001e e e okay we're going to call the meeting to order if we can stand for the pledge States America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with and justice for all so we're going to proceed to the golden apples Dr bernia thank you very much Madam president members of the board good evening we begin tonight with our golden apple Awards our first recipient is margerie terv are you here come on up to the most comfortable spot in the room right on the WL right there all right you can face the Border you could face you could face the audience whatever you prefer sideways there you go tonight's first golden apple recipient is marjerie tkof Wald Lake Central High School resource room parah educator although her nominator prefers to remain anonymous marjerie
002was recommended because she assumes responsibility for those around her and is an educator who goes above and beyond every day marjerie embodies care and concern for every young person in her presence she acts as though every student in the classroom is one of her own marjerie is motivated by the desire to make sure that her student has a positive and meaningful educational experience every day margerie routinely seeks to create positive learning experiences for her students and support them when they are outside of the classroom thank you margerie for all you do on behalf of our students and our families it's our honor to recognize you this [Applause] evening conratulations like to say something okay y absolutely yep it's over thank you uh Tracy Corum are you here Tracy come on up to the most comfortable
003spot in the [Applause] room hi tonight's second Golden Apple recipient is Tracy corm Wald Lake Central High School counseling secretary Tracy was nominated by Pam Wesley Wall Lake Central High School counselor because Tracy maintains a high level of professionalism while also being warm and inviting Tracy is the first Contact for students parents and staff members when they come to the counseling office she always greets everyone with a smile kindness and patience Tracy is ready to help with any question thanks to her wealth of knowledge regarding our district and our community Tracy is always looking to create a warm and inviting atmosphere in the counseling office by displaying seasonal decorations celebrating birthdays and showcasing her willingness to learn and try new processes and procedures in her nomination letter Pam shared Tracy is patient kind extremely efficient
004and welcomes any new task with a smile determination and positive attitude Tracy is a vital part of our counseling department thank you Tracy for creating a warm and inclusive environment for students at Wald Lake Central High School it's our honor to recognize you this evening you congratulations okay moving on our Earth Day poster contest winners Dr Beria I'm going to turn the floor over to Mr Chatfield Mrs would join me up at the podium thank you Dr Beria uh board members Community uh thank you for being here we are pleased tonight to recognize the winters of the winners of the 2024 Earth Day poster contest uh this is uh in the 13th year of the contest we had 186 uh entries were submitted from students across the district uh in the past 13 years we
005have had approximately 2500 entries submitted uh for our Earth Day poster contest so we're we're very proud of that through an online voting process District staff selected one winning poster from each grade level elementary middle and high school and are all the winners here tonight they supp okay let's find out we are going to find out hopefully all the winners uh were actually able to make it here tonight to accept our congratulations on creating exemplary posters that highlight the conservation of our planet and its resources uh Mrs Mindy Miller is our energy uh manager she started this poster contest to bring more awareness to our Energy Management program and our environmental stewardship under her Direction our Energy Management program has saved over $29 million since 2004 money that would have otherwise gone to the utility
006companies through our efforts to reduce energy conservation so uh I'm very pleased and want to thank for running that program and getting our students involved uh through this Earth a poster contest so if I could have our winners come up now okay come on [Applause] winners excellent okay whichever ladies please have a have a so uh in in recognition of their amazing work we are presenting all three winners with their professionally framed print of their artwork along with a certificate of appreciation from our energy department so starting uh at the high school the winner is anav Vasa Suarez a 10th grader from Western High School our Middle School winner is Arya godas gasi oh thank thank you thank thank you Arya a seventh grader from gisler middle school congratulations Arya and our Elementary winner is
007McKenna Bernard are you a third grader McKenna yeah oh I could swear you could be a fifth grader but congratulations from wal Lake Elementary all three of these congratulations K and they are all under class at their grade level so we have a chance to see them all back here again in the future so I'd like to thank all of our talented winners and everybody that did submit um uh a uh an entry for consideration and um we're just extremely pleased and proud that everybody continues to participate and we congratulate you ladies once again thank you [Applause] our kindness matter Awards Dr Beria thank you very much at this time I'd like to welcome Mr Nile mcari principal of Clifford Smart Middle School to the podium to introduce our kindness matters Awards good evening everyone
008so my name is n MTAR I'm a proud principal at Clifford h smart middle school and co-chairperson of the diversity equity and inclusion committee our committee work goes back over 25 years here in Wald Lake schools and I want to take a moment to thank the many parents children and staff and community members that have a true understanding of what we do and the importance of our work celebrating diversity fostering an inclusive environment from all and recognizing those Community stakeholders who go above and beyond in their service to others is who we are and we'll continue to focus on our committee work and Mission and not be deterred by anyone or anything as I shared a significant part of our committee work is centered on honoring indiv indviduals dedicated to the service of others and
009making our community a better place and I'm honored to be here this evening to recognize our kindness matter Award winners this year we received roughly 40 nominations the high number of nominations we receive tells us what we already know that we have many incredible men women and children residing in wal Lake Schools our nominees being honored tonight are individuals in our school Community who exhibit kindness and care towards others by demonst ating kindness on a frequent basis going out of their way to make others feel better and inspiring others to show kindness this year we have three individuals that were selected as recipients of the kindness matters award can the following awesome individuals please come down Laura augen BBA in that very comfortable spot that Dr ber was mentioned earlier please Becky spagnolo and Melissa
010[Applause] Hill so Keith Elementary special services pair educator Lori augen ball was nominated by Melissa Hill Kelly powers and Deb Hackman Lor's outstanding parator at Keith Elementary School her kind caring approach with all students makes such a difference at Keith Elementary Lor is a team player and has a willingness to help out wherever they may need her support Lori is truly dedicated to her students Dr Mar Marcy Augustine shared I appreciate Lor's insights and voice for the students in her classroom Lor's always thinking about ways she might improve the learning environment for students and is willing to share all of her ideas with her colleagues her her smile positive approach and dedication to our students is appreciate more than she knows her kindness reaches so much further than just within the classroom Lori is a
011kind and positive influence on many kids throughout Keith Elementary many children look forward to coming to school because of Lori she is truly inspiration Lori is a definition of kindness congratulations Lori and thank [Applause] you Wixom Elementary staff member Becky Spagnola was nominated by Wixom Elementary principal Kathy Russell K you could not be here this evening she is celebrating her husband's birthday and but she wish she could do pull both of them off though but she could not in addition to being a playground supervisor at Wixom Becky's also a volunteer in Wixom PTA a classroom volunteer and takes the lead on annual holiday shop as well as a prominent role with Scholastic Book Fair Miss Becky is a students knower is one of our is one of the recess monitors but also so much more
012she always makes sure students have fun at recess while being safe and having what they need no matter the weather she's even used her own money to buy items for students to use on a playground in short Becky creates a positive and inclusive environment for all students each and every day Kathy Russell adds that when we imagine a person who exemplifies kindness Becky is one of the first people that comes to mind but Becky's kindness is not end on the playground she comes in way before her shift starts and stays after and offers the volunteer to help out in the building wherever it's needed Wixom Elementary and Wall Lake Schools is so fortunate to have such a kind caring and selfless person like Becky congratulations Becky and thank [Applause] you K tell Elementary ASD Teacher
013Melissa Hill is nominated by Robert and Cynthia Ledger Melissa's ability to support inclusion for for their students with special needs has had a positive impact not only on her specific students but for all students at Keith Elementary she transforms lives with her bondless patience and genuine care her dedication to each individual child is nothing short of extraordinary Robert and Cindy added that Melissa's unwavering love and compassion is profoundly impact their family particularly their grandson who faces the challenge of autism gone are the days of Despair instead they feel fortunate to witness the resilient loving child to overcome every obstacle he's encountered no longer burdened by stress and worry they eagerly anticipate what lies ahead for their grandchild Lor's always thinking about ways she might improve the learning environment for her students her smile positive of
014approach and dedication to the Keith elementary students is appreciated more than she knows great job lauan thank [Applause] you oh not yet so congratulations all our kindness matters award recipients as a wal Lake uh resident and also Father we deeply appreciate everything you do and your acts of kindness and selfless commitment to making the lives of others better thank [Applause] you our Ste student leadership presentation Dr Beria thank you madam president before I turn it over to Mrs kohanski uh to underscore tonight's uh student leadership presentation from wal Lake Northern as an important piece of context I think it's worth noting today is the last day of school for seniors and when you think about what you were doing on the last day of school when you were a senior keep it to yourself it
015probably wasn't it probably wasn't coming to a board meeting to do a presentation so that's how remarkable these young people are with that I'll turn it over to Mrs kohansi thank you Dr Beria so tonight I'd like like to welcome three student representatives from Wald link Northern High School who are here to present on student leadership activities going on at Northern we have Brooklyn Jesse and Maddie and in just a second as soon as I pull up their presentation we'll let them take over and share with you what their Works look uh going like um I'm Jesse I'm Addie and I'm Brooklyn and this is a presentation on the importance of leadership at Northern um the first event that we kind of run is for the Freshman it's called SWAT which stands for students who
016are there um we have our upper classmen help out as mentors um familiarize The Freshman with theol schol tour the school with them the Freshman will receive their schedule that day go around the classrooms and overall the upper classman just try to make the Freshman feel welcome before the first day of school um ways to get our community involved around the school um we offer NHS hours for this so National Honor Society students are um always eager to help out with this get some hours before the year actually starts and this also runs the students um The Freshman through a mo Pepa assembly so familiarizing them with which is going to come up very soon for us what homecoming week will look like and overall is just a very good experience for the Freshman before
017their first day of school all right homecoming is the very first large scale event that includes our entire student body at Northern we kick off the week with our spirit week and end the week with a pep assembly that is neon out and it's really fun for the student body to kind of like rival against each other and play games like tug ofwar and our relay race then we end the day with our parade that includes the middle school and Elementary schoolers that are going to be coming to Northern and they get to walk in the parade with us and then we have the homecoming game after that that's open to the entire Community to come watch and cheer on the Northern football team and then Saturday we have our big dance that includes all
018of Northern students uh in December our big event is gift drive and we pick a title one Elementary School in our area and we encourage the whole Northern Community to go out and buy gifts they get to pick a kid um from the elementary school and shop for them specifically then they bring the gifts in and as a northern Community we wrap the gifts and put them in boxes and then on a day in December we take it to the school and we get to spend the whole day with the kids um seeing them unwrap the gifts and play with the toys and just really feeling the impact this event has one of the smaller events that we kind of run around Theo school just to keep the students involved and just um yeah just
019keep them involved is our holiday event so for Valentine's Day what we will do is give each student a heart with a number on it and each heart has a match to it or a pair so this basically allows students during I mean passing time or lunch to try to find their match people will post on social media and it'll familiarize students with other people that they know or people that they don't know and um their reward for this basically if they find the pair they would go up to our leadership room and we have candy set out and they have to basically tell us their each other's names and a fun fact about each other so this just kind of gets students talking with each other meeting new people and we do something similar
020for the St Patrick's event um we'll hide Shamrocks underneath chairs and people will find them during their first hour and come up to the leadership room and get candy as a reward and during lunches we have a I think it's a token scavenger hunt where students will go around the school um try to find the tokens that we've hidden and I think this year we did a challenge where like at each token you have to take a photo one of them is like take a photo with your favorite snack or take a photo with a calculator so just fun stuff to get the students involved um something fun to do during the school day that we put on during the holidays our Mack car crash is definitely the most serious and impactful event at Northern
021um it takes place during usually during the month of May before prom and the sophomores in our class put it on so it's a complete surprise to the entire Junior and senior class and they pick actors from the Junior and senior classes to Stage a mock drunk driving accident and a teacher narrates what's happening to each of the students and we have law enforcement there and First Responders to kind of put on this super impactful event that will invoke emotions that kind of almost instill fear in the students to not drink and dry and we Advocate Advocate against drinking and driving through this event uh the impact of leadership is besides running all of these fun and inclusive events leadership has another important role in our school and Community as a class we try to
022emphasize the importance that no matter what everyone is included in all events and that we want everyone to be there and to be included the class accepts kids no matter whether they are an extrovert introvert can speak in front of a crowd or have stage fright we strive to build not only a team but a family within our school that allows students to help and make an impact in a place where they spend 7 hours a day school should not be something that is dreaded but instead a place where everyone wants to go with leadership our goal is to make school a place where going is fun and still educational thank you thank you we really appreciate you guys coming in on your last day of school Proclamation employee recognition week Dr Beria thank you
023madam president uh we had a reschedule of our May 2nd meeting and so employee recognition week was recognized by the district we just wanted to make sure the proclamation got on the official record and it reads whereas the week of May 6 through 10th 2024 has been designated wal Lake Schools employee recognition week to recognize the excellent contributions of all employees throughout the district and whereas the staff of Wall Lake Schools is an outstanding group of employees each and every one of them essential to maintaining the quality education we offer our students and whereas although the board of education has honored employees on an individual basis during the year the other devoted and dedicated staff members in the district have received little formal recognition for their able and distinguished service and whereas our par Educators
024Food Service workers secretaries Warehouse delivery persons transportation bus drivers mechan maintenance persons teachers supervisors and administrators are highly valued members of the Wald Lake Schools family now therefore be it resolved that we the members of The Wall Lake Schools Board of Education and the administration hereby Proclaim May 6 through 10th 20124 wal Lake Schools employee recognition week and thank and congratulate all our School District staff for their excellent contributions to the education of the students of the Wald Lake Consolidated School District now we're going to move into public commentary we have a few cards um and I'm going to say thank you for asking to speak to the board tonight this is your chance to address the board please note that this is a is a time for the board to listen to your statement
025questions or concern this is not a time for conversation um if followup is necessary a member of the superintendent staff or board member will get back with you you have three minutes for your comments please notice the time on the wall um when you get close to the end of your time Mr seagler can remind you to begin to wrap up your comments we ask that you keep your comments professional and refrain from any personal attacks thank you we're GNA start with Michael Smith I have a few notes Here uh good evening board members uh first I wanted to take this opportunity uh to thank you for interviewing me for the board board vacancy on Monday it was an honor and a privilege to be one of the finalist uh it truly felt like a
026homecoming of sorts coming coming back in here and uh being back in this building I do want to congratulate Mr lipid on his appointment uh I know that the district is better off having Ron as a member of the board and his with his experience and uh perspective and of course thank you to all the board members staff and administration for all your tireless hours of work as well of course I would be Miss if I didn't on this day of recognition that we're seeing uh if I didn't take a few moments to give a few thank yous and CR congratulations first I want to say thank you for your tenure here and congratulate Dr Beria um on your new Journey back in life at Warren schools so hopefully that's a good journey there second
027I want to say thank you to all the teachers and School staff across the district for all your dedication and selflessness and all that you do for the students day in day out we are uh almost to the Finish Line as we all see that and as a parent I truly appreciate all that you do for my children and all of the children in this District uh third I want to make a special shout out to Mr Abbott at uh CHS for his amazing sixth seventh and eighth graders uh their wonderful choir performance that I witnessed uh yesterday my daughter is part of that group and we saw some amazing talented singers uh that were there fourth I want to send my thoughts to the squires family at Dublin one of my elementary schools there
028uh thank you to the Dublin Girl Scout Troop 77578 for collecting donations and getw cards for student there uh Graham Squires I hope he has a speedy recover this summer and uh This truly shows how amazing the community is that we have there at Dublin uh finally I want to say good luck to the seniors graduating uh this year as a fellow graduate of the the system I know what uh you have a lot of things ahead of you so I want to say remember to follow your dreams you have the world ahead of you so take a moment to breathe reflect dream big and go be the change and make a world a better place uh you are the future and may your lives uh shine bright so congratulations thank you Hal [Applause] wolf
029good evening um my name is how wolf 32-year resident of Commerce Township uh I want to speak a little bit about the recent uh passage of the bond proposal and uh urge the board to not act like Sailors on Shor leave after nine months at Sea spend wisely and we'll keep track of all that uh secondly I want to talk a little bit about some other money uh it's pretty well known that uh Wild Lake schools are underfunded by about $44,000 per student I know there's all sorts of red tape and what edicts by the state that that causes that shortfall my question to everyone in this room not just the board but if we can't afford things and we're underfunded by that amount of money per student which comes out to a real tidy
030sum what have you done is in so far as to contact your state representative and Senator and and get on their case about it I can imagine I don't know the entire population of the of the W Lake School District but I would imagine imagine it's it's a few thousand people and if a few thousand people started contacting their representatives and senators and Lancing maybe nothing would get done maybe something would get done so I want everyone to think about that just a little bit before you know before we start crying about not having enough money when it's there it's ours we put it in there it's time to start demanding that we get it back and lastly I've had a private conversation with Dr Berna I'd like to thank him for his albeit short
031tenure here and his efforts that he's made toward getting things done around here in in that bit of time and if that if Warren's where you want to be good for you and good luck luck thank you Nancy van Leen good evening first of all congratulations Mr lipet I wanted to congratulate also Dr LW and his soon to be appointment and all those who are anticipating appointments to various positions around the district um there's been a lot going on in wal Lake in the last month or so I had a text message yesterday as a result of the most recent board um resignation and it said yikes can Wald Lake School District survive the turmoil and my short answer was yes we have hardworking people here we have caring people here if we offer some
032patience if we offer some understanding if we allow people to do their jobs if those people who are assigned the jobs will do it with Integrity with caring for the district yes we will survive this turmoil um it's it's a hard time there are rumors flying there are accusations flying there are questions what if what about maybe but we can sustain ourselves through all of that and and the bottom line that we've always had in Wald Lake is those students and we've had such wonderful examples of them standing before us tonight students winning art prizes students making presentations on their senior day um students going back to their elementary schools today to celebrate where it all began for them they're the bottom line we always have to remember them it's not about us individually it's
033about we collectively so I I hope that we will sustain this turmoil I know we will we will we can we need to we need to exercise patience and stop spreading all the rumors thank you an Hutchins hi good evening I'm here just to talk about some of the good things that are happening at Dublin Elementary I know that was mentioned earlier I'm a second grade teacher there um so in kindergarten they are finishing up the year with a camp themed day and a field trip to Kensington Farm um and they are just so geeked at how much progress these students have made in Reading at the beginning of the year they could barely say the alphabet and now they're reading full picture books um in first grade their students uh just finished up a
034unit on earning and spending they enjoyed learning about economic Concepts uh of wants and needs goods and services supply and demand trading and money the celebration of this unit involved students becoming entrepreneurs themselves and creating businesses that would appeal to other first graders um and it gave a big Market Day where they sold their items to each other uh in order to earn the money the first graders earned Dublin firsties uh in many various ways uh such as being respectful responsible resilient and safe in addition the first graders experien two new science units this year about patterns and cycles of Space Systems and plant and animal traits in order to help the uh them further understand their new science standards uh the first grade went to the Planetarium at Cranbrook and they went to Turtle
035Creek Farm in West Bloomfield having a foundational understanding of the Space Systems really helped out this year uh when we all experienced the solar eclipse together which was also an really cool thing with all of our glasses on out there um in second grade we're exploring um air and weather recently in our collaborative space called the ideation room uh we created Kites and we decorated them and then explored how uh wind works and this um new space at Dublin has allowed us to join across grade level uh for activities like Market day and uh various science experiments in third grade they're studying Michigan history and they took a field trip to the Henry Ford Museum and the Ford River Rouge uh and then in fourth grade they uh created their own book clubs the kids
036got to choose their own book clubs um with books of interest and uh they just discussed various uh story elements um and then in fifth grade they just got back a few weeks ago from camp for uh like three days and two nights and so um they enjoyed playing and learning in The Great Outdoors thank you Christine [Applause] Titus good evening I'm Christine Titus uh 32-year resident along with my husband of Commerce Township and a proud instructional specialist at Hickory Woods Elementary um I'd like to welcome our newest board member Mr lipet welcome to the board and say farewell to Dr brunia it seems like we just getting to know you and I wish we wish you well as you move on from wal Lake I titled my comment card reminiscing I'm reminded especially today
037of how close we are to the end of the school year State Testing is over thank goodness I ready wraps up tomorrow and today was clap out at Hickory Woods this one was especially poignant for me um because this was my first group of fifth grade students at this building I've taught other kiddos before this this group and since this group but this is the first time I've been an active participant in what's become a Wald Lake tradition across the whole District we welcomed approximately 50 graduates that was amazing to me who spanned all three high schools we had kids attended Hickory woods but went to Western went to Central went to Northern um and I'll admit that I was looking at Skyward last night to refresh my memory of their faces they were 10
038when we met and they're 18 17 and 18 now so there were some changes um there were hugs and questions of what's next for you and this is all evident of the relationship building we do as teachers and the bonds that tie us together I also watched this week as another former student who graduates next year um had the spotlight shown on him by local news as he tries to help and support his peers who are faced with the court system um I'm so proud of what he's accomplished and look forward to continuing to follow his Pursuits as as he moves on in his life these are all proud teacher moments when we witness Student Success and action this was a good week and today was especially good day in the life of this teacher
039thank you Gabby thiaga hello okay hello thank you for allowing me to speak my name is Gabby thiaga um gobby like Bobby thiaga like thiaga um I spoke at the last meeting on the topic of intuition and how important it is to us women and the first line in defense for our girls I had hop to receive a followup from some of you unfortunately I only received one I got a call from Nick Russo the head of HR he wanted to know what families I had been speaking to I could not tell him because I won't violate their trust when they can they will stand for themselves till then I will stand for them we had an interesting conversation about how fluent on Title 9 he was and I explained I was fully aware of
040the district's stance on Title 9 and how they handle reports in the news lately there have been many reports of boys taking the spots of girls in track and field competitions from middle school girls in West Virginia who forfeited their event and were later punished by their Board of Education to the Board of Education of the district to the islands of Hawaii Where The Boys had taken first and second place in girls events and most recently in the state of Oregon our district has no policy for bathrooms lockers or Sports our district is putting our girls in danger mentally physically and financially to believe this isn't happening in our schools is to believe a lie so once again I am here today to call upon this board to not be a district of schools but
041to be a school district that stands behind the safety and dignity of our girls thank you [Applause] Sarah [Applause] pigot hi good evening I don't have anything specifically prepared but um I was uh an integral part of the bond and I'm grateful that our community supported it I am just asking that we think very carefully and with patience but that we don't delay letting our families know what's happening there's going to be a lot of changes and the hold that everyone has to their elementaries to their middle schools things that are going to change are hard for our families they're sensitive they are fragile kids are fragile change is tough but we have the resources to make a lot of great changes so I'm just imploring on all of you as you start to make
042your decisions that you think very carefully and very cautiously but please do not wait do not wait and perseverate when families need to make big decisions about their children and about their scope and their sequence of where they're going to be going to school because it takes a little bit of time so let's do good work with the bond and let's make sure that our families feel that they have a really great path and a great transition into any changes that they may have and then my second point would be that although Bittersweet I am excited for Mr h to be moving up um we are losing him at wal Lake western my sophomore son there I had hoped would maybe finish his time with Mr hamka but um I don't think in my time
043working with him at the W Western PTSA level that you could find anyone that has more of a better radar on the type of people we need in this District the type of Staff we require the needs of our staff and how to retain them and how to make them want to come to work every day Human Resources such a huge part of why our students are successful I think you've found the right person and I'm very very excited so those are my comments this evening thank you so much everyone have a have a great night Susie Crafton happy birthday hi hi everyone I'm Susie Crafton I'm a resident in Novi I actually happen to be Sarah's neighbor um and I my comments are very similar to hers I'm here tonight to um Express Bittersweet
044feelings about losing Mr hka at Wald Lake western my oldest started uh at Western uh brand new to the community when Mr hamka started and the first time we entered into the Wald Lake Western Community was a um foot ball game at Wayne State and we didn't know where we were supposed to sit so we were sitting with the band parents and it actually was on the student side and Mr hco was on the other side he didn't know where to be sitting either I don't I don't think the kids started to get a little out of control and he walked slowly with confidence around the field and up the stands and he put himself in proximity of the students who weren't behaving like their parents would be proud of them and he just put
045his hand on the shoulder and said are you making the right choices right now the kid turned around and he stopped pulling a shenanigans Mr hampa is a genius he has made Wald Lake western a wonderful wonderful place and and we're really GNA miss him but I can't think of a single person who could lead HR at this moment when we need stability patience patience and strong leadership I have great great great hopes for Mr hamka and everyone else on the list to app point but I um I know him personally and I'm honored to to know him I'd also like to thank the board for your leadership um I'd love to congratulate Mr lipet on uh having a seat at the table today I'd also like to thank um Miss Ty and Mr Peterson
046for their service on the board and um I also appreciate the opportunity to um apply again and uh seek Board election or board appointment in the vacancy I encourage anyone else in the community that considers being on the board to throw your hat in the ring it's really not that scary to sit up there and have an interview um I mean it's not fun but it's worth a try and we would love to see more people being involved lastly I would like to thank the community for a resounding pass of the bond I knew our commity was a strong supporter of public education but it was great to see such a strong passage of the bond so thank you I'll Echo the comments to the board and administration that how you utilize those funds is
047going to be watched and we'd love to see transparency in your decisions but I'm real proud tonight to be a wlik western family have a good night Kathy cubic hello I'm not an elegant speaker but I'm going to speak and I want to say thank you to Mr Bernie for coming to Wall Lake I did have hope for you and I wish you the best with your family and Mr Li I hope you think of the students and taxpayers when you come on the board when you're now on the board here is my speech and I'm going to be different than everyone else I decided I had to come tonight since the school board meeting before the vote on the bond was conveniently cancelled or maybe just chaos happened I guess that I should congratulate
048the Wall Lake Education Association for getting the bond passed they spent a lot of money on signs and they pushed hard [Music] um by the by the district using the word decrease to represent the bond was pushing fake advertisement to the Limit if the bond had failed wal Lake school's taxes would have gone down from 4.13 to 2.5 Ms that's huge savings but people don't pay attention 5 years ago before May 7th 2019 Wald Lake owed $110 million in bonds now after five years passage of two bonds two huge bonds we pack taxpayers owe over a half a billion dollars actually it's closer to $600 million which will not be paid off until 2054 to all the people that mean every gra that means every graduating student will be paying for the bonds until they
049are 48 years old if they can afford to live in wal L schools how soon before the Wall Lake Schools will uh say they need more I mean within 5 years you ask for over a half a billion dollars these bonds have nothing to do with teachers salaries I just want everybody to know I have nothing against teachers great teachers deserve everything this bond election cost over $270,000 because they had to have this Bond before June because in June it would have paid off another Bond was going to be paid off and it would have brought it down to um 2.5 so they had to get in it cost us $27,000 just to have the bond when they had it taxpayer old and young please pay attention nor Novi Troy and Northville are one two
050and three in the school ratings Wald Lake is 57th our test scores and enrollment are down is the money going to change that a new school does not assure a good education it May the district Awards but good teachers and staff good curriculum and parents and administrations that support these items can certainly help these bonds have just put us in debt your taxes or rents will rise for 30 years will the academic performance our education system in our school in our country no longer teaches love of country patriotism why not try to teach how blessed we are to have the Constitution Bill of Rights Etc to live in a country where there is freedom of speech and we all have that I really don't know how to end tonight I have faith and pray that
051things get better but it is going to take people paying attention getting involved not sitting around saying someone else to will step up have courage term limits is another great idea for the school board I think 29 years 20 years I I've never spent my three minutes and every time I've talked I've never spent my three minutes so I'm taking back some of that and I want to thank every person that steps up you it's greatness to step up because you don't see me sitting on the border trying I want to thank you for that but why can't you think of the taxpayers once in a while thank you very much thank you I've tried goodbye thank you Heather Martinez good evening my name is Heather Martinez I am a proud wal Lake western graduate
052as well as a parent of students at Northern who are going to graduate my twins next week woohoo we made it um I'm also a proud voter who pays attention and votes intentionally for what I believe in for this District I am here tonight however because I'm disappointed my tenure here as a parent has not been without its s and we have had to reach out a few times to central office leadership at that time for both my children and other students in this District unfortunately Dr Lans was one of the people that I had to reach out to several times I think in those several times there was only once in which I received a response and that was weeks after the fact not being responsive to parents students staff and other admin which
053I have talked to several people um this is a huge red flag and continues to be exemplified to this school year even I have spoken multiple times with people about this including superintendent bernia which by the way thank you so much for your tenure tenure and Leadership and partnership in the community I appreciate you this in addition to the times when he censored our student voices including putting the district at risk of losing our AP classes is unacceptable I'm asking you now if he was not selected previously why is it that you feel he would be a strong candidate to lead this District now I want to quote a school board code uh I'm pulling it up for you Schoolboard uh policy 4001 administrative staff and organization the superintendent of schools the board will actively
054recruit the best available persons from internal and external sources when a vacancy arises in the superintendency you owe it to us as elected officials to do your due diligence for our children in this District if he doesn't do a good job people have said to me oh don't worry we can fire him we can take care of that down the road as a previous central office administrator in a district where we had to fire a superintendent I can tell you that's really ugly and messy and you don't want to be in that situation the candidacy and and people have said it takes too long it does not take too long it takes the right amount of time to find the right candidate if Dr Lon applies and goes through the process and he is selected
055as the best candidate then so be it but you as a board and elected official should be held responsible for holding up the board policy and unfortunately I'm disappointed in you thank you ala freed thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak today um it also my last day of high school and I would like to take a little bit of time to say thank you to all of my amazing teachers that I've had from elementary through high school um and to the board and to Dr bernia for all the support that he has given me um through my time um but today I also wanted to talk about a research project that I did as part of the AP Capstone program at Wake Central so I chose to research how children
056perceive relate with and respond to um a picture book in which a child doesn't follow the traditional gender Norms in this case the story simply followed a fictional kindergarten girl who chose to wear a tuxedo instead of a dress to her picture day so I chose this because of some recent controversy at um wcsd board meetings surrounding gender representation and picture books and with my research I hope to begin to clear up how such representation impacts children hopefully providing information that can help all of us regardless of personal opinions make decisions moving forward so um I would first like to mention that my initial plan was to meet with a group of kindergarten students with um informed consent of course from each of the students parent or a guardian and although my teacher principal and
057the kindergarten teachers approved this plan I was disappointed that the um the upper level did not approve this because of some potential controversy um but still I understand that there is a fear of Parental push back um and so I moved forward with a sample of 12 children ages 3 to 9 years old who also of course had informed consent from their parents um and I met met with this group and read a book called nollie tuxedo by Vicky Johnson and we had some play time that was also a part of the night so I just want to look at some of the highlights of the results of my study so overall there was a low um low connection that the children reported feeling between themselves and the main character Molly the connections they did
058make were between um humor in the in the book and with the character's physical appearance appearance sorry um and I want to highlight a couple specific comments that the children said one child um when asked about similarities and differences between herself and Molly said a similarity was um quote Molly is not embarrassed to wear what she wants but a difference was that and in quote I wouldn't want to wear a tuxedo so I think this quote is really important because it shows that children can connect to the to the value of having a character who is confident in their ability to um step outside of the Norms but that it 20 seconds thank you that it won't necessarily change um the children's actions um and then it follow follow up to this it's also important
059to note that the children's play Behavior the Conformity of their play Behavior did not significantly change before and after reading the book Molly's tuxedo which indicates that there wasn't a change in their perception of their own identity um after reading please yes thank [Applause] you administrative commentary Dr bernia uh we're going to start this way this evening and start with Mrs ommer nothing this evening thank you Dr ver Mr Russo thank you very much uh board as part of your consent agenda consent agenda tonight uh we have many recommendations for um for appointments and I'd like to talk about each of them at this time I'm pleased to recommend Mr Ali hamka to to the post of assistant superintendent for human resources weird appointing someone from my job uh Ali has been an educator for
06021 years and an administrator for the last 14 during his time in the classroom he taught economics and world religions at Stony Creek High School and Rochester Community Schools Mr hamka then became an assistant principal at Hart Middle School also in Rochester soon thereafter he became an assistant principal at seahome High School in the Birmingham School District most recently Ali has served the community of Wald Lake Western High School as principal as an administrator and parent his commitment to all students and their academic and social emotional success is of utmost importance Mr h is comp completing his doctorate degree in organizational and educational leadership at Oakland University he holds a central office administrative certificate from Oakland University a master's degree in educational leadership from Wayne State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in education
061from Wayne State University I am also pleased to recommend Mrs Abby kit for the role of executive manager of Human Resources Abby has been an educator for 23 years serving as an administrator for the past nine during her time as a classroom teacher in Clarenville schools and Leonia Public Schools she taught grades 2 through 7 she's also served as an elementary support teacher before stepping into assistant principal role at Riley Upper Elementary School in lonia in 2018 she became the principal of Lon Lake Elementary School here in Wald Lake creating a Collaborative Learning environment with students staff in the community while focusing on Student Success is the driving force behind the work that she has done as an administrator Mrs K holds an administrator certificate a master's degree in educational leadership from Walden University and
062a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Western Michigan University I am also honored to recommend Mr Chad scaling as Deputy superintendent Mr scaling has served as the executive manager for human resources for the past for the past year here in Wald Lake Mr scaling has served as assistant superintendent for human resources in Brighton Area Schools where he has led negotiations managed Foye request and was the title N9 coordinator Mr scaling has been a high school principal in both South Lion and an arbor he holds an educational specialist degree in educational leadership from Eastern Michigan University a master's degree in educational leadership from Eastern Michigan University and a Bachelor's of Arts from Anderson University in Indiana I'm also pleased to recommend Miss Kelly Smith to the position of Elementary principal at Oakley Park Elementary School Mrs
063Smith has served as an as an assistant principal at Sarah Banks middle school for the past two years and was previously a head teacher at Keith Elementary and a teacher at Oakley Park Elementary Kelly holds a master's degree and a K12 administrative certificate for Michigan State University and a bachelor Bachelor of Arts in elementary education from Arizona State University this appointment comes after a rigorous round of interviews where we had several applicants we are pleased to welcome Katie Hagman as supervisor of special services Katie has been an interim supervisor of special services for the past year Katie has previously served as Behavior specialist and teacher consultant in wle Consolidated School District and was a teacher consultant in wot wot Public Schools prior during her teaching tenure Katie was a special education and general education teacher
064in Wayne County Katie is currently competing competing her completing her administrative certificate and special education director approval and holds a master's degree in inclusion from the University of Michigan Dearborn and a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary elementary education from Wayne State University I'm honored to recommend Miss Carri oconnell pending Bo approval to the position of principal at Glen Gary Elementary School Carrie is currently serving as interim principal at Glen gar for the 23 24 school year and has the overwhelming support of community and staff Carrie has spent the majority of career in W Consolidated Schools as literacy coach multi-tiered systems of support coach that's mtss and a classroom teacher car has successfully participated in Galileo leadership training L literacy Essentials Oakland also known as Leo and the Wald Lake aspiring administrators Academy Mrs oconnell
065holds an administrative certificate from Eastern Michigan University as well as a master's degree in curriculum and teaching and Bachelor of Science degree in child development from both both from Michigan State University this official the official post will begin July 1st 2024 and lastly Miss I am proud to recommend Miss Michelle kelh horn will serve excuse me as the assistant principal at wal Lake Northern High School beginning July 4th 2024 Michelle has been a principal at Sarah Banks middle school for the past six School six school years previously Michelle served as assistant principal at Wald Lake Central High School before before coming to Wald Lake Schools Miss calor served as the assistant principal and teacher in hon Valley Schools Miss calh Horn holds a master's degree in K12 Administration from Michigan State University and a Bachelor
066of Science from Madonna University thank you Mr shaffield thank you Dr bernia just a quick update the construction of the athletic team buildings at all three high schools is taking shape very nicely the uh the facilities at Northern and Central are nearly complete the uh facility at Western that got a little bit of a later start is uh is coming together uh very well we expect final inspections in the next two weeks and uh these facilities will be ready well certainly for the fall and even we anticipate some summer activity taking place in them so uh we look forward to sharing those with the community very soon the work uh at the Wald Lake western uh um academic Wing Edition is really taking shape that is going to be a phenomenal facility uh when we
067open it up here in just a couple of months a lot of pieces still have to come together and uh they are starting to essentially on June the 8th um we're going to be uh putting the finishing touches on that and then beginning the next phase which is the renovation of part of the uh the existing building and then the demolition of the ab andc wi so it's going to be another uh extremely busy uh construction season at Western for uh the next um about 16 months nonstop because the renovation work we're going to do in the D and G wings uh will occur throughout the course of the school year and we will be separating that portion of the construction zone from uh the rest of the building and of course we are preparing
068for our standard uh Bond work nothing standed about spending $30 million in bond work but uh at Central and the outdoor education center uh that are going to be starting uh as soon as school gets out and just so everybody's aware the work at The Outdoor Center is uh scheduled to start in mid August and be completed by about mid October we're uh due to some um activities that were previously scheduled we're going to adjust that construction schedule for the Outdoor Center so uh lots of big things to come and we're looking forward to uh Pro providing information about what we anticipate will be the schedule of the uh the next um leg of bond work from the uh um the uh Bond initiative that was just approved a few weeks ago and we're very
069grateful for that thank you m mayor nothing this evening Dr ber Mrs gansky well I didn't have anything for tonight until the students at w lank Northern did their presentation so I just want to take a quick moment to do a quick follow-up story on their holiday gift giving project that they do each year so uh last week two members of my curriculum team visited uh an elementary school um going there to look at their Elementary stem activities and some of the projects that they were doing there and so they walked into the front office and the secretary very nicely greeted them and said can I help you and they said yes we're from Wald Lake Schools we're here to visit and the secretary says Wald Lake oh my gosh they're from Wald Lake and
070so she started to tell everyone in the office and so the two folks on the curriculum team are thinking why are we this popular so they go down to visit the the um students in the classroom and the teachers says you know these these visitors are from Wald Lake and the kids are like Wald Lake oh my gosh and they felt like celebrities well it turns out it was the elementary school that Northern adapted this year for their giftgiving project and it just goes to show that those moments last longer than just the moment when when you're there and so I just wanted to give a shout out to the student leadership group at Northern I know they had to leave but um I will follow up with them and share that quick story it
071was a it was really memorable and for my team to be able to bring that story back that was that was a really nice highlight Mr jkin nothing this evening Dr Bernie thank you very much uh for me I I want to thank the community uh for your support on the successful Bond initiative obviously uh we we saw tremendous tremendous support and I'm grateful for that U particularly grateful also to the members of my team for about a six week stretch we were out almost every night at PTSA meetings or staff meetings or Community forums or local government meetings Etc and so I I really do appreciate their hard work particularly uh Mr Dan Durkin who's reintroducing himself to his family as we speak uh because he's been he's been gone a lot and I
072appreciate him going the extra mile for us and and for the community uh we are coming to the end of the year so graduation season is upon us and and so I'm so excited to be at Eastern and to celebrate with all of you I want to welcome Mr lipet to the table and in addition to welcoming him to the table I I want to compliment our board I I I want the community to know that last night between between 5:00 p.m. and am I spoke with every single board member um about some issues and then this morning between 10 after 7 and noon I spoke with almost all of them again and and that's been and that's been a pattern for the past few weeks uh since the news of of my departure and
073since the news of our board vacancies and so I want to compliment all of you the questions that you're asking the homework that you're doing and the due diligence the extra meetings that you're taking on uh and the things that you're doing that people don't see but has been really tremendous and so as much as I am your employee I want to use this forum to say that I'm proud of you uh proud of the work that you're doing and then I want to welcome our new administrators uh it's it's a pretty neat moment to to be here and see um some folks reach their goal and and be ready to chase that next goal for themselves uh and then obviously it has gotten to just be beautiful outside it's that time of year uh
074and so uh in honor of my favorite superintendent of all time who's retiring I want to remind the community that kids are out on their bicycles so watch for him and uh that's the extent of my comments for this evening thank you madam president thank you Dr Beria board commentary we're going to start with Mrs Levan thank you Miss president um there's a lot going on um I have been everywhere um except home uh in the last few weeks um every event that I've attended here in the district has been more heartwarming warming than the last um it's really amazing to just see and and be present for all of the different celebrations that happen this time of year um it's uh it's really just amazing everything that we have going on around the district
075and I'm I'm honored to be a part of it um I want to say welcome to Mr lipet thank you for uh for everything you're about to do um last year uh when it was budget time there was some controversy and I was the the bad guy but just want everybody to know I'm not going to be here for the next budget meeting it's not a controversy my kids have an awards night and that's where I need to be so before that turns into a thing it's not a thing um congratulations to the seniors you made it congratulations to the parents you made it um it this is is the beginning of the next chapter I'm looking forward to graduation with the board that's really an awesome day the board starts the day at 8:30
076in the morning with breakfast and we don't leave um Eastern until 8:30 at night um but it's really a great day to be together and while you guys are all celebrating in the stands we are right there cheering you on behind the scenes so um I'm looking forward to that um I think that we are on the precipice I think that's the right word of of a lot of exciting things happening here in the district and although there is a lot changing I think that that is the step that happens before big things happen nothing big happens without a lot of change right a mountain doesn't get made without an earthquake first so I really believe that we are working on big things big things are happening all of the shifts and changes here at
077the every level of the district it's all good and I think that um you know as as miss van Leen stated patience and and and and understanding I think will be very important as we move forward I I I can't speak for everybody but I can say that I do understand the responsibility that we have as board members to to all of you for everything that we do and I I really believe that this board team um is is starting to gel and we're working well together and and I hope that the community will will start to see that in the coming months so thank you Mr Zigler thank you uh you know Mr Wolf struck a nerve when he started talking about school funding and for all of you who have never had the
078opportunity please look at the school Finance research collaborative uh version one and version two if you want to talk about how we as districts and how we as uh communities within the state are underfunded and what the recommendations are it is great reading and it will really open up your eyes to a lot of things that uh people assume we are being funded for that we are not uh also from Lancing uh we you know we've heard a lot of talk this year about the FAFSA Bill uh being mandatory for graduation they're already having waiver process issues uh and I think they're going to probably bury that for at least another year and probably bring that back for the 25 26 school year uh as Fate has it there are no committee meetings uh for
079June and we probably want to see any major committee meetings in Lancing for anything until the fall uh probably August or September at the earliest we're also still waiting for budgets and budget approval uh you know if you are writing to any of your representatives uh I truly believe that the house budget recommendation is best for all of our all of our districts it will give us more funding per pupil and it will also take care of part of the deficit for mypers uh it's not an ideal situation but out of out of everything that is there I think honestly that's the way to go saying that the O the open issue that we don't know about is how the school aid fund decrease will come out in the revenue estimate this is going to
080be a little bit scary for all of us we could be looking for up up to a $200 million decrease for the state in the school aid fund uh depend on depending on what the revenue estimate gives us so when all this starts to come to pass and you hear a lot of talk and you hear us uh reaching out to the ptas ptsas parent groups with and uh senior groups within the community that's why this this not only affects Wald Lake this affects every District within the State uh and we you know we have to we have to watch out what's what is going to happen and we have to be on point when we do start sending our replies uh you know sitting here tonight listening to the seniors from northern I got
081the warm fuzzies I mean this is our this is our and I've said it listening to our other senior groups because this is our future this is what we need within our community within our country uh to move forward to find how to work as a community and Community groups and I think their impact statement that was up there really says a lot about the kind of children we are raising within this community uh lastly I'd like to thank Mr Peterson and Miss Ty for their terms on the board uh they offered great insight and value we didn't have to agree we could disagree but we did it in a friendly and social manner I would like to welcome Mr lipet with an ie to the table and I would also like to thank everybody
082that did put in an application uh that also says a lot about our community and the amount of parents and people that want to be involved so thank you Mr lipet thank you madam president thank you for everybody in the community and those folks on the board who supported my uh efforts towards uh interviewing and and getting the appointment and having the honor of of sitting at this table at this table um I uh I will disagree with uh Miss Crafton just for a moment about it's not easy getting up there I don't know how she thought that it was so simple and uh just I think she used the word fun is that what she said uh you know one of my takeaways first off just on top of just the of being part
083of the process we have such big things to talk about and big things to accomplish uh for the remainder of of this term uh I came away pretty excited about the caliber of folks who actually interviewed with me and the folks who showed uh interest in being part of the leadership of this community and perhaps sitting on this board or in other leadership positions and I I think that's one of the takeaways as a community we all should see there are some incredibly talented passionate people who want to be part of this process so uh so kudos to those folks and I will Echo again this Crafton by saying uh if you do have interest if you have that passion I I would encourage you to to uh be part of the push yourself up
084for application to the interview process or for some other uh leadership position uh with the with the community uh secondly I'll just say this I I had the honor of attending uh the uh Northern orchestra concert this P this week on Tuesday I believe it was uh my young daughter is sitting here who's a violin player um for those of you who have never been to uh the Arts and and music at our high schools it is an incredible thing you would be shocked to see the talent uh that is in our communities these uh these young people are incredible uh I think our teachers the folks that are uh involved and take uh such time uh to work with them either during or after uh ours is is immense and you can see it
085in the the way these kids behave and the way these kids perform uh on such events like we saw on Tuesday so I just want to say I am a big fan of the Arts and Music and um I hope to see more of that at the other schools and uh I'm looking forward to that very much so thank you Mrs CA Grande welcome Mr libet it's honor to be sitting next to you today Mrs uh Kaplan thank you for stepping up thank you for your leadership especially the last month um even longer than that but really the last month it's it it's been a pleasure um taking those phone calls having those conversations with you and I know it's not easy to sit in that seat so thank you we appreciate you doing that
086um Mrs Lin talked about a lot of the different things that we were at one of the things we were at with a couple of other folks was the PTSA installation and awards and that is um one of my favorite things to go to I had not been able to go on and off for a couple of years and when you sit back there it it makes me think about the roots and the the community and how so many of us um got involved because of the advocacy for our kids so that was a wonderful celebration um I wanted to clarify just something in case there was a question I really appreciate the legislative update When U Mr seagler talked about mypers uh just for those of you who don't know that um is in
087relation to retirement and pension funding and it's one of those items that I can't it would take me forever to talk about and I wouldn't know all the details that like one of our business finance people would but ultimately it's another one of those items that came from the state went to the local level and was not funded fully and it has hit our our general fund so what we're hoping to see is some relief I don't think we can ever be made whole um but that is a that is what we were talking about is we are now required to um take care of that um payment at the at the local level and it's it's again it's not fully funded and I do have a question for Mr Chatfield um and it just
088and if you don't have the answer now that's fine it just came to me when you were talking about the outdoor education uh piece um being pushed back as far as the construction will that impact fifth grade camp we had somebody talking about fifth grade Camp will that impact our schedules or will that be like in a different area yeah it it simply means that uh Mrs Martin will have to schedule the fifth grade camps uh she's going to have to adjust that by about four four to six weeks so they normally start their fifth grade camps sometime in late September early October that will get pushed back and some of her other programs that maybe were normally would be scheduled for the spring uh might have to get pushed back as well or bumped
089possibly okay but our camp is still still there still going to have fifth grade Camp all right that's all I wanted to know thank you Mrs Fernandez I didn't know if I was going to go first and get to say all of the thank yous and appre iations and congratulations or if I was going to go last and and recognize that most everything has been said um uh so I Echo all of the words of welcome the thanks and appreciations that um my board fellow board members have spoken um if you weren't here in time to watch our prior our meeting just before now it was the it was the very first time um that the six of us have been together to make a decision and um our our task at hand was to
090reelect the board um uh um officers and literally that happened and there was um agreement across Us in probably less time than it's taken me to tell you that so you know when when Mrs hen says that we're coming together and things are jelling and um and you see some excitement Among Us you know it's it's no lie I'm sure we will have longer meetings than 30 seconds um in our future but um but we're working together on your behalf and um thank you everyone who's already been acknowledged seniors we'll see you on the weekend first I want to say thank you to Mr Peterson and Miss Ty for their service and we appreciate all the time that you've put in and I wish you well in your following and coming up Journeys welcome and
091congratulations to Mr libbit um we appreciate you being here crap in we're going to have fun um I do want to thank the entire board I know we've talked about this you know Mrs 11 brought it up this board and yes as you all know we've been going through some stuff the past couple months with trying to work on the bond and Dr Beria and the absent you know um board members we have jelled we have worked exceptionally hard and Dr Beria was not joking when he said day and night I mean we're having phone calls and talks and decisions and trying to you know talk with everybody about what we need to be doing and how we need to focus and everyone has come together and I am so appreciative of that fact and
092so impressed with everybody on the board at the moment on how we're working well together and that is very much appreciated from the bottom of my heart um with all the thank yous I agree with everybody at the table there's way too many thank yous that are happening right this second and truly thank everybody and looking forward to graduation it's so much fun congratulations to all the awarded recipients tonight congratulations to the appointees that were discussed this evening um congratulations to the graduating seniors there's you know all the award winners just too much in the district um I do want to bring up that we do have a new therapy dog his name is Wix he will be pardon me he is in training yes he is not here um he's an addition to another
093school owned therapy dog to our pal program it's from Wixom Elementary has completed the process of selecting a Handler allergies and fears have already been screened funds have been raised and a purebred four-month old yellow Lab has been purchased and has begun its training his name is Wix also donors have secured for food grooming and vet care Wix will be the ninth certif C ified therapy dog in our district so I want to say a big welcome to Wix and congratulations to Wix from [Applause] elementary okay we're going to move on to the consent agenda and the consent agenda we have the approval um of the proposed April 4th regular meeting minutes the April 18th special meeting minutes our Personnel recommendations of our administrative appointments our retire IR ments our resignations our leave of absences
094and our non-renewal contracts we also have dispersements in the amount of 20, 386,000 we have Trend Vision one attack surface risk management three-year license inac comp tsg R MC save bid for m3226 from the general fund we have the Head Start director's report we have the May 2nd 2024 board meeting cancellation and rescheduled to the May 23rd meeting 43 4 oh 4 4 oh excuse me I'm sorry I'm sorry it's 42,000 excuse me I misspoke yeah yeah the first night give me patience Mrs Mr seagler I of the Board of Education approve the consent of Daniel as adjusted and presented support any discussion no discussion on no discussion I'm sorry again first night Jitters here all those in favor I opposed motion carries 60 moving on to our next which is the SE selection of
095superintendent Mr seagler I moved that the Board of Education enter into contract negotiations with Dr Michael L for the position of superintendent of schools of the wway Consolidated School District support discussion Miss Lin so over the past um week two I don't know few weeks um the board has received communication from people with opinions about um you know this this item here on the agenda I want people to know that we've seen them we've heard them I understand concerns about anybody right not everybody always gets along with everybody and I also understand that um Dr LW has been around this district for a long time he understands just about everything that happens I also understand the landscape of where this entire state is when it comes to school superintendent candidates the pool is very shallow
096it might just be a puddle um if you've paid attention at all to other districts around Oakland County um it's a very very small pool the same candidates are going from District to District to district and sure we could absolutely um you know look nationally we could engage in a bigger search but that would leave us without uh superintendent or perhaps with an interim and with all of the shuffling happening at the upper Administration levels there simply isn't a better plan for where we are right now and what we are doing right now the board is engaged in strategic planning we just passed this $250 million Bond there are changes like I said at every single level what we need is stability and in the employee employer relationship that the board has with the superintendent
097I am going to make the choice to support Dr Lance as the employer that we will be of him and provide him with the tools that he needs to be successful and I fully expect that he is more than capable to rise to that occasion and if he's not then we will have future discussions we will figure it out but I am making the choice to support him for the betterment of our district which is what we as board members are are asked to do one of the questions that's asked during the board appointment interview process is what do you do when there's no right answer sometimes you have to make the hard decision and so I am in support of appointing Dr Lions to this position giving him the Reigns and letting him show
098us what he's capable of and like many teachers like to say um you know assume positive intent remember that the name at the top of the letterhead matters so much less than the teachers in the classrooms and the parents at home the superintendent should not have such a huge impact on on on the the day to day and I I understand there's people that have been personally impacted by decisions that that have been made at the deputy superintendent level I get it but when we have to make decisions as a whole I do believe that this is the right decision and I will be supp suppor in Dr L for this position Mrs C Mr zler give a little history for everybody here uh six years ago I did a presentation to the superintendent Association
099at Oakland schools and I had done what I thought was pretty good research at the time and I walked in and I said you have to understand something the you know your turning your turnover of superintendence is faster almost almost 3 to one than the average School Board member and I looked at uh the head of the superintendent Association and he I said your tenure right now is 4.3 years or less Dr Cook Robinson who's the superintendent of Ulan schools looked at me after several superintendent said no that can't be right and she said Mark you know I hate to tell you you're wrong it's 3.9 months and the average Schoolboard member is approximately 11 years fast forward now over the last three years over the last three years uh three years ago we had
100approximately six superintendent turnovers within Oakland County last year we had another six superintendent turn over in Oakland County when I started this year and I was sitting at a meeting I said well I'm anticipating six to eight superintendents will turn over before before next fall right now we are in a position of 10 to possibly having 12 by next fall so that means 24 superintendents in Oakland County have less than 3 years or in actuality have less than 11 months if you pull them all together we have issues with superintendents within the state of Michigan we have issues with finding and sourcing teachers within the state of Michigan we have a gentleman here who has knowledge of the district he has led us during an interim position in the past and I think he has
101grown under the leadership of Dr Beria over the last few years he is willing to ask questions he has a board that I think will do everything within its power to help to make him successful as well as the community and the district as we know it so I will also be supporting Dr Bernie or Dr Lon rather thank you if we support him does he go ahead Mrs Fernandez thank you I just wanted to also say that the decision to appoint and not to run a search was not a no-brainer decision it was something that was deliberately add addressed and and conversations were had um folks might not be aware but we've been following individually and to some extent collectively as well very closely you know what's happening in nearby districts and in many
102cases some of our own near and dear cabinet folks are you know participating in Opportunities um you know in districts that are not unlike ours and so you know the churn is real and it is there and um we did uh recent in our last superintendent search we did cast The Net broader than locally as well so you know don't think that maybe um even before my time I wasn't a part of that other than as a community member but you know looking nationally is not something that has been overlooked either by um this board and this decision and so you know I you will hear me also vote in favor of this appointment um but uh you know that is not without some guard rails and some some um some cautions and some things
103that we have all been discussing and certainly uh hearing loud and clear um you know things that are that are resonating through the community so I want to take a little different TCT I want to talk about why um Dr Lance has the skills to do the job and I think he had the skills to do the job we just had a little bit better candidate with Dr ber last time I agree with with what's been said I took notes I don't usually write what I'm going to say but I didn't want to forget it because I thought these were all really important I want us to remember that Dr L came to our district when we had some issues in HR we needed somebody really strong and so he came and what is one
104of the things we keep talking about up here is Staffing why wouldn't you want to put somebody who is a really strong Staffing person up at the head of your District he trained and coached and mentored Mr Nick Russo here who who is now going on to be a superintendent Dr Lance also moved from HR to the deputy role when Dr Delgado left Deputy is a tough position it's kind of like assistant principal they get to do all the really hard stuff so does the deputy he's been part of our negotiating team that's huge um people come to us and say how do you um have the relationship you have with your teachers how do you negotiate and get contracts um settled part of that is because Dr Lance doeses such good work in that
105area Dr L also understands that tough decisions aren't personal um he's professional our number one critical issue again as I mentioned is Staffing Public public education as has a deficit there's not enough resources we've talked about that we have to have somebody who can develop train and coach and we have seen that in in Dr L I also want to talk about the school boards do have the option to hire within or to search externally we um have done that in the past um it hasn't it's been a while but Dr Hamilton was here and he was an assistant I don't know if we had a deputy at the time I think he was a an assistant superintendent and he was hired from within that's the last one we did but we have done that
106um and we have successfully done that and I keep thinking about the fact that if you were in your personal situation and you didn't own your company but you you weren't the CEO and maybe you had aspirations for leadership and if your company just like this entity of the school board in the school district never hired from within would you stay um I I think there's something to be said for bringing up our folks you know within the uh Administration and giving them opportunities we have a lot of people who got some opportunities that we approved on the cons consent agenda today and now we're looking to give Dr Lance that opportunity as as he has worked again very hard um to get where he is today um and Dr L bottom line for me
107the why I'm also supporting him is that he cares about public education he cares about W Lake and I think it's a very good decision for us at this time to to bring the him to The District in that position Madam president yep uh I also will be supporting Dr Lance in this effort and it's I I think the board members have done an excellent job of casting a wide umbrella for the rationale behind that I would like to Echo Miss Levens uh comments regarding we have the advantage of stability through Dr Lon and I think we have a cohesive board and the opportunity at this moment to create new beginnings through this superintendent in a way that I don't know that it would be as possible at least as quickly it through a a
108wider external search I wholly agree with what Mrs Kasa Grande said a moment ago about uh yes we have the ability to go outside but we don't need to when we have the ability to seek inside and be able to promote from within and have have access to Talent like this right away to to perform and have stability uh these are all reasons why I I am in favor of Dr L for this position and I will be supporting it thank you um I'm just G to make a few short comments because everyone has said what I was going to say about Dr Lon um I again Echo this board has worked very diligently considering all the options that were presented all of the candidates in the candidate pool is exceptionally low and we know
109that we have a very qualified individual right here in Wald Lake that knows our district that can handle our district and we have complete confidence that he is going to be able to fulfill and do the job that we're asking him to do so there's no reason for us to have not looked inside for Dr Lon we do understand that not everyone in the community supports the decision not everyone in the community supports Dr Lans that's okay it's a learning and it's a Growing Experience it's for us to work with Dr lons and for you as community members to also work with Dr Lans to form him into the best superintendent that he can be so with that being said I also support Dr Lans so now we're going to take a vote okay all
110those in favor we already had the [Laughter] motion although those in favor of supporting the um going entering into contract negotiations with Dr Mike Lans please all those opposed the motion carries 60 thank you now we're moving into Bond resolution 2024 school buildings and site bonds I'm going to turn it over to Mrs rmer again expressing appreciation to the community for passing the bonds as though this is a typically a routine business it doesn't feel like that when you're talking about the size of issue however as part of that process it's required that the board pass a board a bond resolution authorizing the School District administration to proceed with the issuance of the first series of the $250 million of bonds approved by the voters on May 7th as planned the amount of the first
111series of the bonds to be issued with an is an amount not to exceed 50, 20,000 the resolution sets forth the terms of the bonds and authorizes all of the actions required by law to issue the bonds the resolution delegates to the superintendent or the assistant superintendent of Business Services the authority to negotiate and accept an offer to purchase the bonds from the underwriter the president and secretary are authorized to sign the bonds and the superintendent and super the superintendent and superintendent of business services are authorized to sign all of the other closing documents it is anticipated that the closing of the bonds will occur occur in June of 2024 which is very much upon us we do have our team of Underwriters and our financial manager in place to process this whole transaction Mrs
112Kaplan Mrs C Grande I move at the Board of Education approve the adoption of the bond resolution for the 2024 School building and site bonds as presented discussion okay all those in favor I I oppose motion carries 60 all right we're about to enter the Mrs gansky show so let's begin with middle school math curriculum for sixth grade Mrs gansky yes thank you Dr bernia so first on the list of purchases over 50,000 we have the middle school math curriculum sixth grade teacher guides and professional development with online support Anderson G at all CPM inspiring connections CPM educational program uh date 2024 the amount is $3,642 coming from the general fund Mrs Fernandez I move that the Board of Education approve the purchase of middle school math curriculum sixth grade teacher guides professional development and
113online support Anders G at L CPM inspiring connections CPM educational program 2024 453649 from the general fund support discussion I'm going to say this just one time so I don't have to repeat it three times I did have the opportunity to review all of the curriculum um especially this math one um having just recently gone through sixth grade math myself myself um I I felt like I related a lot to the the lessons that were taught and I thought they were presented in a in a great way and um I had no issues with any of the the curriculums that I reviewed but I just wanted the community to know that I did take the time to review everything and um I am better at sixth grade math now than I was in sixth grade
114but um pretty soon I think that that will change I think I passed thank you any other discussion okay all those in favor I opposed motion carries 60 all right thank you next on the uh item list we have high school economics teacher guides professional development and online support van fwen Philip J econ alive the power to choose teachers curriculum institute or TCI from 2020 for the amount of $5 57,4 out of the general fund Mrs Len I move that the Board of Education approve the purchase of high school economics teacher guides professional development and online support van fos van fosen Philip J econ alive the power to choose teachers curriculum institute TCI 2020 for $ 57,4 from the general fund for discussion okay all those in favor I I opposed motion carries 60 all
115right next on the list uh last in the curriculum purchases are high school Civics teacher guides professional development and online support heart Diane at all government alive power politics and you teachers curriculum institute or TCI from 20120 on the amount of $ 57,4 from the general fund Mrs Levan we should make I move that the Board of Education approve the purchase of High School Civics teacher guides professional development and online support heart Diane at all government alive power politics and you teachers curriculum institute TCI 2020 for $ 57,4 from the general fund support discussion okay all those in favor I opposed motion carries 60 thank you before I move on to the next item I do just want to thank members of my curriculum team as well as members of of teachers who served on
116Committees of uh curriculum review this year in selecting and using a pretty rigorous set of criteria to select new textbooks as you know new books and resources carry us pretty far into the future and so thank you for your approval of those and thank you to the teams for serving on their on their review committees next on the list uh we have Trend Micro X detection and response licenses and Internet Security a three-year subscription with inac comp tsg remsey save bid for the amount of $16,669.24 Madam president Mr lipet uh forgive me for being the new guy uh is this the same vendor that we had uh it's a new subscription but this is the same vendor we had prior yes correct thank you Mr lipet and uh is this is is this bid is
117this accomplishing anything new um that that's a contrast from what it did before yes thank you so um for for your um newness to the board I'll just reiterate that um I did uh work closely with our it Department over the last several years and during 2020 when we did have our cyber security ransomware attack one of the things that we noted was that our Network needed a greater um protection so what we're looking at right now with the microx detection and response licenses this is a renewal of something that we've previously had uh and that just protects our Network what we approved under under the consent agenda was an addon that we wanted to add on um it creates an added lay for Our IT department to track down any potential threats really efficiently
118typically when a threat comes across uh Our IT department gets notified through our Trend uh software but um in the past they've had to do quite a bit of digging to find out the the where the how the who uh and the piece of um software that we approved under the consent agenda actually makes that job a little more efficient for them so they can track down the threat more quickly more efficiently and kind of get to the root of the problem and close that off rather quickly so that it doesn't negatively affect the network so it's uh reassuring thank you for that Miss Levan so I admit when I saw these things come across um the proposed agenda at first I was like wow that's a lot of money but as uh Mrs kohy
119just brought up the ransomware attack kind of makes that really put into perspective because we'll pay just about anything to make sure that doesn't happen and then I look at $1.2 million or $1.3 million for laptops and then I think about every single one of us has one of these sitting right here and although it's not a laptop most of us can't exist without it our students can't exist into the future without a laptop and so when we look at the volume of the work that that we do with technology and how important it is and and the trust of course that we place in Kelly and her team um I think that um you know that kind of came back down to earth for me and so uh again I won't repeat this comment
120for each of these votes but that's when I said okay this is okay if I if I could just one more comment Mrs Lovin You you reminded me about the ransomware attack also following that in working at the time with Mrs Les and our insurance carrier our insurance carrier does require us to have a specific level of threat uh protection and so Trend Micro um does provide that level of of um uh protection that the insurance requires us to carry so any further discussion all those in favor opposed motion carries 60 all right back to me um the next item on our purchases is is as Mrs Loven uh previewed the lease for, 1450 HP ProBook laptops and software through inacom REMC save bid uh in the amount of $ 26,988 75 per month over
121the course of a 48 Monon or 4E lease for a total amount of 1.2 m995 let me try that again 1,295 268 from the general fund Mrs Fernandez I move that the Board of Education approve the lease for 1,450 HP prob book laptops and software in a comp RMC save bid for $26,988 75 per month for 48 months for total of 1,295 268 from the general fund discussion okay all those in favor I opposed motion carries 6 Zer thank you next on the uh agenda list the lease for server and storage replacement HP Financial inac comp REMC save bid $2,611 per per month for the next 60 months for a grant total of $723,000 and2 cents from the general fund Miss L nobody wants to read these I move that the Board of Education approved
122the lease for server and storage replacement HP Financial inac comp REMC save bid $1,612 per month for 60 months for $723,000 or $23,660 from the general fund support discussion and that's why we don't want to read them I said I only graduated sixth grade all those in favor I opposed motion carries 60 all right moving on down the list next we have Microsoft 365 A3 faculty one-year subscription inac comp tsg REMC save bid in the amount of $4,750 70 from the general fund Mr seagler I move the Board of Education approved the purchase of Microsoft 365 A3 faculty oneyear subscription Inon csgc saved it for $4,750 from the general fund discussion hey all those in favor I opposed motion carries 60 now we're on to bids over 50,000 thank you madam president uh we're going
123to give Mrs kensky a break and swing it over to Mr Chatfield thank you Dr Beria this recommendation is for moving services at Central High School and the outdoor education center in preparation of the summer Bond work at those facilities the award includes all packing supplies and moving of boxes materials and furniture out of the classrooms at the beginning of Summer uh so we can get into those spaces and do work and then moving that those materials back into the classroom before school starts and this project will be funded with 2019 bond funds Madam president it's it's it's hazing is what it is uh I move that the Board of Education prove the bit award 2019 Bond projects bid package 7 moving Central High School and Outdoor Ed Center for 8,735 from the 2019 bond
124fund discussion no okay all those in favor I opposed okay motion carries 60 board policy administrative regulations update Dr Beria thank you madam president uh the item before you tonight is an administrative regulation update so it does not require a board vote so no one has to read a motion this time uh this is the standard update to our student athletic handbook as a matter of course we go through and update our student athletic code of conduct we have update our student code of conduct on a regular basis uh this is that update and it is in alignment with current law uh and is being provided for your awareness this evening thank you thank you Oakland school's Board of educational election Oakland school board members are elected by an electoral body composed of one person
125designed by the board of each constituent School District the revised school code prescribes that each constituent School District board must designate a represented to this electoral electoral Body by adopting a resolution Madam president Dr Veria so this is an item that the board discussed on Monday night uh at that time the board affirmed Med that Mr seagler would be the representative Mrs Levan would be the alternate uh the board was also in alignment around voting for Carol finlin from West Bloomfield and then there was some discussion back and forth about a couple of candidates so at that time we paused the discussion so board members could go back and study up not as if you haven't had enough to do lately um and so that the the purpose of this would just be to figure
126out who that second candidate is and then you can take the motion and vote and we can submit the stokland schools thank you any discussion um I was in favor and still am in favor of um Dr simino Scott being our uh second representative uh that we would vote for uh in addition to Carol finklestein I understand that all might not agree we don't all have to agree this doesn't have to be a unanimous vote um but that is still where I stand thank you Mrs Fernandez I still share that same opinion and also understand we will vote and figure out who that second person is but I support Mr Scott as well thank you I support uh Mark hats and Carol finklestein Mr zet I am also in support of uh Mrs nicklin and
127Mr Catz uh I know we we as a board can agree to to disagree on this and I appreciate the discussion that we've had uh you know there's very there's a great deal of value and experience uh in some people's eyes and knowledge and and also contacts and representation and I feel both of these candidates have a wealth of knowledge about Oakland County of the state and uh have the ability to communicate with our Representatives at home man and Lancing or in Lancing and in Washington and I'm in full support of this m i uh again I know I'm the new guy but I I did spend a lot of time yesterday catching up on on all this and and I did have a chance to watch with great interest uh their uh interviews uh
128and I also will be supporting uh finlin and cats as candidates thank you I also support finlin and cats um so I need a motion please Madam president oh Mr zler I move that the Board of Education adopt the oen school's intermediate District Board of Education Election resolution is presented for Carol finlin and Mark Catz support any further discussion okay all those in favor I opposed n motion carries 4 to two resolution there's someone here hold on resolution Oakland inter Intermediate School District budget budget sorry I didn't scroll up no problem no problem we're going to turn it over to Mrs rmer thank you Dr Veria uh the Michigan school code requires the ISD budget to presented to the board of each of the consu districts for review in addition each constituent Board of Education
129not later than June 1st of each year shall review the proposed ISD budget and adopt a board resolution to support or disapprove the proposed budget the detailed budget has been presented by the ISD to the board and to me as well as assistant superintendent of Business Services they have a a very comprehensive budget document that's provided along with a detailed explanation of variances as and how the budget is constructed uh questions have been entertained by the board during the process of looking at the board uh the isd's budget and then opportunity was provided by Oakland County also to have uh a one-on-one presentation or presentation to the board to kind of go through that as well for asking any questions so I personally have reviewed the proposed 2024 Oakland Intermediate School District budget and based
130on the information presented and the review of the materials provided support the budget Mr zler Madam president I move that the Board of Education support the proposed Intermediate School District budget as expressed in the resolution support any discussion Mr seagler one thing about the budget that uh always has amazed me is we're only voting on the general fund portion of the budget but they Supply us the information on everything and anything that we would ever want to know about uh which you know a lot of times will bring questions or we you know things that we need to ask about how are how are we affected by this in in uh wal Lake how does this help us what services are offered what services are we utilizing uh you know is there an opportunity for
131us to save money going forward by looking at different services that they do offer that we might not partake in so it really helps me get a better view even after all of these years of what Oakland schools does offer and how we can as a district benefit from it any other further comments Miss Len I reviewed the 151 pages of the budget that was really fun um and I asked a lot of questions that was also fun I'm sure also for Miss Les on the other side um I had concerns about the budget and spending and as Mr seagler alluded to um probably in a different way is you know the benefit to Wald Lake for all of this money that gets spent at Oakland schools as such a large District we are able
132to do so much inhouse and um you know perhaps it's me not understanding things or perhaps it's um I don't know what else the other perhaps is maybe I just don't understand but I I Feel Like We Are our taxpayers are acting as a donor District to the rest of Oakland County um you know our taxpayers pay so many dollars into Oakland County where other districts May benefit more from the money that is spent or Al allocated to Oakland schools than our students here in Wald Lake benefit from because we are able to do so much inhouse so just as there would be concerns about other spending um that Oakland schools might ask for and us being a donor District I do have concerns with us being a donor District when it comes to the
133money that is allocated to the taxpayers from our community to pay for services that other communities might use more than we do any other comments Mrs Fernandez yeah I would say um this isn't the first year that there have been many many questions about the budget and the budget is very comprehensive um it's not a small budget and uh and so uh I believe as with many budgets they're seldom built from the ground up when budgets are made um they you know there's starting point with some tweaks and some changes here and there and I'm no more comfortable with the budget um for the Oakland schools um oisd than I was last year Mrs so I asked a question um regarding the budget and you know the type of things that we get and what
134would we have to pay for ourselves if we didn't have this budget what's a high level dollar amount that if we voted against this that we're voting against basically that money coming to us can is do we have a a general idea of of what that is um it's again being relatively new to Oakland schools or whatever I can tell you that in terms of being able to replace those funds it's not something that you can just go to the voters and say can we have this money in order to do those Services they do provide a a a lot of special education services and also work through our PA 18 money um in terms of looking at that that's an 18 million that we receive you know whether it's considered donor or not the
135case but it's also additional services from uh support from other areas that we just wouldn't be able to go out and get that from yeah absolutely thank you appreciate a discussion okay all those in favor opposed motion passes 4 to two moving on to Oakland Schools Board Association ocba awards event say we have an awards event which is on June 19th 2024 and I'm going to make the motion and um I moved at the Board of Education approve the attendance of Mark SE seagler Shane 11 and is there anybody else that would like to attend at the Oakland County School boards Association awards event on Wednesday June 19th 2024 an authorized payment of the registration fee all those in favor can we have a discussion for a second oh I'm sorry I just want to
136say something I don't always but I may be out of town on business I know you are getting an award Mr seagler and if I am in town I will be there and I just won't eat dinner but I will be there if I'm here but I don't want the district to pay for it in case I'm going to be on business travel but um just um Advanced uh you know congratulations to you but I hope I can be there uh Madam president Mr Li uh I would like to attend this uh I I my pause is uh there there may be a chance I may be out of town on that day but I don't think I will and I think I can push this so I would very much like to be in
137attendance to this so whatever accommodations need to be made to okay accommodate that that'd be great okay anybody else Mr seagler well I think that my registration was paid for by masb uh because I'm also serving on that board of directors so over your seat and I want to congratulate Mrs L on her award congratulations to both well I'm going to go back and reread the motion do you need an amended motion or I'm going to amend the motion so I move that the Board of Education approve the attendance of Mark zagler Shane 11 and Ron lipet at the oen county school boards Association Awards event on Wednesday June 19th 2024 an authorized payment of the registration fee support any more discussion okay all those in favor I opposed motion carries 60 thank you we
138are adjourned at 9:04 thanks everyone e