollars for this partial part of that project um of the roofing and then we also have one more bid to for the solar panel installations uh we've already purchased all the solar panels are out here in these uh containers just to the north here of Liberty school um so they'll plan to be installed in the this summer after the roof is installed so Brad gby so I want to make sure that I say that I trust like you and I trust the thoroughness of your processes and all that this number is significantly lower and
062even significantly lower than the other beds I mean by like a million dollars plus do you have any idea one like what is our history of work with this company MTD and then second of all do you know how they're that much lower than the rest of them um I they all have to use the same same Dural last is the spec um so the same material that we put on the middle school is the spec for the high school um MTD I do have references for this um uh RTA did interview them um and of course James Watson has a wealth of experience as far as doing schools um but he has one two three four five six uh six references that I can share with the board um I assume you've done that
063work on that technology and Associates does does recommend them for this work so they have worked with them in the past um ask the question I know I'm not g to try to question that gu us it's just when you see it be that much lower you think are we getting a quality product right yes so that's all that's my only concern so and so with Roofing we do we do pay art Roofing Technologies and Associates RTA significant amount for their onsite every day part of the construction process doing the inspections that was part of the agreement last year they kind of bounced between middle school and harvest last year this year they'll focus on the high school because they'll probably have two Crews going at the same time um for that project so well
064just so you know you had me at significantly under budget thank you very much I appreciate that quick question from Jenny Miller uh I just wondered if there had been a reduction in the damage that had been occurring at the middle school since you made that announcement in your um update upate we been back up there but we will go up there we we'll look at it Thursday how about during the inspection piece and see what else is up there great so just to just to reiterate if there are people playing golf in theity of the Middle School ask them to stop yeah okay launching them launching them playing golf however golf balls are ending up on the roof correct please know that it's causing damage yes please thank you we do have a camera
065Now set up facing um that direction and so we do we can pick up movement and we do get alerted so okay great I just uh you know it would be nice maybe I'm I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt and maybe say people didn't know that that was causing damage but now they do so please stop I mean golfers are also our constituents here so we want to be very careful anyway thank you very much I appreciate this so all in favor please say I I opposed great none thank you very much Mr Clary I appreciate that uh we have a scheduled report from uh superintendent lch on the state of the district and I understand you have some folks assisting you with this the entire the entire core team it is
066a great time to be a hornet all right Mr Goodman's going to flip through the slides for us so the purpose of this is to do a stateof the district uh presentation to sort of summarize the year um accomplishments and what are our next steps in uh direction of the district uh moving forward in a variety of different areas and so ultimately I'll present sort of the general overview and I'm also going to take uh communication slide because uh Jackie is actually at a conference with Jay Grossman regarding one of the things we're working on um that's listed on on her slide that I'll take so we'll go ahead and start with um I think this is the end Ben I'm pretty sure you okay yeah like all the way up there we go okay
067okay there we go so uh state of the district so we'll go to the next slide and I want to reiterate that the superintendent goals have not changed for the last three years and I feel very confident that we are still working in all four of these goal areas and making progress in all four of these goal areas um and with that said I mean making progress means that we still have a lot of work um to do in all these areas but we're eager to keep uh pushing forward and moving forward with all four of these areas so the first one's academic rigored center around the SAS Compass um Cara Davis our executive director of teaching and learning is leading a process of revising the compass uh to make sure that it is reflective
068of the needs of the district and that will also connect with our strategic framework as it relates to culture of equity we continue to talk extensively with our Dei specialist Dr Kerr who is really doing an assessment of the district and determining what are some next steps that we need to do um to continue to uh become a more Equitable environment for all of our students community members staff members and so forth as it relates to Civility and unity we continue to talk about the need to bring together um uh parties that may disagree about uh various issues but we all need to keep at Center that we all want to do what is best for our students and that's reflective in this third goal and then finally improving the district for the future that's
069really about the bond issue the $180 million bond that was recently passed we feel very good about the direction under uh director clary's of um guidance and the progress we're making and as you learned today um Rex is very good about keeping the budget in line and sometimes under budget and that's important because then we can apply it to other um uh components with the bond um as we actually always generally have more wants and needs than we can um financially support So feeling good about the direction of all four of these areas okay EV if we can go to the next slide and then uh Cara so because we have so many things to be proud of in Selen are schools we limited ourselves to a handful of glows and might be one grow
070um so that we could highlight some of the great things happening in each of our departments and so I want to start by saying that this particular moment we are currently leveraging over a million dollars in Grant funds to help support student needs staff needs and then operational needs in the district um from everything from professional development to tutoring to um our Dei Specialists to classroom libraries and to curriculum um we have put a lot of work in and taking the funding opportunities that have been available to us and putting those to good use for our students and continuing to grow we are in year three of our curriculum reviews which is pretty amazing and what that amounts to is that we formally Incorporated over 12 uh courses our programs into the curriculum review cycle
071which is really allowing us to get much more close to that vertical and horizontal alignment and that Collective Fidelity around a guaranteed viable curriculum that really makes a difference in ensuring that our students collective experience from PK through 26 is working together to best ensure their success and help them Thrive um we had others mirror this work in terms of program so on top of that 12 it's been really neat to see over the last three years is how other um course areas that we might not be focused on right now or taking advantage we just had our group today here at central office um working on some health curriculum that's outside of the sex ed uh work that we all do um just to get that underground so we're providing that support using some
072of the strategies and protocols that we're using in our formal curriculum review um and supporting teachers as they see fit whether it be a release time after school before school with curriculum hours or during the summer to continue to advance their Core Curriculum uh final highlight is that we are exploring AI we certainly have dipped our toes into that we started with a uh thinking collaborative and doing some soft pilots in the last couple of years and exploring which direction we wanted to go next uh we ended up launching a summer Flex PD called AI oh my um to really more formally introduce some of the AI opportunities that are available for our staff um and started to um participate in uh trials with different tools one in particular that we're using and paying for
073right now for premium license is called brisk um and we've done a lot of work especially uh Kelly Woodman Jay and Jordan hoser in terms of visiting pure districts looking at some of the resources that are out there in Michigan virtual and supporting teachers as they've um began to integrate this both professionally and with their students as well and then an area that we're continuing to um Center as our work is just monitoring our results and making sure we're seeing the outcomes that we hope for um as a result of these uh changes that we're making so we introduced our data protocols a few years ago and that is something that is always near and dear uh to the work that we do so that we're making data informed decisions um and so we're supporting
074those protocols across multiple layers in our our system right now and before I step aside I do want to thank all of the people from the members of tilt uh to the admin and the staff the teachers who have partnered with me in all of this work uh progress 100% happens with a collaborative environment and I feel really lucky to be part of such an outstanding group here at sary schools so thank you hi everyone good evening my name is Julie vulker and I'm the executive director of special education here in slain schools um I'm relatively new to my position so I've been spending a lot of time this fall getting to know the teams and learning about our um existing processes and especially around data collection and and really constantly being Amazed by the
075commitment of our special education teams it is such a fantastic group of individuals that really collaborate um in supporting students and one of the three of the things that I really wanted to highlight um are some of the Community Partnerships we're in the middle of making so Unified sports is um a a subsection of our Special Olympics and we have been growing our Unified sports teams over the years but this year we've really gotten organized and we have some amazing events coming up for our our athletes um so at with our heritage team and our high school team we actually are heading to the Little Caesars Arena on December or January 31st um to compete on the big the big basketball court um we'll be competing against Dexter Community Schools who also has an amazing
076Unified sports team and this Friday we're actually heading to Dexter um to compete on their court so we're building these really strong Partnerships with other districts in our community and it's super exciting for our teams um the special education students are partnered with janed students as um the the collaboration for student athletes um additionally we've partnered in this fall With Buddies Pizza who was a great collaborator and they helped us fundraise over $1,000 dollar for a special ed department and they've collaborated with us for another fundraiser coming up in February and this Thursday we have an annual holiday shopping trip where our students from the life skills classes partner again with some gened students they're connecting partners and we're headed out in the community to go to the mall and do some shopping and have
077lunch out and we actually have 160 students participating this Thursday which is super exciting for us um one of the areas that uh we're beginning to focus on is looking at some compliance monitoring that's coming from the state last next year um washing County will be part of a cohort for compliance monitoring around uh least restrictive environment for our special education students so we're really focused in on training that um and Technical assistant Monica and I are who's the assist Monica is the assistant director um focusing on training and technical assistance for all of our teams we are working through monitoring IEPs and doing compliance checks and then tailoring our um technical assistance and training for what the staff needs so it's big work it's exciting work but everybody's on board and we have just
078the participation of the staff really reaching out to us and asking you know for that assistance has been remarkable so I'm looking forward to actually inviting in the state next year and having them you know participate and and reviewing our records and interviewing our staff and also our parents in the community to understand how we are approaching leas restrictive environment for our students thank you questions so a couple of the things in finance I wanted to really highlight is fund balance so we talk about fund balance sometimes and use percentages and dollars and things like that I also put on the slide it's about equivalent to 2.9 months of operation so kind of to take it home to maybe relating it to your personal budgets or finances at home um kind of gives you a
079little bit of reference in the idea is that this fund balance the the real big thing is the next part of that paragraph is that this allows us to have time to adjust declining enrollment right sizing Staffing one-time funding coming on and off that we've seen in the last couple of years and the reality of the flexibility to to make changes in the district and you know do our other goals that we're trying to get at at that all of these other departments are talking about we want to have the finan finances to support those goals and changes um the other piece of having that fund balance is we actually are not borrowing from the state in general we do a cash flow borrowing in past years we have not had to do that since
0802022 that also reduces we don't have pay interest on that money um that we borrow just to make cash flow ends meet um and then the other big pieces that we're looking in the future and kind of keeping a really um close eye on that affects our finances a lot is our student count um the state budget has kind of been a lot little wonky the last couple of years in general we haven't seen any necessarily long-term trends and the ORS um underfunded this and refunded this has been a lot of uh political moves that we've seen at the state level and so those will really be affecting us in the next couple of years quite significantly as well as the layers of the the impacts that those decisions make good evening everyone um my
081name is Carol digley I'm the assistant superintendent of human resources and um I had an opportunity last month to talk about the hiring process but want to focus on um what HR is really zeroing in on which is systems and transparency and really to impact the entire district and um most importantly the employees experience so that we can attract and retain the best employees for our students and doing so we've put some things in place um some really transparent documents called whom to ask staff links that that are under for staff so that it allows our employees to um access and to know how to interact with our documents and forms and procedures that go across the entire District um we've also created individual calendars for each collected bargain agreement and contract for um communication
082purposes and for predictability um the hiring process and training has been ongoing but we're really starting to feather out the end of looking at sharpening our um internships and attracting interns that more interns to come to Seline and also our onboarding processes that then lead to our retention and then adding on an exit um survey so that we can analyze why people may leave um if it's other than retiring um we've worked a lot on Staffing and master scheduling in that process um which included all um District administration training with the principles um we're also looking at um having um predictable transparent systems around staff accountability um and training there we've worked really hard at elevating the sea evaluation process um with an evaluation calendar idps and training the human resources department and I think
083those four powerful women that work every day on workflow efficacy and transparency for the district um to tonight thank you for um approving the title 9 procedures there's been a lot of work around that we're anxious to make that transparent we've also leaned into a lot of things have changed um which includes the teacher tenure law and making sure that every um certified staff member in the district are aware of their status in terms of tenure law and then we have ongoing relationship building through contract negotiations with the sca and uh we really uh dedicated ourselves to surrounding and wrapping around a group that doesn't um always get the opportunity to to talk a lot about their contract and that's the unaffiliated contract Group which employs nearly 80 employees um who uh without them we
084would not operate and so they may not fall under a Collective baining Agreement or an association but they're um very valid and important to how we operate every day and so we've been leaning into lifting and working with them thank you okay again I'm covering uh Jackie's part um as she is actually if we look at the third bullet first we're really working hard on introducing a robust new communications platform it's called parent square and it's it's honestly to make sure that we provide greater equity in making all these systems that are somewhat complicated for our parents and students to navigate and and make them talk more together our make our communication systems easier and so they are uh she's in conjunction with uh Jay Gman right now um at a workshop so that we
085can get prepared to implement this parent Square platform if we go back up to the first bullet point um uh Jackie's been working hard on updating and standardizing SAS brand templates um increasing EX accessibility for building communications as that's important again we're trying to provide greater access so that it's easier for us to communicate and easier for people to go to our websites and find things because that's complicated uh second we are getting a lot of Cara mentioned this earlier that a lot of um praise towards doing uh more about celebrations to promote diversity through observances and again we're coordinating with uh um Ryan specifically cerr to make sure that we are um working together to make sure that we are honoring and celebrating uh lots of different things across the district and then the
086last bullet point here working across Department to standardize volunteer processes to ensure a similar entry point across roles that's been challenging because we want volunteers but we want them coming into the district and making sure that we have uniform processes to make make sure that you know everybody is um there's there's checks in place to make sure that we're not um putting our students at any any sort of risk when we're bringing in various volunteers so a lot of good things going on in the communications and community relations area and now so uh operations um the first bullet point was Staffing level so with the new contract you approved last fall for the educational support Personnel um it has really helped in us in our getting uh G Gathering getting more staff to apply quality
087staff to stay with San area schools um you know we're almost at 100% And in transportation not quite but we're at 100% at Food Service and uh buildings and grounds and you know every night whether we have a full staff or not we're cleaning 2.1 million square feet that's 62,000 square foot homes every night you know providing a safe war and environment um a positive learning environment each day we serve 2400 lunches and 500 breakfast whether we have a full staff or not we're still serving that amount of food when we're at full staff we give we give a lot more choices I feel um to the students and then we give 3,000 rides every day our school bus drivers are doing a great job um every day they want to they need to come
088to school we pick them up we're the first ones to greet them in the morning we're the last ones to see them at the end of the day um on the bond side we completed the 28,000 foot Operation Center in just over two years so the bond passed in November of 2022 we were running transportation out of there by November 25th of 2024 we found a piece of property um worked with Lear um found a a builder a construction manager an architect and we got it done and what that did is allowed these other projects that were starting this summer at the middle school to keep on schedule um so that we're spending money on student um you know new facilities for students new steam center new Athletic Facility uh which is where we want
089the money to go um and then our solar integrated roofing project you know the inflation reduction act um kind of fell in our laps um but yet we took advantage of it and we're going to continue to take advantage of it this next year to finish up those two solar projects um you know we turned that around really really fast and we're still under budget again spending money on infrastructure that not in the classroom so keeping that under budget is my main goal and then communication and coordination as we work through these big projects at the high school and we start in the Middle School making sure everybody's on the same page um so we don't impact instruction time in the gymnasiums in the school buildings um and keeping everybody safe because there'll be a
090lot of equipment um working with Clark construction and king Scott to make sure that we're keeping students safe um and out of you know In Harm's Way so and then our next slide um Safety and Security um so uh we adopted the school standard response protocols this year the srps we've implemented them in all seven buildings uh as recommended by the Michigan office of school safety we updated our building safety manuals and integrated with our informacast if Jay and uh uh Jackie were here they'd be right beside me um we trained our admin team team on standard response standard reunification method this summer uh during our uh admin Retreat uh we reconvened interdisciplinary sa Safety and Security meetings which means we had Pittsfield at the table we had washingon County Sheriff we had Selen fire
091Selen police um these happen every other month um and it's been the great Partners moving forward we're hiring a new position um dedicated to Leading the work of director director of Safety and Security this gentleman will start on January 6th and I want to thank Jay Gman and Jackie Martin for their leadership over the past year in this area above and beyond their assigned roles so thank you to them for helping helping out and getting this done and uh it's been a great year for in movement forward for Safety and Security okay and then to close it out we have a couple slides related to why we are all feeling um our core team feels that the future is really bright for the Selen schools um trying to summarize many of the highlights um we
092start at the top we've had the highest AP pass rate in years at the high school um over 93% which is really impressive um consistently in the top 20 and M step and SAT scores overall in Michigan consistently highs scoring students at skills USA compet itions and we talk a lot about the importance of our Career Tech programs and I think that's another way that our students are excelling uh in learning and not necessarily you know this the typical academic courses then we talk about having perhaps the strongest music program in the state you know the district has always prioritized music in so as much that in fifth grade we have students having music every day and that is important because it serves as a strong feeder program for kids to want to continue in
093music when it becomes an elective when they get to the middle school level we have excellent Science Olympiad and first robotics teams in fact we have awardwinning Science Olympiad and first robotics teams it's why we're so excited about the new steam space at the high school specifically because we have our Middle School robotics teams winning state championships those kids are moving up to the high school very soon very excited about that we have incredible extracurricular opportunities so much so that you know Lori Dawson was hired to really manage and support all of those it just shows you the the multitude of opportunities that our kids have and it's really impressive we have outstanding athletic teams obviously we've um talked about how we've been the number one rated um high school and District as it relates
094to Athletics and it's really combining three things strong academics from students strong athletic um uh facilities and and strong athletic students and you put all those together we have um a lot of really strong achievement in athletics as well finally we're a des well there's more there's another slide but uh we're a destination district for special education students and families we continue to hear about the importance of being one of if not the most inclusive School District in Wasing County that we have um the vast majority of our students are housed here in the district and are not sent out to any of the WID programs we're really proud of that and also that reflects um on a lot of uh parents and families um that want to have their students here for our outstanding
095special education um teachers and and opportunities there if we go on to the next slide Ben uh and Miranda already pointed this out we have the strongest fund balance we've had in years at over 23% we as Carol mentioned we've Diversified our approach and hiring practices and we are focused on a more Equitable District in that way um we are demonstrating with Jackie specifically a strong line of communication to promote positive experiences in the district we talk a lot about how we want to share our story and make sure that um everybody knows that this is a District that can provide a lot of great experiences for kids and finally uh with uh Rex talking earlier about our bond passing we feel like all those things are starting to come to fruition and they pave
096the path for greater opportunities for our kids uh now and in the future and then finally in closing that out we we feel like it's very important that we strengthen our Safety and Security presence across the district and really bring that approach districtwide so we're more consistently uh implementing uh safety and safety security procedures that's why we're excited about this new director of Safety and Security that will be introduced after winter break anyway thank you very much uh we're happy to take questions from anyone uh related to the state of the district so for the My Board colleagues rather than have random people pop up perhaps we can work our way down down the the line looks like you're in the lead there Rex do we have any questions specifically for and who knows you
097there may be no questions for you Rex do we have any questions for Rex go ahead um okay getting to my notes on uh on operations and um safety also I just wanted to say um you had mentioned the cleaning of the $2.1 million square feet um you also had mentioned um um sorry 2.1 million sorry yeah thank you um reading my notes sorry 2.1 not 20 yeah well Rex's job is expanding he doesn't know yet um 2.1 million square feet of cleaning and uh you also had mentioned the ability to um Almost 100% fill all of the the positions with buildings and grounds and I think one of the things that I was um passionate about when I was running for for the Board of Education and then throughout my tenure has been um
098keeping those services in place under the umbrella of Selen and not through privatized um uh you know other other uh other companies who would come in and subcontract those and I think that when we think about um the work that your folks are doing and the maintenance of the buildings and how those buildings look and present each and every day the fact that the middle or the high school does not look like a 21 or a 20 plus year old building um just speaks to the dedication of you and speaks to the dedication of the people who uh work for our students each day and maintaining um those facilities so I just want to applaud um applaud you and your team because um that's not the way it is everywhere no it is not and
099uh they you know we talk about customer service and what does great customer service look like and it a lot of our custodians give great customer service service to our staff our parents and our students and um uh they do a great job they do a great job even in my old age as an elementary person I sit on the floor in classrooms a lot and I would sit on any of the floors in the school I can't say that about every school everywhere um I do it but sometimes I'm a little I don't know um so uh so for that I was really disappointed to miss the transportation center open house uh I'll probably at some point in my in when life slows down a little bit give you a call and see if
100I can come visit because I'm excited to see some of the Innovation and some of the things that you've been able to um include in in that space and I'm looking forward to how the space that you did occupy is going to be utilized for students so excited about that and lastly I wanted to just Echo um what you said uh about um Jackie and Jay and you and just thank you for your um continued efforts around safety and keeping um our school um as safe as possible and so um now with the with the director of um safety coming on board I think we're going to be um in good shape but you've carried that with that team um in addition to all the other things that you do and so I appreciate that
101um as a parent as a former staff member as a trustee um so thank you for that and uh I guess those were really more comments than questions but thank you thank you and thank you again Jackie and Jay did a great job too so for I wanted to make sure that they hear those comments too um it's mine's more of a comment as well um Jenny made me think just now about you know when we with the aggressive moves we made for hiring and and I'm glad that we've been able to realize a lot of those people also are are local people who live here in our community right and so like that provides um resources for our community and it also provides a great deal of Pride right and it it enhances our
102city of Seline our surrounding townships all that so I want to make sure that I talk about that and then um I'm going to Loop you and Miranda together and just say like yeah like you saw through our financial piece which has kind of always been my my thing I want you to know how much I do appreciate like even tonight how what a steward you are of being on budget on time being cognizant of that I listen to you talk tonight about your priorities being we always talk the classroom the classroom the classroom you you you model that so I appreciate that I want you to know thank you got anything to say Cody shout out to Cody for filter first Cody and Miranda they were successful on getting over a half a million
103dollars for the filter first legislation that'll be in the news in the new year so nicely well done clean water at every spot Julie any questions for our special ed I do have one January 25th for the Polar Plunge that looks like it's a Saturday oh thank you it I think it is I think it is how unusual yeah um I will Circle back around but that was what was in our in our communication amongst the special ed teams every year all the board members try to make it but not many do okay tell you what I will definitely send out an email um once I confirm that but um we would love to see you there I plan to be there SOC not anymore thank you questions uh for the um Little Caesars exciting
104event yeah on the 31st is that a daytime game are there tickets available can can people come and support our kiddos absolutely thank you for mentioning that yes so we will be leaving the buildings around 9:00 a.m. and then we have two different sessions of playing so it starts at around 11: and goes till about 2 o' um um and then the athletes and their families actually have the opportunity to stay for a Pistons game or anybody who buys a ticket can stay for the Pistons game so there'll be some going out and having dinner and coming back for the game in the evening and you can purchase tickets um I know that uh Dr L put it into his newsletter but we'll make sure it's also posted on the website I also um just
105wanted to highlight too that some of my own children's um favorite experiences were with the connecting program so things like the plunge um the shopping trip that you mentioned those are all um events that stand out as um favorites from their time insuline and so I just appreciate the work that you're doing um with Unified sports and connecting program to integrate and be inclusive um for all of our students so thank you for that work it's it's um definitely a model I know that we've you know that all of you have taken this on the road and told others about it but it is definitely a model um for other districts to consider it's pretty amazing and and for me I'm just starting this is work that people have been doing and building and growing
106I'm just happy to support it it's really one of the best parts of my job is seeing that connection between the peers and the work that they're doing together it's awesome well from all we've heard you're the next best person to lead this work so thank you thank you any questions for Julie no right thank you very much thank you so much uh Cara Davis questions for Cara you usually give such great reports throughout the year and uh we'll try and keep it see one slide today one slide that's great but I did have one question uh I appreciated the the you're dipping more than a toe into AI I do appreciate that you know I'm working hard on that at the University level and uh um and you've adopted brisk are we unique among
107districts in Wasa to do that or is it a a Consortium of schools that bought into that no I don't I don't know that it is necessarily you obvious we were really closely connected with the future of learning Council which is you know like-minded school districts with within the state of Michigan um and that's a pretty expansive group and so it came to our attention last year um Jay brought it to us as a possibility we also had um a couple of other trials going on Rachel parent uh teacher at the high school's also been an integral part of our collaboration on what what steps were next so she helped with the PD this summer um and tried on some tools last year with students um and then we decided to go with this particular
108one because it felt like it would Target uh a number of the needs that have been identified by staff members in terms of gaining back time so we were looking at it first some a teacher perspective on how AI could we could leverage AI in order to gain back some of that work life balance um and we've been trying to layer in supports uh we added Jordan a holer to our team this year she's an IT specialist she's working in the capacity of more of a of a coach and a um somebody who can be a facilitator between the teaching and learning team and the IT department um and be there for staff so uh we want with that one and we've looked recently at a couple different tools they went out to Northville to
109look at some of the they're about a year and a half ahead of us which is really nice we learned that through FLC um and so partnering with districts around our peer districts in this County and then others outside of this County to you know just see what's happening and what's the next step is obviously moving quite quickly so we want to be strategic and intentional but also be inquisitive curious and excited about what it can do so um the summer of 2022 after uh chat gbt among other tools came out I I spoke with one new English teacher who was absolutely terrified the the feeling on the ground so to speak is much improved about AI in the classroom you know I I anticipated that we'd be a little bit further along when we
110hit the AI om my uh training in August so we did a soft check formatively of on a scale of one to five five being I'm all in and one being a you know fearful you know have some apprehension around it there's a lot more twos and threes than I anticipated because we actually held it from last August and I'm really glad that we did because it's important that we're sort of in that zone of proximal development even for adults um it would have been probably too much in 23 24 so we're glad that we waited for this year and we also wanted to have some supports and tools in place um I think even between August and now we've seen a pretty significant shift um and we have a number of teachers trying a
111lot um different tools and also starting to look at how students can be using these tools and using them directly with students to increase incor do some scaffolding provide um translations things like that that we're like as we tell the story more we're going to see more and more people gain excitement about it so it's been a nice Shuffle throughout the year I uh was just reflecting on on the slide and Ai and some of the the especially leveraging these grants which uh allow for opportunities that we wouldn't otherwise have so um thinking um outside of our you know regular budget to see how we can um utilize uh streams of funding is is really exciting um but just in looking at the courses that we approved tonight and looking reflecting back on some of
112the courses that have been added over the last um few years I just wanted to note that um I appreciate that you uh and your team have been extremely responsive to the needs of our students but also to their dreams and um thinking about what they are interested in and how you can combine their interest with Innovation and learning that's making them um flexible Learners and um engaged and motivated in the content that they um that they encounter each day so thank you for um for those opportunities for those students well thank you and I appreciate the creativity of our staff I mean and the conversations we have in hallways and when they see that they get really excited and they know the foundation for selary schools is a great partner and that we're here
113to support them so it comes into a neat partnership and it's a lot of work so I wanted to make sure that we acknowledge that because having extra money in those grants is not it's great and it's extra time and effort and a number of Amazon orders and I would be remiss if I did not point out how much um a number of our our staff Betty included um Jen Finance uh Human Resources have processed so much um in order for us to be able to really take advantage of all of these funds so any other questions for Carol divis thank you so much thank you uh so any questions for Jackie Martin's proxy actually I do have a comment um I when I first go you don't have to stand up when I first
114started on the board uh I was approached by one parent who had a kid in four different schools who said oh my gosh the amount of mail email electronic and otherwise that I receive is just is like drink it from a fire hose so this parent Square sounds like it's going to you know mitigate a little bit of that and calm things down so I I I know there are some parents out there in the district who are greatly appreciative um and maybe not oh I don't know I don't know maybe or maybe more so okay questions for Jackie I just not questions for um I just want to um also um give credit to the Dei um advisory committee um who um worked on this regularly um and uh the document and um the
115the celebrations um I know there was an increase um this year of um recognition um I I do know that there are stuff that's been left out and so um Jackie knows what I'm talking about and I hope that um we are more intentional in um focusing on um awareness days and not leave out um communities who are um especially um vulnerable in in this time and age so um also um being intentional in um following policies and uh um and cutting down on well eliminating hate speech um and um making sure that we uh address those and not depend on our most marginalized community members um to speak out against it um I I feel like the The District staff and um leadership uh need to take a stand against that um but yeah
116I'm pleased to see some of the things um that's you know on on our social media um I appreciate Jackie and um so I just wanted to give some recognition where recognitions do and um you know think we could do a little a little better but we're we're doing good so thank you Jenny um I just was going to add uh on to that that um this was something new that Jackie brought to the district these um recognition um days especially on on our social media and um one um former colleague but a friend uh reached out to me in particular and um let me know that it was the first time that her family had felt um recognized by the district and how important um that was for their family and um how meaningful
117that was and so I just want to commend Jackie for getting this started and for partnering with our Dei um AC um in continuing to build and develop um those celebrations and those recognitions and how um meaningful and important it is for our students and families to feel um VIs ible to feel um a part of this community um so I uh just wanted to to um commend her for that work and I know she's continuing to get feedback and to um continue to develop some of those and so it's only getting better from here thank you Mand any questions from Miranda we actually have a question for Miranda Miranda I was wondering if you um could uh clarify for us um you had you had specifically mentioned I think you or maybe it was
118Carol I can't remember one of you had specifically so I guess it's a combo question how about that um specifically mentioned interns and I don't know specifically if you were talking about student interns but I know the state recently made some changes to um funding for student interns uh student teachers as we used to call them I don't know I think we're calling them interns now I don't know colleges are calling them different things but um wondering if you could talk about that from the finance Finance side does the district fund that do the universities fund that does the state have a pass through how does that work I do think that most of the intern things are going through the universities I do know in one case that we get paid the I had
119to turn around and give it back to the university for the University to give it to the student because there wasn't a direct flow through having to do with private and public universities I do believe so I think it's happening in a variety of ways um we don't have a lot of direct in like revenues coming in that are turning around in the teachers so they are still flowing mostly through their universities that's good for you less for you to have to manage um and then the other question that I had for you um and I know like with recent events this is kind of a touchy subject but as the cost of um Health Care continues to rise and it's not the fault of the school districts uh per se that are they're not
120they're not raising the rates as exponentially as they're raising but they're having to respond to that um and just considering I I love that we have a really really really healthy fund um balance but I also recognize the burden of the increasing Health cost that it's um causing to our students or sorry to our staff and so I'm wondering like how do we or if you've thought about like how do we balance what we can do knowing and fully realizing that we can't control the Beast that is controlling the um inflated cost yeah it's a it's a big partnership that we all kind of share in that for the cost and also the cost that you know many employees pay out of their paycheck you know for the those Rich plans and so it is
121a partnership and it's one of those things where it's it's both parties you know interested in looking and pricing out of things and possibly going with other insurance or or staying with their own um and it's obviously a trend nationally too that we you know there's pieces that we can look into always there's lots of layers in in drug costs and different things like that that we can layer into investigating those things as a partnership um as well as negotiations and on what levels that we provide as well as the Law changes whether there's hardc cap things into play you know there's been a lot of bills introduced to maybe change those things um right now there is you know federal law protecting um or actually state laws I think in the hard cap Lane
122sort of thing so that actually binds the district to only paying an X cost so if we continue to want to have that Rich the district can only go to a certain point to um by law so that's kind of a multitude of things pulsing all at once correct I think it's important for people to understand that hard cap too because it can be perceived that we have you know this this fund Equity balance that is higher than it's ever been and yet the burden of um and sometimes the incredible burden to some of our staff with the healthc care cost so understanding you know all the intricacies of that and just on a on a um I guess a highlight um my own district is utilizing Seline and their health care numbers and contributions
123as at least the union is using that as a model for what they'd like to see so I do commend you for the work that you're doing and um that is at least perceived by um other districts as a better model than perhaps what they currently have so thank you for that I just I really want uh I'm getting a lot of um feedback from community members about how the high fund Equity balance and the cost of healthcare and how those two seem to be um at odds with one another so I want to make sure that we're as transparent as possible about that so thank you lots of factors yes exactly are there any thank you I wonder if there are any more any questions for Carol who has not spoken yet Susan um
124yes I had a question about the unaffiliated contracts of the 80 um was it 80 nearly 80 some yeah okay and um I was just wondering um who approves those contracts or what kind of um I guess different examples of um those um employees I'm so if you think of um the operations that is overseen by Rex and Cody and uh Tracy those are our that's our um ESP contract and that's your your your monitors your bus your office assistants par professionals they all fall under that contract all your certified staff Under the Sea the administrators building administrators and some directors have an association and then all the rest of our employees are unaffiliated so they're Tech um so a lot of them are they're the only one in the district that has their jobs
125and so there uh the I've hosted a couple meetings um voluntary meetings for them to come in talk about their contract go over some changes we've made and so I'd have them introduce themselves and often say you're the only one in the district that has this role so think about some of the power school and the things the magic that happens behind the scenes all of our office um coordinators and special ed and HR and finance Betty everyone sitting here we're all unaffiliated um so uh we've done some work in giving that group some attention because they don't live under a collaborative bargaining agreement or an association so we want to work hard on making things consistent and transparent for them Miranda's done miraculous work around putting scales in for everybody so um it's predictable
126and so it's kind of overseen by HR of course but not without the input in the collaboration with core and we're trying to get it more collaborative with the unaffiliated as well cool thanks for that information and that you're um you know make making those connections and hopefully um having them feel seen and heard yeah and connected really yeah that they have a place I appreciate that thank you thank you very much I appreciate it and thank you very much to the whole core team and for the state of the I you're right Steve it is a great time to be a hornet thank you very much I think we can continue to plow along uh we' have one quick discussion item uh and a possible uh motion uh so uh I report from the
127adhoc committee that's that would be myself uh Tim Austin who's not here and Lauren gold uh we were asked the board uh the board made a decision at the last meeting to do a third-party review of of the athletic department the whole athletic department and programs and uh before we did I before we Dove too deeply into that the question was what indeed is a thirdparty review and what could it possibly look like so uh I initiated as a board president initiated a u formed an ad hoc committee we had Lauren and Tim and myself we made a few phone calls had some interviews with some folks who actually do this work and it actually does exist there are people who do this and um we have a pretty strong sense now of what a
128of what a third party review is and I'll just give you some of the highlights uh they everyone to a person said they would come out to the district uh could be as many as three days possibly a week interview coaches parents players uh and uh parents and administrative staff as necessary and also put some surveys in the field okay uh they to get additional data from stakeholders they would uh we asked if it would be possible to do audits on or departmental audits or on the following areas communication with families and students in the community coaching standards uh like how does how do we keep up with the mhsaa comp uh rules and the various compliance that we have to do climate and culture uh Title Nine compliance was a strong concern of ours
129we want to make make sure that it was addressed uh finances including fundraising as a concern I had leadership development and mentorship coach and program assessment in general uh management of end ofe surveys what happens to them where do they go do we fill out these surveys and we just want to know what happens to them Innovations in athletics including um big teams I believe it was that's the one yep um and other Innovations uh the process for recruiting and hiring athletic department staff process for recruiting hiring evaluating and terminating coaching staff the process for incoming student athletes and the role at the athletic department in verifying residency and how we comply with all the mhsaa rules they figured um to a person they said the interviews and surveys could be completed within one to
130two weeks and they could generate a report within two to three weeks so that's very helpful to know uh the cost for the review could range anywhere from $6,000 to $110,000 plus expenses and um the deliverables we've asked what would you actually deliver it's a highlevel readable overview not a document with thousands of pages of data points but rather something that's um readable that will demonstrate departmental strengths identification of weaknesses and offer actionable suggestions for growth and Improvement uh they are all everyone was well familiar with furpa regulations and avoiding uh disclosing personally identifiable information of course and uh the team would be able to provide whoever we select if we select someone would be uh to conduct the review by a team with publicly available credentials these are all the factors that we wanted
131to see in that we thought were part and parcel of a thirdparty review uh both uh Tim Lauren and I left our conversations thinking we UND I I can say this we understand what a third party review could look like now so now we're up to the next stage and uh or open i' like to open the floor for any discussion of this uh report that I shared with you in the packet Susan e um a couple questions um well I guess points too because I thought part of um what we were doing was um or you all um you had said at the last meeting it being kind of similar to um search like the search firms um that were recommended um when we hired uh went through the hiring process of a superintendent
132um so is that something that since there's not like specific names or maybe you can give us an idea of um what organizations what type type um of people do this uh kind of work and so SEC second question um is the departmental audit um so including an evaluation of the following areas that you mentioned um is that something the ad hoc committee came up with or is that kind of what you got from um the organizations that um you spoke with or companies right uh well two things uh yeah we weren't really in the shopping mode at that point uh so we were looking around first of all we needed to get a sense of are there people out there who could do this kind of work are they lawyers or are they former
133coaches who are these people and we did find uh that there were a lot of pretty brilliant retired athletic directors across the country um who could do this kind of work one of the questions I know I raised was are you familiar even though you might you might be from Iowa for example or California are you familiar with Michigan's rules and mhs's rules and regulations and they said almost every state is based on a framework a national framework that's understood by other states so when we have a transfer student in some students some states have a three-month weight period Michigan has a one-year weight period so they they said you know just looking at whatever our rules are they they very familiar with them uh in that respect so we did look at a number
134of different types of people there are individual consultants and they have a teams of folks working for them or they work just by themselves uh we also started our conversations with the mhsaa right away just to find out what they knew about the process and they have a as as you see in the report a Cadre of uh retired athletic directors who are not staff they work independently uh but they um and they gave us a sense of the sort of things that they cover so to get to your second question the uh the areas I listed in that audit uh there were quite a few elements we took out a few we added a few and uh some of them were suggested by the um by the uh Consultants that we spoke with and
135others we came up with all on our own so that's where they came from and of course if we get to the point where we want to hire somebody and we've made a decision and there's one particular area we desperately want to cover I I hope that people will feel free to to raise that bread hope that answered your question yeah okay okay follow up oh yeah so so I just looking at like the following that that I guess I look at some of the these um areas and I think that it just can't be like on the department itself because there's HR components in here title 99's under HR now but previously it wasn't um so I think uh there's probably well and then Finance so it it wouldn't to me I don't see
136it as just like that's the you know specific Focus the department but there's going to be other um offices come coming um together um and I guess that months maybe a couple months ago we talked to a lawyer who never came back to us and we never got like a specific update um with from the lawyer um regarding um the process and I think I want to make sure that that's also includ included in here for whatever we were asking at that point um but uh I think it was processed with um the um well the the transfer and then residency and um pieces of that um so yeah I I think as to that it might be important to um I don't think that this could look at every thing that happens in the
137district that possibly touches Sports because I think that will be like too broad as it is I think this is pretty broad what's been proposed um I I think we're going to have a decision to make as to whether we want to go with a firm uh and we have one in mind that we can vet more I don't president McBay maybe doesn't want to give the exact name but their refences and it's sort of an out of state firm versus one of these mhsaa recommended independent contractors and that's part of what we would come back to the board to ask to see if there was a preference yeah I actually mentioned the name in here okay yeah red so yeah that was going to be my question like I guess are we just receiving
138this report tonight as like something to ponder upon or are we choosing between these two options one being the mhsaa or the other being this um independent individual from from Iowa are we are we doing that and then I guess I'd want to know this too because you two were part of that committee and conducted these virtual interviews with them does that committee have a recommendation about one of these two if these are the two you're bringing forward just to be real clear um the motion was not to uh Empower us to make any recommendations that's that's the first thing secondly if we were to bring to the board table a proposal to choose from one two or three of these people obviously we want to give you prices we want to give you their
139CVS there's a lot of information that we need to provide for you uh that's for the next step the first step was just to figure out what on Earth a thirdparty review actually meant and entailed so this is just a report of information but no decision Mak and so do we have a DEC a a timeline on when we would want to bring us like us you know this is the individuals this is the cost like that would be for the board to decide I think the original motion was sort of investigate the possibility of a third- party review so now it would be a motion as to whether we went ahead and proceeded in some in some capacity and if the board is in favor of a of a I can certainly entertain a
140motion from the board to proceed forward either with this same ad hoc committee or with another group to present the board with a full the the full proposal if you want to go that way yes ma'am uh Jenny Miller I I was just going to read the the motion just so that we all can recall exactly what the I actually put it in didn't I at the start I guess I didn't yeah and and discussion was yeah had very go ahead if you components yeah so it just says that there was a motion to direct the Board of Education the board sorry to direct the the board president to create an ad hoc committee to research the parameters for engaging in an independent third party to conduct a transparent review of the athletic department and
141present their findings for the next meeting at the Board of Ed or as early in January as possible so I think that that's what we're seeing tonight is the fruits of the committee the ad Haack committee doing that research and um you know laying out some of the parameters that they would suggest for engaging in this third party so um in terms of um I think we have you know just discussion on like what the next steps might be but in addition um going back now to that report uh I wondered if you might speak a little bit to uh there was A6 to $10,000 quote in there for the cost of um a potential review so I just wonder um if you have thoughts as to um budget and how that um would be
142like where we would get that funding I would obviously ask superintendent lotch where that funding would come from I would not be funding it myself don't want to be don't want to be glib but uh or we want we do a go fund me I believe there's money in our uh uh Department sorry the uh board of education budget for such things uh usually it's the same sort of monies that would go toward paying for legal services and so forth yeah that was that was a that please it would come out of the general yeah we don't have a separate line item to do an athletic review but we would just take we would we would create um not necessarily line item but we would just take it out of the general fund because we
143don't have a we wouldn't be able to fund it with a grant or anything like that yep so I have some hesitation so I think the question now is is like the ad hoc committee looked into what the possibilities were I also spoke with an attorney the ad hoc committee sort of felt like going the non- attorney route was preferable so that isn't really discussed here but we did kind of I just we just tried to learn more about who was out there doing what what things could look like what the benefits of each are um I'm a little hesitant to make a because I think now the decision is is like okay do we say this is what this is but maybe we don't I'm a little hesitant this is something that's going to
144happen in the next term to decide not to vote now with two members missing and our upcoming turnover I mean we could decide but well and I I think that the vote tonight and I I don't I mean whichever way you want to go but I think the vote tonight is not necessarily like I I think from what I understand from the motion that I just read and from the report that I see here is we're discussing the the contents of this report to determine if there are things that are important for us to consider are there things that are um things that we should um you know that we don't need to consider and then just asking like I was asking questions about um the budget and just how how that comes um how
145that how that plays out since we haven't done this before so I'm not necessarily certain that we would I don't we someone I guess could make a motion to move forward but I was just thinking that at this point we're looking at this report to see if we have any suggestions for revisions or modification I agree yeah and I see this more as just I'm receiving information and that is that and then we would gather our two individuals back who I think will have some thoughts on this and go so yeah I would not want to make a motion tonight either like I I don't I do not find that would be the appropriate action at this time um just to respond to that before I ask Susan to ask her question um it is
146possible to gather the to to spend between now and January 14th preparing a packet that you could Empower us or any group you want or to to to put together a packet of information price precise prices so we're not just guesstimating so I can I I can tell you that the one individual it has a much higher cost than the uh the the group of retired athletic directors but there might be some issue or concern about transparency uh that would need to be addressed so uh we'll we could conceivably following whatever Guidance the board gives continue on with this work and then have the next board in January make that decision do we need to give you that declaration tonight like do we need to say okay we want you to definitively do that I
147would prefer that the you empowered the board president to do something as opposed to me Galloping off by myself yeah no then I'm I want to make sure you are heard out and then afterwards like I'll be ready to do that I I'll just I'll just say t oh sorry go ahead Susan Susan yeah thanks um so I mean so you all mentioned um so this list that you remove some things um I'm not sure where it came from I think that's important like maybe a different different organizations like include various things um and then the fact that there was the legal route but not presented as an option I want to make sure that we have all of that or the ne January everybody has all of that information um I may not have
148clar clearly answered that part of your question before but let me try both of the people we spoke with gave us a list similar to this and upon discussion within the ad hoc group we decided it was too long it ended up and we so we trimmed it down a little bit because there were some elements that we we weren't particular ularly I mean minor elements but both groups Shar the same sort of ideas and then uh Tim myself and Lauren each added some elements as well based on our Communications from the Comm community so that's where all of this came from uh the question is will uh if we put this in front of the noses of a of of one of these um groups would they be qualified to do all of the
149things on it and and if there are more things that you want to see on the list this is this is information that I'm happy to to receive uh from any board member even the ones who are rolling off the board uh to to to add um add to this shopping list of things we want to have uh reviewed and that was the term we we laid we landed on Investigation we didn't like uh audit wasn't very particularly helpful review is uh probably the most accurate one yeah I I would think um I understand like presenting it to other people and say this is what we're looking for but also Whenever there are I hope recommendations of of who I don't know if that maybe that's where it is like give us options um and
150uh then the board can make that decision and it's transparent um but looking at what maybe they offer that maybe another one doesn't offer and you know making sure that that that's all transparent as well so that we're not eliminating um components that may other board members may feel that are beneficial as well right and as you know from the open meetings act we're going to not make recommendations if if we're empowered to do that but if you empower the ad hoc committee to continue its work and generate some comparisons of these outfits then that would be something that we could do Jenny Miller so I um I just want to first uh say thank you to um trusty gold and trusty Austin and president McVey because um not only did they spend time on
151the 20th and the 25th with um the mhsaa and the independent consultant um but also uh just time together considering each of the elements that um you know we've heard either from our community or um you know that we have uh thought about about um over the last several years and so I just want to say thank you for your uh work on this and I um for the sake of of the community for the sake of the board for the sake of our student athletes I would like to make a motion to empower the board president to either reconvene or or re um reappoint an ad hoc committee to um to present uh specific potential contracts for the board to consider in January or at your earliest convenience I'll second that what was the
152verb to what of contract um to what did I say to provide or to present maybe yeah said present for consideration yeah so I think I think it would be a benefit to everyone to not delay this any further but instead in January to have um to have potential contracts for the board to consider so that we can move this forward and um and for the sake of our employees our staff our students um the community um have the results of this and move forward so I I'm hearing and perhaps our board secretary can verify I'd like to entertain a motion to empower the board president to uh Recon or reconvene or reappoint Y Lauren if you're uh up for it then I think I think Tim is as well so to reconvene the ad
153hoc committee to present contracts yeah to to to work to work to obtain um options options for potential contractors for the board to consider in January or at the earliest convenience of the ad hoc committee I know we have a couple of weeks where folks might have some things going on with winter break so it might not be um you know in January but I think as soon as possible it would serve for a lot of healing in our community to reconvene the ad hoc committee to work to OB Ain options to present to the board for consideration and I'll support the motion so Jenny Miller made it gerby supported it any further discussion on this well hearing none uh let's put it to a vote all in favor please say I I I opposed
154I guess not so thank you very much that's the next step and um yeah I appreciate that thank you so much uh we'll Merry Christmas oh you you had one job Steve all right very festive I got I got it I got you this is this is turning into an aident Castell routine where's these things you missed one one of strands thank I wore that on the Mary thank you on the Mary Mile thank you administr uh board updates we'll start with superintendent L and work our way down okay we'll do okay a couple of comments tonight first I want to congratulate our Seline High School Esports teams and our Middle School first robotics teams they had a great showing this past weekend Esports at the state finals and East Lancing at MSU state champions
155for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and semi-finalist in state runner up for valerent and quarterfinalist for Super Smash Brothers and I think it's important to know that this is for many of these students their first opportunity to be on a team collaborative in that spirit and it's been great for our kids so I'm very excited for them and also um to our awesome Middle School robotics teams um swarm which is one of the robotics teams won the state championship uh this past weekend they're back-to-back champions and then we also have another team cbgs who's trying to win the state championship for a second time as well and that's sort of confusing but there's so many teams in Michigan that they've actually divided up Michigan into like two states and so we're sort of dominating in in
156both sides of the state and it's a credit to some outstanding uh coaches and our students and that's why we're really excited for for the future of what that's going to look like when um you know they're moving forward to the high school and we have them both scheduled on January 14th for a superintendent recognition so they can come in and and we can really congratulate their efforts okay and my next announcement is that I'm retiring I've been an educator in slen area schools for 27 years now I started at Heritage School in 199 7 where I was a technology instructor at the time that was one of the special classes that we had and um it was great that's that's where I began I was also a sixth grade teacher for a number of
157years and then I moved into the role of Heritage assistant principal at that time Heritage was a fifth and sixth grade building and then I had four years as the Heritage School principal and then when Scott Gren moved into the superintendency uh I came with him to be the assistant superintendent of instruction for over 10 years and now um four years as superintendent I had a half year as interim superintendent it's been a great run H yet I'm I'm ready to move on at the conclusion of the school year and so I'm announcing my retirement effective July 1st 2025 it's really important to announce it now because the Board of Education needs time to to start the search firm process um determine when you'll post the position when we'll interview for the position and then
158ultimately get the next superintendent on board uh in the spring of 2024 with the hope that I can help with a seamless transition uh for the next superintendent I'm really proud of what um we've accomplished in these 27 years we have simply outstanding ing student staff and community members it's uh such an incredibly collaborative and supportive uh district and the environment where I really believe strongly that everybody really understands the importance of educating the whole child I think as we went over the state of the district tonight uh we really showcased how so many kids can can fit into the district and have a place in the district and we want to keep uh moving forward so that we are providing even more Equitable um opportunities for our students uh I'm going to be sending
159out a letter to the community tomorrow morning outlining my retirement and um finally I'm really looking for a really snowy winter so that I can so snow day Steve can activate a few more times and give it one last go uh so thank you Seline and go Hornets I know Steve in the next little while there are going to be a lot of opportunities for accolades uh but I'm going to pass this over to Kate son and day our student rep I don't have many updates for the high school but again just thank you to trusty Eep and Miller for being so welcoming the past few months and the work you've done that I've seen so thank you uh Brad oh I've got very little to say except I did attend the uh South and
160West Washington uh Consortium open house last week it was this was it last week seems like just last yesterday anyways quite amazing uh they try to different format this year and uh I I still there was a lot of folks uh showed up I actually met a fellow a fellow a teacher from chelsy who seems to be cut from the same cloth I was interested in robotics and Doug Moss was his name and I and 3D Dwayne oh thank you Dwayne Ross Moss I had your name right the first time Dwayne Moss anyway uh 3D printing and that sort of thing and so I have a lot of question to ask him with my uh uh hat as a technology teacher uh as well as a you know board uh board member uh so we'll
161pass this along to Brad all right um I have a little bit to say and I I apologize to my colleagues but I need to do this so uh before I get deeper into my comments the first thing I want to do is I want to State how appreciative I am for the staff of our schools and of Seline um every person who works for our schools and we heard about earlier about a lot of those job Cate categorize things of that nature you're important you're valuable and I hope you get to experience a joyful and restful um winter break so that's the first thing I want to make sure I say you've earned it you deserve it um the second thing I want to do is I want to thank the outgoing board members
162um for your service to our community the past six years and in four years and uh especially to you Jenny um I want you to know how much your perspective and your courage has made me a better trustee and uh I also want to thank Wes and Ally and Drew and Lany for sharing your your you know your wife Wes and your mom when uh whenever I just needed to problem solve or work through a perspective um you you you did it a lot for me thank you for that okay and uh the job of a trustee can be can be kind of a little isolating at times right because you're en close session and you're in doing things for oh you know you don't want to violate om and furpa and all those kinds
163of things and so individual conversations is often sometimes what we have to fall back on and um I'm so grateful for you and your support all right and uh so that is that uh now for kind of the more pointed part of my convers or my my statement tonight so stability of an organization to me is the most important thing and it's something that I think a school board should be absolutely obsessed with and uh one of the things that I've noticed is you know we've talked a lot about sports but sports are not the only thing we do as an organization and uh in totality we do a lot more and um it is my opinion that Sports recently caused us to stray from our defined roles and responsibilities that is my feeling uh
164I would go as far as to even say that uh that we are borderline meddling and undermining and I don't think that's good for the district I don't think it's good for our employees and I really don't think it's good for the organization and I think I'm just going to leave it at that and I'm going to say like I just still do not believe that um you know spending $10,000 is a is a prudent mechanism for for that that said I was on the wrong end of an official vote in motion and that's how it goes and I participate in the discussion tonight and I've saved my personal comments for this time but just I still do continue to feel that way back to to something so to I want to say to Steve
165Steve lotch I've known you for a long time and um I wish we could talk you into serving out the remainder of your contract you are a very good superintendent you do an outstanding job you you know I I applaud you for serving our district so valiantly for for 27 years it was funny when you said like you started teaching in 19 or you started in this District in 1997 I mean I was graduating high school so just to give you an idea and I don't say that to make Steve feel old I say that to make Steve realize it's okay that you're retiring you've earned it you've earned the ability to do this and you deserve it and I wish you well and I'm glad you're seeing the school year through with us and
166I'm glad we get to realize your expertise and your care because I know when you make decisions you make them from a place of absolute caring about your staff caring about students caring about families in this school district and thank you thank you so much Steve okay um you know I I hope that our next superintendent can provide his as awesome um experience and stability as I believe you have so thank you uh yeah I think and I think that's it anything else I'm sure it wasn't that important have a great holiday season folks um I'd like to thank uh trustees Eep and Miller um for their service to the board and specifically for being mentors to me as I got started and um I will just leave it at that because it's going to
167get lengthy uh and um I sure there's going to be plenty of opportunity to um talk about our superintendent so I'm going to leave that as well there to I'm sure this is not an easy decision in anyone's career and um I wish you know I think we're going to have a very productive last month and so this isn't goodbye but I know it's hard to come to a big decision and so sometimes it just feels good when you've made it and you announce it and so I hope you're feeling a little bit of that tonight um I am looking forward to all the concerts coming up this month I know this is a busy time for parents and students I want to shout out um student cheu whose name first name I unfortunately cannot
168remember but Al Elise oh my gosh to get up in front of all of these people and talk so eloquently that was really really impressive I think we'll see her on the board someday and I also have a special place in my heart and soul for Woodland Meadows so I'll be listening to hear more about that um I want to wish those who celebrate in December um a merry Christmas and a happy Hanukkah falling on the same exact date this year not my favorite configuration but it is what it is um and uh everyone a really nice winter break and a happy New Year trusty Eep and then trusty Miller yes um quick shout out to orts um my child was able to participate earlier in the year um not at the tournament but um
169and you know it sounds like great coaches and um you know Stu students um I was tuned in for um Mario Kart on Twitch uh with my daughter and so we um cheered on it was it was multiple uh games and they won um state champs so um you know in addition to all of the um you know the teams um the Super Mario Kart um want like took took you know the top and it it was it was just like they were back and forth than the numbers and and so um the last couple um they they really pulled through and um it it was pretty exciting so um and then uh yeah shout out to um our robotics um uh teams as well and I know there's other sports that that we're not
170mentioning but um an activity so um keep you know keep um keep uh doing doing those activities and focusing on school as well your academic so um but yeah I think we like earlier mentioned all of these opportunities in our district and um you know I'm glad that we have various um things like you know Esports I have to explain what that is whenever I mention I'm like it's not like you're moving around much Sports so um so yeah I'm thankful for that um in this District um so um I'm GNA make I guess kind of a statement um farewell um so I want to start by thanking um the community for electing me in 2018 to repres you sorry for six long years I'm thankful for the opportunity that you gave me and I
171hope that I served you well I've always been proud that I'm the first openly lgbtq Plus board trustee to be elected to senen Area Schools the lgbtq plus Community has long needed a seat at this table and all places where decisions are being made while I will no longer have a seat at the table come January I will continue to use my voice to advocate for lgbtq plus students staff and our community during my time on the board I served as policy chair where I introduced and drafted two significant policies that thanks to the board passed unanimously the transgender and non-binary students policy and the diversity equity and inclusion advisory policy the board's Dei advisory committee has been a central part of significant change and progress that has been made in this District the past
172six years they successfully advocated for a director of Dei a role that has focused on supporting um our educator and has um Educators um with you know the culturally responsive um in instruction and um you know a lot of different roles um that are that are happening in the district um having served also as a board rep for many years with the sex education Advisory Board I'm so proud of the progress and progress is an understatement that they have made um they made recommendations um that the board passed with special education curriculum body safety program for elementary children um fourth through 8th grade curriculum that was from the late 90s early 2000s and now um they're reviewing um getting getting in there and starting to review the high school curriculum so I'm so thankful for
173that and that um you know despite differing views um you know that that um they're doing a really great job and and making sure that everybody's heard on the committee committee and um bringing it here so I'm very proud of them um um regarding some challenges um I think the district can um do a better job at recording and Reporting data um and taking actions um against bullying harassment and hate speech in this District um it continues to be issues it's not just recent um with the you know um the country or you know um it it's been going on since actually before 2000s I've found some articles so um I mean sorry the yeah like in the 1990s um in order to do this successfully there needs to be systemic change um accountability um
174The Board needs to um it wasn't here today uh but um needs to um uplift the the recommendations from the Dei advisory committee the three-year plan that our community has really worked hard on um with input um and make sure the action steps are are being taken um I hope when I leave here that that will continue um and having inclusive these inclusive policies doesn't always guarantee that it's being imple they're being implemented and so um The Board needs to be responsible for holding um superintendent Administration accountable um and implementing um everything um and so yeah we still have a lot of work to do in this District um I'm going to be on the other side of things but um you know I hope that continues um thank you to the students my constituents
175supporters mentors and especially to my closest friends and family who have stuck by my side even though they experience turmoil because of it um I wish the best for incoming board members Jason to zides and Darcy Berwick um I encourage them to speak honestly and vote on behalf of the constituents and not based on deliberation with other board members or admin behind the scenes um it's democracy to speak honestly and vote regardless if people agree or not um so um I I encourage you to do that I encourage encourage current board members um to be more intentional in doing that as well um to all all the board members please remember your why my why has always been and always will be the children in our district um I know it's a good time for
176me to step back and really start to focus on um and support my community in a different capacity um and joining joining you all um you know really advocating um for needs um and things to come um I will always remain a strong advocate for our students and I will never give up fighting for the rights of our students and staff who are lgbtq plus black brown Muslim Jewish who have disabilities or any Community who is negatively impacted by barriers that have long that have been long embedded in this district and Community always remember we are all Hornets thank you [Applause] thank you very much trusty Eep we'll keep calling a trustee for as long as we can right till December 31st okay that's right you bet all right um true to form even though
177I've read this I don't know 18 times I'm getting emotional so especially after hearing Susan okay first I want to say thank you to Elise um for speaking tonight um in our public comment within Meadows is also a very special place to me I spent the majority of my time here in Seline as a teacher there saw all three of my kids um go through um school there and um still have a number of friends and colleagues who um live life there daily with their kids so thank you to Elise for elevating student voice and for giving us her perspective um my own daughter who is now almost graduating college she's passed two of her three nursing exams um this week so uh headed to um headed to an externship in Columbus of all places
178at Nationwide Children's Hospital I know my Hornet is going to be in Buckeye country um but um but anyway so um uh yeah so Woodland Meadows is also a very special place um for me and um and my family and whatever happens at Woodland Meadows I know that Laura and her team are going to um just uh just be supports for that community and for those kids so thank you for your care okay let's see if I can do this esteemed colleagues on this board um exceptional staff and students and dedicated members of our community as I sit here today in my final board meeting as a trustee I find myself reflecting on the journey we've shared it is truly been a time of both remarkable achievement and significant challenges together we have celebrated the
179triumphs of our students the dedication of our staff and the unwavering support of our families while also confronting obstacles that that have tested our resolve and commitment to education in this complex landscape I urge each of you trustees staff students and community members to continue uh to consider the power of our actions and perspectives our Behavior serves as a model for students who are watching us closely they listen to our words observe our reactions and learn how we engage with one another this responsibility is profound when we encounter situations that challenge us I encourage you to take a moment to pause instead of rushing to blame or Foster division Embrace a stance of Wonder and curiosity ask questions and seek to understand rather than to judge recognizing that our individual perspectives May differ and that
180no single Viewpoint holds Hank is in my speech later but um not right now Hank um let me say ask questions and seek to understand rather than to judge recognizing that our individual perspectives May differ and that no single Viewpoint holds all the answers approaching our challenges with curiosity opens the door to dialogue collaboration and growth creating an environment where innovative ideas can flourish and every voice is valued in this Spirit of inquiry we can truly affect change and nurture an inclusive and supportive educational Community let us strive to be the neighbors Mr Rogers would be proud of embracing kindness understanding and compassion in every interaction I want to express my extreme and sincere appre appreciation to my fellow trustees on the board of education your dedication and partnership has been invaluable throughout my term
181thank you for sharing your expertise and insights even when our perspectives didn't always align it is through our diverse viewpoints that we have engaged in meaningful discussions and have made informed decisions for our schools I appreciate the countless hours devoted to reviewing policies examining budgets attending events and advocating for our students and Community I am proud to have served alongside such passionate individuals a special thank you to the gold Jane family the gerby family the stean family the McVey Mitchell Family the eastep Jeffers family and the Austin family for sharing your loved ones to do this important work okay I want to extend a special thanks to Brad the other K12 educator on this boort from the campaign Trail to our time at the table I am grateful for your friendship and support your insights
182as an educator Union Leader parent and former coach have enriched our discussions and decisions and I appreciate the unique perspective that you bring I know you will continue to be a crucial voice on this board sharing your wisdom and expertise my kids your boys and all the students in Seline are better off because of your work here I also want to acknowledge Jess um and I'm going to say for her unwavering support um uh throughout these past four years and I look forward to taking her up on her board meeting watch party in the new year um special thanks to the staff throughout the district into the cabinet here tonight and to the cabinet who's not here tonight too um for their expertise and pursuit of Excellence that has put Seline on the map as
183one of the best school districts in the country as demonstrated tonight the future is bright because of your innovent Innovation responsiveness inclusiveness and student-led approach Hornets everywhere are thriving in this world because of each of you a small thank you doesn't seem to fully express my gratitude for the work that each of you do thank you to Betty yon for her kind and gentle nudges and support during my tenure as board secretary and I will try to stop and see you and time and Hank from time to time because Hank is a special boy um I would like to express my deepest gratitude to superintendent lch for his exceptional leadership and guidance especially over the last four years I began my teaching career in 2001 at Heritage where Steve was then a sixth grade teacher
184over the years we have transitioned into different roles and each step of the way I've always admired his leadership and mentorship and commitment to education qualities we can all aspire to emulate your vision and dedication have not only inspired the staff but have also made a lasting impact on the students and Community you are leaving the district better than what you found thank you for your steadfast commitment to Excellence and education and I wish you all the best in your retirement most importantly I want to thank my family your love and support and understanding have been my Foundation throughout this journey when I ran for this seat you were my biggest wise first to my three kids Ally Drew and Lany I am so proud to have had a front row seat to watch you
185all graduate and now you're all successfully navigating College largely due to your experiences with Selena AR schools I will always be grateful for the wonderful people who partnered with Dad and me to prepare you for all that lies ahead and to Wes thank you for your support for supporting and encouraging me every step of the way I appreciate the late dinners you prepared the countless times you ran the kids around um and your patience and allowing me to take a quick phone call um not so quick prepare Darcy and Jason um Team Miller your support and love means the world to me and thank you for being my biggest cheerleader and reminding me of the importance of advocating and promoting education in our community State and Country as I conclude I leave you with the
186wise words of Walt Whitman be curious not judgmental let this be a guiding principle for us as we move forward forward together or separately let's commit to cultivating a culture of curiosity that inspires us to learn connect and grow not just as individuals but as a United Community dedicated to the success of every child thank you for the privilege of serving selary [Applause] schools that's all that's all thank you so much Jenny I appreciate that we will miss you and Susan at the board table um I'd like to entertain a motion to authorize the consent agenda as printed this is your chance Jen all right motion Miller this is your chance Susan support all in favor please say I I I 5 zero thank you so much uh what's on the next agenda Dr L
187uh the election of officers correct be a big deal and then um Prime primarily the first robotics teams and the Esports teams which will be a lot of students present for that so wow it's to be wide angle lens photographers thank you so much public comment any member of the public May address the board briefly for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on a future agenda we have three names so I'll just read you off in the order that they've arrived on my table here Tiffany Alexander David Hayward and Dave Rosenfeld please and thank you is your there it goes there's really absolutely no shame in needing to improve that that's something that we all need to do as individuals as entities as organizations as Educators as parents but you cannot improve
188if you do not see room for improvement and it is not enough to say we can do better but these are all the reasons we are great when I hear my head it's a great time to be a hornet I think of the black students I talked to of the seven Middle Eastern families I've spoken to this week of the multiple parents over the years of children of disabilities and the lgbtqia families and they don't feel that way at all I noticed that last year when you saw who got the merit awards maybe it was this year I have a terrible sense of time um there was not one black student and not one person seemed to mention that except me and it was a kind of a shrug I guess that's because maybe everybody
189thinks black students are just too stupid or do you think that it might be because they don't have the same opportunities when they walk in the door because they don't I've talked to several students this week from the Middle Eastern Community and some of the things I have heard left me rocked just rocked these you're marginalized families we've seen people come up here and talk about how they felt what they've been through was racist and the immediate response on this board was to turn and say nothing you've done is racist that's the immediate response not to reach out to the families or the parents or the students but to comfort those who are being accused of doing such and I I I take a look at that and I'm like how do you expect your
190students to learn how to do better if you can't even listen to them your why should not be the students who are just excelling your why should also be the ones who are drowning most of them are never going to ask you for help and the reason for that is they say there's no point now I look at this Title 9 thing and I I'm questioning it in my head is it just because because of a lack of marginalized identities that this isn't clear when we step into the future in January the world is going to be a very different place the law does not prohibit extending protections it simply says this is the minimum and the minimum is rarely enough so when you set this precedent as you have said you've created a situation
191where if there are other Protections in your other policies they're all in void and considering the amount of expertise this board and Leadership says that they have I can't imagine that that's an accident there are so many opportunities to say this is what we've done well I would love to hear accountability yes I see on what you have not done and how you will address it thank you too Alexander I appreciate that David Hayward so with respect to the adoption of the title 9 policy I feel that is completely disingenuous to claim that you don't understand the policies the problems that are raised by this policy um by passing this policy uh you're effectively establishing Title 9 is the ceiling for the protections that students are going to to have when currently it's the floor
192for those protections and this is bad today because it threatens to invalidate any protections that current policies that go above and beyond the legal minimums give them but it's even more worrying for the future as we contemplate what we all can anticipate will be detrimental changes to Title 9 that are going to be coming in the next months now maybe that doesn't worry most of you sitting at the table because it seems like this is right now primarily going to impact trans people and it's very fashionable to attack our community right now but next year it could be you and your kids whose rights are taken away when Title 9 changes so think carefully about what it is that you did tonight David Rosenfeld I'm a little worried about time so uh forgive me if
193I read kind of fast um okay first first of all thank you trusty Eep uh we will be forever grateful for everything you've done for our kids and our community second I wasn't actually planning to speak on policy tonight but after hearing the discussion about the modifications to the non-discrimination policy I decided I probably should specifically the bid about the policy superseding other Seline non-discrimination policies has has me quite concerned I want to be sure that you all understand that the requirements of Title 9 Elliot Larson and other federal and state laws are the bare minimum they are not the maximum you are allowed to do to protect our kids if other policies this board has passed provide even greater protections than those guaranteed by law that is not only perfectly legal it will often
194be quite appropriate and could very well constitute best practices in many instance constitute best practices in many instan take the transgender policy for instance when we were working with Steve to help develop language for that policy Seline parents of trans students made it very clear that the protections guaranteed there needed to be Rock Solid and not at all dependent on what the particular laws are at any given time we were very conscious of how the law can change and we wanted to make absolutely sure that our kids would be safe no matter what let me try to give you a specific example to make my point even more clear as they are currently interpreted by the applicable authorities both Michigan state and federal law including Title 9 give transgender students the legal right to use
195bathroom and locker room facilities that align with their gender identity and this is a protection they are also afforded under our own transgender policy suppose however that the laws change at some point in the future such that that is not no longer a legal requirement then what the way I see it if that very unfortunate State of Affairs came to pass we would be quite lucky here in Seline because we would still have our own transgender polic our own transgender policy which would continue to require the implementation of best practices however I really do worry that someone might read that super session language in the thrun policy and come to a different conclusion and one that is not necessarily the intent of this board so to Summit up unless someone actually passed a law that
196forbids you to allow trans students to use facilities that align with their gender you could still continue to enforce the transgender policy as it was approved and you would be doing it not because the law requires it but rather because it is the best thing you could do for your students for the district and for our community thank you thank you very much uh I still have some time apparently I'm allowed to respond on occasion um I will talk to our lawyers about that piece of language just to to get to to verify that you're on the right track because I mean you obviously raised a very something very concerning and we have some time before the next board meeting I me I'll I will promise you that we will try and get some uh
197some insights from from our lawyers okay thanks Dave yeah the next meeting the next regular Board of Education meeting will be held on January 14th 2025 at 6:30 p.m. I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn the regular board meeting of uh December 10th at 9:29 928 so moved would be support should I do it like she did support all in favor please say I I I post good night everyone apparently no one's opposing closing this meeting once again thank you very much and I get to tap twice where's the box I don't no box tonight I don't know I