001Jay Grossman would you report to the front please Jake Grossman ladies and gentlemen I'd like to call the order uh the scene Area Schools Board of Education meeting for January 24th 2023 as you are able would you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance now it's time for public comment a member of the public May address the board briefly for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on the agenda of a future meeting please note that students will be given priority to speak on any topic the first public participation portion of the meeting will be limited to one half hour 30 minutes and normally and limited to agenda items uh usually a second public participation participation portion will be offered at the end of the agenda to allow for any other comment individuals
002addressing the board should take into consideration the rules of common courtesy public participation portion of the meeting cannot be used to make personal attacks against a board member any District employee or student we have two so far I would ask Emily sickler please principal salinary schools no oh yes that sounds way better I am here speak on behalf of the Saline Area Schools administrative Association saying thank you to all of you for school board appreciation yes I also have my Vanna White here with a little gift for all of you so it has a little sign you can't see in the back we're going to create says what does it say we're over the rainbow rainbow grateful for all of you when I was making dinner this evening I Googled rainbows uh well yes Siri
003I didn't Google because for Google's any these days I ask Siri about rainbows it's a couple facts about rainbows there are no pot of gold at the end of rainbows or so that you know I know um there's some like refraction and like sciencey things I sort of like listen a little bit of that but one thing that I found very fascinating is that Rainbows are in the eyes of the beholders so when you look at a rainbow everyone sees them a little bit differently and on behalf of um all of us in the admin team we see all of you and when I asked our members about that we appreciate all of you for what you bring to the table well the fact that you go above and beyond and come to events how
004you sit in your different lenses that you bring to that and all of those pieces and so I'm sitting here saying thank you and the different people to do that and we all see all of you as a rainbow and you know the eyes of the beholder differently but in the end thank you so much so thank you for all of that for school for appreciation thanks thank you very much Principal Secret thank you for the goodies um the next participant is uh Kirsten Freight good evening I'm Kirsten Freight I'm from Milan Michigan and I'm at the trustee of the Board of Education down there um to start I'd like to thank you all for your service as well several of you been out on the board for quite some time other of you are
005new it's an interesting and challenging job right now and it's um very sincerely appreciated by tons of us um some of you know some of you don't know Michael and I serve on the wasb board and the reason I'm here tonight is Michael's gone around as and I've gone with him a couple times to the nine different districts just to make sure you know that we're here we want to be a voice for you if there's more we can do dump it on Mike and he'll make sure it brings it to our our meetings and we will not be having a legislative coffee this month with the change in the house and everything it's kind of hard to get a hold of our Representatives but we look forward to having one as soon as we
006can possibly schedule I'm sure Michael will make sure you are aware but we're also going to hopefully be doing an advocate a kind of minor little advocacy training to try to make sure that we do as Washington District and all of our school districts have a voice in a more powerful one or as powerful as we can to make sure that we're advocating for all of our kids so any questions or things that we can do for you in that capacity please let us know again I thank you all for your service well thank you very much trustee Freight we have pre-arranged one extended public comment Stacy rumpsa from The Faculty sorry the foundation for Saline Area Schools well good evening I just wanted to give a quick update on what is going on with
007the foundation for Saline Area Schools our biggest thing that you can see there is our what was formerly known as snow blast is now called blue jeans and bling would love to invite everybody it is March the 4th and it's from 6 p.m to 10 p.m at the Kensington Hotel we're kind of switching things up this year I'm trying something new it'll be a plated dinner so we'll have a cocktail cocktail hour um for an hour leading up to the dinner and we'll still have our silent auction and our live auction so um and again the title is blue jeans and bling so feel free to wear your blue jeans feel free feel free to wear a sparkly dress or a sparkly top of blue jeans anything goes so we would love to see you
008guys there um the other thing I wanted to bring up a quick update on our grants so in November um 100 000 was approved for grant funding in December 17 grants were approved at about 40 to 43 000 so that being said in April we are planning to do another second round of submissions um for the rest of those funds so that's what's going on with that and I can't remember that 17 grants is what we had approved so well thank you for letting me address the board well thank you very much I'm I'm looking forward to having this at the Kensington hotel I think I may have told you the last time I was at a fundraiser there I got into a bidding war with a fellow who looked like Governor Snyder and we
009got quite heated at one point until his security got between his and I turned out I got to meet the governor that night so yeah yeah never a dull moment uh the next is a response to last week's public comment uh there really there was one very brief public comment but I just wanted to share one thing um again thank you to the rest of the board for electing me president um and I appreciated holding this gavel for the first time but I'm going to retire it for this year because I have one at home uh that my father used when he was president of the uh industrial management chapters of Canada and it's dated 1965 so he must have been a toddler at the time I assume or a very very old man I
010don't know uh he was a young man at the time and I'm going to use that for the rest of the year kind of in honor of his commitment to service he was a Lions Club president kawana's president and a whole bunch of other things and uh uh we he's been gone for 10 years and I still miss him so revisions approvals of the agenda items may be added or deleted from the meeting agenda or the order of items may be changed at the request of an individual board member or the superintendent and agendas must be approved before proceeding further I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the agenda as printed thank you Jenny Miller sorry Stephen to the left of me Jenny's to the right okay did you just second uh I don't
011believe there's any discussion at this point hearing none is uh I'd like to put it to a vote all in favor say aye aye opposed nay and it is approved so we have one scheduled report for this evening the diversity Equity inclusion advisory committee you can start walking up now because I'm just moving us along aren't I uh we have three presenters uh Corey balot munya elor and Frank marcinkovich how'd I do nailed it and you actually have four because I get to be the introducer of that group and Laura Washington thank you thank you everybody thanks for having us this evening I am Laura Washington the proud principal of Woodland Meadows and co-chair of the deiac along with Shannon Washington so this is what we are going to present to you this evening we
012are going to do some introductions we'll talk about the role of the deiac direct um what the director of culturally responsive instruction equity and inclusion and what that role entails talk about new membership the Dei open house updating of the three-year plan and subcommittee work and what is ahead so without further Ado we're going to talk about the role of the deiac one more slide Please Mr Goodman thank you so much so what do we do as a deiac and we have several charges and one is to assess the current District environment related to diversity equity and inclusion we're going to review and make recommendations to applicable District policies and procedures relating to Dei we assess District efforts in progress in achieving diversity equity and inclusion objectives and again we make recommendations to board regarding
013Dei initiatives that the committee believes will Aid in the implementation of the purpose of the policy and then we present we're getting closer to quarterly or maybe we need to make some changes to that under the Board of Ed regarding commute committee activity so really that is our charge so if you take a look at the big lined items we assess we review and we make recommendations that that is what we do next slide please one of the things that we did recommend to the Board of Education was a position of culturally responsive instruction which became a very long title of culturally responsive instruction diversity equity and inclusion um and the board and Steve actually in particular accepted that that recommendation and said you know what we think this is a really great idea and
014Shannon has proven that I can't speak enough about how she has assisted the district so some of the things that she has done the position that has come up in in July of 2022 um she was named the director the position was a formal recommendation like I said and then in six months next side slide please she's done all these things and more she's conducted bridge to civility training conducted of an analysis of disproportionality of academic data and introduce this data to the staff so both our Administration and our teachers are really learning a lot about disproportionality and what we can do about it and what our next steps are for it she's met individually with teachers looking for support she's conducted lessons on identity and acceptance of for the ninth grade class she's planned
015and conducted lessons on identity I already said that plan and conducted training for student athletes and how to be a good Ally and partner with other social justice leaders in Washtenaw County to collaborate around learning so and that is a very short list of all the things that she's that she has accomplished and she continues along with me to co-chair the deiac as well so that's a little bit about what we do in Shannon's position good evening everyone since December the deic has added seven new members I am one of them we've already been participants in the open house that was held in December as well as uh had a couple meetings already to generate new ideas ask questions and to start participating in some of the subcommittee work that we're doing the next slide
016please uh we'd like to thank you on behalf of the entire committee for those that were at the open house I appreciate your support we had roughly about a hundred attendees show up for this and uh we were able to present the uh Dei work that's been happening in the district and allow them some kind of a public input including positive feedbacks and concerns so with that Corey so can I move it is that allowed okay hi board my name is munya I'm a new member of the d e IAC and I will be telling you about our updating of the theater plan the three year plan is um very important to us and it's up for review in 2023 um we use the deiac uses this plan to help guide our work and it
017helps and it helps us like gain focus on specific areas related to diversity equity and inclusion in the district the deiac will be working with Sensei change associate Associates to facilitate Community to facilitate Community forums and to gather input input for the next iteration of the three-year plan and our goals are to have these forums done by the end of the year next slide please thank you um the subcommittee uh the subcommittees have been meeting and making good work here are some notes on how our subcommunities have progressed our hiring and retention work committee has been working on diversifying the staff along with the consideration of the Nationwide teacher shortage are encouraging new families is working and progressing through supporting English learner Families Our gender neutral forms are reviewing and revising forms from the essay
018from the SAS website and just come in communication with the city Dai our speaker truth Norms are a consensus building but they hope to like have resources for people to speak their truth our social identity based incident Communications plan and building Community Trust subcommittees are working with the PTO PTA Dei City and Dei city council to hold events that bring diverse groups together and see each other as people and our gender support plan is communicating to create a resource for people on the salinary schools website thank you thank you I'm Corey belote and I've been a member of the deiac for just over two years now so what's ahead so we're going to continue working on our subcommittee work as munya said that our subcommittees have been meeting we meet in addition to the monthly
019deiac meetings and um we've got great plans so I'm looking forward to see what comes out of that we are also going to be updating the three-year plan including holding the community forums and we will continue to give feedback to the board of education and school administrators when asked or during our board presentations thank you I want to learn more so you can find the Dei website on the Saline Area Schools site if you just go to the search box search for Dei it comes right up or there's a link there which I assume this will be sent out somewhere on our page you can find a link where you can schedule a meeting directly to meet with Dr Shannon Washington you can ask her any kinds of questions she's very open to meeting with
020people you can find the link to our policy links to the three-year plan our past School Board presentations so this presentation will be there as well survey results from our last survey our meeting summaries are on our page and the advisory committee application and Community Resources so if you're interested in applying to be on the committee the form is there and there's lots of Community Resources thank you any questions anyone on the board Brett or whoever would like to go first oh thank you I'm not going to ask any questions because I sit there sit on the Dei AC I just want to say um thank you all for what you do um and the hard work uh and important work um that the our volunteers and committee members do um I'm excited about and
021I think the rest of the committee about our new newest members and and how that you know it the current members kind of hold that historical piece and then I feel like we're getting like new ideas and and you know um questions that we wouldn't have necessarily um have have asked ourselves um so I think that's been uh really great and refreshing um and yeah I just want to say uh thank you and I'm excited for what comes forward with the three-year plan the next three years thank you Susan I would definitely agree our new members have been a fantastic amazing addition trustee Kirby all right uh first of all Iberia missed if I also didn't say like I'm proud of the work our committee does right and this is often thankless work and it's
022volunteer work and um appreciate that I appreciate seeing the the recommendations and the things that have been accomplished by the subcommittee so thank you to the the previous three-year team uh and what have you and then I guess I want to say one more thing I you know I think we're incredibly fortunate to have somebody of Shannon Washington's Talent expertise and I don't use that word okay expertise to guide this um so the reality for me is that she is an absolutely High qualified individual and I'm really proud that she leads us and we have you as a part of our community uh so do your recommendations go to the policy committee will they come to the board as a whole like how do you see your recommendations progressing from your committee to us that
023would be my first question I will start and then if anybody else wants to jump in feel free I would say it depends if we are given a recommendation on a policy then we would go to the policy committee first right and then after that if it's not a policy or after the policy is ready to come to the board then we would go to the board so it would really depend okay do you foresee any like is there anything you're foreseen coming our way same later or um I mean I don't want you to like give me a preview I'm just saying we can give you some preview yeah yeah so I think we just started our subcommittee work last month and so I would see some of those subcommittees recommendations coming out so
024for example I know we're working on a lot of forms and procedures and so those are types of things that I would say if it didn't come your way it would definitely come to our administrators and our front office staff to make certain that if these are recommendations that they would want to take on as well and so yes so I would think once our subcommittees get going in the next few months then then we would definitely be making recommendations to the to the board and then I guess my next question would be we have a three-year plan is that also mean that we are hopeful of maintaining a three-year continuous membership of our committee on that team as well so membership has definitely ebbed and flowed in the sense of we ask for a
025two-year committee commitment but the reality is life gets in the way of a lot of our members and so that has really come and gone so when it's an application process it's a constant rolling application process until we have taken on members throughout saying that we have as a committee whoever's been on it we give people the three-year plan because that's sort of how we operate and like okay let's take a look at this three-year plan we revisit it pretty often to see what we have accomplished and and not what we've completed I think those are really different ideas but really where are we moving forward and what still needs to be com what still needs to be worked on and it's really important that we go back and take a look at the three-year
026plan because there are things that we're like yup we feel really good about that we're moving forward but then there are other things that really just don't fit anymore and that we would like Community input on yeah I follow that I I think the continuity piece is important just from a standpoint of then you're not feeling like you're constantly onboarding and onboarding and you're not getting to some of those types of things so I think those were the questions I had but I just mostly wanted to validate the work of the team too so thank you trustee uh secretary Miller yeah oh yeah new title forgot I'll answer to trustee too just in case you yeah um you know when you have a name like Jennifer you go by lots of different names and when
027you were born in the 70s so I'm used to yeah anyways um I just wanted to say thank you to the group that volunteered to present tonight I know that uh when the request went out that that all of you were very willing to participate even someone who is new to our committee so thank you very much um I also just wanted to add a Welcome to our new members and I also wanted to extend a thank you to our past members our committee has um evolved over time starting from really a Grassroots effort and then evolving through the policy creation and so um over the years there have been a lot of people who have gotten us to the point where we are now so I just wanted to extend a thank you to
028that a special thank you to Laura and Shannon for their leadership and also to Kara Davis who comes as an administrator and and supports the work that's being done there and keeps us kind of foreign but like in alignment with like what is happening and how potential review and advice might impact um our work and their and their work so um and then to answer your question um Brad I was just thinking uh when you were presenting about like hiring and retention you know some of these things like have Ripples and and go into a lot of different things and so um Shannon has been working closely with that and Kurt has been involved and has been meeting with committee members as they continue to look at where we currently are and the progress we've
029made and what is still needed so lots of lots of Ripples and lots of people who then become involved I wanted to add that we um as we evolve and as we continue and we grow our partnership with the Celine Dei I wanted to mention that in addition to the February 15th parent and guardian series that it'll start on February 15th so the community parents and Guardians are invited to come on February 15th to the saline high school media center from six to eight for the beginning of a parent Dei series and there is a sign up I know there was a link on Twitter but I'm sure if you go to the Dei website or if you go to directly contact Shannon you can get information to sign up for that we do ask
030for you to sign up just so there's an idea of the number of people that are coming so that we can be prepared with space and resources and then as I mentioned the Celine Dei um committee I don't know if they're called the committee or Club I don't know exactly what they're called but they operate under the city uh Council and they have a number of things planned in February and one in particular that I was interested in was a viewing and discussion on the documentary 13th and um I watched that with my oldest daughter who is now in college when she was in high school as um an optional assignment one one weekend and it has continued to impact me years later so um so that I think would be a really wonderful thing
031to participate in so just lots of things coming up I want to um I want to agree with uh with Brad with with Treasurer gerby that um Shannon is is just um I'm beyond thankful that we have her in our district not just the position but her in particular um she is she has allowed for us to develop um resources and guidelines for families for students for athletics for teachers for administrators and her guidance is measured and thoughtful and her expertise is just wide and Broad that and it allows for all of us to grow and to be nurtured in a way that um that makes us all better for the students that we serve daily so thank you to Shannon for her leadership vice president Stephen has something to say Corey you mentioned Community
032Forum so I just wanted to um see is specifically that February 15th event that Jenny mentioned is that one of the community forums because my question was um I liked the slide with ways for the community to get involved because while we have rolling applications for this committee because my question is how can those who aren't on the committee get involved and participate so Shannon I appreciate your your link to office hours but if you could talk a little bit about the community forums and what those look like and what kind of opportunities that they give to other community members that would be super and if you don't want to take that one and somebody else does that's fine too no I again I can start um the February 15th is not one of our
033wish I could take credit but I can't um our community forums are going to be mostly and jump in related to the Future three-year plan so um Laura had kind of mentioned that some of the things that are currently in the three-year plan they're still kind of lingering out there may not quite fit and so we want Community input to see how we can kind of mold it to fit and then also bring in more ideas because our initial three-year plan obviously was three years ago but it came from some major events so we're ready to look more towards going forward and do you have a sense of when those Community forums would be or that's something you're still talking about are they going to be activities that are quarterly or um Sensei change on
034a Friday actually and then we'll get a sense of what that looks like but we're looking at a forum of some sort in either all of our buildings or some of our buildings and we'll have a better idea but it would be very similar to what we did in the past in the sense of we'll bring groups together and have listening sessions around what we're looking for and then that you know what the bigger ideas are in the next week before the next three years and we'll be sure to advertise so that we can get a lot of attendees at these forums trustee Estep has a supplemental question uh trustee eastbound yes I just wanted to remind the board members um and some who weren't here at the time and hopefully joined but um this
035came about 2 2020. I believe um yeah that would be three years um when we all came together there were sessions at the senior center different school buildings and this was after um the international I guess coverage of the one event that we did have not event but Community session and there was um some um racist comments in the school and then at the event as well so this came out of recommendations from spar from the students Against Racism I believe and then also the Dei committee at that at that time and so and came out of all of those I don't and it was actually sensei um change thank you um who who ran that and so um and we were able to get really good Community feedback from you know parents community members
036we're trying to get more students I think student voice in there this time around so but yeah just to remind that it wasn't necessarily like the Dei committee took it on like solely it was just pulled from all sorts of like places trustee Austin thank you um so I got a couple questions man maybe Laura can answer this is kind of the piggyback off of what uh Treasurer uh gerby said but um the what comes to the board how does that work this like curriculum and or activities going on in the classroom does that ever come to the board who who initiates this kind of stuff and and does that get vetted I guess good question I think like I said in the in the broader things what we make recommendations on go to different
037go to different venues right and so in terms of what has come to the board really the only thing that has come to the board was the Dei commit or the like Dr Washington's position that we made a formal recommendation um after that I don't think we've really brought anything else to the board that I that I can recollect but in terms of curriculum that really is teaching and learning and we see things and then we can make not necessarily a formal recommendation like in that regard but we do mention things like I said to our teaching and learning teaching and learning experts and and go from there so I don't know if there's anything yeah please of something we worked on as a full committee was for instance the dress code policy there was
038the draft and we um we got a draft of proposed dress code policy and then we propose a series of questions about it that we thought should be reflected on and then engaged in feedback from there so that came from the board and then we returned it with questions um to ask about it and then it could create a dialogue or sometimes those questions just need to be asked within the policy Committee of the board um other times what has happened is when there is for instance the conversation about the handbook guidance on hate speech in Acts that surface really I think it was last year in the deic and it was the idea the conversation was around the fact that it needed to be reviewed and updated and so then that's something that came
039from the deic that then I'm I'm working on creating a process to review it and update it so it doesn't always come to the board sometimes it will go to the principles for instance the principle it was recommended to the principals that they update the handbook so that the handbook was more interconnected in terms of some of the disciplined policies and provided more information to parents about how some of the guidance was linked and so this summer the principal sat together and updated the handbook based on that so that never came to the board and then other times it could literally just be something that that I need to do in terms of sharing information Corey just reminded me of one more examples so holidays and celebrations for example as a district so that teachers
040had questions they asked the deic we brought it back to our administrative team we looked at it we brought it back to teaching and learning they brought it back to the deiac for a final kind of look at it again and then we brought it back and so it's this back and forth relationship Dei AC is more of a broader they don't they don't really get into the everyday classroom type of stuff no okay no we're essentially like going back to that first slide we're making recommendations we're giving you know we take a look at things for them because sometimes teachers don't have time right so they're going to ask us a question we can do some research behind it but then ultimately we're going to bring it back to either our administrative team or
041teachers who asked the question and I I like the idea of the community forums I think those are good I think the one that uh you just recently had was a very good and had a good turnout 100 people to any forum is is amazing so that's good I I do think and and I guess the reason why I asked about the curriculum and stuff is because you guys know you this is a very emotional topic to a lot of people and you guys are on the front lines as far as getting the emails when they don't like what they're seeing that their kids are being taught or they do like what their kids are being taught so so it's very and it's emotional and when emotions everybody's emotions are their own and they're real
042so I think it's very important that and so I just didn't know I thought it would be if the deiac is a committee and they're they're kind of pushing this stuff through the curriculum without it coming to the board I think that that's kind of not not fair I think what our new members have really done in given a kind of a new and like I don't know they've really invigorated some of the thinking is really around all means all right we're really thinking about all of our students that walk through the doors of salid area schools and and they give them a lot of credit because it like I said it's just given us some it's reinvigorated some ideas that we've had and I completely agree yeah 100 and we have to include all
043and uh and we have to try to try to look at diversity without dividing people within this community I I want to add on to that so to simplify it just what Laura said was the deiac provides recommendations primarily to the admin team and myself and then we are the decision makers and then if we are potentially going to change a policy or something that you know we would bring back to the board of education then that would come back to the board of ed to discuss and then determine how we move forward with that and then you would get periodic updates like this as to what's happening so that's sort of the the way in which all of it would flow together foreign can I add that um the admin really look at that
044three-year plan as well um and I think that's kind of where there's that partnership between the you know the administrators and um the Dei team to look at those things and put and Implement them so I think it's already written there right um what what should be done in the districts um and that was supported I don't remember because so the three-year plan came from the previous superintendent um Grayden I'm not sure I think it came directly from him as a recommendation maybe not the Dei group but that's something I guess the district works on together Shannon I think has a little bit more background on that than even I do yeah hi first of all thank you for your comments um about me okay um so the three-year plan is an amalgamation of several
045lists of asks or demands from Community groups and so like you mentioned Spar had a list of asks the society for student resistance had a list of asks um the Dei as it was at the time had a list of ask and then if you look at the original plan there were also some ask or suggestions in there that came from Scott as he was advised by either Sensei change or Rosemary Linares who was another Community activist who advised him and so those um those um five entities um all of those demands were put into the three-year plan as objectives and then success indicators and so but like you said they were born out of a really painful time and so um it is time to revise them out of a more hopeful atmosphere so
046part of this three-year plan then is to revisit those groups and to have them reconfirm and to have them even add additional you know goals in in in snow day Steve here might have like goals goals that he wants I told my kids I'd work that in yeah nice nice job with that so um so he might want things that he who sees as he's visiting classrooms and visiting buildings right yeah and so one of the things that we do know is out of in that plan we don't have staff voice that voice never made it into that plan which we're hoping that staff will come to the forums as well and a general student voice as well and so we know they that there are pieces in that plan of voices that are missing
047that we're hoping to bring to the table and is exactly what Dr Washington said which is so important it's in it's in a hopeful manner right we're in a hopefully a different time so to wrap it up I think please no I just wanted to to just say one more thing from an um an educator lens and um I think often people don't know this but a Dei AC or um a district-wide Dei committee a director of diversity equity and inclusion and all the other things that are in your title Shannon that I can never remember um but uh it is it's Unique there are there are only um a handful of school districts who have um have these committees and positions and um devote resources and time to that and as an educator in
048a district that does not have those resources I'm often envious of the resources that you do have so for example every year in the fall it comes up how are we going to celebrate Halloween like how are we going to do this and we know that it impacts different student groups in different ways it impacts families in different ways and so to have Dr Washington and to have the committee who was researching this to do the Deep dive and to look at a variety of resources from a variety of different groups and agencies and to pull those things together and then to be able to come back to the administration and say here are some resources here are some guidelines here are some anecdotal experiences we've pulled these things together and and we have researched
049this so here they are and then the administration can then look at those things and make um administrative guidelines to support all of our students so that everyone feels comfortable and can participate and I think the thing that is often um uh I think a mistakenly thought is that when we create a policy like that that it means that we have to stop one thing and we can't do that anymore because of X Y and Z but instead like what this what what came from that particular recommendation was that um it didn't mean that we stop celebrating Traditions but it meant that we can be inclusive of other Traditions too and so um I just as again as an educator found that particular recommendation to be so helpful and so clear and it didn't mean
050that one third grade teacher was making a decision and parents didn't think it was fair but it meant that a lot of of time and energy had gone into that a lot of thought and it created a much better atmosphere at the beginning of the year when relationships are so brand new so that is one piece that I just feel like is um uh an example of the work that and the importance of this committee so I just wanted to bring that as an example so having attended some of the earlier workshops that you ran Dr Washington culturally responsive instruction I know you take the advice that you get from the community members extraordinarily seriously so I'm looking forward to from the the board up here amplifying and broadcasting the forums when they come out
051it sounds like you're going to address the general population of Celine Affinity groups staff students I I'm I love it and I know you're going to take every one of their words and insights to heart and bundle it all together boil it down bring it to us in like a sentence right but thank you so much or do I'm sorry Allison did you have I'm sorry just a little oh that's okay please please and you're gonna you you could be the anchor here and wrap it up for us okay I so greatly appreciate that we do have a diversity Equity inclusion committee to try and make sure that schools are a safer space for all students because I think that like Miss Miller said I think with when you don't have that I think a
052lot of teachers a lot of Educators a lot of students do feel that isolation and do feel that pressure and I think that you know everyone works better together when we all feel United under one force I suppose and so I just wanted to say that we do see the work that you're doing we do see the improvements and that we do appreciate what is happening behind the scenes thank you Allison and thank you presenters and thank you the two Washingtons that came up appreciate it thank you we have two action items for this evening uh the first if you're ready uh secretary did I say three or two well let's say three three items uh and you're ready uh the first I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the January
05310th 2023 closed session for the purpose of considering the purchase of or lease of real property under 8D of the open meetings act and uh secretary Miller as I'm saying this will get up and pass see the way we we timed this out here and never there's no moss on us right Rolling Stone the whole thing she's going to hand out the minutes we will quickly review them uh we'll return them to her and we will take a quick vote thank you oh have we had I called for the motion I thought yeah I have we haven't heard emotion yet I'll make the motion there we have the motion has been made by one of the Jennifers thank you Brad Garvey uh no I said Brad Derby so I hearing no discussion uh all in
054favor of wait we should read them yes well we have a motion we have a motion now we're going to read it and then yes thank you so that the kids for those of you School Board policy nerds in the audience we keep these minutes for a full year after which they can be destroyed I've never seen the process happen I know that Miz Yankee will attest to the fact that occasionally they get thrown out and shredded right but they they have to live in our possession for one year and the regular minutes of the board are supposed to be forever so you can go back quite a few years and find boards so have we got them all thank you so all in favor of this motion say aye aye opposed uh seeing known
055we will approve this seven this is zero uh the next recommended motion I I will obtain a motion to approve the Harvest Elementary roof replacement bid comprised of one million five hundred and fifteen thousand dollars to Cass sheet metal eighty three thousand nine hundred and eighty three thousand nine hundred and forty dollars to the roofing Technology Associates and a hundred and ninety thousand nine hundred and forty dollars to Nicole planner for a total of one million seven hundred and eighty nine thousand eight hundred and eighty eight as recommended by Rex Clary director of operations who is on standby can I I'll make a motion thank you trustee Kirby support Estep thank you trustee Estep any discussion or do you have anything to add to this okay this will kick off the 2022 Bond it's our
056first project as you know uh we hired a roofing consultant about two years ago I needed evaluations of all of our roofs last year we completed about 2.5 million dollars worth of construction on time on schedule and under budget using Roofing Technologies Associates and locally planners and and so we had two responsive bids this will be done over two summers because of the height in its less square footage than Pleasant Ridge which was done last year but yet because of the height issue it will take two summers to get this work done so we have we're meeting with them to to determine where the stopping point and pickup point will be for 2024 to finish that the following summer so bread does the um the recent I don't know how to word this like does
057the recent event we had where we had an impact into the building impact like the insurance piece on this like did we have impacts to our roof as a part of the set sag recovery process I guess is what I'm asking uh no so we brought in a structural engineer on the Monday after the Sunday um and we had them evaluate the first and second floor it is a steel Post building and and so the brick is just a facade it does not it's no structural support to it um luckily for the bus driver and for our building he went between two pillars um at the end of the day he destroyed that room um we are working with blue sky they should submit everything to the state of Michigan they should be getting that
058back shortly it still has to go through the state of Michigan Plan review because it is a school facility even though it's an emergency because it is construction the in the state inspector actually called me on Tuesday or Wednesday I believe that same week it happened said how did you know this needs to go through state inspection and how did you get occupancy back and I told him what we had done so he was fine with that but yeah Ms Miller yeah I was just going to so um Harvest currently has the shingled roof still is that true so so this will this will um this will follow that the path that the other buildings so now is there any building left that is shingled or is this the last one just uh uh a
059few outbuildings like a few sessions yeah okay the school buildings um and so and and if I remember correctly the shift from the shingle buildings to the sheet metal um is a longer term solution yeah at a minimum we should get at least 40 years out of a standing seam steel roof okay with maintenance proper maintenance it could be longer than that but great great and and if I remember as is Harvest 20 years old now how old is he'll be 20 years old this well it'll be 21 years old 2002 is when it opened great so we're effectively doubling at least the life of the roof correct great thanks are there other questions so let's put this to a vote all in favor say hi hi opposed name a hearing no opposition this past
060is 7-0 thank you very much Mr Cleary uh I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the resolution as attached for the May 2nd 2023 operating millage renewal proposal as prepared by Throne our law firm and submitted by assistant superintendent Housley that's Tim it was Jen Miller supports Austin moves obviously informs um so for those of you that read the memo I'm just kind of going to recap a little bit of why this um why we're here at this point in time so operating millage that collects attack tax millage for all seven number agencies that collect on our behalf is expiring in December and so this is surely just a renewal of another 10 years we did it 10 years ago and we're just kind of at that point in where it needs to be
061upped the number that goes in to the mills in that 21 number is solely there because sometimes that millage number does reduce down and no matter what that number is we always Mill 18 mils it's a statutory state legal limit that we can Mill so that that stays fasted and just allows us to keep going for the 10 years without coming back to the voters and asking and asking again if we reduce um with that being said also that basically this is a brings in a large portion of what we fund our general fund our main operations kind of fund um and generates in the in the memo it says about 8 million or 8.5 million dollars what this does is the state sets what we get every year by the per pupil Foundation allowance
062then they say we expect you to collect tax local tax dollars and we will reduce that from what we are going to give you so it just if we don't collect it we just don't get it so if this is eventually not renewed you know it we wouldn't have that 8.5 million dollars in our general fund so it's critically important for the district and we'll be on the ballot in May in general the district has plans to communicate this out but it comes to you guys as a first to call the vote and due to the timing of when we have to file with the county it gets pretty early on the tax or on that calendar so we're here doing it now and then we will see things much closer to May in that
063communication and and then I'd like to add that this is part of the normal operating millages that all school districts are doing this isn't something unique to Celine um like our latest bond proposal was that was a you know uh districts every so often go out for a bond proposal but this is the normal structure of funding uh similar to how we get a per pupil expenditure that that funds part of the district this operating millage is another part of that it's part of the normal sequence that school districts go through so I just want to point out this isn't some unique thing to sewing uh so I have a question about um I don't know in the past if it so so the May 2nd um date election day um is that something like
064we've typically done in the past um is there like a benefit or not and having it you know for us in the timing right now it just is the key timing this officially expires in December so we're still uh we're in compliance and right now it's simply a renewal as it gets closer and closer to that December day it just gets harder and harder we can go back to the voters but the legal language that Throne does for us you know it starts to change as we get closer so it's kind of a just a how it falls in the election kind of calendars and when and when it actually officially does expire and if your summer tax or winter tax it kind of plays into that timing as well yeah I'm just um on
065getting out both kind of uh perspective is what I'm thinking yeah it's a little harder even as we looked at the last selection even in the bond boat you know elections aren't necessarily what they have been in the past voter turnouts and things are very different than what they have in the past so we haven't seen I it's hard to say to to predictions of the past isn't necessarily currently in our future so it's one of those things where we um it's it's timely it has to get done so it's we feel like it's needed are there other questions no hey Jenny I just want to make sure as I read through the packet so um for uh layman's terms this is a no change millage so no one title the renewal yeah it's a
066renewal so no one's taxes will be impacted with this renewal they would stay the same exactly the same renewal for another 10 years correct so that's the the first one I wanted to make sure um and then the second thing is that when we were doing the previous millage just want to make sure I understand because I've been talking to a lot of people so I want to make sure that I'm giving the correct information so in the in the proposal and the bond that was passed in November that was for mostly um structural things and um programming could be impacted because of the new structures or because of the changes to the structure so it does impact students in a way that um that like for example the steam centers will allow for different
067opportunities for students this particular millage though is directly impacting the student experience because it is a part of that per pupil allotment so this is directly linked to the student experience on a daily basis correct just wanted to make sure and I guess I would add from the treasure standpoint the May timing of this also we run on a fisc our fiscal year runs January July 1st through June 30th right as we know in June we come together in a proof final budgets and then we need to start budgeting for the following school year and so I guess I would also say this this time frame of May gives us some security about knowing how much money we would have for certain for the 23-24 school year so from my perspective that that's really important
068that we have as much knowledge as we can of how much money we're going to be able to spend on programming directly for students this is instruction folks this is instruction this is not buildings this is everything we do to support students on a daily basis instructionally so anyway so that's when I I just want to ask one more question so let's just say a number let's just say um the state says that Celine schools because again it's not Equitable every district is given different numbers for people per pupil allotment that's a whole nother can of worms but um let's just say the state says Saline schools you are getting eight thousand dollars per pupil um if we don't collect this Mill we actually will get less yes they set it and it's made up
069of some that they give and some that they assume we collect on our tax the tax rules from all our seven agencies is reported to the state and the whole and they subtract that out of the payment that essentially gets to us and they and they calculate that number based on um based on all of the things that are unique to our school district but also that are maybe similar to our to our um to districts that are peer districts so if we have less then we will be able to do less less than our peer districts most of there's the large majority of school districts now that are on the same per pupil basis but then every school district then is judged individually for how much they're going to be collecting and tax okay
070so in general they have closed that Gap and there's a majority of the schools around the state they closed that two times formula kind of yeah it always talked about they had close that but there is some still hold harmless even though they say all schools it's really the majority of schools are on that there are some of our peer districts though that are a whole harmless it's kind of back with proposal a when that got established in some of those people that still are on a different format but it's a very it's a lot smaller now in this okay so but peer districts who the state determines are similar to us and are getting the same per pupil allotment if we don't collect this Mill we will have less funding than our peer districts
071and be able to do less instructions yes we this this generates about eight million dollars that that we would lose without collecting the tax okay and again it's a no change Village it's a no-change Miller effect and if you have one single home you aren't paying it anyways this is kind of on a businesses and uh second homes kind of attacks oh okay that's even thank you different than I thought thank you trustee Austin yeah that's what I was just going to mention that I think people need to know that this is for non-homesteaded properties so um that's important you also did a really nice job of laying this out and I I hope you can share this uh broadly because it it lays out the thing you know this millage really well because it
072is important I mean the eight million dollars it's not about less instruction it's about terrible any instruction I mean it would be terrible so devastating yeah so thanks vice president I agree with Tim so I I would work with Anna to have some kind of community message so folks understand that this isn't um to Steve's point this is normal process this is how revenue is created and that 8.5 would hit the general fund correct correct so it's not it's staff it's benefits like it's correct this is critical so thank you for using that word thank you so I'd like to put this to a boat all in favor say aye aye aye opposed nay oh oh unopposed thank you uh there's one discussion item and that's a very brief I assume uh policy committee update
073from our new policy committee chair Miller yeah okay so this will be brief we had a discussion of a few policies um this was our first meeting of our new um committee so um uh trustee animal said Doctor trustee gold and trustee Estep and myself met with Steve and Betty was there as our as um taking minutes um and also helps us to gather all of the important documentation that we need so we did discuss a few policies um we had some questions and some research that we need to do so they're not ready to um to come to an agenda yet but they're very close so you will be seeing um some policies policies and policy revisions around school visitors Wellness animals and threatening behavior towards staff so we are working on those things
074and um Steve and I are also setting a time to meet regularly because we have some bigger policies that we want to work on for revisions and we know that that's going to probably need longer than our one hour once a month meeting so we're going to work to set a calendar and also invite public feedback thank you very much as the former policy committee chair during the Hiatus I I just kept throwing things onto the agenda and it actually went to about two pages long so um Dr lotch urged me to do a little cutting on your behalf so Administration uh or board updates we'll start with Dr lutch first okay yeah mine are a little bit lengthy tonight they're all about student style so I think they're very important I want to start
075with accolades for Neil Moodle he is a saline High School senior and he's received a tremendous honor and I want to actually read you the letter that was sent to Bridget Sparks Bridget is one of our excellent science teachers at the high school and uh this is how it reads a part of it dear Bridget the society for science is proud to announce that the following students have been named as top 300 scholars in the 82nd 82nd regeneron science Talent search the nation's oldest and most prestigious Science and Mathematics competition for high school seniors congratulations to your student Neil mugdal you're receiving this message because the student named you as their teacher of record in our online application a listing of all 300 Scholars can be found here and then they link on the website
076this was out of a total of 1941 students around the country that entered the competition this year this is an extraordinary accomplishment deserving of much celebration in recognition of this achievement each scholar will receive two thousand dollars and your school Selena area high school will also receive two thousand dollars per scholar in this case one to use towards STEM related activities congratulations to both Miss Sparks and Neil and his family and then Anna and I just received an email today from Miss Sparks Justin Neil has made it to the final round and will travel to Washington DC to present to the top scientists in our nation so that is really outstanding foreign and then I want to read some comments about our outstanding music students as they continue with constant top honors at a variety
077of competitions and festivals so recently our Middle School choir students in sixth grade Anna peebler and seventh grade Gabrielle Dix Aurora gust and Shiloh Livingston they were selected to be part of the Statewide Middle School honors choir program and saying this past weekend in grades six seven and eight sa honors Choir in Grand Rapids to start off this very large music Michigan music conference that a lot of our teachers attend also for high school band and Orchestra congratulations to five Celine High School musicians and also one Middle School musician they've been named to All State band and Orchestra this past Saturday those students are Neva rognis Allstate band and trumpet David Franklin All-State band in Toronto own Yohe Kuroda All-State band in tuba Quentin Riggs Allstate band and French horn and Tyrion Cooper All-State Orchestra
078and Viola and also Middle School student natsuko Kuroda in bassoon so again just constant awards from our music program from our students across the board in choir orchestra and band which is really really impressive and the final comment I have tonight is about one of our former graduates Dominic Dorsett which which I think is really neat so this is about Junior theater where he used to participate here through our Community Education Program so Dominic Dorsett is a graduate of saline high school and also the U of M a graduate in their theater program recently performed in junior theater Festival in Atlanta Georgia and he gave a big shout out to our Junior theater program here in Celine and some of you know that Rebecca grieve Driscoll who also is our theater teacher and also runs
079the High School auditorium um she's very active through Community Education in running our Junior theater program and so she received that information that Dominic was making comments about how great the Saleem program was and then she responded with this this letter and note that I thought was great she said I directed Dominic in our Junior theater program here in Celine and later on in numerous Productions at the high school he always showed a promising amount of talent and enthusiasm for music and theater and has always been such a grounded and humble young man on top of having all this talent I saw in one of his final or First shows of Frozen down in Cleveland in September and couldn't have been prouder and this part I really like as a theater teacher I know you
080know how great it feels to watch one of your former students succeed at such a high level thanks for making my day and it's also a credit to Our Community Education Program for supporting positions like Rebecca's in the district so so um anyway some tremendous accomplishments and my final comment snow day tomorrow perhaps we are waiting to see we are following the detailed forecast it's a reality I I'm going to call on the rest of the board if they have something to say but my snow day calculator app says a 97 chance no pressure no pressure should we call for a motion for snow day I'm kidding it's operational so any comments from the rest of the board interesting notes and we'll start with Alison Doran thank you [Laughter] to any previous in my soul
081that I needed to so just saying just saying all right vice president just wanted to amplify what Stacy rumsa said earlier the former snow blast now known as blue jeans and bling this year is our largest fundraiser for the foundation for Saline Area Schools so it's incredibly important to attend and support if you can there are grants back to our buildings and our teaching staff are just incredible and as well as all staff so please consider that if you're able I wanted to let everyone know that I I joined trustee Frey from our friends at Milan schools for a professional development this past weekend at Jackson ISD it was on overseeing the superintendency and I was thinking it would be a little bit more about roles and responsibilities and delineation but it was actually really
082tied to evaluation and compensation and learned quite a few new tidbits that I'm looking forward to sharing with our finance team since that's also the evaluation and compensation committee I also wanted to let um let the community know that I really really appreciate um emails that are sent to the board and your voices are heard and I want to encourage students to also know that they are always welcome to email us at sasport celineschools.org if Allison can let them know vice president uh sorry secretary Miller I just wanted to mention a couple of things um first uh when when Steve was speaking about students he failed to mention that he was also given an award as the maisa administrator of the year so he was the American String Teachers Association named him administrator of the
083year so congratulations on that I know that your support is really appreciated so I don't want that to go unsaid so and I know our strings teachers want that to be noted too so congratulations um the other thing that I just wanted to mention especially for our new members is that the masb um and maybe maybe Michael was going to say this sorry but if I'm stealing your thunder but the masb winter Institute is happening at the end of February and in addition to a lot of really great sessions there's also an opportunity to take CBA classes and while a number of the CBA classes are offered online I will say that typically these classes can happen in three hours on these days it is being offered virtually but these classes would be done virtually
084live instead of doing it on your own and sometimes I know for me when it's locked into a nine to noon and I can schedule it and get it done it's beneficial so if you did not get that email I am happy to forward that to you and if you're interested in registering you can contact to Betty and she can get you registered for that always I always have something to say so and maybe you're going to repeat some of these two um so I was at the Winter Wonderland that was hosted by Woodland Meadows and Heritage it was very chilly on Saturday I was there cheering on the runners but without saying too much I was in disguise so I really enjoyed it um don't tell the kids um and then last week um
085I attended the masb members matters webinar um which I always enjoy hearing about you know some of the same things that we may be talking about nationally or just a state level so I always enjoy that this Thursday masb is hosting um views from the capital webinar and it is State of the State Edition so um after the governor's State of the State address um they're pulling from what what she says that um you know that's related to education and legislation that may be coming up so I think that's important if you want to attend that I think that's it thank you I'm just going to add that yes I did meet that secret guest that was the coldest fun run I've ever been on I left when I couldn't feel my jaw anymore yeah
086anything else I'll move to the consent agenda the consent agenda is listed uh 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 or requested that anyone or all be considered individually I'd like to recommend I'd like to entertain a motion to move to authorize the consent agenda as printed so moved and that would be vice president support Estep and and seconded by trustee Estep do we have any there is no discussion uh I have a quick comment yes I would just like to recognize some of the retirements here right there are some individuals who are leaving our district with tremendous experience and tremendous uh you know that they gave back to our students an
087incredible way so thank you for your service to the district I appreciate that oh yes since I guess I'll add to that um I know Mrs raft is on there for retirement um my daughter had her uh last year um and then I was hoping my she was going to hold out for my daughter coming in to kindergarten uh the next couple years so I was sad but um also um you know excited for her um so yeah thank you all in favor say aye aye opposed nay hearing no opposition uh this is past uh items scheduled for the next agenda um Dr Lodge yes we will have an Athletics review and of note that'll cover all of our programs fall winter and spring the culture of our Athletic program and Direction and next steps
088thank you very much uh public comment a member of the public May address the award briefly for up to three minutes request to be or request request to be scheduled on the agenda of a future meeting and uh Mr fan and I had the chance to say to him okay ready good evening ready my name is changming fan local residents local social entrepreneur and I'm encouraged especially with the presentation wonderful presentation of d-i-a-c I Rise adventure to put forth an idea before you and that is okay care 12. k-a-r-e 12. and this kind of like group Club or Association whatever it is but it's function yes try to link the people in this area whoever wants to add help the ecosystem in Saline Area school and this is one of a place wonderful team and
089I think a wonderful time and I think that is kind of not a competition with the Dei AC but it's more complementary if we can look at that Celine star it is more like two-dimensional what we want to add another dimensional age a-r-e a is along anybody graduate from this school or this school in Universe meeting in any any you qualify R is retired more and more people without people want to help our school education system and Yi can be elders and can be entrepreneurs so why we do that again the name is called that pair 12. why we do that I think there is a need and there is a gap and there is a potential why is that because the people graduated and getting older but they want to help and also parents
090are also want to work with the teachers so there is something I discovered as a sub-teacher in Ann Arbor Saline Area I see we need something like that so again Adventure with the encouragement of the wonderful people eight um Dei AC so this idea just idea come out and then please give me any of the common support down the road I think Celine area schools probably the best of the nation maybe the best of the world to help the young people and then change our society make even Celine a better place to live to educate people and to help our economy and everything thank you very much Mr fund the next board meeting will be held on February 14th Valentine's Day at I knew I recognized that date uh at 6 30. uh we I'd
091like to entertain a motion to enter into closed session of the board of education at 8 55 -ish 750 oh what I'm so used to it being so much later 755 at the end tend to reopen well let me say we're going to give ourselves a few minutes at 8 15. and to the intent to reopen to enter Open session at 8 15 PM for the purpose of considering purchase or lease of real property under 8D of the open meetings act this requires a two-thirds rule call vote of elected or appointed members I'll start at one end trustee Austin aye trustee gerby aye secretary Miller aye I'm sorry also moved yeah so moved Miller moves and supported by step and I believe so now Mr Austin will go around he says aye trustee Kirby aye
092Justice secretary Miller aye uh vice president seven Hi trustee Estep aye trustee gold aye and myself I so moved so so uh all in favor so there we go uh we I would ask the audience to clear out respectfully in the next three minutes and we'll close the door thank you very much there we go foreign thank you I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn the regular Board of Education meeting of January 24th at 8 25. I'll make the motion Brad gerby makes the motion seconded by Jennifer Miller all in favor say aye opposed nay hearing none we shall adjourn thank you