001welcome to the July 11 10th 2023 Board of Education meeting uh I'd like to call it to order and would you all please stand as you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States thank you very much I'd like to make a special announcement at this time and introduce to the Saline Area Schools community community the one the only I can only build this up so much as you're walking to the podium the one and only Jackie Martin and Jackie is going to describe who she is and what she does and it was many of us had a chance to meet you over the last week and this is your chance to introduce yourself to the full most five sevenths of the board excellent thank you my name is Jackie Martin I'm pleased
002to serve the district as the new executive director of communications and community relations I'm returning to Celine as a third generation alumni from the district and I'm coming to this role after serving for the last 17 years as an extension educator with Michigan State University but 15 of those 17 years were right here in Washington County supporting the local 4-H program in that capacity I was a supervisor for 4-H staff in six counties and then I also did Statewide leadership Civic and cultural engagement programming I'm super excited to work with all of you and to learn all the really great stories about Saline Area Schools and help them help to share them with the broader Community I'm really thankful for everyone that's already extended a very warm welcome and I'm excited to get to know
003each of you a little bit better so thank you well thank you very much apparently we do have some skill testing questions all right 4-H heart health and health oh we've got some 4agors out there who said thank you very much thank you very much Jackie appreciate it thank you thank you we'll I'm sure we'll be chatting again uh so we're at the public comment section a member of the public May address the board briefly for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on the agenda of a future meeting please note that students will be given priority to speak on any topic the first public participation section of the meeting will be limited to one half hour 30 minutes normally and limited to agenda items a second public participation portion will be offered
004at the end of the agenda to allow for any other comment individuals addressing the board should take into consideration rules of common courtesy the public participation portion of the meeting cannot be used to make personal attacks against a board member district employee or student and I don't believe we have any student comments first so we will start with a Dennis Smallwood and on Deck will be Libby Williams now Brad has volunteered to keep time in absence of our secretary Jenny Miller and he knows how the cards work is it 30 seconds Brad is three minutes and if you press the green button we'll all be able to hear you ah okay members of the board uh closer you are present as uh they said my name is Dennis Smallwood and the first uh issue on
005the Forum was my affiliation and I found that interesting because it's going to deal with what I'm talking about tonight all of us have many affiliations I'm a husband I'm a father I'm a grandfather and I'm here tonight quite simply because my daughter asked me to be here I have six children they were born in the span of seven and a half years I'm very familiar with talking to principals and teachers of all kind not because my children were bad necessarily but because I believed in their rights and what was happening to them so I do have some experience in in talking with them uh what I want to talk about tonight though is a very general and Broad category of bullying in schools in particular not only between students students and faculty wherever it
006should occur bullying is not by any means a new topic or a new subject not even new in schools and it comes in many different forms but it always boils down to two points that I want to talk about the first is Prejudice of course Prejudice coming from lack of diversity from an inability or unwillingness to discuss ideas openly not only with your children but with other adults as well and I think that's a very important issue and I wanted to get that out first pulling it in of itself isn't an issue unless we let it become an issue in many different ways it comes from as I said being excluded or being hidden and not being given the opportunity to see the world around you even at an elementary school level any level given
007the opportunity to see what's around you and to act accordingly and to get that experience to know how to act accordingly very important topics for me even today even today as I'm growing older uh also simply Solutions if you want to call them Solutions I prefer to call them approaches to the issues of bullying and Prejudice the first one is always critical thinking in critical thinking it's very important to teach again all ages all levels children five six seven years old can be taught how to see an issue or a problem and how to look at it in a way that's not threatening non-violent and non-intimidating and I think there's a primary focus any age any level and diversity is so very key to that if you have only one subject in front of you
008you don't know how to deal with others as they come along thank you very much Mr Smallwood parent Libby Williams and on Deck is Lisa Slauson that was my dad was it yes and you might see why he's constantly talking to um principals when I start talking so I am good afternoon members of the board it's ironic that today's agenda is about bullying ironic and duplicious the majority of you ran on a platform of progression and inclusion but your actions have revealed different values instead of working to protect people targeted by bullying we have chosen on multiple times to side with the ones perpetuating the cycle of abuse even worse you have a willingly willfully ignored authority figures within the administration that are guilty of this Behavior when adults engage in bullying it sends an
009unmistakably clear message to the student population at large that bullying will be overlooked provided is against certain types of people people some administrators do not like and are actively working to drive out of our physical school system excuse me saline school systems made headlines with the Snapchat incident poorly defending our students blacks our school's black students now it is poorly defending its transgender and gay students and officials it seems the only thing this Administration has learned from previous public scandals is to suppress any report a bullying or staff harassment to the point of persecuting its victims this must not stand it is meaningless to discuss any anti-bullying policy when Administration officials are actively targeting people they should be defending the problem starts at the top where the culture of tolerant this toxic Behavior originates these
010individuals must be removed before they bring May further material harm to the school district the community needs Progressive empathetic leadership now more than ever we thought that is what we fought so hard for in the last election it has become disappointingly clear in these past few months that's not what we got a great majority of us have been trying to protect our community and children from bigots bullies racists and misogynists and instead we may have opened the door and voted it in this Board needs to decide who it works for themselves the superintendent the religious right or the community that voted them in and trusted them to move education forward in Celine where do you stand I stand against all forms of bullying I denounce Facebook hate pages for that torment then spread lies of
011the lgbtq people and their allies I stand with lgbtqi Community I stand with trustee Estep I stand with Celine thank you [Applause] Lisa Slauson first of all 1981 Grand Champion need clothing for a jumpsuit that I made and it was awesome uh it also won a champion at the Indiana State Fair okay so um first of all thank you for letting me be here secondly let's talk about this bullying report that you guys declined to share with us um that's your decision that's fine but any bullying any verified bullying report is too many imagine if this was your child and here's the school board talking about them as a number it's too many I know that that number is probably at least five times six times that the reason I know is because my child
012never reported because that child was scared that only of the bullies but of the school district and I was on the board that's really really chilling that fact is also let's talk about the board governance model the board governance model says that it's not the Carver model anymore which is what when I was on the board we dispensed with the Carver model or the board governorship Bible says that you work for us you work for the taxpayers you don't work for Steve you don't work for the district you work for us and by extension because you hired Steve Steve works for us the taxpayers so we need you to stand up against hatred in this school district discrimination hate speech we need you to stand up you've done it before Steve was sitting at this
013table a number of you were sitting at this table I am Jazz George the racist Snapchat you stood up there were three other board presidents before this board president that stood up you stood up and you said in a very moving statement by superintendent Grayden that we are not a racist bigoted homophobic transphobic Community we do not stand for that and I'm not asking you to do anything that is out of the purview of what you can do you're not politicians but at the same time you're public officials who have we have entrusted the trustee role we give you our money we expect you to do what's right all day every day stand up to hate there is a Facebook page that is it it is just awful and they have went after people who
014raise money for elections they've went after people who are on your Dei committee they've went after people who that your Dei director they went after trustee Estep and you don't say anything it's say something because I used to be on this board and I just sit right there and there and there I'm tired I can't do this forever I need you to stand up and do what we elected you to do or else we have to talk about the issue of recall that's what we have to do if you don't do what the taxpayers want which was make this a nice pleasant Community where my my property values go up we're gonna have to talk about that thank you very much thank you [Applause] thank you I have a quick response to public comment from
015June 13th 2023. I want to thank Jonathan Spencer for his comments on the Science Olympiad and to Catherine Kelly for her comments on stem and the upcoming Bond uh construction I also want to thank whoever was responsible for the Masquerade uh book that we received uh I I know how much effort goes into producing those things and I was very impressed with the collection of writing and art that was showcased so thank you to everybody who contributed to its production and finally I want to just thank the dozen or so members uh dozen plus who spoke primarily about policy 2240. we really did appreciate your insights and contributions to a very difficult discussion that we've been having so revisions to the agenda items can be added or deleted from the meeting agenda and or the
016order can be changed at the request of an individual board member or the superintendent the agendas must be approved before proceeding further I will recommend or and and uh what's what I'm looking for I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as printed so moved stubborn okay no discussion all in favor say aye aye aye so we have an agenda I'd like to entertain a recommended motion to name the following Banks or depositories for the various funds of the Saline Area Schools in fiscal year 2023 2024 Bank of Ann Arbor Michigan liquid asset fund and the Old National Bank motion gerby Kirby uh Tim Austin second any discussion all in favor say aye please aye and that would be sorry uh I don't want to lose track five five zero I like to entertain
017a motion to authorize Stephen Lodge superintendent as the primary signer on all checks written by the district with Miranda owsley assistant superintendent of Finance as alternate on all accounts listed and I'm going to list the accounts Bank of Ann Arbor 2021 Bond checking account 2023 Bond checking account the Michigan liquid asset fund 2021 Bond investment account 2023 Bond investment account the Old National Bank general fund general fund payroll Community Education Recreation cares Food Service Student Activity Student Activity comma The Edge Flex benefits Maestro 2016 BNS Debt Service 2018 B and S2 Debt Service 2021 bns3 Debt Service 2018 refunding Debt Service 2023 B and S one Debt Service the sinking fund the Paul handy scholarship fund Tim Corelli memorial fund the Horticulture award Jeremy tarlea scholarship fund the Randy Hoffman fund Rachel Townsend fund Dora
018May Meyer Memorial Scholarship and the Catherine Steiner Burr scholarship so move stubborn thank you support Estep thank you very much without discussion any all in favor please say aye hi opposed away we go I'd like to entertain a motion to authorize Stephen Lodge and superintendent and Miranda owsley assistant superintendent of Finance as signatories on transfers of investment Monies motion Kirby support Steuben thank you I'll see her here tonight all in favor please say aye aye opposed and pass I'd like to entertain a motion to participate in the state of Michigan loan revolving fund as submitted by assistant to superintendent Miranda owsley step Tim was that Tim yeah thank you and Brett Garvey all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed very none passes uh recommended my entertain a motion to appoint the throne Law
019Firm PC of Lansing Michigan and Collins and Blaha PC as legal counsel for the school district for the 2022 sorry 2023 2024 school year in addition the district is authorized to utilize other law firms depending on areas of expertise so move stubborn thank you Zach King Kirby thank you any discussion I would like to make um well maybe after discussion um a motion to add after school district uh or board because that's what the uh actual policy says could you direct me to which policy that is that you're referring to absolutely it it actually it's a bylaw zero one seven two and I can read that for you sure legal counsel the Board of Education May employ an attorney to represent the school district or board in actions brought forward or against the district to
020or to render other legal services for the welfare in the school district so you would like to include the word or board after the word district is that correct to be consistent and clear yeah one could argue that the school district includes the board but since the language is out there I I your your point is is well made I'm happy to make that Amendment now I'd like to have time to read the policy yeah yeah because and I can just explain myself definitely assume it says what Susan said it did um but it said authorized to utilize I I just wonder if this gets into um who's contacting them and the procedures around that I would just I would just like to read the bylaw first before and I guess I would say if
021you don't mind me jumping into about the idea of just may employ also does not imply that we do right so for me here we are appointing these as legal counsel for our district but the board can then employ an attorney to represent the school district in addition is that what that that's how I'm interpreting that is do you have any thoughts on this team suggests that it could be either me representing the district or you that contact Council and that's what that's suggesting so I guess from the budget from a budget standpoint I think and maybe Miranda would have to clarify this for us but I think all of the legal fees are underneath the Board of Education they're not that's correct it doesn't there's a line under supervision I looked it up today
022I I can so I think it was 13 000 maybe under supervision and then 80 plus under um the board which I I was hoping for Clarity on that as well so you're saying that supervision the 13 000 for supervision was from the board no but that and the 80 000 was the administration so the supervision line um I don't know if that's the superintendent specifically but under the board budget was more um too legal when I looked at the amended budget um from from earlier well the approved budget from earlier there whenever I did cert fine search it was two specifically different lines okay I'll look that up too and I was curious about um that and yeah my recollection is what Tim's recollection is that typically and it might be stated differently in
023the document that you were looking at historically we have carried the um legal fees under the Board of Education line item but Miranda's not here so I can't there was a comment earlier about needing to read the policy actually um trustee estep's brief reading was the entire policy and I'm happy to it's uh so zero one seven two legal counsel the Board of Education May employ an attorney to represent the school district or board in actions brought for or against the district and to render other legal services for the welfare of the school district that's it so adding or board I don't think changes the Deep nature of the the of the motion to I know yeah board policy 131.1 then would create some amount in my opinion of like which one are we following
024then because in 131.1 I'm fairly certain it talks about that legal can be brought forth by the superintendent and or the chair of the committee that that's actually a board operating procedure it is not in the actual policy and that's specifically for board that is specifically for um the policy committee um and if somebody brings a proposed proposed uh revision of a policy um they're able to do that that doesn't that's the only I think out of any of our um well it's not in our policies or by laws but I don't think there's any I mean we could appoint people to you know the superintendent and because I'm curious who has who is contacting legal and and what we're using the funds for and how much we're paying per you know phone call text
025all of that um so um you know I mean we could name like we do with the checks and stuff and then name the board president or whatever that that would look like um especially if it's under our budget I would think there would be some sort of um working together on that if that occurs it sounds like uh Dr latch is is able to address all or some of what you just raised Susan and I I can say um that there's really three buckets where we generally contact our attorneys for um actually Four uh I'll start with uh human resources related things um if uh Kurt is trying to work on legal ramifications and bargaining and various things like this we are often using attorneys um in addition discipline when we're going through things
026like potential expulsion hearings and so forth we're definitely using a legal fees for that legal whether it's Collins and bahara Troon and then um a fair amount with special education special education we need to contact attorneys about a lot of legal procedures but then a more recent expense is truly that I'm being directed a fair amount from the board to check things out regarding policy and things that are coming directly from you all directing me to contact attorneys to find out various things related to policy so really I would say those are the four main areas that we have expenses and we can go ahead and showcase what we're paying for legal fee and if you want a little more detail on who's sort of ordering it up I can provide that too yeah I
027think that and to my recollection and finance that's something that's been reviewed in the past so yeah correct and I think I'd be open to us having that discussion and that revision occur in the finance committee and have us like take that and own it if you will but I mean if you're asking me to like amend the emotion right now I would request that we table that and at least have a discussion or allow us to have the proper time to to go about that discussion may I may I just clarify Steve is this something that's time sensitive or is it something that can wait to the next one okay no I'm just clarifying like is it something that needs to happen tonight or can it happen at the next meeting or anything okay
028because some things like budget stuff that we have to do it on yeah so you are still empowered like if we had a legal issue in the next you know month you would still be empowered by us not passing this to still contact our existing throne and Collins and Blaha Representatives we don't have to annually approve this I mean you know we do however I would say that if you want to table this and wait for the appointing you you could do that I mean at some point we do need to recognize that we're going to state that we need at this point these two legally representing us and we want the board and the public to know that those are our two Representatives but they continue on unless okay so you don't have to
029like we wouldn't have to have a special meeting for you to be able to ask for Legal Services starting tomorrow or starting two weeks from now that kind of thing personally I'd prefer you to appoint it tonight with the with the current language and then revisit to change it some other way if you feel like you want to add in or a board later I just don't want to leave us like legally I'd have to I'd have to go check to see if we legally need to approve it at this meeting tonight I don't want to leave you without legal requests I don't know the answer it says in addition the district is authorized to utilize other law firms pending areas of expertise so I don't think that I don't think that doesn't unless it's
030involving board I think that goes to Steve right so I guess my thing is in in my years if if there was something that we questioned we approached the superintendent about contacting an attorney I don't know maybe Susan you've had a different experience but I've never had an experience where that didn't happen I have that experience that it doesn't happen all the time so okay go ahead oh I I guess I don't I don't have a major concern I mean the policy is super super short what Susan red is what it says so I don't think I have a major issue I think what I would just ask is consideration if something is observed in advance of the meeting just give us some time to to process it and ask because I would have asked
031Steve ahead of the meeting if this is something that would have been required to be passed tonight or if we needed time I also would love the policy committee to kind of look at this policy because it's pretty short and doesn't isn't super comprehensive but I don't have a huge issue adding that but I wouldn't either situation where yeah any seven of us can just contact an attorney correct because I don't think that's right we don't want that and I and I don't want that either and I will we talk about like being you know like we have a financial responsibility to our taxpayers to be responsible with things such as our legal services and the fees and the amount of things that we do so I would have some concern on that front to
032make sure that we had some kind of procedure some kind of means for for how do we get those things approved I I would want that as just as myself as a trustee yeah so so I I would say well I mean this is just law um when it says the board well so no one board member that sits up here has the authority to do anything unless it is um the board decision so when it says board I don't see that as all seven board members can you know go and do this the board a board decision is at the board table closed session special meeting that needs to happen right um previous to that so it's not like one individual or a couple right I think that needs to be transparent to our
033taxpayers especially so um I don't whenever I see bored I don't think that I mean legally and through policy and bylaws we don't have we don't we're not we don't have one member doesn't have the power of the full board I think that's pretty clear okay well when we ref when we say we want to reference individual people on the board that could then that is stating that we don't want any one seven to do it if you're going to say the president can do it but I can't well that means I'm not going to be able to call the board I don't want to call and turning myself but unless there's a group thing but when we're setting that you're you're acting like my question is off base well no if we're going to
034sit there and say we're going to elect maybe the vice president and the president to be able to call the attorney then that means the other four I'll respond to the way it has typically worked is eye contact the attorney on behalf of the board and I I you were eluding trustee said that there are times where I will not contact attorneys when you've said that I I I'm not aware of that situation I've tried to respond to when board members are asking questions about policy and it's agreed that they want a legal opinion that I am contacting attorneys to determine what that opinion is and I'm not aware of times where I've either refused to do that or won't do that because in the past typically it's been the the response comes from me
035after discussing with the attorney there have been times where I've had calls with the attorney and a board member most recently trustee Miller on a call related to controversial issues policy but I cannot recall a time where I have either refused contact or attorney on behalf of the board or won't do that then in full disclosure I will jump in and say that I have and on you know I referenced 131.1 okay from a financial chair standpoint 131.1 number 4 says the policy committee chair and or the superintendent May seek legal review if necessary so if we're going to have language that runs counter to each other I mean I guess if I I I I want to make sure I'm interpreting actually first something you said a moment ago trustee steps so you said
036the board constitutes all of us so you're saying if we change the language tonight to say or the board then a majority of us would have to be in agreement that we need to pursue legal review that's how I would interpret it the board as a whole we are a body I can live with that actually yeah yeah I wasn't I wasn't saying so an individual board member going and contacting legal that's what I thought you all were kind of seeing it as like I'm not even talking to the superintendent or the board president I thought you all were saying that this says that one individual or each seven of us can't just up and contact them that wasn't I'm still talking um that wasn't what what I was saying um committee wise that this
037is a committee procedure that was come up with this isn't all the only thing I mean the committee asks questions and you know the chair gathered that and they took that back um it sounds like you know um I I will say about the controversial issues policy I've been asking for years um to to for for throne's opinion um about whether it is a legal policy um something that we are legally required to have um that was since early 2021 and that never came back and we never visited that policy until this year um specifically from getting that physical legal opinion and that was even difficult to receive um so yeah I'm this is this is again simply through a committee perspective that that does that isn't followed along with everything else um so so
038yeah I mean if one board member goes and asks Steve let's get an opinion on this I think there needs to be further discussion and that probably involves the board president and communication to the full board and possibly making that decision here at the table I mean that can okay I think I think I've Got a Way Forward so thank you for that unless you've got something urgent I had a suggested Way Forward too so why don't you want to go first chair yeah uh so it sounds like we still have a motion on the table and that is to approve uh the original language is that correct you're not withdrawing it so I was actually going to revise it okay well what I was going to suggest is that we put that to a
039vote right now since it's already up there and then I would entertain a motion to revisit this language as well as policy 0172 in both finance and the policy committee meetings that make sense so that we come back and and maybe this will show up again with those two words added just to be you know that's that's you mentioned the did you mention Finance yes yeah I know I've because it had come up yeah and I communicated with Brad about some boards have provided like legal reports um where those things are broken down as far as where our you know what's being spent in different areas you know what Steve had had done and and I would agree that that's a reasonable thing and I think the finance committee would would entertain that but since
040uh we now we still have this motion on the floor and uh I'm handing it now over to uh vice president stevin to tell me what she'd like to do with this motion at this point I'm fine we can we can leave it I have a suggestion but if we come back to it um I'd like to take the advice that we move forward so I'll stand by my recommended motion as written all right if there's no further discussion we will get back to this I'm sure um let's put this to a quick vote now or a slow vote pardon unless you have more discussion are we voting on it as is or as is and then as I said earlier I'm going to make a motion to revisit the language within the month at
041two different committees but we haven't quite drafted that language yet so let's just put this to a vote at this point the motion that's on the table right now to to appoint those two particular firms as legal counsel for the school district for next year and the other part all in favor please say aye aye uh I'm hearing for a post aye all right here four one um thank you so we have this motion now I'd like to entertain a motion to revisit policy 0172 in both the policy committee and finance committee at the earliest possible can I got to do this soon I guess but I don't want to rush them because we have they both have heavy agendas I'm sure but let's just say this a motion to revisit policy 0172 in both
042policy and finance committee in the near future at this point there's nobody has made that motion I'll make it Kirby I can support all right I guess we come back to discussing it again is now since you had raised this originally uh trustee esep are you okay then so the idea then is that both policy and finance would have a discussion of this and determine see and make a recommendation as to whether to modify this language and then we can cycle back and pop it back on the board agenda next time that's the way I interpret this motion at this point is there any other discussion so you're not simply referring you're just making a motion and we're voting on referring it to those committees correct that was a good facial yeah it's almost a
043vote right there all right well then all in favor of that motion made by uh Brad Kirby and Jennifer stebbin please say aye aye opposed hearing none I guess we have a quick item for their next agenda on those two committees I'd like to entertain a and thank you very much uh Susan eastep for bringing that up I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the recommendations from A.R Brower to accept the bid proposal from Wolverine Steel oh did I really which did I miss Ed I do not have I guess I'm distracted here it's this one no they it's it's in a different place than mine so I'll I'll have to give me a moment to read the tonight's no no I printed it up a few days ago so obviously there have been
044some changes so here we go yep no I got that all right thank you so this is an entertain a motion to approve the proposal to purchase 32 computer aided drafting desktops through intercom tsg in the amount of 84 480 is submitted by Jay Grossman director of technology these purchases will be funded from bond funds and will be for use in the computer aided Drafting and design courses so moves Devin thank you support Estep super there's any discussion I know our friend is back there if if we have any questions I actually once again I called up the company to find out the correct pronunciation of in a comp uh so do you have one question um you know this is being used with Bond money and there's this these drafting tables going into like
045the um into the the Consortium so these will be used by the Consortium then in the high school the drafting tables yes uh to clarify their desktop desktops will be computers yeah computers okay but yes they'll be used by students in the Consortium yes the students that participate in the Consortium and as well as Celine students okay just a quick overview of that because I know like with our director part of that funding is done with by other schools so how does does the other schools fund some of this too then or how does that work they don't necessarily fund computers and say because those are also being used with you know um other classes too often but the actual equipment like if we're doing a CNC machine or drill presses and things like that
046or welding materials then when we're purchasing big items like that the Consortium does have percentages that each district pays but but computers when they're used for other classes and for primarily salinary school students and that that's not something where you divide up all the costs like that but a lot of the big ticket items yes yeah I was just wondering classes so yeah I don't have a problem with this proposal I'm just thinking okay we're bond funds I don't want to be going out and buying stuff that other schools should be kicking in on it but yeah and something like uh like I said a CMC machine that would funds would be raised differently to be distributed amongst all the districts for you know big item like that I wonder I wonder if someday we
047need a breakdown of the Consortium and just which resources each school and each district I should say brings to the table for our students that I can have our new director yeah can we send that to finance it's good timing okay send it to finance so hearing no more discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed okay thank you thank you very much Mr Grossman I appreciate it thanks now we're talking about Wolverine Steel correct yep a motion to approve the recommendation from A.R Brower to accept the bid proposal from Wolverine Steely rectors Incorporated to install a sixteen thousand square foot pre-engineered pre-engineered insulated building in the amount of 671 thousand and two dollars as submitted by Rex Clary executive director of operations and Mr Clary is here uh first emotion thank you second
048Tim thank you I must say I I enjoyed reading those blueprints or they weren't exactly blueprints the uh the schematic drawings the conceptual diagrams those were great yes it's exciting it's exciting phase in the process of design and to see that on paper to see the renderings um really looking forward to getting the shovels in the ground and get going are there any other comments to make or questions so all in favor please say aye aye opposed looks like we have a building thank you thank you very much and finally uh I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the awarded round three cares funding in the amount of 97 585 as submitted by Brian Puffer director of Community Education so move Steuben thank you a second was that Tim you sound a lot like
049Brad when you're over there okay um is there anything you can add to this I enjoyed reading the proposals yeah I'll give you a quick overview this is round three so the cares board met on Monday June 26th and voted on their loving grants that were submitted for around three cares as you can see nine of out of the 11 grants were fully funded for a grand total of ninety seven thousand five hundred and eighty five dollars this year we're able to award out 24 grants totaling 173 711.40 for the 22-23 school year this is the most grants we've awarded since covet obviously so we're happy to do that and we're excited to tell we're out more starting a next school year as well and I also like to thank our cares Advisory board for
050doing an outstanding job this year and reviewing all of our grants and that would be Rob shingle Amy McGovern Chris michalak Barry ellipsey and Jim heft of those 24 proposals granted uh how many were not funded uh we have 24 refund data there was I have to go back and look at it I would say there's probably seven or eight that were not funded okay okay yep sure we'll see those again yeah and they do apply typically when they don't get funded they're asked to reapply and why given the reason why they don't fund it depends on what round they do it too and who up they're up against hey Treasurer gerby has a quick question yeah just I wonder about the lifetime of this cares millage like this is round three how many rounds
051do we anticipate there will be there's three every school year every fiscal year okay yup yup every fiscal year typically we have about 82 about 82 000 a school year to award out but we've had a fund balance because we didn't spend some uh during coven yep yep hearing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed sounds like we've got some money being spent thank you very much we have two scheduled reports both from superintendent lutch one the enrollment update and we'll get to the next one let me get to it don't want to give too much okay thank you very much then then good men and myself are going to tag team this because we're going to go back and forth between some slides and the internet some web pages associated
052with Mi School data so that we can really look at how we estimate enrollment and I will say this this is a process that is complex and it's based on so many different variables some of which we know and some of which we do not but we're going to walk through how I have looked at estimating enrollment for the next school year based on the previous four years even as back as far as the previous eight years okay let's see okay all right somewhat difficult to read but this chart is one that Miranda has been keeping track of for quite some time now and it's showing more or less straight line move up and also any gains we've had and losses in the various grade levels this dates back to 2016-17 where we are at
053a high of 5150 students and now this past school year 47 40. so there's certainly been this decline of around 400 students that's taken place over this time period and then that blue section rolling forward over the next three school years is looking at if that Trend continues we could have further losses in each of the following school years or each of the next three school years and we're going to look at factors that that may suggest that some of those things could happen there's some other factors that suggest they won't in addition one of the things that I'm going to be working with um a Jackie specifically on is what is our master plan to really Market uh the school district and surrounding saline Community to make sure that we are seen as that
054destination District that we have for for many years and to Showcase what we have to offer as people are moving into the state I think one of the things we're good at is um you know marketing The District in terms of the great things that are going on with Facebook Instagram um Twitter and so forth but often that's hitting our own internal customers so the question is how do we reach a bigger footprint of you know when Toyota is bringing 200 new jobs and how are we reaching out to make sure that that people know that hey Celine is a destination district and we have a lot to offer of families and students so we're going to take a look at this seven year account one thing to note that is important is for the
055two coveted years we certainly lost more students at the end of 20 20 21 we had we were down 178 students a little over a hundred at the end of the 21-22 school year this last school year that drop that loss had dropped to close the gap of only losing 41 students it so obviously what we're trying to do is stabilize enrollment so that we can determine how we continue to staff and provide the wonderful services that we need to do for our students however we do know that students are associated with dollars that's how we're primarily funded so we watch enrollment closely to determine well if if we do need to make cuts and reductions how do we keep those cuts and reductions away from the students so that's our philosophy moving forward okay
056so this is a chart that shows student count across the entire state of Michigan so if you look back to 2010 and 11 there were over one point a little over 1.6 million students and now a little over 10 years later there are 1.437 million students and so you know that drop is challenging because it it certainly does suggest that there are well it's not suggesting it is stating that there are less kids in the pool of the number that are enrolled in public schools and then the question is is was that because we have a lot less students or are they taking other options besides public schools and we're going to take a look at some of that tonight this next slide is MI School data and by the way this is public information
057so if everybody does want to go look at this you go to the Mi School data website and you can plug in any District in the state you can compare it to different districts you can run a trend account and so forth so what this one primarily is showing is that Celine is represented in the orange line and that's the number of kids that we are bringing in from other districts primarily so that's mainly our school of choice or non-resident students and when I say non-resident students if um you know an employee is bringing a student here even if they're not in the county they'd be able to do that non-resident that's what the orange uh uh graph represents blue is other kids going to other programs via School of Choice so we still and
058always have lost some students two other districts for a variety of reasons so this is primarily the School of Choice chart now this one is our overall trend pattern which is including a lot of things this is kids that are going to private schools kids that are homeschooled kids that are enrolled in online virtual programs and kids in school of choice and you could see that this is trending that there are more kids overall at least in 2021-22 that are um going to other options versus the orange line which is Celine that are coming to us however there's one caveat here notice how this data only goes through 2122 I am pretty certain that when we see the 2223 data that closes to be about even because we've got we we got a lot of
059students back between the 21-22 school year and 22-23 so my um my hypothesis is that we will see those bars being just about even when we get to 22 23. regardless the pattern is that we have had over the last seven and eight years over 300 kids up to as many as 550 that are going elsewhere and that pattern has existed for some time and so the question is where are they going and what are we able to do to make sure that we're providing the best option for the vast majority of our students I will say this that you know public schools in general are are not going to be able to meet the needs of every student if if for example a parent says that I really want my child to be homeschooled
060because I feel like that would be better for them okay then that's going to be an environment that we would not be able to help support I'm same thing if a parent says that I would like my child to have a Catholic religious education that's not something the school district can support if a parent says my child learns better being in a full virtual program our school district can't support that at the same time we're going to make sure that we are doing everything we can to show that the Public School option in Celine is the best option for the vast majority of our students and as we look forward we're going to identify where all these kids are at this point in time okay so bang can you go ahead and click on this
061link and then before you go to the next step this is because it's looking at a variety of different things home school those people that are going to those kids that are going to private schools those that are um School of choicing outside the local ISD those that are a school of tracing inside the ISD so this is going to really look at where like the total picture so Ben if you can scroll down a little bit and then click on update report that blue bar this is going to give us this snapshot okay and I'll and we'll have to scroll through so we're going to stop right there for the minute so that top part is showing you for example that in Ann Arbor We Gather more students from Ann Arbor than Ann Arbor
062is taking from us but not that many more so you'll see that we're orange and we're Gathering 100 roughly 120 Ann Arbors grabbing a little under a hundred from Celine but then you start to see all these other sort of one-offs that are strange and I'll explain these later like Adrian Public Schools Britain um Clinton now Dexter is within the county so you'll see like that one we actually have a few I mean this is very few students but we have a few Dexter students but they have a few more Celine students okay if you scroll down a little bit then I want to take a look at Lincoln so Lincoln um and I'll flat out say this is difficult for the Lincoln School District when we have over 150 students coming from Lincoln and
063and they probably have one coming from Celine so that's what that bar represents there Manchester's about even we're having a little bit more than Manchester um but Milan also we have a fair number of students coming to us from Milan and very few leaving okay if we can scroll down a little bit more about I want to focus in on some outlier points keep going down a little bit further a little bit more keep going keep going okay we're gonna and then oh get down to Brighton and then South Redford let's get those both okay right right there okay Brighton in South Redford okay boy this is where I'm when we came to you and talked about shared services this is where that shows up these are primarily private school kids that are getting their
064FTE public from those two schools Brighton and South Radford that are in the business of employing teachers to teach those kids music PE art and so forth and then as a result of that that combination of FTE goes to those two school districts but those are Celine kids that are likely in a program like Washington Christian or potentially next year in a program at St Andrew or or any really private school because the private schools themselves are not showing up in this chart but what is showing up are those shared services now another outlier is Oxford Community Schools Oxford's really far from here right that's a Virtual Academy that some of those kids are tied into and then Oxford by providing that gets those FTE so there's all this this formula of where the FTE
065go based on on this this chart okay if you scroll down a little bit more Ben because there's still other districts sort of these one-offs that that that are taking place and it goes all the way down and it's also this has also included some of the charter schools um so it's including Charters but what you don't see is like you don't see Washington Christian but Washington Christian is likely showing up in those ftes for the shared services okay so then let's go back to the slides I want to go to the next one um okay so we're going to take and then let's click back on this enrollment chart so one of the things I asked Mandy Rocky to do in our enrollment Department is put together for kids that enroll in the district
066and those that exit the district throughout the year and the summer because what people don't realize is kids are coming and going all the time and a lot of them so it's not just that there is a a definitive Moment In Time where we know exactly what our count is always going to be yes there is Count Day and that's how the schools are funded but specifically kids come and go all the time so what Mandy put together is over the last four years um what you know how many kids are exiting the district in the summer and how many kids are exiting during the school year and in essence we added all that out it averaged it all so if you scroll down to the bottom here Ben I know this is a little
067bit difficult to see in red this is more or less what this is saying is there are 15 students on average per grade level not counting young fives in kindergarten because that's too volatile to check because they're coming in at the very very beginning of the year it's too hard to estimate how many are leaving but there are 15 kids on average per grade level that leave the school district each year whether it's in the summer or during the year and then if we go to the next tab if you click on enrollment spend in the same spreadsheet at the bottom this is showing that on average we have 26 students not counting young fives in kindergarten that come into the district so on average that that's how it's played out over four years so
06815 on average leaving per grade level in young five and not including young fives in kindergarten and 26 on average per grade level coming in each year not counting young fives in kindergarten okay let's go back to the slideshow okay now another hard slide to read because I tried to put all the grade levels on here but this is where I'm getting into the predicted ranges of what we potentially will have um enrolling in the school district next year okay so we take a look at young fives 2022-23 we had 59 students enrolled in young fives this year we currently have 69 because we did add another section and I'm predicting with Mandy's help that will have five more enroll so if you look at 23 24 that's a count of 74 young fives for
069a predicted gain of 15. but as a result of that you go down to kindergarten the prediction is a loss primarily because that young Five Section took a number of those proposed kindergartners so that that number that prediction of 3 15 next year is based on or this upcoming year is based on the 288 that we currently have enrolled and then a prediction from Mandy going on historical practice of around 25 to 30 more enroll over the summer months in July and August um and and and that will have to track because again this is all volatile all right so now all the other grades the way we did this was we took and did a straight line move up and then in addition to that we added the kids that currently have newly newly
070registered families for that grade level and then subtracted the known exits people fill out an exit survey and they tell us that they're not coming back to the district now does everybody fill that out no and that's why we have to that's why this is is somewhat volatile in terms of the range but let's just focus on first grade here so first grade what we did is we moved the 327 students forward from kindergarten in the previous school year and then we added 15 more kids that have registered in the district now a few of those kids came in as School of Choice and have registered but the vast majority of them are just new move-ins or they've been in the district and they're now going to school here so we have 15 new registered
071first graders and two known exiting so basically I added that up and that equates to 340 for next year and then that other area says a projected gain of 13. okay long story short I'm not going to do that for every single grade level but that's how I equated this so if you go all the way down to 20 23 24 we're looking at if all that plays out that that currently we have all these new people registered and we have these known people exiting then that would equate to six more kids in the district next year or 4746 but I also put in their range of minus 50. because if you recall in that previous chart Miranda had us budgeting a loss of 67 students because let's just say we have a number of
072these we have known exits now but a lot of people don't fill out that exit survey they potentially just leave the district and at the same time we're going to have other people registering that are moving into the district that's just how it goes throughout the summer so that's why the prediction is based on these you know the best case scenario I would be seeing would be a plus six student account and you know Miranda's potential prediction of losing 67 students that is a possibility but this gives you a sense of how I'm currently crunching the numbers and looking at it and and you know with so many variables this is the best we can do in terms of you know predicting what the enrollment will be but I wanted everybody to kind of see
073where kids that aren't in the district are going Queen and how we think about enrollment and how we estimate these numbers moving forward so with that said does anybody have any questions on the board yes question have you done this before in previous years since you've been superintendent I know you haven't been superintendent for a long time no we haven't this is the first time we've done it now Mandy does track this information but we haven't done a formal presentation like this I appreciate that well I I guess I'll start uh well first of all I I thank you for this presentation I think it's a good one I think it's something good to uh visit annually uh I also assure the team the board team that we look at enrollment regularly as part of
074the financing I mean there are two things that drive our funding right per people funding allowance and student enrollment those are the two things we're constantly talking about so I can assure the the community the public the team up here I mean this will not be the last time we will see this we will see the three I would say a minimum of three times and maybe more throughout our time as the finance and I feel pretty confident saying that considering I've been on it for for three years now so right we will visit this regularly if we do thank you and we'll inform you if something looks out of place I have your prediction in my calendar to revisit and okay 14 months and yeah we'll have a conversation yeah no wagering though okay
075thank you I appreciate that great over under um couple things uh so there's a current enrollment study out there right now or but now where people are supposed to fill out if they're going to return that when's that due first of all yes well that's yeah there's two different things going on we have an intent to return survey that goes out every year that's that's something we've been doing and actually all the districts around us do it too it basically just you know we send an email to families and say can you just let us know if you're coming back or not this year we are asking if they're not why and and they're providing some of those reasons um but then there's also this enrollment study that we are working on with Galapagos yeah
076that's another part that's to contact people that aren't in the district right now to try to determine why they aren't and and you know those reasons and then determine so has that been started already then that that's in process but that has not been completed yeah um and then slide number two that showed the trajection trajectory down of all the um just slap you mean this one no three sorry about that this one does that include is that only students that are going to public schools because some of this data only includes public school students yeah this one is official student account I just grabbed it as a student account so I am assuming this is the count of just those going to public school and it was more just a trend pattern but but
077I would have to go back and check to see if like the trend is hey as this number went down all these other kids are going to private school that's not what this is It's just saying this is what this public school account is yeah because of this chart obviously the trend is going down there but I feel like the trend in some private schools is going up so yeah I think one thing I think is important is that there's been studies just showing that our population in the state of Michigan is going down but there's also a recent article on the Washington Christian Academy that they're about done and now they're thriving and building adding on so I think it's important to know that that's why I want to know if this trend only
078includes Public Schools students or if it included all students so yeah no I think in in certainly in the covet years there was there's been a fair amount of growth in private schools I mean there's been a number of articles about that so like Brad said we will be revisiting it more because there are so many assumptions in this that trustee Estep yes [Music] um so I was looking at the Young fives enrollment I was happy to hear that there was an an increase but at the same time it looks like we had a decrease with the numbers with our kindergarten nurse um and I know like the young five numbers aren't part of our projected at this point but I'm sure once that's solidified that'll be in there but I noticed we dropped with
0792021 and 2022 school year we had 91 students and young fives and then I'm looking at the um the first slide but um oh yeah I know which okay yeah and so it was 91 and then 22-23 it went down to 59. um so that's like 32 loss and I found it interesting at the bottom of um what our loss was was 41 students so I should explain that though that we had five sections of young fives in the 21-22 school year um and then we made the decision the next year to say that we were only going to find room to do three sections okay so that I mean proportionally there's a little less than 20 kids in each young five's class okay so kind of a with the young fives were more flexible
080with um because I know this one opened up because there was an extra classroom um this year presumably because we have less kindergartners entering um well we we've we went back to Woodland Meadows specifically and more or less did a class count based on if there was going to be a reduction in any other sections and we were able to make to verify that we for sure did have an additional classroom there and there was a fair amount of demand from families that were on the waiting list for young fives and so we felt that it was in everybody's best interest to open another section for that so and that was um good that you were ahead of that right yeah and I should note that the young fives is part of the whole per
081pupil they're counted as kindergartner so I'm just funding was okay I was just going to build off of Tim and say I'd be interested to know the source on that other Trend graph if that was all students in the state of Michigan or just all public school students and I made I made a note too I'll find that out it's more specific deals yeah it's a it's a remarkable tool and uh if you are a data nerd it's very easy to get lost in the Mi data there's a lot yes for sure well thank you very much you have a second report report of all verified bullying that's required by our policies so right okay so this next okay this next report is called a bullying report for um I know exactly the title for
082it but more or less what it is is it's documented cases in power school that's where we you know building principals administrators will enter um disciplinary records and then they have to code it as to what they are calling it and I will say this this is something the district needs to work on this is something that all districts need to work on The Bullying definition can be interpreted differently because sometimes people say well if it's sort of a one-time thing that happens they may code that as something different whereas some people think of bullying as oh it's something that's targeted that's been built up over time it's been really clear that they're going after a specific student multiple occasions so this is something that we're having conversations with our Administration about is you know
083how are we making sure that we're being more consistent about how we code disciplinary infractions it also is going to come out more when you see we're going to do a handbook review like student handbook review at our next meeting in August and that will be the athletic handbook review these are all revised the student handbook review for the buildings and also we now have one extracurricular handbook that Lori Dawson has revised because the idea there is we need to work on consistency of what is categorized as these differing infractions because there's also the you know is this a second grader or is this an 11th grader and so that's a conversation that the building principals are having as to how we are more consistent with how we're coding things with that said these are
084the current documented cases from this past school year I'm calling them cases but this is this is what we have and what I did is so I was not giving away the identity of anybody I strict I summarized what was in PowerSchool as to what the general infractions were so Heritage had one specific documented case and it was student a who was not actually part of the initial argument was upset that student B would not apologize for an incident that allegedly happened between student B and student C student B wouldn't apologize so student a organizer ring of friends to Circle student B which led to a physical altercation anyway so ultimately Cameron and Megan addressed it and again I'm not pointing out what the disciplinary consequence was simply stating this is this was documented as
085bullying in power school and Heritage so that's the first one Now we move to the Middle School quite a few cases at the middle school in fact the middle school has the most of any building by far I don't know if that's all that surprising we have seen for years that middle school is the most vulnerable time for our students they're trying to fit in socially they're trying to get their balance with friends and balance academics and um you there's there's there's many variables that exist at the middle school level not just in slim but in all middle schools but this is certainly a school that we are targeting some specific interventions to address the fact that we have more bullying cases at the middle school two and a half times more than any other
086building and we do need to recognize that the data shows that so anyway these are some of the overview of some cases bullying and punching a student horse playing name calling of a student bullying a student during recess times two verbal altercation with name calling and insults charging at other students bullying and teasing them an attempt to start a fight bullying a student both physically and verbally using racial harassment and other microaggressions shoving and pushing General horseplay for multiple days that led to a fight bullying with words exchange over time that led to a physical exchange once one of the students stated it said they they had had enough and then finally words exchange led to a physical shoving match those are some of the that was the overview of the various reasons giving and
087again I made sure not to go into too much detail because I'm trying to protect the identity of any any particular student when you look at the high school five documented cases of bullying uh first let's see a cat calling and making student feel very uncomfortable um social media posts it was brought to the attention of an administrator that made his student feel very uncomfortable now social media is very difficult for us and I will say it like this social media uh is difficult because we have to be able to show that this is having an impact on the student in the school we also have had some occasions where parents will call us up and they'll say you know um we have kids that live in the neighborhood and they're back and forth on
088social media all the time and it's you know it's a real problem and then we we interview the students and they say well that may be true but it's not a problem in school and so we get into this balance between well is the school going to discipline that when it's something that isn't really it's not happening in school and it's not being brought into the school but there are cases where it is being brought into the school and it's having an impact on the student that's being affected or the student body as a whole and then we do discipline and determine what plans we need to take uh the next one your student called attention to another student's medical condition and put the student on the spot in a classroom well very embarrassed by
089it two kids pushing and shoving in the locker rooms that led to a fight and then finally inappropriate language that made a student feel threatened and then Alternative High School had one documented case where a student was encouraged to do something against his will that was inappropriate made the student feel very uncomfortable so what I did next was just to show these are nine specific things that we are working on as it relates to bullying and that first and foremost is just culturally responsive instructional model that we talk about making that part of the fabric that means we're getting to know our students more understand their background and then the second part is this trusted adult piece we keep talking to kids about do you have a trusted adult that you can go and talk
090to that number is increasing and that's a good thing like as we survey students I think I reported um five years back we did this and only 40 percent of the kids at the high school said they had a trusted adult to talk to about things now that numbers well into the 70 range and and more so our Wellness committee is working on uh this concept that you know Wellness is not only for our staff but our students and we need to make sure that we recognize that we want to identify that some students are experienced bullying and what are the things that the committee can do to suggest and support we are we have our social workers and counselors that are very much aware of this particularly at the middle school level and are
091working hard on it we also have hired and continue to employ SEL coaches now those were funded initially through Esser funds and we uh we continue to fund through social emotional grant money that will help support payment for those but we will take those coaches next year and truly use this data to say okay where is a lot of this occurring well a fair amount is happening at the middle school we got to make sure that we have enough targeted support at the middle school to better support those students we've we're adding the Middle School advisory time next year they have Hornet time at the high school but advisory time at the middle school is an attempt to make sure that teachers are connected with a certain group of students throughout the whole year and
092that continues on where that sort of that is supposed to be their go-to person if they are having a difficulty we already have our web and Link crew programs that are helping kids transition into the Midland High School but but a real important one that we're starting next year for the first year is this be good people curriculum Ben can you click on where it says overview there's a link after nine um and then if you can scroll down a little bit this just shows and again hard to read but it's okay that's good it talks a little bit about things that we are going to be working on and it's not we're not going to be able to cover this entire curriculum but during advisory time we are going to be working on various
093things it talks about showing respect um rewarding yourself advocating um recognizing other freedoms showing empathy what do you do when you're disagreeing with others so it's a lot of these strategies that we believe our kids need to talk about and then are able to put into practice when they are coming upon the potential of a student being bullied we feel that we need to help students with some of those conversations okay and if we go back to the main slideshow that is it for this bullying report and I can take questions clarification question from yeah or just um I guess pointing out I have yeah I'm gonna let most of you talk first um but thanks for bringing this to us um via state state law and board policy the report it so whoever is
094responsible um would report the incident um I think in our policy it's principle or um designated person who you know does the investigation um so you know process to report those incidents um and then from the superintendent that gets submitted in a compiled report to the board on an annual basis um includes report of all verified incidents of bullying aggressive or other prohibited Behavior as well as any remedial action taken including disciplinary actions and referrals to the superintendent um so I you know I guess a part of that has not is not reflected in this and so I wanted to point that out before we get started um that the actual remedial action or disciplinary actions and referrals are not here um yeah and I get and and if if that is something that the
095board wants me to go back and dig into power school and find out specifically what the consequence was I think that's what trustee Estep is saying I can provide that I do feel that it is difficult to always be stating what um the consequences are for actions for confidentiality reasons but I I can certainly do that Susan I just missed where that came from could you could you repeat what you where you read that from um that came directly from our policy which is um consistent with the state law I don't have this actually I do have the state that's okay which number I just wanted to look it up and reference later it's the um bullying policy yeah I know we have a lot yeah well perhaps 517.01 bullying and other aggressive behavior towards
096students perhaps a way I could do it is Gen like I generalize the infractions I could generalize that these are the specific consequences that we're given students were suspended from school remedial action I I I can provide it again I'm trying to protect the the confidentiality of the situation so that when people are watching reports they can't they can't go back and identify based on what happened and the ACT disciplinary action that we provided that they're now connecting this student did it at the middle school I I'm leery of that but I will figure out a way to provide that information and still maintain the confidentiality of the students I yeah you don't identify the student well but if you leave a trail of breadcrumbs that could lead to identification so I I recognize that
097you're you're concern for that and I appreciate that you're going to try to figure out a way to I will assure everyone that we are specifically following as it relates to hate speech for example if that occurs we are following a three-step process on hate speech and if there is any of these bullying actually our principles are referring to the student handbook as to the steps they take to provide discipline because all of these are are met with a level of discipline it's not it's not that they aren't it's just I'm concerned about how I report that out so I will go back and connect those cases and provide you a general understanding of how the consequences were doled out for those infractions and I want to give you the state law as well to
098write down um it's section three eight zero point one three one zero B and it's almost word word for word um except for the aggressive or prohibited Behavior yeah three eight zero point one three one zero B that's under the revised school code otherwise known as Matt's safe School law so I did have a few questions but I will just sort of spread them out so in the I think it was Heritage or harvest I can't remember a ring of friends uh surrounded a student so we count according to the coding that counts as one bullying event so is it is that correct as far as far as I know I mean I I did not go back and have a conversation with every principal about I I was literally pulling out those infractions and
099reading them and then interpreting them but I would have to go back and have a conversation specifically with Megan and Cameron in this case and find out more details about like how many cases of bullying that was reported as one incident in Powers I appreciate that but it's funny not funny if you're the kid there is one recipient of bullies but if there's a ring of friends that sounds like a whole bunch of kids became bullies in that moment so it's it's interesting to me that that counts as according to the state and entry like a single entry so I'm not saying that you need to change anything or do anything but uh I I do find that very interesting it just sounds like not all bullying is alike by any means well and then
100there's the interpretation I mean there are certainly times I know that I'll say two kids get in a fight in the halls and the principal chooses not to code it that way because they don't they were both mad at each other about something and they didn't they didn't encode it as bullying so they're you know that that's where there is some interpretation and that's where we have to have continued conversations with our building principles so that they are on the same page with how do they report bullying and be consistent I mean it's been something that we've been trying to work on for quite some time not just with bullying with all disciplinary infractions and how we're more consistent with providing those consequences uh the lawn policy that I referred to defines pretty where well
101um bullying and what that includes so that might be I don't know if that's included in the handbooks specifically but might be something good to review with your team okay others so I just I just have a few things um I I agree with some of the public comment earlier like bullying has been going on for a long time you know for years as well as they're what want every one case there's probably five or six that didn't we even you know make a case I want to you know like for instance in we talked about the definition of what Cassidy's bullying one person might see it as bullying one might not let's go back to that basketball incident was that accounted for in the uh the high school I I don't know I can't
102speak to that Tim offhand because it's situations like that that I would would think would be in the report and so I guess I'm kind of curious if you could clarify that and go back and later check to see if that was and we had that conversation back when the athletic department was here and I think that we can we can Define the the consequences to the of the students in a way that is not going to give up you don't have to give the student's name I mean I think in that situation with the basketball situation we could have said yep there were four kids that were part of that incident and they were suspended from all other home basketball games that's all you guys say you know at least the public now knows
103that there is being something done um I I think we can do it in a way that's not gonna and and the students are already talking they already know who was was involved so yeah we don't have to put it in the back in my day the slain reporter we can put it in the uh sleep post we don't have to do that but we can put it and do it in a way that we don't have to say names and when when I had my incident with the school we we straight up we had to go to all the home games and apologize and I and so anyways that was one of my statements I guess I wanted to know if this captured that event um is there a history do is there where
104a place where we can go find and see what what our trend is in our in our bullying are we are we trending up are we trending down we're throwing a lot of resources at this so my My Hope Is We're trending down and I guess I'd like to see some data that shows where we're at on this and going forward um then also I know that there are a couple emails to the school board requesting this to be public and or copies made and I guess I'd like to see that done as well do you mean this presentation I appreciate that you are trying to address uh the also the rumor that was going around that nothing ever gets done when these instant incidents happen and uh it's obviously that things do happen if
105as as one of our speakers this evening said uh it actually gets reported or comes out and that's a whole other thing it's yeah exactly um I just wanted to um thank everyone who was involved in this for taking this seriously and acknowledging these incidents but also us remembering that these are all students and children behind you so we're talking about one at Heritage and 12 at the middle school these are kids so um taking this seriously is very important for them um the middle school I appreciate as a Middle School Parent as of a month ago for three years there was a lot going on because of kovid because of the age because of uh hormones you you name it um it's I appreciate the attention that that school is getting and I liked
106seeing some additional supports for our middle schoolers I think that that's incredibly important I think my question is how are how are coveted monies or coveted money that may not be there in the near future affecting the possibility of some of those supports so for example two versus one dean of students or um some of those programs like the coveted money has a certain duration and and will that impact what we would like to have like to see for those middle school students specifically um potentially in the next several years yes but right now we're still taking advantage of some of that grant money in particular the social emotional grant money is still available for a couple more years and we're going to fund scl coaches out of there but I mean at the end
107if the question is is what do we do after two years and we have no other funding source and I don't know enrollments down we need to make some Cuts yes there there could be some impacts there but right now we have figured out a funding mechanism to make sure that we have those positions in place for the next couple of years and then we will work hard to assuming there's having an impact you know continue figuring out um creative ways to to fund those Brad Gooby so I really appreciated when my kids were going through with the Meadows the uh the Three B's and the fact that I think it was what go it was a leader in me school at one time so how do the schools themselves make these decisions about because
108I think three b's was wonderful about being respectful and taking care of one another and those kinds of things How does each school like do the does the staff make those determinations as a whole is that from the leadership from the principal is it like how and how are we like and then there's professional development and things that go along with those kinds of things so how do we make those decisions about like what kinds of programs we're doing to Foster relationship building in the schools yeah at the elementary level particularly the k-3 buildings or the young fives through third grade Millions we have allowed autonomy there and have not said to people they have to do or said to the building principles they need to do this however we have now coordinated that all
109three of the buildings have a social learning element about them Pleasant Ridge has gone through that same with Woodland and now Harvest is taking on that as well they're different types of programs but they're all focused around around social learning which is more or less social emotional supports for our kids so that they're better at working each other and dealing with conflict and so that's in place and then clearly we're focused in on this at the middle school with Middle School administration this first year and Michelle's leadership went back and said well what specifically is needed and did some more research with the staff on a curriculum and that they've landed on that be good people curriculum to be implemented during advisory attack so the staff researched that be good people and made that decision
110collectively yes good all right thank you apparently you have some things to add no I'm I've asked I've got a few other questions what I can ask those at some other time okay um so I have a couple questions um so one it do these numbers include I think Michael brought it up with the Heritage piece do these numbers include reports of retaliation and false allegations um again I will have to go back and specifically talk to the building principles that's not what I did for this report but I'm writing down all the things you are asking me to do so you'd like me to go ask about retaliation and false what is it false activations like how is how is that coded okay yeah because it's um I know it's in the policy um
111it talks about um they're not being retaliation and false allegations and that if that happens they report it I think in the same process as the bullying report so I was just curious because you know if we're tying in to two different ones as um one incident I guess that's important before tying it done with the numbers um and then hate speech and acts um so a recent presentation a couple months ago regarding bullying um it came up that I had asked about were those cases going to um referred to at all through like the compliance so civil rights Title IX and the answer was no that it doesn't go I guess get to that point um so is that reflected here in the bullying because you referred to in the Middle School um I
112know you just kind of broadly said it but there was about 11 out of 12 examples there but one of them had said explicitly um racial um I don't remember the specific harassment I believe yeah and it said and other microaggressions which is different from the actual uh racial slur um not a microaggression but um so yeah I'm just is that encompassed in there because I know we from my understanding talking to people and my my own experience that there that does exist hate speech and acts and that that's why it's important that we um you know even develop that and it's not a policy it is in the handbook just to be clear about that but takes wrong policy um yeah so that's so are you asking are all acts of hate speech recorded
113as bullying I mean what do you what do you wanting me to go look for well are those in the numbers um and then so I don't know if are these uh reported cases here um are they you know I know that um for example um one of them appeared to be like sexual harassment um so are we seeing the numbers as well the numbers that we report federally that does involve civil rights um ADA compliance 504 Title IX um like is that being income like in the numbers okay I can look into that and maybe that's coming separately from our compliance officers I'm not sure and then um I guess this is more more of a comment um you know one of the the things that that um you spoke of um was culturally
114responsive instruction um and mention of uh Celine High School in the middle school with their Hornet time and advisory um I know that's kind of with the Hornet time if it's going to look like that model is um kind of that home room and kind of those current discussions um and to my knowledge there are families when we talk about this opt-out policy that opt have opted out of hornet time because of Dei SEL topics and so um you know if we're using that time to have like that that conversation of how we you know see each other and understand each other that doesn't seem to be a place where that would be appropriate I guess so I just want to point that out I found that um you know I think that is a
115good space um to talk and meet and do the Bridge's disability um but if all students aren't part of that conversation um I think that could be problematic thanks for the comment Susan um were there any other comments well thank you very much uh this is a first time you've made this compiled report so uh we assume in the future you know well all these extra notes you're taking and care you're taking to safeguard the students will be uh addressed so thank you all right so Administration or board update since we've heard from you so much would you like to pass on going first uh no I'll go first and it's really just again to welcome Jackie we're really pleased to have you as our director of communications and community relations we know you're going
116to do a terrific job already hit the ground running with a lot of projects and and learning in this first week so we're very appreciative of that the other announcement is is a big announcement that Dr Ryan Rowe who was our Southwest and Washington Consortium director has now received a I guess I would say a a promotion in that he is now going to be the county uh director of Career Tech Ed because they have created a position with the idea in conjunction with all the superintendents in the county that we need to expand programming especially for our kids on the east side of the county and uh Dr Rowe is going to lead that charge and as a result we have been able to interview and hire Kara stemmer as the new director of
117the Southwest Washington Consortium she's was the marketing teacher at the school district and it has their administrative degree and is really ready for this next step so assistant superintendent Alice has worked it out that we now have Cara on board and we're excited for her and also excited for Dr Rowe who will still be connected with us it's just he's in a bigger role so congratulations to all of them thank you we can work uh down from one end to the other I don't really have a much new yeah Brad all right um so I wrote out my comment here and I hope the public and board will bear with me so um I am glad that I had a month to think about and write and rewrite the comment I'm about to make regarding
118uh public comments social media posts and decorum here at the Board Room before I go too much further I want to acknowledge that public comment is a place where within the boundaries of our public comment policy I feel the public is free to to share their honest feedback for up to three minutes with us and I recognize the importance of individuals stating their truth when they're here and I value the courage it takes to come forth and to speak in my mind there are three functions that we as aboard are primarily responsible and number one I think is assisting our superintendent and evaluating him and and he executes the vision and goals of our school district and so that's number one number two is we create policies to guide the vital work to support student
119learning and three we maintain a fiscally responsible and managed school district and so I am going to now go into a little bit of a i I am imploring our public to think about our comments our social media posts our posters and signs and the things that we do and how they impact these three things um you know when you're making a comment creating a post a sign any of those things I want you to I hope that I could ask you to look into how do those things help us to do the three things that I just stated this board is primarily responsible for and I'm not gonna lie I've seen some disappointing and what I would call divisive rhetoric and I I I really do see seven genuine individuals who are here on
120this board who are working hard to to connect with our community to connect with the city of saline you know through our Retreat we tried to do that we're moving meetings and into the evening to try to allow comments and connection with the community I know we're not perfect about it but I've seen some really disappointing items and I guess I'm just I wanted to finally just say like I I implore our public to reconsider those things and I'm asking you to maintain decorum civility here and I'll say this when I was campaigning I'll say it again I believe that we are all in this together for our kids thank you very much thank you uh Brad we'll work our way down um just a couple quick comments uh so I was not present for
121the last meeting I was out of the country on a mandatory work trip had I been here I would thank all of our retirees so I wanted to pause and just do that we appreciate the many many years of passion love and service and say congratulations to all of our graduates one of the very best days of every year is being a part of that graduation ceremony and I'm so very proud of them um the other thing I wanted to say is I was reflecting on our board packet and rereading it before tonight's meeting a lot of times people think public school districts are slow during the summer but it really stood out to me our HR department and technology and operations and all of the very very hard work that they're doing over the
122summer to get us prepared for our new year so I wanted to specifically thank those groups that's it thank you yeah well deserved thanks for everyone okay I want to thank every single person who has personally reached out to me and um who spoke up tonight and those who have contacted the board and superintendent to stand up against hate that is being directed at people who are actively supporting our lgbtq plus students in progress in Dei to make our district a safer and inclusive environment I would like to share a quote with you by Martin Luther King Jr the ultimate measure of a person is not where one stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where one stands in times of Challenge and controversy thank you so much for those who are taking a
123stand during this time thank you very much trustee Estep I just have one quick thing to report I spent four days at iste live 23 in Philadelphia and I've given everyone on the board a copy of educational leadership magazine which was on you know 50 000 if I felt like ten thousand chairs four days of workshops Hands-On sessions of leadership exchange meetings with State Tech directors I I presented at least one paper as far as I remember it was a bit of a blur um in addition I got some cool selfies with the stars of Abbott Elementary Tyler Williams and I met Ali Ward I don't know if you've ever listened to the ologies podcast if you're a science do you know Allie Ward she's awesome and she just asks questions of people who study
124things drunk butterflies and wild and crazy things and yeah it was an honor thanks for noticing thanks for the nods uh uh Lisa it was um quite quite the amazing week we started we we entered I'm on the board of directors that's why I'm kind of interested in this we started with 9 000 people but by the time the LA the four days ended to her over fifteen thousand vendors teachers administrators kids kids from all over the world where they're presenting and it was just an amazing thing so we have sent teachers in the past paid for them to go and I I'm continuing to encourage that this year and another side note Cara Davis came into her desk and found a whole pile of iste books I mean um sure I was just cleaning
125out my cupboards but no I she is going to make sure that these books go to teachers is covering a wide wide range of things so and that's my little gift of thanks to our many outstanding Educators here um oh the consent agenda that's the second to last highlight of this the consent agenda is listed in this agenda and will not be read aloud the motion noted will allow for the authorization of all listed items without discussion unless a member of the board requests that anyone or all be considered individually I'd like to entertain a motion to authorize the consent agenda as printed I would emphatically like to make that motion particularly for that HR do I have an exclamation mark after your name and we'll put one for me too please second second uh
126all in favor please say aye thank you very much opposed hearing none um items scheduled on the next agenda handbook reviews and a K-12 Insight School quality survey report it's done all right thank you I'm now going to look over at Kara Davis are there any public comments lined up all right great number one I'll be ready all right good okay um I have um one question which I couldn't answer in the slide presentation regarding student population I it the green light's on I think I'm just I'm just short sorry um so during the population slides I just was curious um if this includes the Consortium kits because I thought they were totally separate but didn't know if some of those numbers came as part of your population and I know you can't answer me
127from the board table but um with the Mylene kids and the um other the other local kids from Dexter I didn't know if that included the kids who come from the specialty for the specialty centers for lack of a better term and then um the focus though today of my comment would be your policy 5517.01 which talks about bullying specifically um well I appreciate the slide presentation and the report there um I am a bit concerned about the accuracy and so by following Michigan State policy 380.130 be as in boy paragraph five letter i it specifically says that the procedure to document is for any prohibited incidence that is reported and your policy as well um the 5517.01 also talks about all documenting all reported incidents I have a question related to how an incident
128is qualified our acts of hate speech included there was one notation on the Middle School slide but none for the high school our physical assaults included there was one note on the high school slide but not at the middle school sexual harassment sexual assaults we had a mom stand here at the podium talking about her son being sexually assaulted more than five times there was no note on that slide that included her complaints our cases or threats regarding School violence included we shut the high school for two days because of a death threat I didn't see anything or a death list against I think it was 10 or 12 kids I didn't see anything about that on that slide that included a total end of five there was between the field hockey team and the
129football team which would have included a minimum of 60 complaintants which didn't go anywhere the dance team incident the basketball game that Mr Austin discussed as well none of those made this so at the risk of sounding crass like I don't believe those numbers for an instance I think they are total nonsense as a middle school and high school mom I am very concerned about safety we have eliminated Edina student position and my understanding is the kids liked that person a lot I worked the dance and kids from every click or subset sought her out now I'm not saying that particular person but the fact that you eliminated that position is concerning and you got rid of the resource officer at the middle school again highest incident of reports in the district again I don't
130believe it was only 12. and yet you re remove a resource officer I just transparency remains an issue and maybe you need to look as a board as how you're going to include all of those things under bullying thank you Megan Gunderson uh Lisa Slauson followed by Libby Williams thank you can hear right now okay perfect first of all um three things first of all you need to be really careful as a public official who takes tax dollars who is elected to say things that would chill First Amendment free speech you need to be really careful about that like really careful and I'm a lawyer that's free advice number two um well the first discussion that you had regarding hiring lawyers you proved to me three things number one there's a heck of a lot
131of you that don't understand your policy manual you should be able to recite that back and forwards number two are you all getting trained by masb because if you're not you need to Avail yourself of that and somebody should foia how each of these people are getting trained that's a great foia to ask for also the other thing that I noticed is wow Steve must be tired because you guys don't understand your policy the policy that when we change the governance model you don't understand that either when we change the governance model and that hasn't changed in all these years the person who you go to to ask for illegal to get legal is him president McVeigh then he goes to Steve Lodge you you you you should not be calling Steve Loch saying I
132need a lawyer no no no no no no no because otherwise you're all going to be spending our tax dollars now I understand that Steve is going to call the lawyer every now and again you know because he's running he's the educational leader of a district so I don't care if he calls the lawyer he he knows what he can do but all of you you are elected you are supposed to be Trustees of our taxpayers dollars so if you want to talk to the lawyer talk to Mick Bay if you want to do it for free call masb they have a lawyer call him call Brad benassik if he's still there also lastly the bullying report Steve I think that's a good report but um there is a uh I think it's on one
133of the Middle School ones it says a racial harassment racist statement or something never once was it mentioned in any of your report lgbtq and we've we've known this you sat on the board so you sat next to me during 2010. so you know that this is an issue and that our LGBT kids lgbtq kids are being harassed and bullied or whatever hate speech whatever you want to Define it as but we have to do better and we have to have these discussions I know it's embarrassing but these are children we have to have these we have to do what's best for them and I know you all are doing that and I appreciate that thank you very much Thank you Lisa Slauson um I have two quick comments um the bullying report um did
134not list the instances of bullying done by actual School staff it did not report on what a student should do if their reporting is ignored by the administration it also did not specify what ramifications and consequences are this for the staff that bully students uh these instances should also be investigated and put in the report um second comment is happy disability pride month I'd like to propose that the board to the board that there would be more disability inclusive playground equipment that is not just ramps these would include things like wheelchair accessible swings seesaws and play structures I believe the scene Parks and Rec has a cares Grant proposal already in motion for new playground equipment so this is the perfect time to update some of these outdated facilities thank you thank you very much
135Ms Williams next meeting will be held on August 8 2023 at 6 30 pm and we are going to move into closed session I'd like to enter sorry I'd like to entertain a motion to enter closed session of the board uh at actually as soon as possible let's say 8 34 our superintendent has to make a zoom meeting uh right after so we want to try and we're going to pass skip on the bio break it's going to be a very short meeting so at uh I'll say 8 34 with the intent to reopen at approximately 8 44 for the purposes of school board to consider security planning to address existing threats or prevent potential threats to the safety of students and staff under Section 8 K under 8K a simple majority vote is sufficient
136to enter into closed session can I have a motion please support me all in favor say hi thank you so the members of the public thank you very much for coming we'll escort you out we have to close the door behind you I'm not rushing you we're not to act we're not going to be deliberating or voting on anything it's a simple update so uh you won't be missing anything just just see you win Ben I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn the regular Board of Education meeting of July 11 2023 at 8 51. 8 52. so moved thank you all in favor say aye aye aye out of here thank you