001we're actually about 40 minutes from Destin but we might go into Destin one day because and Nora will be in Destin so because we'll be with their parents yeah and Clara is going with us Clara Cherry yes so we're getting a late start no so we're getting a late start because the softball coach is keeping them till 6 um the new softball coach is keeping them until 6 so we're getting kind of a late start but it's okay it'll be fine we're just to be still driving at 3 in the morning but it's okay we do we Friday night but my oops this is on e ladies and gentlemen welcome to the March 12th Board of Education meeting for Saline Area Schools I like to call us to order and standing as you are able
002please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Brad Gerbe okay 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 very much everyone the Superintendent has uh at least one small group of people to recognize this evening I certainly do so it's my honor to introduce the Ethics Team the very high achieving Ethics Team anyway Saline High School's Ethics team had its most successful season since the start of the club over 10 years ago students in Ethics Bowl meet after school with Mr Ornelas and through independently organized practices to formulate arguments over highly complex moral issues on the weekend of February 3rd Saline's team won composed of seniors Sarah Yousef, Michael
003Bryant, Brian Kang, Alex Larson, and Colin Learman defeated Green Hills, Skyline, Divine Child, and then Ann Arbor Pioneer to win the State Ethics Bowl tournament a week later they defeated a private school from Maryland to win the Divisional Championship and advanced to Nationals and next month the team will face some of the top schools in the country at the High School Ethics Bowl National Championship hosted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Saline looks to make history by winning the championship and bringing the trophy home so with that said we'd like to learn who's on the team and ask for the students and our advisor and he has a special guest as well yeah exactly to come on up to the podium if you all can come up who are here and then
004what we'd like you to do is uh first off you can start by tapping the green button there to make sure that it's on and we'd like you to introduce yourself uh tell us what year and high school you're at and then tell us a little bit about your role on the team and uh just a little bit about your experience and we're all going to do that and then we're going to go take a picture with the Board of Education over here so do the moms do you want to go ahead and start sure uh hello my name is uh Brian Kang and I'm a senior here at Saline and this was our as a group this was our first year together um Colin, Alex, Michae,l and I we competed uh sophomore junior as
005well and it was really fun and we're really excited to go to UNC this April so yeah yeah hi so my name is Alex Larson I'm a senior as well um yeah no it was a great experience in general so um one of the things I like the most is kind of grappling with the cases they give us a I don't know maybe 15-18 cases and give us a period of time to work with them um and it's just it's great to hang out with these guys it's a great team um and just take some great stances so yeah I'll pass it on hi my name is Sarah Yousef I'm a senior this is my my second year in Ethics um and I think my favorite part of Ethics is probably just finding that gray
006area rather than um sticking to a hardcore stance you really get to discover the complexities of all issues all right I'm uh I'm Colin Learman this is the trophy we won uh this is my second year competing and honestly my favorite thing is just going to Panera and practicing little grub uh can't beat it uh I'm Michael Bryant this is my third year on the team um and I guess my favorite part is just hanging out with the squad uh having a good time it's pretty fun all right hi my name is Zach Ornelas I go by Mr O at Saline High School as an English teacher this is my second year helping to advise this team um carrying on the torch from Shelley Venema who started this as a founding team in Michigan 10
007years ago 2014 and the first Ethic Bowl so it's really cool to to honor what she started and to see these kids uh go to the National Championship where I'd like to point out that a majority of the schools competing there are private schools that cost a whole lot of money and to take public school there and to hopefully beat all of them is a huge honor and just kind of a testament to the education at Saline High School so thank you let's give them a hand fantastic okay and then if we can um Miss Martin will take a picture let's all head over to the side area and let's take a picture we are working at getting this down to a real science [Applause] yes Board Recording Secretary Jahnke are there any public comment
008cards thank you I think we can run the rest of this meeting without Brian Gerbe I what do you Brad Brad Gerbe or or Brian Gerbe I don't care well I will not discuss that there are no uh public comments in the queue so we'll skip past that we do have one extended public comment from Saline Middle School's uh Kimberly Jasper AKA Kim Jasper AKA Principal Jasper and Lindsay Guenter Assistant Principal thank you for having us this evening I'm Kim Jasper I'm the proud Principal of Saline Middle School I'm Lindsay Guenter proud Assistant Principal of Saline Middle School we're honored to stand here today and highlight all of the fantastic successes and experiences of our learning community springing at a middle school brings all sorts of uh eventful days um along with fantastic events celebrations,
009assessments, and opportunities that will culminate our year of learning to get us started at SMS we have some remarkable musical talent. Our students and their skilled teachers have been displaying those talents through band, choir, and orchestra performances and in a collaboration of visual and auditory arts the 8th grade band created visual representations of the characters that were presented in their musical performances examples include the Mad Prince and the Dark Queen our drama students also showcase their creative commitment to the Performing Arts through school-based and evening performances of the scripts they developed athletically our wrestling team concluded its season with the uh Junior Draws Tournament showcasing the determination in sportsmanship integral to being a Saline Hornet additionally the girls basketball teams recently wrapped up their season which was particularly successful for eighth graders who led a
010series of wins against the SEC competition keeping with the spirit of teamwork and commitment evident in our teams our student leaders in WEB and Student Council dedicated their time to welcoming and preparing incoming students at the sixth and seventh grade information nights they were well spoken and demonstrated the excellent peer mentoring that exists at SMS our students at SMS are expressing and a plethora of talents through our diverse range of clubs from our service oriented Builders Club to empowering groups like Girls Who Code, GSA, and FCA to sharpening their academic skills with Math Counts there's something for every student at SMS additionally our Uno Club fosters communication skills in a fun and interactive way ensuring that every student can find their niche and thrive the achievements coming out of these clubs are truly remarkable perhaps
011you've also heard of our Science Olympiad and Robotics teams Science Olympiad had several students in the top 10 in their February competition at U of M and our three robotics teams have outshined the competition across the state with our SMS Cybugs heading off to Texas to compete in the world competition in April. Let's not forget about academics of course the SMS Hornets continue to display excellence in multiple facets of their education building wide are students had the opportunity to display and compete in experimental science learning at the SMS science fair experiments included but were not limited to the impact of different sugars when growing crystals proving which kind of w wood burns the longest and hottest if you want to build the best bonfire and which insulation keeps steady for the longest period of time
012perhaps the most delicious of these science fair uh experiments as we head into the season of marshmallow peeps is which liquid will dissolve them the fastest so we have some students who tell you that students at each grade level found ways to solve problems through hypothesis, research, data collection, and analysis and final presentations further learning experiences included a seventh grade visit to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, an exploration of world religions our eighth grade students presented E Cyber Mission presentations um science fair ess with a little bit of an additional component to school administration Dr Laatsch and I both sat and received these presentations and questioned the students on their processes sixth grade students research for the cross-curricular and multi genre National Parks Project and students are learning to put their perspectives to the paper
013through argumentative writing and revision on a note of advocacy our student council is organizing a Rock Your Socks day at Buzz's Biz for World Down Syndrome showcasing the compassion and awareness that our students are fostering within the school environment lastly very proud of this our students are actively participating in a schoolwide competition to bring the most cereal boxes um to school in their first hours for Saline Area Social Services the SMS Domino of kindness featuring cereal do a cereal Domino track set up and knocked over by our winning students and leaders symbolizes the positive impact that our clubs can collectively achieve I do have to put in a plug there is an Amazon link that lives on social media we are over 500 boxes we want more because we want to make it all the
014way around the track so plug for everyone to purchase cereal if you want the competition is fierce at SMS across first hours for those cereal boxes and if you want a moment of nostalgia just go peek in our storage room uh Mrs G and I Commander SMS students and staff for their achievements in the academics, the arts, athletics, and community giving we're continuously impressed with the ways that our students are respectful, responsible, safe, and kinder than necessary thank you to each of you for your continued support and encouragement as our students students strive for excellence go Hornets thank you thank you so much I wish we could ask questions and and but you know extended public comment we won't do that I have no response to a last week's public comment uh so I at
015this point I would like to entertain um a motion to approve the agenda as printed or revised let me just give a little background items can be added or deleted from the agenda or the order can be changed at the request of an individual board member or the Superintendent the agendas must be approved before proceeding further do I have a motion to approve motion Gerbe Gerbe uh second Steben Steben uh all in favor please say I I opposed hearing none se it's seven right okay good thank you very much um we do have one Student Showcase tonight would you like to introduce them please uh Caroline if that's all right do I surprise you with this no you're all good um tonight's Student Showcase is the Saline High School Science Olympiad team with Suhani, Ayush,
016and I'm sorry if I'm bushed your name but Weiran Jiang thank you all right you guys can come on up here and show for your showcase to the podium thank you hi I'm Monica C I'm the coach for our High School Science Olympiad team and I'm very proud to be here with our three captains this season I have Ayush Reddy, Suhani Dalela, and Alice Jiang uh before I let these students tell you about their accomplishments I think what we would like you all to know what I would like everyone to know is about how much work our students do in order to perform at the level they perform at so they'll tell you about the events but we have 23 of them and so they learn about fossils, they learn about microbes and diseases, and forestry
017and um dis oh I said diseases already anatomy, ecology, the planet uh exoplanets, so all sorts of things these students learn about, they do experiments in chemistry and in physics, they build these engineering wonders, they build airplanes, they build launchers, they build wield vehicles, they build robots, they build detectors, um so the level that our team performs at it I just cannot overstate or be a prouder Coach of the amount of time, energy, effort, discipline, and study and sustained effort it takes for them to be able to our season goes the entire year for them to still be bettering themselves and their teammates at this point in the season after a whole season of it so far um it takes a lot of GRIT from our students so I'm very proud of them and I
018will let them share their slides with you then one more all right so the things that we're going to go over tonight are we're going to talk to you about our team Science Olympiad we'll talk to you about the team events that we participate in we'll talk to you about our year so far and how it's been going our Hawk and Hornet Tournament that we run with Troy Athens and our future plans so right now we'll first go over like what is Science Olympiad what are some topics and how we organize our team oh okay so to start off we have 23 events in a variety of different topics um we've got life and p life personal and social sciences um earth and space sciences physical science, chemistry, technology, engineering, inquiry, and nature of science
019as well and these are split up into Study and Build Events so Study Events involve students you know either memorizing material or creating binders and note sheets full of just you know just a lot of facts you know and that could be what are the type of um rocks out there you know or how are diseases spread and um so the students will take the test on that and you know they could again like I said they could have note sheets or binders with them as well or it's all in their head um additionally we have Build Events where students make things like air trajectories to you know accurately hit a target or um get a ball in a bucket and um we have students kind of evenly split out out across these events um
020additionally uh we have eight tournaments in a season and we have 34 students on our team um each student is can be in anywhere from two to six events and we hope that students are not in six events because that is a really long tournament day but um you know we're split all across these 23 events and we cover them pretty well I would say next we will talk to you about the team event that we participate in throughout the year so um in in order to have a more inclusive environment where everyone is comfortable and to really build a community since we are a team we do do a lot of team bonding events throughout our season for example in the summer we did a Jeopardy game and there was a couple topics there's
021like movies, about Science Olympiad, history, music, Crime, and um team trivia so for example who's the tallest team member in the in the team and maybe just maybe um and then in August we also did a picnic event with the Saline Middle School um we were able to like talk with them it was very fun but this also gave them a chance to see what it would be like to actually be in the high school team lastly we did do a gingerbread house competition in like December so one a couple of our members set that up and it was really fun and you can see like maybe they're very small but there's like some gingerbread houses there and we have like a little board and like judge of all the houses and yeah that's pretty
022much it so oh again we'll talk a little bit about our year the placements that we've gotten so far um the tournaments that we compete in throughout the year and we will be competing in um coming this year and how we did last year as well so some of our placements last season were that at Regionals we got second place and at States we got ninth place some highlights from last year were that we won over 200 medals total we got our own place in the STEM building and we had our own social events like kayaking and we had an ice cream social so now um this is kind of our timeline um this is just our major competitions we will do so we have Hawk and Horn that's our first tournament and we run
023this actually with Troy Athens so this also helps us get a little bit more funding and we'll definitely talk more about that in a couple in a few um a bit later and then we do have a U of M tournament and a lot of National Teams attend this tournament and it really helps us kind of like gauge where we are at and what can we improve on it's a very helpful tournament we go to and then Allandale it's mainly we go there to run our build events they have really nice facilities we do that for and um we won first place a couple weeks back so that was very nice Regionals is this Saturday so our team is actually meeting right now to cram in everything and we've been um doing a lot of
024work for that and then States will be on May 4th so Star Wars day and it'll be pretty fun all right so some of the placements that we've already gotten this year um unfortunately at well Hawk and Hornet since we run that with Troy Athens um and that's where it was this year um we don't award trophies to ourselves or for them since we're one of the organizing teams so nothing there but I would say we did pretty good um at U of M we got 12th place just this February at Northview which is one of our earlier tournaments we got 7th place um at Haslett we got 4th place Solon which is another tournament with um some National Teams one of them came all the way from Texas um we got 9th Place there
025and finally at Allendale our main team took first and um our alternate team took 7th in additional to our in-person tournaments we also participate in Battle of the States which is a online tournament between states in the Midwest region and we've placed very well we got first place in Chem Lab, First and 4th place in Optics, and first place in Detector Building among various other placements so now we will transition to our Hawk and Hornet competition so this was actually our third year doing this competition and hosting um this was at Troy Athens and next year we will be hosting at the Saline High School so Hawk and Hornet is important to us for um many reasons one reason is since that we're organizing it with Troy Athens it brings in a lot of funding
026from the fee that teams pay in order to participate um it also puts us on the map um even though we are a very good team um you know we want to be put on the map for sponsors and other teams and anyone who could support us generally so hosting a tournament does that um it is actually I would say the earliest tournament in the Science Olympiad season so we have a lot of teams um from all over the state and actually Ohio too I think um coming to participate and you know see where are their members at you know how are they doing and just kind of see how we all stand up against each other and I would say it's a lot of fun too since it's early you know not super high
027stakes um like uh we mentioned earlier it was hosted at Troy Athens this year um and since we alternate back and forth it will be hosted at Saline for the 2024 tournament uh we had 44 participating schools this year which is almost double the number from when we first started so I would say you know we're growing pretty well and um it's run by our very own former coach Coach Nath as well as coach Eric and Elaine from uh Troy Athens and finally we're going to finish off by telling you about our future plans so going to our future plans we have our first plan will be gaining more members sorry gaining more members um a lot of the students actually don't really know about us um even though they are very interested in various science
028fields such as biology, engineering, etc and um but this is why we really want to increase our advertisement in the school maybe like putting up flyers and talking to teachers um we will also do an Open House Event and also use social media um we've started posting on social media during all our events and hopefully that will also gain more traction number two we hope to utilize the STEM building it'll be very long before we will actually be able to use it but we are really excited for the chance to um it would be very helpful for our build events for example like flight we have to go all the way to the gym and kind of like fly these planes and sometimes it doesn't work based on the heights and there's always like basketball
029nets and it could be dangerous for our planes um also labs would be very helpful we do have a couple but in our other room some of the labs don't really work which could hurt a lot of of our team since you can't really do full-on labs um and then we hope to have use those um collaborative work spaces in the building um since we have 23 events we have like smaller team breakouts and it would be very helpful to use that so that is our those are our kind of plans thank you so much for listening this team means a lot to us Ayush and I being seniors and Alice almost there um so this it's had a huge impact on on us and we've loved being part of it throughout the years thank
030you well well yay thank you well done and congratulations thanks for staying up there may be a question or two I guess I would just like to start quickly by saying your gingerbread houses must have been highly engineered right structurally sound withstand you know a lot of weight and whatever but um did you ever manage to sort out the air conditioning issues for your flight in the gymnasium yes Rex Clary helped us with that this season so we haven't had any problems using the aux gym this season has been great oh that's great thank you so much I appreciate that anyone else at the table I can work up down go ahead um just a quick comment so first of all um you know I every time I see Science Olympiad and Robotics and I'm
031just super excited about our future here in Saline and the Bond and the things that we're going to be able to do and provide for facilities for you guys so you won't have to worry about hopefully about air conditioning and having that impact here so I'm I'm really excited for that and thankful for that um I continue to be appreciative of the fact that you have a partnership with Troy Athens uh it's somewhat selfish because I am a Troy Athens Redhawk so for me it's like a um it's a full circle moment for me right so uh best of both worlds if you will and then I always ask this question of groups that that join us and you've hit on a couple of things with regards to advertising and what have you but um
032how can the board help you like what can what can we do specifically to to support you because the floor is yours right this is always a tough question uh what keeps me up at night is the coach, funding keeps me up at night so all of these pieces all of these beckers and uh note sheets to put all of their reference materials in and uh circuit boards that they need for their detectors and the airplane kits all of these things are very expensive as well as the travel fees and so um I would say that that's something that I wrestle with as the coach um and I'm very excited to hear that the new facility is going to be breaking ground on March 22nd and so I will be there at the groundbreaking I'm
033very very excited about it as a coach um and I'm looking forward to the District partnering with us to find out what is the best way that we can utilize the space any spaces that are available to us for storing things um when I was at Solon um at the beginning of February I learned that they have an entire classroom that is only Science Olympiad storage it's not even a room that they use for their meetings it's just for storage so that if they want to bring out a scrambler device that rotated out you know six years ago they can just pull it out of the archives and blow the dust off and now they have a place to start for their season and that's something that is has been difficult for us traditionally because
034all of our building is currently happening in kids basement and um and the team doesn't retain any of those devices when they go because we don't have space to store them so um so I'm just looking forward to some of those discussions as we move forward we have a design meeting coming up with Kara Davis um so we're just really grateful for any any partnership that the district gives to us we're so grateful um to the three of you and also um especially our two seniors who probably have some some ideas moving forward but how has this experience influenced your post High School decision making and future um goals um I think Science Olympiad since I've been in it since like elementary School essentially I've been in it for almost like eight to eight years
035yeah so I think my experience with Science Olympiad is that it's really gotten me into like engineering and science and all that it kind of inspired me to take a lot of classes that I did in high school and it's also inspired my college decision making I have gotten into U of M and plan going in going there for engineering so I think Science Olympiad has been the biggest impact on my life I have also been in Science Olympiad since it started here when I was in fourth grade um I think as a girl I get told a lot that you know science engineering not really your thing and I know from being in Science Olympiad cuz I mean I haven't really been in any other similar um you know clubs or organizations where I
036get to kind of explore um I've really gotten to see like what are my options you know like oh I could go into medical oh I could go into engineering you know uh I could go into here all the different types of engineering right so I think it's really impacted um to help me decide what I want to do after high school um it's also been a huge part of my college application um devoted a lot of time to it um I have also gotten into U of M and Georgia Tech and um I think that without Science Olympiad I don't think I would have you know been able to say this is what I want to do and I'm going to do it just because I can these guys are fantastic Ayush has built
037a wheel vehicle that it has an egg on the front and it gets so close to a plywood within millimeters without breaking the egg so that's the kind of engineering that he's been doing and um and Suhani's been really great I I just I love them both so we'll miss them other comments down the table no no no go ahead I'll just follow up uh the last students what was your name again yeah uh Suhani Suhani um I know that no Saline Area Schools teacher has told you that you can't do anything and I'm sure that um I'm sure that you you might hear that in your life but remember that you can do whatever you want to do anyone can do whatever they would like to do um particularly in Women's History Month I
038just wanted to call that call that out and very proud of all of you and the rest of your team and thank you Monica for coaching well thank you all very much I appreciate it we'll see you next year with big trophies and everything right thank you thank you [Applause] before we get to our scheduled reports we have three quick hopefully quick action items uh the first is action a uh I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the February 27th 2024 close session for the purpose of Collective Bargaining 8(c) of the Open Meetings Act and uh for those of you who are new to this process Secretary Miller is handing out those minutes and we'll give a quick review of them and a vote first of all though so move do
039we thank you you're right on top of it JS Gerbe second BG thank you very much is it maize and blue yellow and blue with regards to Miranda um I think so I think it's out of order slightly so I would if we would like to we can just have that that section there at the bottom um put up under number three since it's part of the same grouping yeah I don't disagree with the content so Michael I just moved to um make a motion to approve with changes with um pulling that up under number three and then the deletion of the adjournment time which is a duplicate so we'll say as revised yep thank you all in favor please say I I I that's fine unless you don't trust us all opposed uh extensions one
040okay thank you very much sorry uh I'd like to also uh uh entertain a motion to approve the 20 19 sorry 2024 2025 School of Choice Guideline as recommended by Superintendent Laatsch so moved is that Lauren thank you Gerbe second three for three any discussion on this Dr Laatsch or questions go ahead so this is um to try to make policy language match our current guidance that we've been publishing to the community for years and years and the state um or the what what legislation in the legal language says about a specific item within this policy currently we list um students may may be removed from consideration if they have been suspended from school in the past two years, if they were ever expelled from school, uh or convicted of a felony the language in
041the policy says enrollment is not available to these students language uh from legislation also says students may be removed from consideration so I'm suggesting we should follow the language that is in the um legal uh definition so to speak yeah so in in the policy report we're going to talk a little bit more about that and that'll be um coming forward to an agenda soon this particular um discussion item is about the number Steve was just um previewing yeah yeah right this is this is not about the number this is just making the language of the policy consistent with um guidance for our local guidance and what it uh says in legislation language thank you are there any other questions to ask Dr Laatsch about this yeah so I think I think there because there's
042two School of Choice items on the agenda so right now we're discussing the numbers and the guidelines for those numbers but also a part of those guidelines are the policy which we will be bringing forward yes exactly exactly exactly so they're related but yeah so we'll be discussing it further so there'll be two School of Choice items so we're looking at the document from the last board meeting yes currently yep I think Steve was just saying when it comes up again later they are related yeah yeah that's okay so the motion is about the numbers just to be clear as to what we're actually voting on right okay approve the document that's on page six of the packet six and seven uh yes okay did you want to talk further about it well sure I
043can just explain y sorry about that I was going out of turn with with the order but the the specific numbers just um based basically philosophy is more taking students at the youngest levels um not taking students in fourth through 8th grade and then taking some students again at the high school level that's what this these numbers propose um for School of Choice for this upcoming year question um have have these numbers changed from um when we reviewed the draft last meeting okay I just want to make sure the well there is one small change in that um first, second, and third grade now match the minimum one number which was sort of an error that we had before without with saying second grade had zero so um minimum one and again minimum means that
044we need to take at least one student but we could take more thank you great then all in favor please say I I I opposed I Tim oh right okay thank you 6 1 thank you very much I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the purchase from Dow's Equipment Sales and Service for two lifts in sub subsequent removal and install reinstallation of the existing lifts at the new operations center for a total of $57,659.00 as recommended by Rex Clary Executive Director of Operations support Miller okay second Tim Tim Austin thank you very much is there anything to add to this or any no it's pretty straightforward questions for Mr Clary well then hearing none let's put it to a vote all in favor please say I I I I opposed right six uh 7
0450 thank you very much we have two scheduled reports this evening the first will be the Community Education Department update uh presented by the Community Ed Staff Members thank you the floor is yours here thank you this all right well thank you um my is Brian Puffer the Community Education Director um for Saline Community Ed last time we presented it's probably about 10 years ago and I think we took about an hour so it's probably we've not been asked back I'm guessing so we'll make sure we go a little quicker this time I know we have a lot of slides on there so basically today we want to do is kind of give you an overview of what we do who we are whatnot so first what I'd like to do is kind of go
046through and uh a lot of my staff are here tonight so I'd like to introduce them and I'm just gonna have them stand up when I say their name uh first would be my Administrative Specialist Sharon Dunny who's been with for 23 years second be our Aquatics Program Specialist Sandy Stafford my first 20 years Lee Saborio who is not here who's been here longer than anybody the Community Ed has been with us for 26 years in the program I started in 1990 with the program I believe in 91 check my math next is Rebecca Groeb our Cultural Art Specialist she's been with us 20 years our next one is Linda Davis who is our Design Specialist she is not here tonight but she has been with us for 12 years uh next is our Early
047Childhood Service Director Su-Fen Lin's been here 18 years uh Facility Specialist Jeff Burman who's been here with 23 years our Liberty Club Director Shannon Macy who's been with us here for eight years get her name wrong and then our Recreation Enrichment Program Specialist Ashley Howes who's been here four years so as you can see we have this is our full-time staff and we have 125 uh full full-time and part-time staff together and our average years of service is about 17.4 years so something we're we're proud of to have a consistent department uh really quick kind of what what is Community Education sometimes people ask what that is um and you can I'm not going to read the top paragraph to you but you can read that over um at the bottom is our mission statement
048and which is the mission of Community Ed is to deliver community education services of the highest quality Saline Area School District and I believe our staff behind us does that every day uh first what I want to do is kind of read over some highlights from the last year and then we will go over each department uh if you have questions for them feel free to stop me and ask like I said it's just kind of a highlights of what we have done uh first of our highight I really want to bring to attention is MACAE which is the Michigan Adult Community Alternative Education Association last fall at the conference we received the 2023 Program of the Year award out of 50 applicants we are selected for the men's high school volleyball team you may
049or may not know it's started it's a community educ community education program that we started two years ago uh one of the main factors we were chosen for that award is because if we didn't provide that program start that program it wouldn't exist and that team in its second year of existence went to the final four right Ashley so we're very proud of that hopefully soon it will become an MHSA sport but uh we're very proud of that program another one is the creation of the eSports team at the high school uh we work with Steve Vasiloff to get the program started so we're very excited that first season's going very well I know they were here presented at the board and so we're excited for the spring season's kicking off uh our November craft
050show you may or may not know that we are part of the craft show last November was our uh highest attendance we've had since 2008 that's when I became Director uh looking at numbers but we are very excited about that another highlight is the COVID transition uh obviously when COVID happened in 2020 we were the first department to have students back in the building um we are kind of just like the guinea pigs to see how this is all going to work and whatnot so I told Lee in the middle of June we got go back to camp we don't call it camp just call it kids coming to the school and they're going to be in pods of 10 and so uh we were excited to do that and we actually ran that whole
051summer camp without one case of COVID uh in 2020 uh 35 new programs were implemented last year uh so a couple of the highlights we implemented a implemented Bridge 4 uh it's for all incoming fourth graders uh uh at Heritage we had 129 kids participate in that program last year uh kind of give them a three-day crash course of what Heritage school is going to be like it's taught by Heritage uh teachers uh we have a Bridge 6 program that we've been doing to Middle School for gosh about eight years now that we've modeled that for that uh another one that we're um very proud of is that we implemented a schoolwide facility software Eleyo if you heard it uh everybody in District uses it we know we can tell you um a good example
052of how important it is to have this is last year when we had um unfortunate the shooting over here in the summer time we had kids at the Middle School we knew exactly who was there where they were um and so we were able to contact the instructors right away have them move to safety and so having everybody on the same page Athletics, Buildings and Grounds and us it's worked out really well and the last one is uh if you may or may not know we do control the Community Garden and we oversee that and we uh updated that as well and so we'll hit on that a little bit later uh the first one we're going to run to is uh Aquatics and Sandy's here we're just going to go over the highlights of
053that program it's home to the Saline Swim Team uh we 225 plus athletes 50 plus USA State quality qualifiers 12 sectional and seven NCSA qualifiers we have nine swim groups to meet the needs of all levels of swimming uh it's we are coordinated of the largest feeder program for youth running I know you see why is that in there because it's Aquatics it's because Sandy's in charge of that too and so uh we do have a great program both of those and Sandy has been instrumetal and all those programs since 2004 even longer for the running uh we're known for outstanding meet operation, facility, and event experiences uh we don't have a lot of free weekends for rentals but when we do we have them full um and then obviously for all the athletic events
054that take place in the pool everything that takes place in the pool Sandy and her staff oversee those events uh like I mentioned we are highly sought after rental and high school facility in Michigan and another thing is too we're proud of again back to COVID is we created uh the Back to Swim COVID Transition Program with USA Swimming designed a unique COVID um Running Plan as well uh next Before and After Care uh we currently have 300 enrollments across our four programs uh currently right now we run Heritage and Woodland Meadows together at Woodland Meadows um that's due to staffing staffing is getting better but it's not back to where we need it uh we draw from all walks of life we're kind of proud of this we have high school students now college
055students, paras, uh child care workers providing children with a range of personalities and their caregivers and so we think that's very important to have that uh we pride ourselves on providing a safe, active, and fun space for busy families and children both before and after school and during the summer uh Lee wrote this and filled this in so it's not me but this was from Lee he says I've been with the program since the summer of 1990 if you were a 10-year-old then you are now 40 years old and yes we have and are currently serving the children of children we served decades ago yeah we were talking and Lee's like I need to come up with something I said talk about how long you've been here it's been forever and talk about all the
056kids you had and he came up with that and I thought that was really good so uh Cultural Arts uh in the past 20 years nearly uh 3,000 students in grades 1 through 8 have participated in the Youth Theater Guild Junior theater and Broadway Boot Camp I think it's very amazing that we've had 3,000 students come through there we've been proud that kids can start as young as uh first grade in in those programs to stay in it through high school if they like uh maintenance, scheduling, staffing for our three District theater spaces for for year round school and community group concerts, recital, uh theatricals, business presentations, and church services we're lucky to have three theater spaces in this district and we do use all three people sometimes think Liberty our auditorium there just sets
057there it does not we use it we rent it out to our church every Sunday um so their spaces do get used and Rebecca and her team do a great job of making sure those spaces are used but they're also that they're maintained and they're not abused um it's also one of most highly in demand rental spaces in Southeastern Michigan for Performing Arts due to the well just the well maintained facilities anybody sees that theater you know it's beautiful it's 20 years old but still it's one of the best spaces theater spaces in the state uh Tech use is very important technical theater training opportunities and stage management and sound and light board development for SHS students that's Hornet Light and Sound that's correct right uh it gives these students an opportunity to work in
058the theater while they're still in high school uh which is amazing and that they Rebecca has had students go on and further their careers in college and go work and come back and work for us so for those students that have that opportunity to work in that space um is phenomenal Rebecca does a great job with those kids um and then also we are one of the first theater spaces in Washtenaw County to reopen after COVID uh with film live stream, limited capacity performances, and in person youth theater classes I will say we were told to go back when Scott was here and said we're going back in these spaces that's why we were in those spaces and we had to come up with plans and as you guys know in 2020 some of the
059stuff we making up and seeing what we could do um but I it worked well we had some clients that came to us just because nobody else was open and we've retained some of those clients Early Childhood it's been operating in Saline Community for over 45 years uh from for 2014 to 2024 we provided Early Childhood programs for over a thousand families programs include the Great Start Readiness Program, preschool, prek, and summer camp since 2014 the program earned an average of 4.8 out of 5 on a quality program indicator uh in 2024 the program earned a Certificate of Recognition for Demonstrating Quality Early Childhood Programs from the Department of Education Great Start Office Su-Fen does a great job of this program uh what's phenomenal about it is staffing obviously we do have turnover sometimes we
060used to joke we're the minor league system we'd have a teacher for a year or two then they become a kindergarten teacher and first grade teacher uh which is great uh again but so she's been able to retain that staff, train that staff, and we keep operating a great program has been being recognized uh we operate the only Great Start Readiness Program in Saline the program is designed to provide high quality preschool to children at risk for low educational attainment in the school year before they are eligible for kindergarten I will say that Great Start Readiness Program is amazing you see them when the kids first get there into the year and then you see them at graduation down at Mill Pond Park uh it's really nice to to see how much those kids grow
061and watch them uh the last one is a quote from one of our parents what I like most about the program as a parent are the activities they make learning fun I've seen my child's growth and problem solving conflict resolution with friends because the staff helps them to work through it all children get individual help whenever needed uh next one is our Facilities to go over this uh we used to have one person that was in charge for Facilities at Community Ed 2020 that person uh uh left Community Ed and now we have uh I would say one two three about four of us that go over it we meet once a week to go over everything in the District so we have it's a team approach and it's worked out really well um and
062so you can see we've had 10,000 plus facility requests process since implementing Eleyo in 2022 uh 500 group individual facility counts uh our rental revenue for the calender year last year was just over $300,000 um like I just mentioned our staff meet week to discuss review and plan for districtwide facility usages we meet every Thursday at 2 o'clock my staff will tell you it's my favorite meeting of the week um we go over everything in the District not just Community Ed but everything that's in there so if we see a conflict even if it's not ours we'll look at it we'll call the necessary people and make sure that we have it uh we know what's going on but it's also a testament to everybody you know in Athletics or Clubs Laurie Dawson Buildings and
063Grounds everybody's using the system so it's working the way it should uh we do get a lot of uh feedback we do survey our our clients that's just another comment down there uh we love our relationship with Saline schools we've been running our events here for five years now the process of reserving is easy and staff and facilities are first class I would recommend running any events with Saline Schools we look at facilities as a way to bring people into our District to see our facilities that maybe wouldn't come here so we do host a lot of tournaments for uh you know basketball uh we have football rentals we have a lot of different things on our site so we figure if we can get people here you know maybe they want to come to
064school here maybe it's the first time they've seen Saline so we have other motives just to obviously we want to make money but we want to have people in the district our next one is Liberty Club started in 2011 um I was here still I was here and we had two parents that came up and said we want to run a program because we have nothing to do for our two kids once they turn 27 they're no longer eligible for the Young Adult Program I said if you want to try it let's try it and so the first year we had four people we had four participants you can see now we have 32 participants and we have a long wait we have a waiting list um which is is is phenomenal it's the largest
065program for disabled adults 26 and older in Washtenaw County provides continuous learning life skill and development and social interaction uh we partner with 19 different local organizations for volunteering and social intergration we delivered 700 plus meals in partnership with Saline Meals on Wheels in 2023 uh we plan to expand services to meet the growing community need uh one need uh um thing too is that our obviously our youngest is 27 and our oldest participant is 58 years old in the program so it's we have a wide range of um ages in our program next one is Rec and Enrichment uh programming for grades K through 12 uh fall 2023 going in spring we've offered 195 different program courses 399 with courses between Rec, Adult Rec, Youth Enrichment, High School, Adult, Enrichment ,Youth Arts and Craft,
066Youth Music Theater, uh we view and operate our program to be a feeder programs that continue where the kids are Middle School and High School uh we're proud to have you know our Junior Tackle Football Program our travel programs um we're looking at bringing trying to have maybe like an eSports team that's you know in Middle School programs so we're trying to develop programs that can be feeder programs for other thing not just athletics but everything else so uh Ashlee does a really good job with that we offer the most Middle School sports that I know any way around between uh our Athletic Department our Community Ed Department so we keep trying to work on that we have a great partnership with the Consortium and Athletics we run our summer camps through them each school
067year it's another way for us to kind of promote the programs to our students in the Middle School and whatnot for the Consortium classes they've been phenomenal uh and Athletics again has always been a great partner Community Ed we continuously look for new programing offers we evaluate the needs and wants of the community but also take a pride of the fact that we have programs that have been offered through us for 20 years people come to us with programs they want to run we also keep up on the trends to see what's out there so if there's a need in the community and we can run it uh we're going to try it our last one or getting to the end here is our Community Garden you may or may not know it's located uh
068between Woodland Meadows and Weber Blaess we uh kind of renovated this uh we created online registration we established a garden agreement uh we provide water, new compost uh annually replac a deteriorating sign out front you may have noticed um to meet the demand this year we've we're adding five additional plots I think we had maybe probably 10 people on the wait list last year and so it's turned into a really nice spot it always has been we kind of neglected a little bit but we've turn our focus on that it's a great spot out there and people really do use it and so we're we're proud of that one of course the Craft Show if you don't know it's coming up Saturday so uh it's a big event that we're we're part of obviously Cheryl
069Hoeft uh just phenomenal job with it uh she handles the vendors, we handle logistics uh two shows a year um our show is Saturday just quickly uh a couple statistics on that is last year we had over 400 vendors participate I like I re I said earlier November show was our most successful show since 2008 the one thing that's really neat and we get a lot of credit for and Cheryl start this like I said the program is that we had 29 school teams and clubs work the show last year it's a major fundraiser for them so they work the show you come in you pay the $4 at the door people will ask where's that money going it's going back to the clubs and we could not run those shows without the clubs and
070the teams and those kids do a fantastic job it's not just the sports teams we have you know robotics we have everybody so um we're excited about that we're excited to have those kids and um it's just been a great partnership uh this is just kind of telling you what we do our Program Guide is coming out we're getting ready for summer we do mail out 10,000 guides every uh time we we do a winter spring we do a summer and we do a fall guide that go out and so our registration will be starting up here on April 3rd for the summertime and these are just kind of pictures of our staff let people know we are our Liberty Club Camp ,our Summer Camp Staff, Cultural Arts, Pooh Corner, our Facilities, our Aquatics, we're
071all over the district and so sometimes people don't realize who we are and what we do but these are just kind of some pictures of everything we are at Community Ed that's our new Garden their volleyball team the kids first this is the last slide and we'll take questions I just want to first thank you Board of Education you guys have always long as I've been with the community yet have always supported uh us and I appreciate that Buildings and Grounds, Custodial we couldn't do what we do without their help especially our large events uh they're key uh especially the leads of most of the buildings they're always you know Mike Puckett text me today to make sure we're set for stuff on Saturday for the um Craft Show that doesn't happen in other District
072it does but other districts doesn't happen in and so to have that communication um is what makes our job easier and obviously the principles, teachers, and clerks we I think them offer support I know sometimes if something goes miss or something's broken it's Community Ed's fault we're used to that and that's okay but they do support us uh supports great and we appreciate that and of course the Saline Community wouldn't be here without their support and um with their programs and I think that is it are there questions up and down the table for uh Mr. Puffer go ahead just want to say thank you uh we too appreciate the partnership with the Community Education and you guys do so much I really do like the Liberty Club I think that is just an awesome
073idea thanks yep for allowing those people yep I was just going to say um really quickly I think it was um before your time but Lee was here when I was in college and my very first job was After School Care at Pleasant Ridge oh nice um so that's how I first met Lee uh many many many years ago um but uh I just wanted to say a special thank you to a couple of people who've made a big impact on my kids lives so Rebecca thank you for providing the theater space for our dancers um it is unbelievable and uh we hear from other dance studios around the state I just was sitting next to a mom at a dive meet and she was talking about her daughter's experience from a studio all the
074way over in Plymouth and they come here um because of the facilities and the care that you take and uh my daughter has always wanted to go to a performing arts school and I've said you won't get anything better than this so she's been provided with that because of you and your team so thank you and um I also wanted to say thank you to Sandy for the aquatics and her team with Nick my son just finished his dive season um so senior mom thanks you for the care that you take for that pool and for the opportunities that you provided and I don't know why I'm crying because I've been crying all weekend I know it's uh senior year is killing me right Tiffany um yeah so anyways just the work that you guys
075do to maintain that pool is unmatched and we go to pools all over and um there isn't one better it's just it's incredible the opportunities that our kids have because of the the care that you've taken for that facility so thank you for that and then um I don't want to miss anyone thank you than you to everyone for the work that you do but I especially want to thank um Shannon Macy for the for the um Liberty Club such a special place and I know I think is Zach sitting there behind them Zach Zack Liberty Club is a pretty special place isn't it yeah it is yeah yeah so thank you for for for for doing doing the right thing exactly thank you thank you Shannon Macy exactly so um thank you for providing
076that space for our um for people in our community and for families to know that um after their kids finish at age 26 there's a there's a space for them to find um meaningful and enjoyable activities each day so thank you for your extra work um so I don't want to repeat anything but but thank you for saying all of those wonderful things I always think I'm biased but I think of the school as the heart of this community because we have so many um townships and everything not just the City of Saline um and and our Schools of Choice friends and you are our partner and our other piece of the heart so thank you very much um it really means something when you had that tenure slide up there um that says something
077not only about the quality of the programming but the quality of the individuals so I'm going to share one personal story um I remember when Saline Middle School went to Nationals for the very first time and Coach Sandy needed to stay behind because she had made a commitment to a rental for the pool is that right it was a it was a big and yeah okay all right but she she her heart was a little bruised that week yeah but her heart was a little bruised but we remembered her and all of the kids made posters and sent pictures and she stayed here and took care of our beautiful pool um so all of you are appreciated and know how much you contribute personally into the efforts to support the students um it's really important
078that all of these programs um the students can find their own voice their own passions they can try things out maybe they like something maybe they don't and maybe they continue into Middle School and High School and maybe they don't but they they gave it a try and maybe they made a friend so I think that's great um I can't say enough about Before and After Care um in the past few years in neighboring communities I know Before and After Care has been a conversation and we are very very highly regarded for the the services that that we can provide um being the daughter of a of a single parent and relying on programs like that in the past I think I've told you that was really important um and it is important for a
079lot of families um however those families might might look so thank you for keeping that open and keeping that running um my question was around um Governor Whitmer State of the State and she talked a little bit about prek for all so I didn't know how that was going to affect us positively uh in the District so just wondered if you had any any thoughts about where we're headed um with with pre and Steve if you want to jump in on this one too uh with prek for all meeting of the day all right I'll take that in that we we just met today with Su-Fin, Brian, and um Kara Davis, Jackie, Rex, Miranda because we are talking about what that means there's so many unknown factors right now but the goal is to have
080four-year-olds have an opportunity to be well 75% of the four-year-olds in the state to be able to be in high quality Early Childhood programs by you know three or four years down the road 28 -29 lots of questions about funding um logistics making sure we're not putting daycare providers out of work I mean there's there's probably more questions than there are answers but we are dialed into it into into trying to figure that out uh as we move forward thank you so so important um that that strong foundation for the kiddos and keeping them in the district and keeping them with people like you all who care for them um so many different ways so thank you um my family has benefited from a lot of lot of your all services um and that's a
081great question that's something I've been curious about so I'm glad that you are partnering and having those discussions um about about the um you know finally um uh having you know uh prek and um and thank you for the Great Start Readiness Program as well and um accepting you know uh spots for that um I know that they um with the Early Childhood Special Education um kind of got to you know interact with that class and then um you know the the other day care here and everything Pooh Corner um so I think that's a great partnership as well um and yeah just thank you I can go on on a lot of things so um great uh very thorough uh presentation and thank you to your staff for showing up and coming I'm just
082gonna say thank you like everyone else in Saline uh you all have touched our lives as a family and I appreciate everything that's done for the community uh so no problem it's all right I I I really don't have too much more to add uh I just I also have benefited greatly my family has benefited greatly and we appreciate it um you know one of the things that I'm so appreciative with Community Ed is the amount of partnership that community has with our schools right like not every community has a Community Ed in a school district that function hand in hand right and it just makes it makes for facility management it makes for all of these things that make us look so good to surrounding communities it's you know our community sees us they've
083experience these things that and then I'd like to think that then they're like yeah we'll support bonds we'll support things because hand in hand because now we're not only going to utilize that facility for for an academic place we're also going to be able to um you know realize that and we're smart about like trying trying to realize revenues and trying to come up with different streams in that regard and and I think that really makes us different than a lot of other school districts and so so thank you for that yeah I just could last thing I just want to say from what Brad said is I work a lot of other community departments and the support from administration the superintendent is not there in a lot of places and that's why they struggle
084and so like what he just said is that's exactly what we try to do and we can't do it without the support from you guys up top so thank you I just had one quick question and then Dr Laatsch would like to wrap it up um I really like the new sign but I miss the gazebo is it coming back I can't won't say yes won't say no maybe you know yeah we'll see that's a non-committal committal yeah it is maybe maybe not thank you I just I'm just glad it didn't burn to the ground no no no no disappeared overnight thank you very much Dr Laatsch yeah so I just wanted to add if you looked at that presentation tonight you see slide after slide you're seeing wow look at all the things that Community
085Ed does and that's because over the years you never say no to good ideas and you find ways it's true though they find ways to you know if that's a good idea you like when we COVID and we were trying to get kids back to school our at risk learners we figured out a way to get them in session when our other kids weren't the the volleyball program um expansion of GSRP when we were you know one of the few districts that didn't do that that yet um and then eSports or just you never say no to good ideas it keeps expanding and it's largely because you have such a great staff that can figure out how to do all this stuff so I'm just very impressed as a superintendent at how well the department
086fun functions and we'll always take it on whatever it is so thank thank you now you got to find a way to do another U of M cheer thing and and it sells out in under 30 minutes yeah that was like the fastest program of all time everyone's contacting everybody how do I get like I don't know well usually at the end of our schedule reports we don't uh engage in a round of applause but I think you need it thank you very much thank you guys yeah I was just to say I want to say oh yeah sure sorry theater person so I just want to say that the reason we are successful is it because of the leadership from Brian and we we go to the wall for this man because we love
087him because he appreciates and respects what we do and supports us in every way so I want to be sure that you all know that because that's how we feel about him thank you so much we have one other scheduled I'm sure it's not too much to follow in detail in in in the wake of these guys but we have another schedule report from the the DEI advisory committee presenting an update this evening thank you very much presenters are Tiffany Alexander Alice Kazi is it Kazi oh thank you oh excellent uh Amy Teslin and Laura Washington thank you hi everybody I'm Laura Washington see with me is Tiffany Alexander and Amy Teslin unfortunately Alice Kazi um could no longer make it this evening but she is okay just all as well there yes so we
088present oh I already messed it up okay fix it there we go okay good um so in May we presented an update um Shannon and Tiffany and Amy again presented an update to you and so we are here in this spring to update you on the DEIAC work to give some an upcoming recommendation and then to tell you what is next with the organization so we probably this should look familiar to you this is the DEIAC Organizational Framework or the DEI framework with how we work in context with the entire District so this should be again familiar to you start with the Board of Education and the SAS Administrative Team lined at the top but if you notice the arrows going both ways right we take feedback and we also listen and so there is
089a constant round of ideas so again it looks lateral but when you notice the the arrows you will see that we definitely are working in collaboration with one another um change to that is if you look um to Ryan Kerr's position has changed into the um known as the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Specialist so that is a minor change in the in the framework so what is our charge what do we do so the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee in partnership with the Superintendent, the Board, assess the current District environment related to diversity, equity, and inclusion we review and make recommendations to applicable District policies and procedures related to diversity, equity and inclusion we assess District efforts and progress in achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives we make recommendations to the board regarding DEI
090initiatives that the committee believes will Aid in the implementation of the purpose of the policy and we try to present quarterly I know we haven't been as successful in that but I feel like we are in constant communication as we do have two board members that are um that attend our meetings as well so what have we been up to since October the DEIAC welcomed eight new members to the group so we are currently up to 20 members and two School Board Representatives the three-year plan came to um we finalized it which is very exciting and I actually have a paper copy because when I show you the um electronic copy you're going to be like I can't read read that cuz it's too small uh the three-year plan consisted of input from Sensei change
091data after multiple listening sessions that we did last year staff input, administrative input, and input from the DEIAC member so there was a lot of input that came into the implementation of that plan subcommittee groups formed just this February and will begin working in March in order to make recommendations to all of you so I will give you a copy of the the objectives have not changed so you'll notice that there are still five objectives: structure systems policy and practices, safety healing and empowerment, recruitment hiring development, and retention DEI learning curriculum and assessment, and community partnerships and communication and actually a lot of the sub points didn't change from the last plan either but some of them have been enhanced we added some we actually accomplished quite a few objectives from last year so those
092went away and then we added new ones again I'm not going to go over all of the sub points you can take that and digest it um and then if you have any questions please do not hesitate to to email me again see you can't that was really hard to read so you're welcome I'm over 40 now and I get this so so what has the DEIAC been up to again we've been engaging in conversation um with the City of DEI which has been really exciting so Nath Akella is the new chairperson of the DEI Saline and he actually reached out to me in January and we met and is we're actually well Ryan is meeting with him tomorrow and he is planning to come to one of our meetings in hoping to collaborate um
093with us in how we can not only become we we can become ex more expansive in in what our in what our goals are so we've been listening to student voices we've had students come to us we've gone to different groups to hear their concerns and to to really listen to to what is happening both in in the District welcoming and working alongside with Ryan Kerr, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Specialist has been wonderful and he has been implementing he's been doing a lot of listening and really helping us out in in moving moving our goals forward and recommendations from administrative guidelines which you'll hear about here in a few minutes for our transgender nonbinary policy are currently being worked on and that we're going to continue to work on that in March um this month
094and then again Tiffany and and Amy will talk about that here in a minute so so what we do is again going back to our statement of what we what we accomplish and one of the things that we do is we do offer recommendations to the board and/or the administrative team and some of the things that have come out of those recommendations are when you look at the hate speech guidelines we've actually we have met with administrators we met with student groups and we've aligned and strengthened language consequences in the handbook so that was a direct recommendation from the DEIAC given to our administrative team and then we have taken it from there building and protecting our SAS Community was another recommendation and from that many if not all schools are engaging in community events
095which has been super exciting to see the energy um and just watching people come together has been fabulous the DEI statement made at most transition meetings um after hearing that the High School didn't have their didn't make a DEI statement I went back and I talked to Musetta Deneen and she gave me some context which is really fantastic and we were talking about how that transition is more of a scheduling transition and so how can we incorporate that then come the fall when it's more of an open house environment athletic and extracurricular handbook was published um at the end of 2023 and again that was a recommendation as well oh I am so sorry there we go uh SAS gender neutral form signage at the high school has been improved particularly in in the pool
096area in the hallways and forms used by educators are currently under review in most if not all buildings the hiring and retention committee um is reconvening in March and April in order to continue the work of the previously reviewed recommendations so that is some of the work that has been accomplished so what is next I've already mentioned the administrative uh guidelines for the transgender and non-binary non-binary student policies I will let Tiffany and take it over thank you Laura um okay first um I want to say thank you to the board for giving us this opportunity to speak and thank you to the rest of our DEIAX members many you've put in uh quite a bit of um content and thank you to the many staff, admin, uh teachers, students as well as parents of
097the Life at SAS group formally known as the Saline Parents Transgender Parents group um in putting all of this together uh it should be noted that this is a draft we are really eager to get feedback so that we can get as much information from more staff more teachers more admin um more parents because we really want these guidelines to be guidelines that work for our for our students and for our teachers and for our admin to make implementing this policy um as easy as possible okay so um this these guidelines were uh in response to the transgender and non-binary student policy that was passed unanimously thank you um in 2021 and so um along with uh asking for many of the families and students and staff um we're looking for more clarity in terms
098of understanding the policy and consistency in application and so um that's why uh the guidelines are there to sort of put it into practice and um it was with the response in response to the families and students and the policy but also the Sensei report did also um bring up these issues as well as the listening sessions um why don't we just move this over so we can stop weird little dance here there we go okay so then um yeah so uh this guide the guidelines are written based uh only on what is in the policy the information provided comes from a combination of GLSEN it comes from the HRC it comes from uh peer-reviewed research um and it comes from the input of our students um of our teachers and of our our staff
099um admin as well as uh other their DEIAC members so it's really uh a culmination of a lot of input from people who have feet actually on the ground um dealing with these very real world problems and with our students who are struggling um to feel a part of this community and to feel safe and just to add in the polic in the guidelines itself um we have linked the federal and state laws uh that are applicable and the SAS policies including the anti-harassment and bullying policies that relate directly to this as well go ahead yeah just that they are linked throughout um so that the language in all of uh this policy is consistent with the language in the uh anti-harassment anti-bullying policy um which was also uh thank you to the admin who
100recommended that um then uh so the the way this this works is we have one very big comprehensive document it is long it is yeah it's it's very long um but it is again everything is in response to every single line that is in the policy to make this more accessible we have two slideshows one is a teacher slideshow that breaks this down into what to do um there are will be more examples included throughout so that it is easy to access I can go to slide number five and this is where I do what look at what I need to look at for pronouns um to make it get quick easy access for teachers and then there's an admin slideshow that has a little bit more information in it um it's a little bit
101more comprehensive um it includes some of our education pieces um but again it's a little bit more accessible a little easier to to get to easier to show and break down things to parents whereas the the overall guide has a lot of pieces on training and it's kind of colorcoded as you can kind of see there um that talks about uh education pieces which is our why why is this necessary and where is this information coming from and so the the slideshows are like a could be used as a resource as well and so um because as we were mentioning before this is a draft uh right now and we're looking for we're still looking for continued input and we're bringing it back to the DEIAC for more input as well um lots of work
102and we want to get as many voices as possible um so we can have the best guidelines that really work and so we are uh going to be making final recommendations we're hoping for April or May and um we're looking to the Board to see how to receive how you would like to receive those final recommendations and now oh and if you have any questions about it we're glad to either answer them now or ask uh after Laura finishes or at any other time I can wrap it up and then we can go on from there so essentially committees will so the DEIAC is broken up into two parts essentially so first we meet in small committees and then we meet whole group so the committees will continue to review the three-year plan and make
103recommendations we'll deliver the recommendations to either the SAS School Board or SAS Administrators depending on what is appropriate um based on the three-year plan and based on the function of what we're recommend recommending and then follow up on action steps taken as a result of the recommendations the group will continue to follow um the committee charge and will continue to listen to concerns and be advocates for our kids in our community thank you well thank you very much I don't know if you planned this or knew what you were doing when you planned it but it's a good thing that adding the other two previous presentations to this one slideshow is great one stop shopping I love it so I can go back and make reference to the other questions yeah oh my my my
104one question before we move on to the rest of the table is how are you going about seeking seeking input from the community what are you what are you doing what's your battle plan so to speak yeah so I think we have a couple things so one in terms of like for example the three-year plan that really came from the listening sessions that were that were held by Sensei Change so um Steve well all of you actually brought in that organization and they were really really helped us facilitate all of those listening sessions so that is a great way of doing that I know Dr Laatsch is also having list having listening sessions in the future so I am positive that we will communicate if something comes up from that as well and that is
105how we can seek seek more knowledge from the from the community base one thing with um Nath is he also with the the Saline DEI he also wants to be or they also want to be as a group more incorporative of our listening sessions as well so not only will it be necessarily the Saline Schools but also within the community of Saline which is something we've never done before great thank you um so I'll go Susan and Jennifer and Lauren um so um I'm one of the board uh reps along with um Jenny um and so you know I get to witness all of the great work um that you are doing and um some of the the conversations and confusion that that goes on sometimes um and um I want to thank um for
106the example of the um transgender and non-binary students um administrative guidelines um I know a lot of work to create a super long document and also um you know slides for the teachers and administrators and I think that's super cool um to have that quick reference um I know it's been a long time coming and um believe that it'll be super beneficial for the entire District um and giving them tools um at their fingertips um and so yeah I'm excited about that and then other recommendations that are you know starting to will be coming so um that brings me to um I guess kind of almost like a question for the Board um so the committee charge um that you know was brought up earlier um part of that is to thank you slide four
107right um so to inform the Board on to how how to continuously improve its efforts oh that was at the top sorry of the policy um but you know a few of these like specifically talk about um reviewing and making recommendations to District policies and procedures um and sort of like what we witnessed in um the presentation um making recommendations to the Board regarding DEI initiatives um and presenting quarterly to the board um I'm going to propose um I know the committee is going to um discuss kind of how um I think maybe at the next meeting about um how everything um functions and what what what that looks like um so as far as like recommendations um to the Board um we typically get those in pieces or they've come to um policy committee
108but not necessarily to the full Board um and so um I think I guess we have this but what does that mean so um you know I think we should develop a process whether it's a report um given one of those quarterly um you know uh presentations um that has all of those recommendations coming to the Board um and uh so that we are maybe we file it in consent um maybe we just accept it or approve it I mean it is advisory um to the Board um so not necessarily saying like we're you know yeah it it's an Advisory Committee recommendation um so um you know looking at kind of Robert Rules and looking at this handy dandy um book Becoming a Better Board Member from the National School board Association that Michael McVey
109gave me recently last year maybe um it talks about you know committee charge uh citizen advisory committees and um how are those findings released those recommendations making them public um the board referring them to the staff administration um or to you know board committees like like the policy committee and but that not necessarily um you know impacting the work that's already be been that the district as a whole is doing with the three-year plan um or those communications with within the DEI Advisory Committee um I'm just possibly um I don't know if you all want to talk about your thoughts but maybe later make a motion about it um of how we are receiving those recommendations I oh I was just going to say it sounds like um what you might be proposing is a
110slight revision to the Policy and I think oh to include process while making recommendations what does that mean right you know I mean maybe part of Board oOperating Procedure okay yeah so so Policy or Board Operating Procedures and I I agree with you that the process has been kind of a little bit hot potato like where does it go um nobody really knows so I was um thinking a revision to the Policy but even the Board Operating Procedure either way just so that there is more clear guidance on how the flow of information um is received and so that action can be taken more readily please um I I would like to see the official recommendations come as a presentation to us about what you think like okay like you know you're an official committee
111and you're someone you're the work that you do is important so I guess I would like to see it come through a formal process and come through like how we've been doing it now to speak to to Trustee Estep's point though you know we accept as part of the consent agenda and I'm looking at it like Policy Committee Meeting and and you know meeting Finance Meeting and so if you were agreeable to it as a group I think I would be okay with um allowing those meeting like minutes from like when you guys get together and meet I think that that would be nice to have in the packet and that could become a part of our consent and then that really does give us some advisement of like what were the topics you discussed
112and who is leading those discussions and you know like we get just a general like lay of the land if you will uh that's how I would support that but I'd like your recommendations to come formally personally yeah I I think that's more for like public committee me like committee meetings and stuff but yeah that's a good good point I don't want to derail the you know questions for the committee I I just um yeah I just know that's been kind of a pending thing and um so yeah and I know I can speak to this because when Dr. Washington was here one of the things that we had talked about was where do those recommendations go right because some of them definitely are Board and then some of them are SAS Admin Team I
113mean she was pretty clear on that as well and and we all were and so I guess from you what I would want to know is do you want the the the recommendations that are also going to the admin team to come to you first and then we disperse it from there because right now they're all in a folder I mean I could hand them I know you know Jenny and Susan you both have them as well and so if that was something that that you wanted that is easily you know easily accessible to everybody that's not a problem so I think it's just a matter of flow of information because I mean when Dr. Washington left we kind of had to we just we figured out a new organizational system which has been wonderful
114and now I think we're really in a a nice flow with that so every month within our organizational system we bring up if there are any new recommendations and we go over those there haven't been the last couple of months obviously because we're just starting our small subcommittees now but as those come yeah just let me know how you would like those and I'd be happy to either to your point you know we can either send them out in minutes or give them to you in our in our folder whatever that looks like for you is fine yeah I just sorry she talk to me go would just so you know show there are two things two two baskets uh one are uh recommendations that would go toward administrative guidelines and the other are recommendations
115that would go to perhaps tweaking existing policies or perhaps even new policies those should come to the board president and they would go to the chair of the uh policy committee and where they get you know worked up and then presented we have a process for that but uh so if if we're clear on that then I that's that's the like a next step I think did you want to clarify any of that please do so I do think it's important that we clarify how we're developing administrative guidelines so the last several months Betty and myself have been meeting with Melody Strang from NEOLA about a lot of relevant policies that we are now making sure that we're adopting administrative guidelines and um we've had multiple meetings and been spending hours on that because we're
116trying to make sure that we're capturing all a lot of the relevant policies um in NEOLA that that we're using now to develop administrative guidelines so I did ask Betty to go and talk to Melody about you know there are other districts that have a transgender non-binary policy and and we did ask are there already administrative guidelines developed she said no but then our process would be that she would help us develop them so they actually read um you know an appropriate way like their other administrative guidelines do but we would take the recommendations from the DEIAC with us while we're developing those administrative guidelines it's just that administrative guidelines are developed by administration that we implement so we would take those suggestions work with Melody from NEOLA and then Betty would ultimately put those
117administrative guidelines in motion that that's just that's been the process that we've been using to develop administrative guidelines I just want to clarify that yeah and we haven't had administrative guidelines public at all like it's not there right and that's something I think we're really proud of right because our our job literally is to assess and to make recommendations and so you know Tiffany and Amy have been working super hard on these we would give them to you they come back you know and then we we cons you know constantly work on this so it is really a pretty fantastic working relationship so can I I'm sorry can I just clarify that though because it seems like a bit of a waste of our uh committees time and effort so how how does that come
118full circle then so if the team DEIAC if we've charged them with making recommendations to write these guidelines and they're given to Administration and Melody NEOLA to look at then how does the board have assurance that the administrative guidelines that end up are following that the the policy that the board well no that are following the policy that the board voted on unanimously in 2021 like how does that circle close well we would we would present we would look at the actual policy with Melody the actual policy that is currently in our board policy manual it's about a four-page document that we would then go and match up administrative guidelines and how to implement all the parts of that now I I will say in advance I don't know that it ends up being 23
119Pages because that is well we may say that might be harder for the administration to implement in that regard but we could be taking those suggestions and then putting administrative guidelines and motion that match up with the way in which Melody has been helping us do it for all the other administrative guidelines along the way in all the other policies so wait NEOLA does or doesn't have administrative guidance lines for trans they do they do not so how would they they didn't have this policy either but a part of their service to us is to review our policy they have a legal team that makes sure that it's in in line with legislation and and laws and then they can help develop these guidelines so in the past when we've come to them and we've
120said you know is this anywhere they've said no but if you want to write it we'll take a look at it with you so that even if they don't have it they part of our work with them is to uh work with any of the new policies or administrative guidelines that we have also have a point of information um that's how I say um so GLSEN which was what our transgender and non-binary um policy was created from actually and I believe this was mentioned by Amy and Tiffany um actually comes first from directly from GLSEN that lines with that policy so they have guidelines and so that was expanded from that and included pieces from our policy um where I think they took like the anti-harassment and the bullying and put those into place so
121it is actual guidelines maybe not in NEOLA um but that's um that's where that was um developed from and can I add real quick with the policy um recommendations going to you in the policy committee um sometimes so that helps inform the policy committee's decision but does doesn't necessarily inform the full board's decision of these recommendations because if it doesn't come to the full board how are we you know making those decisions based on um you you know our advisory committee um I think you know I I want to recognize the work and the recommendations that are coming to them I think you know it's a transparency piece and um you know I think we're kind of losing um what recommendations are going out there and how our committee and us as a board are
122supporting that and making the best decisions that we can with the information that they do um give us here Vice President Steben thank you so first of all thank you for the report and thank you to all of your members also who couldn't be here tonight um acknowledge the work um just a couple things so first of all I want to double click on what President McVey said because I was about to say the same thing if it's if it's recommendations and a tweak to policy the the the clear procedure is it comes to the Policy Committee um so um I think you asked if you can go um the slide before the last one or maybe second to the last I just want to make sure you you guys are getting your your questions
123answered that you asked us during the presentation yes right there so your question on this particular slide um Tiffany I think you were talking and you said we could answer the questions now or we could wait for Laura to finish up so you had a question like what should happen with the recommendations on this specific policy was that your question I just want to make sure we're answering what you asked us I think Amy asked that but if you don't mind I will take this opportunity to say um one person I forgot to thank was Kara Davis it was her who we sat down with and mentioned that this policy has been here for 3 years without guidelines um so she never mentioned and we didn't discuss that there's already a policy a process for
124this being made okay and specifically stated that this was not in in the works right now so that is why we we did this because it was not in the works right now um and it's three years overdue and as a parent of a non-binary child who is graduating this year and will graduate without ever having these guidelines it was extremely important to me to see that this gets done expeditiously okay great so so I think and Steve correct me if I'm wrong but I think we have a uh a path for the administrative guidelines side of it and we definit I definitely know we have a path for the side of the policy is that correct um I wanted to just caution us uh with regards to the conversation about the minutes being part
125of consent and things like that I'd need to check with OMA or somebody else could but I think if you have committee minutes like that and things that being filed that becomes an open meeting okay um so I just wanted to acknowledge that um and then you all had also asked for just ideas on us giving feedback to help you in your work um so an idea that I had was and you might be doing this already is just making sure you're talking with lots of other um diverse um districts and and I I mean diverse by perhaps geolocation in the state um you know we have roughly 5,000 students maybe talk to schools that are smaller and talk to schools that are bigger like all sorts of viewpoints just to kind of um get
126ideas uh and Benchmark against I thought those were just my comments thank you anything oh Brad um a couple of things number one yeah obviously OMA is a a big deal to us and we want to make sure we're compliant with that I mean I don't care if it comes to our email as like some type of informational thing I I whatever is legal and all of that um my thoughts are information is good right it's good for us to be informed about what's happening and all of that so um to to speak to your exact question about what you'd want us to to bring and do and all of that guess from this from my perspective um I want to I I agree that I think that things that apply to policy should come
127to our policy committee however when you're making recommendations to our administrative team I also don't want that to get so so bogged down in minutia and get so bogged down and like we only meet twice a month and we might need as an administrative team to support students faster than that and so for me like I guess I would say that I would like your recommendations that impa impact students on a day in day out basis to go to where they're closest to the individual who would have to implement it and could do it the most like you expeditiously um at the same time like I really would like to like I said get formal recommendations from the totality of all these individuals to us and I don't care if you whatever we have to
128do to be OMA compliant I'm all for it but I guess that's what I would say thank you and thank you for all the work you do I know this is it takes time from your life thank you thank you uh Lauren Gold okay so I have a couple of questions um my first question is do is there a list of subcommitte titles yes so if you look at the three-year plan those are the subcommittee so we have a sub subcommittee that's meeting under Structure Systems Policies and Practices another that Safety Healing and Empowerment Recruitment Hiring etc etc so it's the five subcommittees five subcommittees um and then my other question is how are metrics um be are there any specific metrics that you're looking at with your team regarding so if I look at
129the pillars um um like are there specific so if I look under objective four compare progress in achieving DEI goals starting with the 2020 Baseline is that some of the work that's being done in the surveys are they going to operationalize that as actual like we would call them patient satisfaction measures but I you know like family satisfaction measures is there going to be data shared because if we started in 2020 we're you know coming up on five years so um I'm just wondering how we're going to be measuring progress yeah that's a fair question so actually Ryan and I have had several conversations on what is qualitative versus quantitative data right like there are things that really do come out in a survey pretty well and then there are other things you're like how
130do we measure this right what is that satisfaction who can we talk to so it is a bit of both depending on on what it is um Mr. Kerr actually developed a very nice rub I call it a rubric but it's it's a nice system for us to continually be tracking what we're doing and how we're going about it and and how we're moving the mark on some things and so again a mix of quantitative versus qualitative data depending on on what the sub and is is that going to be part of the quarterly reports to the Board because I'd like to understand better what the sort of barriers to having I mean beyond you know COVID and all that what the barriers have been to having these quarterly reports to the Board that were
131mentioned as kind of part of the charge of the advisory committee yeah I think a lot of it is I mean I will own it a lot of it is you know we we meet once every month right and so like three months goes by and we're like huh we're already at three months and we're just getting going on something and so it just hasn't felt like there was a time to meet every or to report to the board like we would have anything very substantial to report because this work takes time right it's not like you're making something happen once a month it just it doesn't the work doesn't work that way so it feels like once, twice a year is much more manageable and we would actually have something to say that would
132be different than been reporting quarterly maybe but if there's four subcommittees then maybe you know just hearing like what's going on generally in each subcommittee or looking at what the metrics are going to be would be interesting to the board I think we're all kind of saying or many of us are saying that it'd be nice to have like some more direct you know it's great to hear from you tonight I so appreciate the work of this committee and the team and so I think it would be good I guess my last question is for Tiffany or Amy um and I'm gonna steal a page from uh Trustee Gerbe and ask how can we at the Board of Education support the work of the DEIAC to allow for the most effective implementation of these DEI
133initiatives which are pretty broad and deep um so I hear Dr Laatsch hear uh Principal Washington that this is a big mandate um but you know breaking it into little pieces or bigger pieces how can we support you and your uh committee obviously we can't speak for the group so we'll I guess will try to speak just personally um I think we're as it's a new polic relatively new Policy it's not like the Sex Ed Advisory Committee that's been around for a long time I think um definitely more you know clarity about the processes needed and I think it is being worked out and like you said Channon worked a lot on that last year um wrapping things up in terms of you know bringing the recommendations to all the administrators um and so unfortunately
134that didn't happen and so that's why we're looking for more clarity about that that part would definitely be what what it is for me would to be able to bring uh I appreciate very much um what Trustee Gerbe said is to bring our recommendations to the Board as we are written as a Board Committee even if it is not something that is necessarily we understand that what we bring to the Board does not mean the Board is going to be accepting voting on it commenting on it or necessarily implementing it but as we are a Board Committee it seems appropriate to me and that way we would have a clear path of knowing who has our recommendations um and that they always have them and as subcommittees want to report out you know some people
135may not be comfortable presenting and that's fine but that that gets presented to the Board um we understand that it's just something that you would receive not necessarily something that you would Implement and we completely accept that part absolutely and I appreciate that clarification and before I passes over to to Vice President Steben I just want to say when we created this policy for x years ago we didn't know the uh scope and the breadth of your work so three months we just pulled three months out of a hat just so so don't feel badly that you didn't make three months but to to Dr Gold's point it would be nice to hear you know even if they're very short updates uh every three months or so that would be very helpful but strongly recommend
136that we change that part of the policy rep share that with us I would love to see quarterly updates so here's what I'd recommend and it it doesn't mean changing the policy and it doesn't mean more work for you all because I I want to acknowledge the comment about this work doesn't work like that that that you know one month here's what we've done um when the policy says quarterly reports it does not mean that the report has to be a verbal and deck presentation where you're here two hours into your evening every 3 months um it can mean a report um we receive those from from Steve we we get weekly updates it could be all all sorts of things it could be consent I would stray against the minutes from from the agenda
137because of OMA but it could be um a report like Miranda or HR has has done in the past so just con consider that and then and then what works for for you with what you're doing oh one last um I think it's last thing um so I just first I want to just um commend the committee I have especially with um Channon's departure and the community work that she was doing I think the um by having Ryan's job really be focusing on um curriculum and supporting the school the partnership with the with the city is so smart and I think that we all know the research that that says um that if we want to have real systemic change in our world it has to be community driven not just through the schools and
138so I I just want to commend um the city group and the school group for coming together to continue the work of um listing sessions and community um growth so I um wanted to highlight that I also wanted to just say that um the the committee it's itself um Laura kind of mentioned this but um in the time that I've been on uh appointed as one of the board people on the on the committee um not serving on the committee but serving as a listening agent I guess at the committee um that uh the it's been incredible to me to get to know the people on the committee and the um just rich and diverse experiences that and perspectives that they bring to the work and um so I just wanted to highlight um not
139necessarily who's on the committee but just um just for everyone to kind of understand that we have um parents um of differently abled children we have um we have gender inclusivity gender identity inclusivity we have um uh I'm trying to trying to even racial and ethnic thank you uh language differences we have I mean you name it there's a representative um there are um uh a number of um people who are immigrants from other countries and bring and bring that um breadth of of um experience to our committee or to that committee and so I just want to highlight that that it's not um it's not like any other committee I've ever served on so it's really been um and I'm again I keep saying served on I try really hard to sit on my
140hands and keep my mouth closed in those meetings as much as I want to participate because it is such a rich learn learning um en environment so um I think it's important for our community to know that that those perspectives are all included in the work that that the three of you presented tonight um I also wanted to just say that um I was thinking along the lines of um of what Jennifer was saying that if if it helps the committee we love to have you here and to present and be able to ask questions but if it does help the committee to um to file some sort of report not minutes but a report we can receive a report minutes would make it you know a conflict with OMA but a report would not
141so keep that in mind for the work of the committee and how the committee thinks that that would benefit the group um and then the last thing that I want to say is that um I think that uh one thing that I'll I'll just kind of leave this note um from my own personal perspective uh serving on the committee at the beginning of the the time that this um policy was adopted and the um transgender nonbinary student policy was adopted that um in that time one of the things that we kind of touched on but maybe didn't explain clearly to you is that there has also been a transition at NEOLA and so um the work that you may have seen or may not because it's sometimes really boring but um for people who don't
142love policy like Susan um and me and and everyone who serves but um we are actually because of this new representative that we're working with Melody Strang who has been phenomenal to work with um we are finding um a lot of um policies that were missed in getting updated or recommended to the Board so the Policy Committee has been very busy in fact if you look at the agendas over the last few months and even tonight you'll see a number of policies included um and so I don't necessarily think that the the policy or the administrative guidelines w weren't um a priority but it tends to be like a mountain of things that are happening so I know it's something that Steve has talked about and having your guidance and your you have that priority
143that's the priority of your work and so having your work and your recommendations um to us and taking the resources like Susan mentioned like GLSEN has these and having that knowledge um being given to administration for for the work um is is really helpful because otherwise we're starting from scratch in a world that I said like like I said has this mountain so by taking that and that's the work of the advisory committee is to take those policies and to take those um ideas and to help to collect those resources and then to um and then to pass those to administrative team for administrative guidelines or policy team or however it might go finance team for finances etc so um I just want to say that I appreciate appreciate the work that you're doing and
144I appreciate that you've brought it forward just I just wanted to add that you know I I mean I sort of have a vision of how this should work eventually and and I know that it's you know real world real world problems getting involved and all kinds of things like that but the point of the committee is to to provide the expertise that the district does not have right in terms of experiences and also there's a lot of people people who actually have like degrees in this and you know work experience as well and so it's supposed to be you know a very um enhancing experience you know so that so that it can it can make all of you know all of the administrators, all the staff, and teachers jobs easier not harder so
145that's the that's the way it it um you know we hope that it works and that's what we're trying to figure out the best way is the most efficient you know procedures for that and I guess that's why I was that that's what I I envision it to be too and maybe we're a little clunky and getting the procedures worked out but I do see the um the advice that the advisory committee the resources and the expertise that you're extending is is what I thought um an advisory committee could do and I just appreciate that you're the I don't know for lack of a better term the boots on the ground to try to get those things together and compile those resources so that it can be put into practice so thank you Caroline did
146you want to have anything to add to this whole discussion or did you want to wait for your spot just in a few minutes okay well thank you very much to the whole team we when this when when this was I think Susan was at that policy committee when we first proposed this creating a a standing committee on DEI we the main main goal was that we did not want this the efforts that or the the challenges and the ch the the the imp policies that we implemented short term would be one shot only we wanted this to be evergreen we wanted this committee to be uh a permanent part of our policies and we we knew that going forward we didn't know what exactly the work was going look like but we really appreciate
147the efforts that dedicated and devoted parents and community members have put in so thank you very much for all of your efforts we're we're looking forward to the next steps thank you I was there I dra drafted it you said you drafted it so you're responsible for that three-month report thing yep thank you very much um we'll move on to discussion we have a few discussion items oh my gosh it goes right back to uh unless you want to let you want to clear your throat for a second and let Brad go ahead of you n too late we we've we've already settled this agenda earlier it's the agenda okay so so let's go here we go um okay so the first thing is um that that uh these policies that are listed under the
148policy committee update um are not NEOLA updates but rather new policies that have been recommended by NEOLA or revisions requested by administration or trustee so the policy um committee is asking that these policies on this list be um added to the next agenda for a first reading so I'm just going to give you a brief overview but then after tonight after this um uh update I will be sending you um my um my update my committee report and it will have links to each of the um proposed um revisions or new policies for you to review so that when it comes time um you've had ample opportunity to review them especially since there are a lot of them so okay so first um policy 5113 this is the policy that Steve um previewed for us
149earlier today this is a policy that we have currently standing but when we looked or when Steve actually looked um at the policy and um and uh conferred with uh legal uh the change that is being recommended is consistent with the practice in the district and the law so um when you get this policy you'll see in red and green that the change is very subtle it says is not available now it will say may not be available and what Steve was talking about is that in the past we've said that a student who had had um disciplinary issues um such as expulsion or legal um issues would not be um available for a School of Choice but that is not consistent with the law so um the change is that it may not be
150available but um not a definitive I think I go ahead to clarify yeah so actually what it says in the state school aid act uh 388. 1705 that's county non-resident pupil specifically says uh let's see here um number 9 uh a district may refuse to enroll a non-resident applicant if any of the following are met and the first one says the applicant is or has been within the preceding two years suspended from another school I do want to point out I've never taken a expelled student from another District however I'm also trying to not freeze people in time so what I have done in the past if um on a School of Choice application it is checked that the student has a discipline issue or had an issue I call the building or the superintendent
151and I find out what specifically has happened and then there's been times where I've said okay we're not going to take that student but there have been some other times where I have um taken and I I know for sure two different circumstances and the kids have been flourishing in the District so that that's why I I think we should be consistent with the language that says may so I just wanted to put that in context mhh um and you you consulted with right you consulted with Jennifer St Sterling is that who it was or just with this legal document with the legal document yeah the okay the legislation thank you okay thank you okay so oh go ahead so I had a the way I I was reading it I felt like it could
152also mean that you won't accept accept them so the new language would say that it may not be available instead of is not available so it's still the may changes it to that it could still be considered but it might not be so it just changes it from a definitive is not to may not um and it is something that particular checkbox on the form is something that um would have to be like Steve just explained that if that's checked on the form he does have to do more in-depth yeah just the wording of of it like it may not be available to them like I I I could read it in a different I I've read it in a different way at first so I I don't know if that possible how does the
153legislation read may may not yeah okay so Policy 8300 um Continuity of Organizational Operations Plan often um sometimes called COOP um this is a policy that would be new to us it was or originally um drafted by NEOLA in 2021 um and it is a policy and um and again I this was the meeting that I was not at so please chime in um but uh this is a policy that um is required to be added to board policy to be consistent with um with law and it involves our school safety plan, partnerships with law enforcement, um required reporting, and threat assessment um the one question that I did have on this and and perhaps Steve has um has an answer for this is that there is a spot in the drafted policy that has
154a spot for a liaison on so when we do accept the um the policy we'd need to name that liaison on there or or position it's a we we spoke about how like currently Director of Operations is overseeing safety and security so we wouldn't put a person's name in just put Director of Operations we just need to fill in that blank and then the other element of this is Jackie's reviewing this to make sure that we would comply with this yes so okay so um Betty perhaps when we revise that we'll need to put in Director of Operations there thank you okay and then um so when that comes to the Board that'll be in in place um Policy 0141.1 is our Student Body Representatives and this is an update or revision that was requested
155by Vice President Steben this would be a change in the language to include an option for two Student Representatives as we had this year so we just want the policy to reflect that um positive experience this year and so it could be one or two it doesn't necessarily have to be two but it gives some flexibility um just as an aside um Betty did let us know that this although it's not a part of the policy um the fund that awards a scholarship is is only funded to award one so if there are multiple um that it would be divided equally so just uh just a note of clarification there and Caroline you didn't hear any of that um Policy 6152 is um student fees and supplies this again is a new to us um
156Policy it was originally drafted in 2004 with revisions in 2021 uh I just saw a typo here on my report so I'll fix that for all of you um and this was requested by Assistant Superintendent uh Miranda Owsley because this is the Policy that the purpose of this Policy is to be consistent with the district's preferred method of payment which is RevTak so um it doesn't specifically name RevTak but it specifically names the procedures for electronically receiving um payment for um a variety of different things um and then uh Policy 51 5511 Dress and Grooming this again is a new to us Policy that was originally drafted in 2009 with revisions in 2021 so um this was first reviewed by the Policy Committee in 2022 at that time the Board approved accompanying Policies for Admin
1571616 Policy 1616 Professional Staff 3216 and Support Staff 4216 this Policy is slightly different as it is for students and so the committee paused on the Policy at that time instead of bringing it forward with that group of policies um because there was bipartisan support at the time for Michigan to adopt the Crown Act which is um Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair and so we wanted to um make sure that any policy that we were moving forward was um in alignment with that uh potential change at the legislation and so on two on sorry on um June 15th 2023 Governor Whitmer signed the CROWN Act to to end hair discrimination making Michigan the 23rd state to adopt this act and um so uh after that was um after that was passed
158uh we did have some input from the DEIAC which I will link in the report so you can take a look at the recommendations from the DEIAC and we also double checked with legal to ensure that there there was no conflict with other policies and to ensure compliance with laws we received support uh Betty had checked with with um NEOLA so we received support moved the policy back to the committee to consider again and the Policy Committee is in support of this policy and would like it to be added to the next agenda for a first reading um so that I have major questions on this draft okay okay okay yep well take questions in just a minute so then the only other thing um not listed here but listed later in the consent agenda
159you all should have received um a memorandum with the three policies that are on the consent agenda so that was also a part of the work of the um Policy Committee as of late so um policy yeah we've been busy so the policy um on use of tobacco by students um is is there for you basically um some some updates to to include not just um a variety of products that have that are new to the market but also different ways that tobacco can be ingested um and then um policy um the policy on school uh safety information um sorry yeah 8400 sorry I have a little print here um is revised to reflect um changes um required by amendments approved by the Governor to the Sex Offender Registry Act um SORA that you may
160be familiar with and then um Policy uh 7217 on weapons um this policy has been revised to include um references to the Michigan Supreme Court decision so basically at the bottom of that policy you'll see where those um Supreme Court decisions are now referenced um regulating firearms um so that is the work that the Policy Committee has done over the last few weeks and I just want to say thank you to um Dr. McVey for stepping in um for stepping in at the last meeting or two meetings ago um when I had a fever so thank you um for running that meeting and to the policy committee for continuing that work and then we met again last week um because we've been busy um we are not meeting in April um to observe um well
161we had a busy busy calendar but also um uh Lauren let us know that there's a Jewish holiday and we did not want to schedule a meeting um when um when she should be celebrating so we are not meeting in April but we will resume again in May if there is work I'm meeting with Melody um and Steve and Betty on I think we said April 1 now um so if there is work that needs to be um conducted before we meet again in May um we will Doodle Poll and find a date um but uh yeah that's so not necessarily the second Tuesday it's not necessarily because we are trying to accommodate um we are that is the pattern that we tried to stick with but because of work schedules and personal commitments and
162religious holidays and um kid graduation celebrations all those kinds of things we have altered um a bit also there are months where there's only one meeting so we've had to make arrangements for that so can I um um this is your report so it's a dis it's under discussion right yeah discussion items correct yeah I just know no no I was just yeah with Michael um so so I served on the Policy Committee last year um and so I know the DEIAC um gave uh feedback and recommendations to um Michael McVey in December 2022 um and I know that he took a look at that and um answered some some questions um and I know in May I know we were working on a policy for a long extended period of time and didn't get
163to some of the items um so I had requested in May 2023 um if we can get um those re you know recommendations and get that policy sent um I went back back um to our July meeting when we made um edits as a Policy Committee um and they are not at all reflected in what we received in the packet um so I'm curious if um everybody was able on the committee to to see uh the DEIAC recommendations I think this is kind of a um good point and it would serve the Board to have those recommendations too before making a decision on this um so we can all use that lens um so one thing that we so a couple things um that we accepted so Michael McVey had um written um a line
164and added to the policy um and that was clothing that may serve to deliberately intimidate students is prohibited by Policy 0145 Discriminatory Harassment and Policy 1662 Anti-Harassment um so that was a proposed sentence by McVey and I think we said it was good um also the feedback that we did receive from DEIAC um was uh inviting the I mean number one uh inviting the participation of students um and then I added that I saw thought that we should check staff too so that whole section inviting the participation of so it's option b um none of it is accepted um and so like I said during that meeting we said stu students um based on that feedback and then staff as well um and so that's not reflected in there um and then there were some
165language wording mistakes um that I offered and uh we accepted uh which was under D adding their own um be where it's crossed out his her own um saying their own otherwise it it um makes makes the definition or the statement um different um and then yes it says his her own sure no that is but you need to add back in their own because otherwise it says prevent the student from achieving educational objectives the first section oh no I have my sorry I have a a paper document sorry y I think she's on page 14 of the updated pack public packet yep and then under E um the very last thing um if you read it as is it does not make any sense um so we would need to remove including and we
166discussed this back in July um and actively was changing the document and that conversation um so including needs to come out and then whether does because currently it says um no not at all like it ends without regard to whether a student sexual orientation gender identity or expression and so that's not reflected here um let's see okay yes please so I think um one thing that I'll just say is that um so I think what had happened was um typically when we make changes to a document like this it happens through Betty but I think it was happening under Michael's personal documents and so I don't think that it translated over so there's two different documents um which is just a an error so if um if it is I think that what I I
167would like to recommend is that this come back so that we can merge those two so that we have those changes that were recommended in July because that is what happened the linked Policy is not the Policy that was in Michael's um in Michael's uh documents yeah I know that you weren't able to edit it I think um Betty while we were talking was um was helping out with that yeah I think it's because there's two different drafts here so there's um I I'm all in favor of tabling this particular one until uh you get the copy the the the drafts merge together yeah thanks thank you Susan for I'm happy to send my notes as well for the Committee yeah if you want to send send your notes also because I do know like
168it's we've had multiple months of conversation around this and I think that the the uh document that I just found um from Michael is um not the one that made it into the NEOLA update so um thank you yeah and if um if the DEIAC recommendations I have those linked for everyone too can send those yep okay yep so I will still include the um the DEIAC recommendations in the um report that I'm sending to all of you the updates so that you can take a look at the recommendations from the DEIAC since it was since we talked about it this tonight um and then uh we will um bring this forward again um once we merge these two documents I I just as as a new member of the Policy Team I just wanted
169to go back and review the notes from last year because Susan mentioned a few specific meetings like July and things like that so I was going back and it looks like it was it was pushed it was pushed it was it was being um a particular piece of language was somebody was following up on that and then it landed back on December 12, 2023 um saying it goes on the next Policy Committee meeting which it would have because in 2024 it went on yeah so we're kind of we we discussed it once um there were a couple things that we didn't accept there but was um for example I we all had different versions of um what it meant to have blocked vision so we we discussed that but we didn't make any changes and
170and Jenny brought up an amazing uh point that um inviting a student for example who maybe um uh you know doesn't have like a perspective that we do because of like culture um and maybe um being able to look at what does eventually come as far as like handbooks and stuff and you know it's not required it says invite the participation of and honestly inviting the participation of students, parents, and um staff right there your DEIAC covers um who who can help with those um you know uh guidelines or within the school building because I know we've had students come up and there's been like Gender Equity Clubs created um based on this very thing so um yeah but yeah some things we didn't change and then it would kept continued to be on and
171I think I did mention that we had the wrong one linked um but yeah we never fully came back to it at that point no we did we did have some discussion at our um DEIAC sorry not DEIAC, Policy Committee meeting about um the CROWN Act and and um like you were mentioning the um Betty had partic Betty had actually asked about the blocked vision and um that this would not um that that this policy would still allow for um you know cultural freedom and like and I think I think correct me if I'm wrong Betty I think I remember that it was both like it was it was referring to the vision of the student being blocked not of the student blocking others vision so it's the wording is a little tricky there too
172so okay I don't need know if we need to formally move to table this but I think it's the understanding of the Board that we're going to table it's a discussion item so I don't think I think I just want to make sure because I'm king of clean copy um over the years here so this will come to us then as a first reading the next time so that then we can figure out if we want to make any changes and then there would be a second reading where we would take comments and do all that right this is not not the first reading of this one no this will not be the first reading of um Dress and Grooming uh 5511 this is is the first or no it we are recommending that the
173others be brought forward to the Board as a first reading so a discussion item so on the next agenda we are asking that the other four be brought forward as um discussion items and then hopefully the following meeting action items so Dressing Grooming theoretically would be three meetings at minimum at minimum yeah okay it'll go back to policy if you're right it's not even on the radar yet yeah were there any other discussion notes on any of the other policies great um well thank you very much for your service uh on this and I will now turn this over to the finance committee uh Treasurer Brad Gerbe who's also the Chair of Finance I I am um so I have a quick update so we met today and and uh we had an agenda where
174you know I I would argue that like the first not even argue but just say that the first half an hour of our hour together for me was like a professional development session if you will with Miranda Owsley right um and what I mean by that is we did a deeper dive into into the budget amendment and the biggest thing for me that came out of that is I learned a lot about Act Act 18 and local special ed funding and how all those things piece together and and so like I I will tell you personally like I'm always learning a little bit more and figuring it out so um the first bit we did that we talked about just you know uh revenues and expenditures and and where we are with regards to to
175that process and you know the the UAAL and all of it so like I said that was the the majority of the time that we spent was just figuring out you know where were our discrepancies with between the original budet uh budget and the amendment and I guess what I would report back to the team is I would say that I think we all left that meeting saying okay this was it made sense to us uh please chime in if if if if not uh we talked about uh you know our our our our right sizing timeline and what have you and so we want to make sure we do that right we want to make sure that we give the the leadership teams and the people in our district the time that they need
176to to figure out what are the best decisions and what are the timelines and that and our superintendent is on that and in May Finance we plan to talk more concretely about some of those recommendations um and then the last thing we discussed um and and uh Superintendent Laatsch already referred to it was this idea of prek and in four-year-olds and it's an incredibly ambitious and awesome goal of the Governor to to try to get those things because we capture kids younger and we can we can definitely get them learning and and make them Hornets sooner there are some challenges though as he indicated with some finance things right um you know for example we talked about how um there is a cap of 10 students per staff member right so you know that can
177create some some staffing things it can create um some budgetary types of things and so we're hoping that the government and the legislature will go through some of the things that they need to do and just provide those clarity things to to Dr Laatsch right like I'm sure he'll be listening and and learning more about it but uh and I appreciate him doing so so and and those are basically the things that we discussed today and that's that well thank anybody have anything they want to add oh thank you very much Brad I appreciate that um it's been a great pleasure to serve on the Finance Committee there's a lot of terminology I need to ramp up on uh I'd like to pass this over now to Administrative and Board updates and how I'd like
178to do this time is Dr. Laatch Then Caroline and then let's do alphabetically by last name you could work it out in your head or I can say Austin, Estep, Gerbe, Gold, Miller, Steben, and McVey second from the okay I will start with thanking Austral Lily in particular with a for a great uh FSAS Blue jeans and Bling event she put a lot of effort into that and um raising $75,000 to support the Foundation is really uh incredible and I also want to thank Ben good Ben Goodman over here because he put uh together an incredible video however there were some audio and um sound challenges at the event so we didn't get to see it but I'm going to make sure to include it in your Friday memo because he really did a spectacular
179job with it just like he does in in all our videos but in this one he really captures the essence of what the purpose of the Foundation uh really is all about so really well done Ben um I also want to congratulate congratulate uh the Girls Washtenaw United Hockey Team they won the State Championship this weekend in Plymouth and I was able to hand out medals along with our uh Boys Varsity Hockey Coach and um Theresa Stager at that time and then I do have a meeting with the coach uh tomorrow after school Coach Winters because there has been some debate about well how do we award Varsity letters for these girls we're figuring that out and then we're also going to have them here at a future super Superintendent Recognition to honor their achievement
180along with Boys Swim and Dive they got second in the state this past weekend so uh we're really excited about that um super exciting end to sports seasons I was also going to shout out the Girls Hockey Team so it's super exciting that they're getting recognition um I also wanted to talk about something that Student Council's doing the Voice Committee has been working on a Town Hall um it's really cool that DEI was talked about tonight we're also going to be talking about DEI at the meeting at the Town Hall um I've been compiling questions from students at the High School about what they want to ask Administration Miss Stager is kind of going to be in the hot seat um on the 19th We'll be asking her um these questions during lunches so we're
181super excited for that okay go quick here um so on uh March 2nd and 3rd the Saline Robotics team had their first competition and um they ended up 15th out of 40 but uh their alliance number eight they were the eighth alliance and they ended up um coming within two points of beating the alliance number one which actually ended up winning the whole event so that so they actually gave the number one alliance the uh toughest match um Human Resource report again I want to say a shout out to Dave Raft and congratulations on his retirement that's that's great um and then March 18th is the Band O Rama at the Saline High School if I can interrupt I was told by Ben Goodman to go left to right because it's easier for him to
182track US so okay thanks Ben we'll go to so um so first of all I I'd be remiss if I didn't also give a shout out to uh the Washtenaw United Girls in the Hockey Team I um I'm going to give a special personal shout out also to to Adam to Coach Winters um that is a an individual who a few years ago just told me he wanted to provide an opportunity for girls to have something that they didn't have and uh I am just thrilled I am proud and I am so like I I'm so glad that you are feeling that appreciation and I'm so glad that you uh have provided that and that you're a State Champion right like that is just whether you were a State Champion or not you were a
183champion but it's neat and it's awesome for the girls and great for our community so anyway so that's that um I want to say bravo again to the um Ethics Team for for joining us tonight and and um also I I I I have to say like how much I appreciate SMS you know like that my my children have both now been a part of an environment they talked about so many things arts and teamwork and leadership and mentoring and high achievement inquiry curiosity but the thing that they um hit on that I I couldn't express my gratefulness enough for is that I agree that there is something for every kid there right and so um I'm going to be sending in cereal l and I would encourage everybody else send in cereal and that
184is that and so um and and that's enough for me tonight thank you um so oh are we doing alphabetical were you being sarcastic uh okay I was like E comes before G yeah yeah yeah I I wanted to pause for just a minute though and throw it back to Caroline because she failed to um to um acknowledge her accomplishments at the State Gymnastics Meet with two of her colleagues so would you mind sharing with us the accomplishments of the Gymnastics Team at the State Meet yeah we got to go to Grand Rapids which was super cool for it to be hosted there we had like a team bonding the night before which was super cool and then Jenna Griffin placed eighth in the state which was super cool and she also placed 14th all
185around which was awesome and all three seniors got to compete at states together which was super cool yeah congratulations I wanted to make sure that you had a chance to get your accolades too that's a big deal to make it to the State Meet so um congratulations to you and uh your fellow seniors on those accomplishments that I'm sure were um not just re they were realized this year but built over years and years and years of hard work so we could also congratulate Caroline for wearing her gymnastics uniform out in public and jumping into a tub of water well done a bad idea so um with that with that I uh wanted to recognize that this is um Women's History Month and that March 8th was International women's day so I I was especially
186thinking of that as um the Women's Hockey Team the Girls Hockey Team was advancing and the Gymnastics Team was advancing and um just the the accomplishments tonight that um I'm Suhani shared with us too um I think that uh that the um young girls and um young women that are um in our school system are being celebrated and it's it's really wonderful to see both academically, athletically, um creatively um lots of really great things I am not going to steal um Dr McVey's thunder with the Polar Plunge so I'm gonna I'm gonna to pause on that so that he has a chance to share I'm not going to talk about it I've blocked it out of my mind well then what I will say is that um once again Saline uh raised the most money
187in the state and I believe at last count it was $27,500, 28 okay so um a big deal there uh lots of people uh got um what did they say we freezing for a reason um and uh the pictures were the pictures were really fun of the costumes and the spirit and and um I also wanted to just say that the week of the Polar Plunge was a spirit week that was um that was designed um around the theme of inclusivity and connecting and um if you haven't had a chance to see um the uh video that I think Ben you created the Unified Basketball Video so um the Unified Basketball Game was a highlight I think for all of the students that was an assembly and everyone got to cheer on um the staff
188versus students and uh Dr Laatsch was in stripes uh that was oh you did the Heritage versus Dexter one okay so there was there was a um inclusive basketball game at the High School but then Heritage versus Dexter was at at Heritage or at the Middle School okay great um and I think that that's going to continue to expand with um is it is it called unified PE next year unified sports but there's a special is that the p name of the PE class next year so excited to see that happening Adaptive PE thank you I knew I had the name wrong um I just wanted to also say um I really enjoyed getting to see um the Ethics Bowl uh Team tonight I know that I say this sometimes but especially proud because two
189of those kids were Miller alumni so um to Colin and Alex it's just so fun to see like 10 years later the success of these students and to see their moms here tonight too um 3-21 March 21 so next Thursday wherever you are rock your socks for World Down Syndrome Day um I wanted to say the report from the Middle School today um I know that they're doing a lot of um different inclusion activities over the next month including they mentioned the Rock Your Socks Day um my daughter Laney had an experience this year with the connecting class with Mrs Marlatt over there and the work that um the work that they're doing with inclusivity at the Middle School is strong and I appreciated that report tonight um lastly I wanted to thank um I
190wanted to thank AD Mantha and AD Pike because they're everywhere they're like Where's Waldo like they are everywhere right so um they were um uh Mr Pike was at the SEC Swim and Dive um Meet and um Wes just happened to go up to find something at the top of the stands on Saturday and Ashley was there and brought her down and she sat with us and got to cheer on the team and we were sitting right next to Pioneer and um it will come was no surprise that those Pioneer folks had their paper and pencil out and were tabulating the scores even though they were being populated electronically so they told us we got second place over DCC before the boards populated it so and they and I have to say as much um
191you know I know D uh AD Mantha would say we cheer for our team we don't not cheer for other teams and I will say that the Pioneer folks were doing that they were cheering for our kids whenever it didn't impact their kids um so um appreciate that in in terms of sportsmanship I also want to say that the highlight of the um swim meet seeing the divers and seeing the swimmers really realized their hardwork and their unity um over the season but one of the highlights to me was when they um they they won second place by one and a half points and when it was announced um the third third place team Detroit um Catholic Central was on the podium and of course you know it was hard because it was one and
192half points so they came down off the podium and as they announced um our team the boys walked past the podium and went over and shook the hands of the DCC boys and um I don't think there was a dry eye in the stadium and the announcer stopped and said ladies and gentlemen you know paused in his recognition of our team to say this is what sportsmanship looks like so I appreciate that our coaches instill that our parents instill that in in our teams and that it's demonstrated and realized lastly I just want to say because because he's not going to say it for himself because he's extremely humble but um Todd Brunty was also named SEC Coach of the Year which is a big deal so congratulations to him on that award um I
193I won't do the anchor so will make Ben happy the camera Ben number one or number two okay I've got six really fast things to say uh I attended the illiteracy sorry literacy at Heritage Literacy Night at Heritage it was an actual blast if you ever get a chance to pop in just even 15 20 minutes when they when they run these things they're they're great hoot um I was not elected to the MASB Board of Directors but I do appreciate all of your support I will be on the slate as the Legislative Relations Network Representative for the Washtenaw Association of School Boards coming up um and I've been told by Linda Hockett that uh she's got some great ideas and uh one of them is I've spoken to somebody from Yupiit, Alaska if you
194know Alaska Yupiit is a tiny tiny little fishing village they have this great model statewide for Student Advocacy Institute and uh I'm I'm I'm nudging the right people I think to get Washtenaw to embrace that I'd like to remind you all that on Thursday night the 14th there's a learning activity at High Point School it starts at 7 there's an RSVP email floating around I think from Victoria West-Morland I think uh also I was very impressed by Saline Singularity open house last night that robot is fast his name is Coda Coda and it's a musical theme this year and man I I actually had to record some of the robots trials in slow motion just to capture how it picked up the little ring and then spit it out it's awesome a note a note
195it's a note yes sorry it's a whole note okay thank you very much for the clarification Dr Laatsch um also I was impressed by the Middle School students who participated in this some of the Quiz Bowl on Saturday I was a reader it's awesome if your kids have ever participated in it well they're very brave and finally I have my ticket for Beauty and the Beast on Friday I hope you have yours um and I'll pass it along to Jennifer Steben all right thank you um because Matteo isn't here I wanted to call out as we ended our sports conversation and season I believe that they were the SEC champ so wanted to acknowledge him who isn't here tonight at banquet it's so good good reason um and Caroline congratulations to you on vault as
196well um to amplify what Jenny said about Coach Brunty also um our district Coach of the Year Kathy Mutter for Cheer so congratulations Kathy and boys Basketball SEC Coach of the Year Michael Marek so so many great student athletes so many supportive coaches right beside them so thank you very much um let's see Blue Jeans and Bling has already been matched or mentioned um $75,000 but what was the best thing is seeing Steve's outfit I'm just gonna throw it out there it's fabulous I had like basically a prom picture taken with Lauren I saw Jackie I saw Kara like it was it was a really really fun event and everyone was in a a good mood and Ben thank you for all your coordination and help and I can't wait to watch that video um
197I know a couple of us were at the Shark Tank um for Sarah Stukey's classroom I got to support her students both Monday and Tuesday I felt like you know how in the Barbie movie where it says Ken's Beach that's his job my my little name tag said business so business was my job so business so um I got to talk to the students about um investment strategy entrepreneurship um marketing and things of that nature uh so infusing a little of my work life into my district life so it was really great to see all of those um also amplifying the the the science uh that was Biomedical Science Project Lead the Way with Sarah Stukey um on Saturday I will miss the Craft Show I'm bummed um but I will be attending uh at
198the University of Michigan Medical Center along with some other high school students including my daughter um and other area high school students um the One Day Closer Event so this is to inspire our next generation of scientists um particularly uh uh minority groups, women, etc so I'm very excited to support that they're going to learn about cancer research and they're going to um we're going to take tours of the labs and hopefully um encourage people to keep up with that curriculum throughout their high school career which is very fun um and just the other little piece of personal news this week I was appointed to the Saline Historic Commission by City Council and Mayor Marl so I wanted to thank them for that opportunity I'll have my first meeting on Thursday um I think it's
199a wonderful way to get back to the community in a slightly different way um and and honor my heritage my family's heritage in Seline for the past 120ish years I think or 115 something like that um and I I just think it's another way to kind of bridge um our relationship with some of the counselors on city city council and meet new community members so I'm excited about that um I think others me have mentioned this um during the meeting but um when Women's History Month and um I've seen you know in the schools um some recognition of that so that's great um so I did not attend the foundation um event but I was in on that auction every [Laughter] year yeah um so I I did um when uh it was one with
200the the the theater um classes and so hopefully um one of my children will take advantage of that this summer um because they have some summer camps um so uh even though um we weren't uh able to attend the Board Reps um Lauren Lauren and I um weren't able to attend the SEAB meeting um it uh there was some notes about um after carefully reviewing the existing adolescent health curriculum specifically in grades 4 through 8 uh SEAB has unanimously decided to begin reviewing options for updated curricula um so they're starting to to see what's out there and start reviewing that so I thought that was pretty exciting um I know some of the um curriculum that we have uh when I was in probably eighth grade is when this curriculum still like the current approved
201curriculum uh was like created um which is should be totally embarrassing to the District when we're like you know best practices and keeping up on you know everything and um so you know I'm am glad that um there was a unanimous uh decision in that after reviewing like old school videos from when I was in 8th grade um so um I think that that's good news um and so uh I'll be at that meeting on Monday and I think that's pretty much my updates so I also enjoy Blue Jeans and Bling and congratulate FSAS for a great event and uh raising a lot of money for the schools I'm grateful um the board uh has made a basket for the craft show that uh Trustee Miller helped me put together with her teacher skills thank
202you and Trustee Steben tutored me in the ways of buying it we'll drop it off for us so anyways it highlights breakfast and I'm sad I won't be able to be there but um I think it should be a great event um and I really enjoyed uh hearing from Science Olympiad and Ethics Teams especially because that is just really cool and would like to congratulate the students on finishing another trimester and starting a new trimester I know that's always kind of an exciting stressful time of year and then new beginnings um with a new trimester and the last trimester for our seniors so um that's very exciting and I had something oh I wanted to mention that I um was really happy to take a tour of our special ed facilities and um meet some
203of our educators and staff with uh Director Musson and Superintendent Laatsch at my request because uh it was really interesting as a trustee and as a physician as a community member to meet some of the students um from the little adorable kids to the inspiring Liberty Club participants and um just see everything the District has to offer for our students um in that capacity and so I really appreciated that opportunity and was really proud uh to see everything the District is doing in the special ed uh milieu and if people would like to reach out to me um about that or to the Board about Special Ed I think um people would be really excited to hear all the interesting things that we're doing well thank you to everybody for your notes and comments um
204I'm going to forego the uh little blur about the consent agenda but instead ask entertain a motion to authorize the consent agenda as printed so move Steben JS Gerbe second BJ done a lot this evening relax all in favor please say I I I opposed great 7-0 thank you very much uh items on the next agenda Dr Laatsch yeah our primary scheduled report is a Threat Assessment Overview and what we're doing about that all right great thank you uh I believe there are no public comments since there is no public in the room uh the next meeting will be held on uh April 9th 2024 at 6:30 I'd like to entertain a motion to enter into close session at 9 well we're going to say 9:30 for well-earned bio break and um with the intent
205to reopen at how long I think this will take about a half an hour 20 minutes or so at roughly 9:50 there will be no no action taken afterwards for the purpose of Superintendent Evaluation Section 8A under Section 8A a simple majority vote is sufficient to enter into a closed session do I have a motion so move Steben JS JM thank you very much all in favor please say I hi thank you and oppose okay good thank you for your service Caroline I need to go get my charging cable oh right of course thank you very much we have no action at this point I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn the regular Board of Education Meeting on March 12 at 9:55 JS so move Steben anyone else want to support that support Gold
206thank you Lauren Gold all in favor please say I I thank you so much