WLCSD Board of Education Meeting - September 7, 2023

001stand for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you indivisible with liberty and justice for all right we're going to move on to some recognition golden apples Dr Vernia all right our recipient this evening is Dave Rutledge Dave are you here all right Dave come on up and stand right here in the most uncomfortable spot in the room you can come up and take as many pictures as you want it's perfect right there Dave Rutledge is the school psychologist at Walled Lake Northern Dave's nominator wished to remain anonymous but did share that he is the ultimate professional and leader the nominator added that Dave is a role model for others by being a lifelong learner Greg Diamond principal at Wall Lake Northern celebrated Dave's nomination sharing Dave Rutledge is an outstanding school psychologist he has the ability

002to share information to parents in a way that is understandable reassuring and even comforting at Wall Lake Northern we have come to count on Dave's excellent communication skills to help us make sure the parents fully understand their child's situation and all of the options we have to help their child Dave is also a great friend and colleague in the building he always has a cup of coffee or a comforting word in his office should you need one Dave Rutledge is the most deserving recipient of the district's prestigious Golden Apple award some of our principals might see that differently but Mr Diamond you're you're your feedback is noted Dave thank you for all you do to support the members of Northern Nation you truly make it a great day to be a knight and it's our

003honor to recognize you this evening Dave Rutledge [Applause] you want to say something you may if you don't want to that's okay too you have the floor for a moment if you would like to say anything okay we've been in Walled Lake a few years this is my 35th when Dr Roseboro who was the deputy superintendent of Human Resources hired me he asked me if I offer you the job would you accept I said I would he said I'm offering I said I'm accepting and I told him at the time I said Dr Roseboro you just hired me for my career and I've been here for three and a half decades and have seen the school district grow go through some struggles but I've never been prouder to be in Walled Lake than I am

004today I've still got a little tread on the tires I don't know how much longer but to the community and to leadership in this District thank you for trusting me to be your school psychologist thank you and next on our agenda is spring Sports Dr Bernier I'm going to turn it over to Dr lons thank you sir my pleasure to turn it over to Mr Brian swinehart who is our District athletic director thank you very much and first of all congratulations to Dave um my children all went through Northern and a truly outstanding recipient for this he is a remarkable man in person I appreciate all you've done for my kids personally so thank you with that and I also like to um just say thank you first of all the board for your support

005of Athletics uh Dr Bernie everything we go through in your support and then Dr Lyons who um I worked hand in hand would appreciate every all your support of everything the initiatives we've been able to move forward in our work together with this I really do appreciate it so um I try to vary a little bit in talking about Athletics as we're looking at the slideshow presenting through here an article I read I came across that was it was an older one to talk about hiring athletes and why it's important to hire athletes and when I say athletes and I remarked about this last time it's not just athletes it's those that are in the band it's those that are in and um any any extracurricular activity or activity I think it's really really important

006that we understand that but it talked about why your next employer should be a former athlete because success in athletics does lead to success in the workforce the first thing is athletes are very achievement oriented they work towards a goal they work towards wanting to get things done and and they understand that winning and losing and being a part of that and preparing and working hard isn't in such an essential element to life and also they get used to just getting rid of all the noise and really trying to become focused on what's important and what they need to do and those things in the workforce in the business world are really really important one of the most important things I think that they teach is resilience because athletes have failed time and time again

007they fail more often than they have success I think those failures in working through those failures whether it's in the business world or something's happening translates um trans the failures in athletics and getting over those translates in the business world the other thing I think is really really important is a lot of times they've already had their toughest boss and that's their coach and the coach that's there every single day that's pushing them that challenges them wants them to do more every type of thing we've had our us athletes our toughest boss we've already had with that athletes be have to communicate there's no way even if it's in individual sports or what's going on you're part of a team you have to learn to work together communicate do all those things and the workforce

008rarely are you ever isolated um in your own area I think about you know my personal experience with my children as I went through and all of them were athletes in their own different way and one of them is my son now who works remotely but what is he still doing he's still working with the team he's still in that environment he still has to have his calls that he's doing things and working with his team and everybody has those roles and I think that's another part it's important and it gets back to that area of being team oriented putting the team in front of yourself and being more important than that and then finally is the time management again I know personally and and Friends of my children that our athletes are put through

009a tremendous amount when it comes to practices the late hours but many of those student athletes are also very successful in the classroom they're taking three four AP classes is there they come home from practice they go right they have dinner they go right into their room or the table and they're studying till one or two in the morning I wish my son might have done a little bit more of that when he was in school I know but still we're working at that time management piece is extremely important for in the workplace in what they're doing and um and I it's one of the things I think is really really important to to keep hammering home is that successful participation extracurricular activities is what is key um to being successful later tonight and that

010key point is successful the athletes that you see here today are an example of that success these are the top athletes these are the top athletes not only in Walled Lake but in the state as you look through these the state qualifiers the state All State we had um state champions we've had we've had numerous success on the athletic field and I think that success is what translates into success later in life and we really hope that um you know I think back again as you know quick story with my daughter she was a competitive gymnast and she was pretty good and she was going through I remember I'm at the local gym and she's and she's a young she's young and she's and the coach says if she stays with us until she graduates

011she'll have a college scholarship my response was you're saying that to the wrong person because if I took what I paid every month and put it into a college fund I would have her college paid for she is here because I want her to learn the value of sports Athletics the of of competing of pushing yourself being uncomfortable dealing with adversity falling off that beam and getting back up on top of it and I think those types of things are what are really really important to remember as we look at the successes that are here for these athletes I guarantee you there are numerous times where these athletes have failed as success is not a straight line it's ups and downs and it's challenges and all those things that we face and I really do

012appreciate you giving us a chance to recognize our athletes here tonight and as I go through and and I'll end what I I have been I've been this is my 26 years an athletic director and I started way back a long time ago with with some key pieces at the end of every coach's meeting that I talk about I think that these are things that are really really important to look at number one is I believe our kids want discipline I believe they want the structure they want the organization of those things when it comes to Athletics and they want the discipline be demanding push them but do it the right way we don't degrade we don't we don't chew out those types of things be demanding and push them in that right directions have

013high expectations there's no re there's there's nothing to apologize for if you're pushing your kids for those high expectations but always remember this is the truth it's not about the winning and losing we want to strive to win prepare to win do all those things for winning but what's really important are the relationships and the memories because the scoreboard is going to be turned off before they leave the pool the field the gym whatever it is the scoreboard's off so you better have relationships and memories that are there and then the last one is I think don't ever and this is the most important thing in athletics and for our coaches to remember is don't ever underestimate your ability to make a true difference in a young person's life I think that's the why we're

014here for athletics because that success in athletics does translate into the classroom and later on in life and so we do truly appreciate your support that that you give to us in Walled Lake allowing us to be able to to to opt to have the better offerings that we have which a quick plug here offering as we're as I've talked to a lot of you already unified soccer we're adding this fall extremely um pleased with that and again thank you Dr Lyons for your support and helping us push forward um Julianne for everything going through and in your support to help us get this done can't thank you enough for that because it's another example of of what true Athletics is about so I'm excited for those things and excited for all the opportunities so

015again thank you and uh appreciate everything anything so Mr Durkin Mr swinehart is is this pres is this up on our website it might be nice that would be great put it somewhere so people could see it yes yeah I know I think in the past they've sent it out in the um in the newsletter The Weekly Newsletter the link for these things that I know you've done that in the past but on the website I think would be a good addition as well all right thank you all very much appreciate it we now have our 2019 Bond update Dr bernia I'm going to turn the floor over to Mr Chatfield who's going to give you an update on phase four of our bond work and talk a little bit about phase five Mr Chatfield

016thank you Dr bernia and thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on what has been an extremely busy of construction throughout the district so over the next few minutes I'll just um provide some highlights of some of the work that was done so um in terms of the phase four scheduled Bond schools uh this Summer that are these Geisler middle school and Pleasant Lake Hickory woods and Meadowbrook um and it's hard to believe but this summer wrapped up all of the bond work at the elementary and middle schools so all we have left our phases five and six and of course the work at Western which we'll talk about in a minute but in terms of these four schools they uh they received all of the similar Renovations as the phase one two

017and three schools including uh in the upper left uh classroom Renovations uh including the uh for for these three elementary schools in particular they all have uh integrated coat rooms and all of the coat rooms were updated with new Hooks and Cabinetry and flooring some of the schools got new carpeting there in the upper Center all of the schools received the standard restroom Renovations that include all hands-free uh dispensers and devices for a sanitation purposes and all of the three elementary schools um and and Geisler as well had their staff lounges renovated for the convenience of the staff that worked so hard there and they have they're very modern looking Lounge areas with new kitchens and we also took uh the opportunity a very simple and cheap fix at The Architects designed in is an

018upgrade of the Privacy room that's always existed in these staff lounges there in the lower right and as you can tell it's a it looks very uh comfy and they have referred to that as the zenden uh for staff so when they have uh time during the day they'll have a nice place to relax so those those projects turned out very well in addition at the uh these phase four schools all of the media centers were turned converted and turned into what we call learning Commons the same as all of the prior schools were had seen and they have a a stem oriented Tinker lab and all new furnishings and and as you can see these are very vibrant spaces they have multiple work areas that are designed to stimulate creative thinking and work and

019we've seen from experience that that's exactly what they do in the schools where they're in place on the the two pictures on the right we had the opportunity to renovate the Geisler Design Tech Lab and classroom so the creative minds of those middle schoolers will be equally stimulated with those new spaces um one of the key differences uh well let me start with uh at the the by the phase four schools we're able to do a number of parking lot Replacements all schools uh got new cafeteria tables there and in the middle uh on bottom the one of the unique um features of these three of these four schools Pleasant Lake Geisler and Hickory Woods was the replacement of the univents and the um these were the only three schools remaining that had the old

020horizontal unit vents that were on the outside wall that blew the air up through the top of the units and in hopes that it would reach the front of the room eventually um it it worked they they you know they worked they served their purpose for 30 years but it was time to replace those and the picture in the upper right is of the New Vertical univents those are the similar units that we've got in all of our other uh classrooms um the the real benefit of these is they're ducted into the classroom space for better air distribution better air quality each room has one of these so each teacher has a varying degree of control of their own personal space which saves us believe me saves the maintenance department a lot of phone calls

021when people can adjust their own thermostats so that's very helpful the pictures in the lower right are simply a demonstration of what it took to put those New Vertical unit vents out we literally had to take and this happened 98 times 98 units were replaced this summer uh where we had to go through and and cut openings in the walls and and block and brick up those uh old louvers where the horizontal units were so a very destructive process but it turned out great and then one of the other uh test projects that we completed this summer those two pictures on the left upper and lower are of what we term a distributed antenna system uh and and this might probably it might not surprise anybody but we oftentimes hear how poor the cellular services

022in some of our schools I didn't think that would surprise anybody and in some schools it is this this Das system is uh designed to amplify the cellular signal of the four major carriers throughout the school so that we will have reliable cellular service anywhere in the school for routine or emergency purposes it also includes amplification of the emergency responder signals for the fire and police so this is uh this is quite a remarkable process and project and it it isn't yet operational we're still waiting on a couple of approvals from two of the cellular carrier providers but we're hopeful that this proves to be as successful as what we have been informed that it will be so that if we have an opportunity in the future we can expand it to other schools so

023a very cool project and it's still a work in progress and if you've driven up Beck Road lately you'll see that Western High School is um is making great progress in terms of its academic Wing construction Edition Construction these are views the upper left is the view from the West Side the upper right is the view from the north side where the staff entrance will be the lower right is the back of the building where the receiving area will be and the picture in the center is again on the west but that will be the new main entrance when it is completed the picture on the lower left is a picture I copied from my presentation here last year that is exactly the same location as the picture above it so you can see in

024the past year they've made a lot of great progress and in terms of uh uh where they're at the windows are about halfway installed and they hope to have the entire enclosure closed in by the end of October so they can begin putting in temporary heat and do interior finishes on the inside right now the picture on the left is of the new main entrance that'll be the new Western entrance corridor a two-story Corridor the upper right is the student Commons area with the seating stairwell what that will be adjacent to the lunch servery area so we envision kids utilizing that um throughout the throughout the day and in the uh the one in the middle right lower middle is simply um progress of of the block construction that actually was taken several weeks ago

025and all of the Interior block walls are nearly complete now so uh that project is progressing very nicely and the uh plans for that project are that we will open that building in the uh ol less than a year from now so we are nervously anxiously excited about that but looking forward to it um and then next year next well let's I'll talk about that in a minute uh it's just a couple of other projects that were done in addition um the Keith PTA if you recall um the board approved a recommendation for them to install a Turf system the PTA funded and paid for the installation of a artificial turf in their interior Courtyard and you can see that turned out beautiful the picture right below it is what it looked like just prior

026to when the contractors arrived to install that Turf so they'll get some great educational benefits from that and lower right thanks to our Enviro Clean staff we had a number of gym floors that got refinished and have a nice shiny look to them for the start of the school year um in in terms of Coming Attractions um we have uh last month the board approved uh bid recommendations for the construction of the high school team athletic team buildings these are facilities that will be constructed uh adjacent to the stadium fields at all three high schools for the purposes of the the athletes that use those fields in adjacent field so as you can see that's the floor plan um they are they're designed to be a space for uh home and visiting teams to uh

027to prepare for uh prepare in before games and to retreat to during and after the game so uh our our our Stadium facilities do not have this now our athletes have to go into the building visiting athletes uh if they need to go into the building also have to go into the building very inconvenient and this will provide them a space right next to the fields to do that they include spaces for obviously the teams the coaches the officials and there's a trainer's room in there for injuries and such and but these are not I just want to point out these are not uh what would what would one would term a field house some people have seen field houses Brighton recently built a 25 million dollar field house that's not what these are these

028are not practice facilities these are simply team buildings for the uh for the athletes to have a place to to go and prepare work is uh scheduled to start as soon as fall sports are over uh probably about a month from now you'll see groundbreaking on these facilities at all three high schools and uh we are in the process of preparing for next Summer's phase five Bond schools uh Central High School and the outdoor education center uh as well as Western High School Renovations next summer Western um once we are prepared to begin moving into the new addition we will demolish the current a b and c wings and phase one of the renovations to the remainder of the building will be underway renovations to what will remain of Western High School actually take a

029place in three phases so phase one of the renovation piece for Western uh will start next summer and you'll start seeing bids bid recommendations for Central and the Outdoor Center arriving in December and January so we're looking forward to that and so you know I just want to point out we've we completed a tremendous amount of work this Summer that would not have been possible without you know the efforts of our bond Partners at TMP and awk and the capable consultants and contractors that they bring to Walled Lake Schools um I have had more than one contract to tell me they really like bidding and getting awarded projects in Walled Lake Schools because we do so many things right and that doesn't happen by accident uh that happens with having good partners and having a

030supportive board that approves bid recommendations so we greatly appreciate that and then I also want to just thank the uh the staff at the schools uh that were worked on this summer you know these it it takes a tremendous amount of coordination and effort to complete anywhere from six to eight million dollars worth of work per School in 10 weeks it requires uh it requires a lot of sacrifice on the part of our teachers and our principals and our staff members at the schools and so without that sacrifice and without that support this wouldn't have been possible so I just want to extend a thank you to the the principals and the teachers and the staff at those Bond schools who worked with us and allowed us to get these things done and we hope

031you enjoy your classrooms this fall and with that that wraps up my presentation I'd be happy to answer any questions do we have any questions or comments for Mr Chatfield I will just say that I know when we opened up the Early Childhood Center and opened up the uh the dedication for Dublin I remember specifically asking the teachers about their new spaces and they did say that the furniture was even very comfortable not only did it look nice but it was extremely comfortable so some direct feedback for you that I just wanted to know it looks nice but it is functional too it's functional exactly thank you so much next we have the facility utilization study and our next steps Dr Vernia yes Savannah president I'm actually going to move over to the podium and

032walk you through a few slides of some information there you are all right thank you very much especially the tech crew got me all squared away you should all know that this started as a paper memo what you saw on the screen before you saw the slides that is Dr bernia's version of an effective communication tool this is Sobel felt we should do slides and she was right the record will put that in the minutes the record will reflect that you were right last January the Board of Education approved the district to engage with plant Moran kressa to conduct a facility study this process took place in the first quarter of the year the district had previously worked with PMC on these studies in 2011 and 2018. as as we've said all along for a

033large District like Walled Lake a facility study formally every five to seven years is a best practice in our industry to make sure that we're using our space efficiently and to make sure that we are being responsible with our funds so the plant Moran crosses analysis of District demographics enrollment Trend and the birth rate for Oakland County revealed a few key points the population living in our district is aging the average age of a resident in our community is 52.8 years old that is up from their 2018 study that's up from their 2011 study they project forward that that will continue to increase so what that means is that by and large people who have moved here a long time ago that had children that went through our schools are staying in their homes as

034the population ages to that point there are fewer school-aged children living in the district on average there are 0.46 students per household in our district that number was over one in 2011 when you did this study so that that's how that's how that number has declined the trend of an aging population with fewer children is projected to continue if you recall plan Moran projected that five years from now the district would level off at about an enrollment of about 11 500. so that was their best estimate so as part of their review and they shared this with you in June they review our facilities and determine efficiency rates in five years they can they indicate our efficiency rates by level you see them there Elementary about 81 percent Middle School 51 percent and high school

03545 so what that means is that we have some work to do and we have some strategic planning that we need to do and we need to engage the community I think it's important to remember in 2011 when you did this the district had just gone through a catastrophic budget cut so the purpose of that study was to make reductions as fast as possible in 2018 you still weren't completely out of the woods financially right now we're in a healthier position so we do have the gift of time to to be selective and to be thoughtful about how we do this and in addition to that what's a little different this time is that in this instance we we can think about some programmatic things as we think about how to be more efficient with

036our footprint So based on these projections the district must develop a strategy to make our buildings more efficient we have a history of bringing stakeholders together as a committee to think through next steps and strategize and we intend to use again to again use that process we'll continue to work with plant Moran cressa we will have facilitated meetings for a committee committee will contain administrators staff members and parent representatives from every school administrators staff members and parent representatives from special education Athletics early childhood and the Arts the committee will review the facility usage report information about the condition of our facilities and additional property owned by the district the goal of this committee will be to develop recommendations about future facility use for the district in an effort to make our facilities more efficient as

037our student population declines the goal of the committee will be to finish this next phase of their work in time for a recommendation to the board at your first meeting of December so that is going to be our goal and that's what we're going to work on additional factors for consideration oh this is the part when I get to this slide I've shared this information with our leaders it's been shared with the board I've shared this with our staff this is the part of the presentation where everybody begins doing the drum roll speculating that I'm going to say and Central is closing next week that's not what I'm here to say we we have the gift of time and and I think there are some strategies that we can employ and I think we can

038be thoughtful I do think that we can maintain three high schools through this but we just have to be thoughtful and and we just have to work together on how we make that happen so we also are going to have to consider some additional factors number one The Current financial reality of the district which is relatively stable at this point we don't know where we're going to be it's an election year next year we don't know where we'll be in Michigan after 2024 but currently we remain pretty stable there is the possibility of universal Pre-K that was something the governor talked a lot about leading up to the budget and then it wasn't in the budget when it came out so the state of Michigan continues to toy around with universal Pre-K well if Universal

039Pre-K comes online that's a lot of classrooms that you're going to need across the elementary because those are going to come with smaller class sizes and there's going to become a need for additional space so the possibility of universal Pre-K is something we'll have to contend with and then there's also possible housing developments in our district I'm I'm plugged into and listening for some of those details and paying attention to them so we have to stay up to speed on that because we need to make sure that we know what our municipalities are doing as it relates to that so we'll have to consider all those factors too having said that you know housing developments Universal Pre-K you know those are those would be exciting developments for the district certainly at the same time that

040we still wrestle with the birth rate in Michigan is the lowest it's been since prior to the baby boom and so when when you have a birth rate across the state that's as low as it was in 1940 then then you have to you have to recognize that there are going to be fewer children Statewide not just in Walled Lake and we're going to have to contend with that you know the baby boom certainly expanded school districts uh but I we're also now in a period of contraction that we're going to have to take into consideration so I'll take any questions from the board if you haven't yes sir go ahead uh just go back I forgot to bring this up to you during the week but on the Committees yes I definitely would like

041to see you be able to add the CTE and the vocational yeah into that General overall committee yeah and I think that there are some opportunities there Mr Peterson some things that we've talked about offline and and I think that there are some programmatic things that I think the committee might want to consider especially as we start to think about the footprint of our high schools because some and you I know you can appreciate this Career Technical education does not necessarily fit into classroom space the way that ninth grade English does and so that by by removing teaching stations because you need more space for some of those programs you make your buildings more efficient plus you open up opportunities for students that's good feedback We'll add that Mr Siegler you know when we did

042this initially it was great feedback because the recommendations came to the board the board did not make the recommendations and I like and our Temple when we did do this I received a lot of feedback from different districts in the state why I said because it's not something the board should do the district needs to be totally involved in helping to design what's going forward now this has become a template for a lot of states and a lot of other areas a lot a lot of other districts throughout the country and you know one things that we had talked about uh when we did this we did we realized one area we might have missed was part of the senior community and having some senior input so if we might want to add that into

043it also sure that's not a problem any other comments or questions for Dr Bernie sure Mrs Levin I guess to kind of expand on what Mr Siegler suggested you know the senior community is is certainly important as is any community uh demographic that doesn't have children in the school whether they're seniors young people um I'm interested to know and I just thought of this I apologize for not asking it sooner how will the committee members be chosen so historically what we've done and what I've seen done in other districts that I've worked in is that that is a recommendation that comes to us from the schools right so our principals know their school Community a lot better than we do and so we entertain recommendations from them so that that is the next step in

044our process is to roll this out to our administrators starting tomorrow to have them start making recommendations to us about who to involve and then we take a look and then we take a look and see okay here's our recommendations and we try our best to say is everybody represented here right so there's someone with children at more than one level you know there's someone that's been in the system for a long time there's people who are new to the system so that's really kind of that's the process we go through to try to create the committee any other questions comments some comments since I did this last time yeah um with the district I can tell you but by what you said that the administrators will say who's you know good in the school

045there's a lot of times that nobody volunteers nobody agrees to do it so it's a sign up sheet you know somebody from the school please be on this committee so it's not just it's compounded to PTA it's open to all the community members and all people in the school and a lot of times that's how it plays out that there's a notes that go home to each School saying please we need a parent that's willing to spend this much time doing this and that's how that works okay thank you Dr Bernie thank you so well Dr bernia is coming back we're going to move on to public commentary Mrs Levin will time for us she will let us know if anybody is getting close to their three minutes that is the time limit that you

046will have we'll ask you to come up one at a time and speak here at the podium we ask that if you are close to the three minutes if you could just finish up your thoughts if you're given that hey time we appreciate that also I'm going to ask that we continue to have respect up here we know that we're going to have potentially different opinions that's okay if we could make sure they're respectful to each other and that we refrain from personal attacks and if somebody does need to get back to you we will try to do so in a very timely manner it really depends how many items we have to follow up on but somebody from Administration or from the board will follow up if needed and we thank you tonight for

047speaking our first person is Corey Hensley foreign good evening my name is Corey Hensley I am president of the special services parent advisory committee for those of you that don't know we are a group of parents whose mission is to inform advise and educate parents regarding special education we work closely with administrators and also Mrs mirror who is our new superintendent of special services we work together to carry out meetings and events relative to what parents are looking for last week Wednesday our pack held its first back to school resource Fair we invited special education program staff so staff members in the district as well as Community organizations and I think we had a great turnout I personally am here to thank Dr bernia for supporting our program its Mission your videos and messages to

048staff and families help tremendously so thank you for that thank you to Dan Durkin and your staff for your efforts in promoting our event you and your staff are much more tech savvy and I am than I am and I know your reach is far more than than mine so thank you thank you to Dr lines your help in coordinating with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office to have officers on hand that could interact with Children and Families at the event I also want to thank Special Services Program staffs our staff members that are in the buildings that came out not only to support the event but also your dedication and service to our population it was great to have the range from Early Childhood all the way up to our adult transitions program so it

049was nice to have them on hand speaking to parents I appreciate seeing the large number of Administrators principals cabinet that was in attendance board members thank you for being there whether it was out of Interest or to promote the event I hope that you learned about special education and will continue to support our large group we are a very large group in this district and I hope you walked away with a bag full of freebies as that seemed to be the big hit of the evening all the freebies I know my kids enjoyed it I I cannot thank my executive board and volunteers enough for your time in helping to set up execute clean up afterwards especially members in the special services office I appreciate their help and a shout out to my husband who

050made the hot dogs and handed those out to family and staff as well our Pat could not have pulled off this event without the countless time and energy that Miss Muir provided we spend a lot of hours on the phone and so I appreciate your time your effort and enthusiasm helped make it a success so thank you I look forward to working with you all this year and for your continued support in special education thank you Randy freed hi good evening I am the parent of three children in the district a fourth grader a 10th grader and a 12th grader and I'm speaking tonight because that while I recognize there was an apology given at the last meeting it didn't seem to quite fit the damage that was done on June 8th my daughter and

051her friend both spoke at the board meeting so when I heard that a video of a student was being used as propaganda at a tea party meeting I knew it was one of them it turned out to be my daughter's friend but as a mom that did not make me feel better I don't understand how a group that says they are trying to protect our children exploited one of them what makes me even more upset was that a board member was there and did not try to stop it we need to honor and protect every child every day not just those that we agree with we can disagree but we still must respect people we cannot choose who another person is so when they tell us we must respect that even when it is different

052than you may believe religion is not taught in the public schools so while we can respect and learn about other cultures we can't teach based on religion thank you Carl Chapel good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak first of all I apologize I've been using all three of my names together I forgot to put gretzinger on the end so it's real Carl chapel gretzinger chapel was my mother's maiden name okay but I had three topics to the first two are questions and number one is to ask whether or not the wall deep Consolidated Schools have bathroom facilities for transgender students that's my question okay we won't interact with you here but we will get back with you thank you okay and then the second question was whether or not the Walled Lake District

053Walled Lake Consolidated School District has a policy regarding transgender female students playing on sports teams that historically have been reserved for non-transgender female students those are my two questions the third part of my thoughts as I read through it I have the topic wrong and it needs some Polish so if I can come back next week I'd appreciate that for next month next meeting okay okay thank you you're welcome Alana rug Ilona rug retired public school teacher let's hear it for our Public School teachers our tireless job of preparing children to be productive responsible intelligent citizens of society to build future careers not future queers yet here we come again and again to board meetings to spend an hour to talk about how great we are to comfort cuddle and wipe the noses of children

054that are not being called by their personal pronoun it should not be in Accolade for a child to say they're gay but you promote it instead of getting them psychological help the majority that's right 50 plus one I just I'm sorry do not want you to promote sodomy we don't we do not have to agree promote or celebrate it in any way or form nor should an adult be told by a child an irresponsible not fully developed child how they should accept and celebrate these ludicrous fans you know we had a dress code in school we enforce which we never enforce boys couldn't have earrings long hair girls couldn't wear two short skirts or cropped shirts now kids are allowed to express themselves discover who they are that their gender is IR interchangeable let the

055children be children and not push all of these stressful sick ideologies you are pushing on them if you want to be gay if you're an adult knock your lights out but don't put it in the face of our children anything other than core subjects is the job of the parent the core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family you rip the moral fabric of the country when you destroy its family unit children will turn on their parents to the conservative school board members we elected we say thank you for standing up please don't give up on us the majority that appreciate you sticking to your beliefs to the parents Mama bears that are too scared to speak up don't be afraid to pick to protect your baby bears the more tolerant

056we become of sinful Behavior the more intolerant be we become of Christians that is how we got here in the first place you shouldn't be afraid of government government should be afraid of us any parents that are going along with this Insanity should be jailed for child abuse and to all the teachers and those listening right now who are too afraid to stand up and say something if you're not standing against those committing the sin then you are participants in it too often you make yourself sheep and the Wolves will eat you stand up even if you are standing alone parents listening take it from a public school teacher get your children out of public school to the left is school board members keep speaking out your mind because you have awoken the Beast and

057we are coming to take our kids back time what you're pushing on our kids is evil sadistic and wrong please can you owe us thank you the community an apology God bless kale wolf good evening everyone excuse me um I want to talk a little bit about one of the topics you guys discussed and agreed upon in your workshop last last meeting which I sat here and watched it and I thought it was very productive and and time well spent um one of the things you came up with is to uh increase their academic proficiency of the students and I can't can't agree with that more um and I guess the way to measure that is you test your test scores you know you're reading math Etc to that end I would encourage you to

058uh while you're going through this process to investigate why there was a decline in those numbers to begin with I think that'd be positive to do um think about what if anything changed as those numbers started to go down I would urge you not to use the events of the past few years as the primary reason for these test score reductions I don't think that's valid I think those test scores were going down initially another question you might have is what was what was the main cause where it were at the teachers from what I hear in this room no everybody thinks we have a great bunch of teachers so if it's not the teachers it must be the curriculum what changed in the curriculum I would I would definitely look at look into that

059that being said I remember hearing this said a couple of times at least in these meetings leave it to the professionals that has been done either intent intently or tacitly we've let you guys set the curriculum do whatever my question is how'd that work maybe not so good 30 seconds and that's all I really have to say I do commend you for what you're trying to do thank you thank you Sandy douse [Applause] good evening um I'd like to see more business accomplished by refraining from constant focus on controversial issues except where they relate to curriculum that many parents disapprove of or may be unaware of parents Guardians and taxpayers inputs should be carefully considered when neutral academically excellent materials can be used let's face it we can't teach everything why not focus on shared

060values wherever possible can we agree that we can learn to read better if we avoid obviously contentious content a for apple not abortion t for turtle instead of trans or Trump I'd like to see the board and the staff members including past members and students stop using this public comment time as a platform for personal agendas unrelated to curriculum or School business every meeting the overhead says no personal attacks simply deleting the names doesn't accomplish this for example the lady with the yellow pants clearly identifies someone while not using a name or office I request the chair to interrupt any obviously personal attacks on new members or anyone in future meetings but not on issues that relate to the district thank you foreign the last name I'm having a hard time because what is it

061Carla okay sorry I was it was just some of the letters are running together thank you so I gotta say my son started school excellent it we had the most incredible communication from everybody I can't say enough how good his entrance was back in he's going starting Middle School great job we got communication from the teachers the principal everybody I mean his he's coming back glowing every day and he hasn't done that in a long time I don't know what you guys done and changed but I'm very impressed with what you guys have done the communication is outstanding and I'll tell you what the schools what an amazing job Western even I'm going there every day now with my son's swimming but what it but I can't believe with all the construction you got going

062on that school still looks phenomenal and all the schools are looking very good and I'm very pleased with what's going on and I really like that meeting you guys had the other day and I hope that you guys can continue continue to do something to work together to make a good school and I'm so far great job I can't thank him up thank you Michael wise Michael wise Michael wise Commerce Township I want to talk about book painting tonight every individual has the right to make decisions about what materials are suitable for themselves no one in no racist religious conservative group has the right to make rules restricting what other people read this vital American freedom freedom of speech must be protected certain individuals do not believe this Freedom must be protected in communities across

063Michigan there's been an unprecedented uptick at schools and public libraries to ban books there are several conservatives that routinely appear at these board meetings spewing misinformation with their weak-minded ideas and presenting lists of books they want to ban the national public opinion poll on national public opinion poll shows 75 percent of American voters Democrats Independents and Republicans oppose the book Banning a very small racist religious conservative minority eight percent believe there are many books that should be banned libraries fill a central role in supporting the rights of citizens to read to seek information and to speak freely these rights are guaranteed by the First Amendment the freedom of speech Librarians are Highly Educated public servants who work to provide for the of all and to do so without bias libraries uphold the Constitutional promise of

064access to information for everyone all ages abilities races nationalities religions the rich poor non-traditional families those who identified as lgbtq and those that don't Michigan Librarians have been threatened by Trump conservatives with violence and intimidation cities like Hillsdale have lost Librarians over harassment because of extremist racist religious conservative rhetoric about Library collections the suggestion that a librarian be fired or held personally accountable when someone is offended by the contents of a book is not only harmful to the librarian but potentially destabilizes the institution and negatively impacts the whole Community would your community be better without your library this is what is at stake libraries are centers for Learning and self-discovery libraries offer so much to everyone at no cost at the point of service they contribute to the health and vitality of communities throughout Michigan

065Banning books drives away Library staff is short-sighted punishes irreparably the entire Community which counts on the free access to programs and services a library provides when we support representation on the shelves of the library we aren't undermining anyone but supporting all Banning books denies readers access to stories in which they can see themselves and silences the voices of marginalized populations we need to stand strong in defending all libraries these valuable and irreplaceable institutions by upholding First Amendment 30 seconds the freedom of speech enshrined in the Constitution we must guarantee access to all expressions of knowledge and intellectual activity including those that some individuals and and people in our society may consider to be unconventional unpopular or unacceptable we can't let narrow-minded racist fascists religious zealots damage our Michigan school and public libraries efforts to both

066sensor materials and undermine public faith in libraries and Library professionals not only present a dangerous threat to library funding but candidates using extremists rhetoric about Library services and collections also real threat to the freedom to read thanks to those open-minded board members that understand the concepts of diversity equality and inclusion thank you [Applause] Tim sawmiller Tim sawmiller good evening Tim sawmiller Commerce Township I'm a cisgender male using pronouns he him and his future thank you I do not know the school how this school board defines the term personal attack but the generally accepted definition of a personal attack is the making of an abusive remark about or relating to one's person or personality instead of providing evidence when examining that person's claims or comments or actions in debate circles this is a logical fallacy one

067that demeans a person instead of refuting their argument therefore it is still valid to criticize a board member's actions or words at the last meeting Ms Tice offered an explanation and apology for her remarks at the June meeting of the Oakland County Tea Party I appreciate her efforts but in doing so she said something almost as troubling she stated that her board actions and decisions are based on her faith not politics I commend her for living a faith-based faith-based life however that statement alone that decisions are Guided by faith is disqualifying Walled Lake Schools are public schools they are secular not religious one's face should not be a factor in public school board decisions it's essentially unconstitutional in McCollum the board Advantage education the U.S Supreme Court pointed out that public schools are at once

068the symbol of our democracy in the most pervasive means for promoting our common destiny they should be welcoming and nurturing places for students and families of all faiths and all beliefs religious freedom in public schools can exist only if school officials maintain a religiously neutral environment please keep this in mind during future deliberations turning to the subject of books in the libraries Stephen King writes book banners insist that the entire Community should see things their way in only their way when a book is banned a whole set of thoughts is locked behind the assertion that there is only one valid set of values one valid set of beliefs one valid perception of the world it's a scary idea especially in a society which is built on the idea of freeze choice and free thought indeed

069in the 1982 Supreme Court ruling on Board of Education versus Pico Justice William Brennan wrote that taking books off Library shelves could violate students First Amendment rights adding that local school boards may not remove books from school libraries simply because they dislike the ideas contained in 30 seconds book Banning is a weak response to ideas that scarce on people are the people Banning books the same ones that yell from the rooftops that there should be less government involvement in decision making and yet they want to ban books for others without giving those people a chance to choose for themselves Banning books is not about protecting children it's about discrimination against others remember in the entirety of human history book banners have never been the good guys thank you Heather Martinez Heather Martinez good evening everyone

070my name is Heather Martinez and I identified by the pronouns she her and hers and I respect the right of everyone to choose their own I am also a retired public school teacher and special education administrator however I believe that our school teachers in this District go above and beyond to take care of our kids no matter what in the same way that I did when I was teaching because that's what we're supposed to do as teachers we are helping to raise the future Society members that are going to be amongst us and be here with us on school boards in political forums as parents raising their own children I want to speak today as a very proud mama bear about how I have raised my kids to advocate for themselves and for others just

071as so many of our teachers and administrators do here in Walled Lake Consolidated Schools there's nothing more important than teaching our kids how to be humane empathetic and generous and give Grace to others around us we are raising citizens that will make a difference in this world not people who are using slurs to describe others not people who are narrow-minded and refuse to understand the basis of public education no school teacher should ever use slurs no school teacher should ever describe students in a way that was done this evening no parent should ever have to think that they are being accused of child abuse for standing up for their children's rights when I heard what I heard earlier tonight I thought about how I spent my day today which was with Representatives Debbie Dingle and

072John James talking about the importance of mental health supports our school district does a great job at doing that but it's not enough we need more mental health supports for our students we have to have more our social workers we don't have enough our counselors we don't have enough our students are facing times that are like their mother before so please I implore you as a school board and a superintendent to look into what we can do to increase those mental health support students services for all students all students whether they are white black purple gray red trans by female male whatever they choose to be they deserve to be supported Christine Titus hi good evening I'm Christine Titus I am an instructional specialist at Hickory Woods Elementary thank you Mr Chatfield for a beautiful

073new building and classrooms and board as well Dr burniam um I'm also a 31 year resident of Commerce Township so happy to have been in this district for so long but tonight I'd like to offer a series of thank yous to some folks that might not hear those words often enough I'd like to thank Mrs kohanski and her learning Services team particularly Jennifer lacrosse Andrea Abrams and especially Michelle black and Ellen McDonald I'm sure there's more I'm feeling to mention but I wanted to shout out particularly to these Educators they support our teaching staff with our Core Curriculum and professional development and I don't mean just from the central office they are on the ground right alongside us modeling demonstrating and um even teaching our students the term Role Models doesn't even begin to describe

074what they do in our district for our K-12 Learners I'd also like to acknowledge Kelly Iverson our English language development coordinator she and her staff help support some of our most vulnerable Learners those that are adding English to their repertoire of languages and I just don't mean it as a second language because what we're discovering is that a lot of our mlls might speak more than one language at home English just happens to be one that they're learning now she and our district are also supporting a small group of Educators myself included from Junior kindergarten through 12th grade who are completing our coursework towards an ESL endorsement on our teaching certificates we are already supporting our MLS with the skills we've gained over the last Almost year and a half a few of our cohort

075supported students this summer during summer school and one was recently put into the position of an ELD teacher in one of our elementary buildings the skills we've learned are invaluable not only to our mlls but to just good teaching practice so finally I'd like to thank all those folks but finally I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to publicly view these meetings and to let the public make comments thank you so much Paula samal uh good evening I'm Paula samal teacher in Walled Lake Schools I'm wearing this shirt today partially to remind myself because my notes are bad but what I wanted to speak about today so on the front of this shirt it says make school board meetings boring again and on the back it says I support students so I'm going to

076talk about students first so I was quite dismayed and really honestly devastated when I saw the video from the Lakes area Tea Party Movement from their meeting because in that video is one of my students student that I know to be a great person a great student the kind of kid that anybody wants in their classroom smart works hard kind respectful in adults we're sitting here judging this kid so first I'm asking this community and for the school board to lead this community that we treat kids differently we don't treat them like adults we adults have created a political system that we're not being kind to each other we're not being respectful to each other but at least we're adults give our kids the opportunity to grow leave them out of it please now the

077boring part boring sounds like a bad word my car is boring which means it works right um and I'm asking the school board to lead us back to boredom these meetings I mean there's emotions on all sides people are throwing words around people have to be removed and we're forgetting why we're here which is the children now our school board plays a role in this there are certain laws made by the federal government certain laws made by the state government and there's this little sliver of stuff that the board can do and a lot of what we've been discussing here is not what the board is to do and if we stick within these rules and apply 30 seconds our political process to the other people that are dealing with this at the legislature at

078the federal level we can resume a peaceful environment here and a good environment for our students thank you very much Katie bardos [Applause] okay so I might be shaking because that was a lot those but it's not because I'm nervous okay to start my name is Katie bardos I've been in the district for 15 years I have a daughter that's a freshman at Florida International University in Miami I have a son that's a junior at Walled Lake Northern my newest Endeavors are volunteering my time with the musicals and plays and I'm in charge of the sets pieces and the props and I thoroughly enjoy it um that being said when I got to Walnut Creek there wasn't a music or performance person there and I set out to make sure that this was going to

079happen I wanted a talent show like we had at Glengarry I wanted I wanted the Carla Caldwell that we had at Glengarry I wanted I wanted all of that that happened that happened for two years it was phenomenal and as you know in this District I seriously think the Performing Arts is one of the absolute best things that we have going for us but we have failed the Performing Arts because we have gaps throughout the district we're sharing teachers you can't build a rapport you can't build a group you know you need an orchestra teacher a band teacher you need the Courier teacher because there's not enough time to share that and these kids grade is I'm those Sports is that's phenomenal I was a tennis player I mean phenomenal I know teams are great

080but there's a team spirit not everybody's on Sports so this is an outlet for all their kids to do things they work as a family we've been uniting all the schools together supporting everybody but the problem and what I need you to fix is two things one Performing Arts person at every level and not sharing secondly I really need a warehouse or a facility with your little thing that I would love to be on the committee for to store all of our props all of our scenes it's harder and harder to get these older things and I don't want to throw them away so I have an inventoried in my head but it would be great if I could inventory it for all the schools in one building and then we can run it out

081and our schools can use it it's going to save us money because we're 90 seconds recreating in those dumpsters make me oh I load up my car and then load up Paula's house with the junk so until I can put it back in the building so anyways please please I know we've we've worked on Special Ed is going better um the show I mean the um the three ring circus is still a work in progress but now can we please focus on what I really really want thank you we're going to move on to administrative commentary Dr bernia uh tonight we're going to open Mr chetfield Ms Muir today Mrs kohanski I have nothing tonight thanks Dr bernia Mr Durkin nothing for me this evening Dr bernia and Dr lons clean sweep I think they

082just yielded all their time to me um so I just have a couple uh first uh Mr gritzinger and Miss Dallas I you didn't put your numbers on the cards so if you can just see me right after the meeting so we can make sure because I owe you a phone call I just don't have your number okay so just see me right after and we'll get that information from you we are off to uh just a tremendous start I was in a lot of buildings last week and seeing the energy and enthusiasm of our students that have come back and our new students and our our veteran staff and our new staff it's just it's contagious I took in the football game at Northern last week we're in Northern and Central played and it

083was it was really a lot of fun the marching band the athletes the it was all tremendous so I really want to compliment everybody for such a strong start to the school year a strong start to the school year comes from leadership and so I want to thank our leaders my cabinet our building administrators our division leaders our department leaders they really set the table nicely for our staff and our students to come back and I really appreciate their hard work and my very last point is there's a there's a group of employees that I want to highlight tonight and that is our student service staff these are the folks that are front facing that register all of our new students that come into the district you'll be interested to know since March they have

084registered more than a thousand students and that that's a thousand individual meetings with families and bringing them into our building and talking with them and making sure that they're all set they do it with with warmth and empathy and and caring and kindness they worked Saturdays and Sundays beginning in March so they've worked at least one weekend day from March until now and so I'm so grateful for their hard work because that is the first encounter with Walled Lake is those staff members and I'm so grateful for their hard work so that's it for me thank you board commentary I'm going to start with Mrs Fernandez if you anything this evening yeah I want to Echo the excitement on the back to school season and also just reassure folks that there's also that same excitement

085and energy across the board and you know we really I think have adopted a a fresh look and a focus and thank you to the community members who have taken notice of that and just want to reiterate the challenge to folks to match our energy and bring substantive Communications and substantive topics to us as we focus on things like security or things like teachers or things like academic performance and measures and um you know we're we're looking for that feedback and Dr bernia presents information about the bond or the bond from Mr chetfield or I mean there's a lot of cool stuff to talk about so you know please share your thoughts and concerns with us and and match our energy there looking forward to that Mr Secret uh you'll find out during the course

086of the year that I will give you a lot of legislative updates or feedback or thoughts from from Lansing and our friends in Lansing have you know are off and running uh it's interesting that they're already looking at the last day of possibly being November 9th of the last day of the session if not in October so we've we've got a lot of work to do if we need to uh if we have issues or concerns but some of the things that they've already signed into law this year uh third grade reading initiatives and revisions income tax changes sinking funds for school buses for years that's come out of the general fund now we will hopefully be able to use thinking funds I know that Mrs Casa Grande in her early days as a PTA

087uh president was very involved with that one of the things that they've also done that I can't say is going to be beneficial is public employee relations act basically they're changing some of some of the things that we do with our contracts and going back to 2011 guidelines and that but we'll wait and see how that happens since we're blessed to have a two-year contract here uh some of the other things that are happening that that we can keep an eye on or you know wait to hear on as Dr Bernie has said Universal Pre-K it's not a pipe dream it could be a reality very soon one of the things I'm looking at is mandatory Dental screening for children entering kindergarten fortunately that did not get put into place this year because it would

088have caused utter chaos for registering students at the beginning of the school year but I would not be surprised if we do not see that for the 24-25 school year and that would have to be tied into the Kindergarten Roundup and everything else other things that are out there right now mandatory kindergarten Mr Peterson one of the things that you'll be happy to hear is US House Bill 4279 which is the CTE Village for signing a contract and working with other isds and other CTE programs to have them combined or better utilization of those substitute teacher requirements uh we all need that to be revised and then removing the ban on starting the school day before Labor Day again that that is up there and up for discussion uh you know as we start the

089year we're off we're off to a running start the energy in the uh PTA meetings the energy and the teacher orientations and everything else is great you know we have the pink outs coming we have the uh Leia coming out with I'll leave that for Mrs Kaplan so she can sell the tickets uh but you know we're here for the community we're here for the students and you know we as a board are trying to break bread a little bit more take down some of the barriers and diffuse some of our issues and as it was alluded to by some members of the audience we all have to do that so thank you Miss Tyson yeah so um back to school is a super exciting time um but I know it can also be a

090very exhausting uh time as teachers are just getting back into the swing of things and trying to establish routines and procedures with their students and especially after they've been on summer break for a couple months so I just want to commend all the teachers for all their hard work getting back into the swing of a new school year I also had the privilege to be able to visit the resource sphere last week that Corey had was telling you guys all about um and so I also just want to commend her and just all the special service teams for all that they did to put the resource Fair together it was very well done and I think it just gave parents an opportunity to be able to talk to some different people and just get some

091different ideas and supports for their for their students so thank you Corey and all the special service teams for your work there Mr Peterson anything today things I want to thank Miss Hensley for and Mr Muir for that great event pack put on last Wednesday was exciting I've done several of these now it's exciting to see a lot more people come out in support from the standpoint within the community and programs that were are available I still love to see more of our special needs Community come out to these events I think they would be surprised that how how willing and how able they are to give you all kinds of support under all kinds of situations so that was great I really want to go back and I want to thank the state of

092Michigan legislature and our governor I think people have we've talked about a little bit but kind of overlooked it especially if you have kids in the school district right now to the free meals program um I don't know I I know when I was a dad uh with a couple of young kids and you know either they didn't want to eat in school or you had to have five bucks for them for lunch to the next two days um that's a huge difference uh they were out at Dublin here a little over a week ago and uh unfortunately the Wall Lake School System didn't get that much publicity from that but they they talked about this White Walt White Lake School where they visited but uh I think that's really a great Testament to the

093state of Michigan this doesn't happen very often guys this doesn't happen very often so take it for what it is it's very important and when you go and look forward at Future legislatures keep that in mind so thank you so I too have um you know heard a lot of great feedback about the school year getting started uh you know parents reach out to me all the time and um you know they've shared some great feedback I've heard from parents who have a renewed sense of Peace um with the IEP meetings that they've been having to start the school year I shared this with Ms Muir before our meeting that um you know there was a parent I talked to who was crying tears of happiness that um you know she felt like her child

094was going to have a real chance now this year that maybe didn't exist before because there's been just some more understanding with their IEP and the different plans so that kind of thing has been fantastic to hear um you know teachers are making a point to establish Partnerships with parents um you know not that they haven't before but it's been an active participation and active request for parents to be involved you know we rely on our teachers for a lot but parents need to to support you can't just send your kid to school and count on the teachers to do everything parents need to to be reading with their kids even right now reading with their kids at night establishing rules making sure homework is getting done making sure kids are being respectful because we

095are really all Partners in our child's education the football team honoring the troops was really awesome it was a little earlier this year but um you know I unfortunately couldn't make it to the game because I was working late but I saw the Coast Guard helicopter over my house and that was that was pretty cool so uh you know a great way to honor people who have sacrificed so much for our country um you know there's even the kids who were nervous to go to school that first day who now after you know just a few days in school are excited to go to school and you know they might be exhausted but they're excited to go and that's really a testament to the staff the teachers the parents who are really making education uh

096you know an important uh you know Cornerstone in in a child's life and so that's fantastic um you know Dr bernia has been amazingly responsive to parents you know I always encourage people to follow the chain of command you know people come to me with you know this that and the other thing I say start here talk to the principal whatever but when people are running into roadblocks they reach out to Dr bernia and it's amazing how responsive he is um and and so we're very lucky to have him and his team and and his leadership here and as Mr Peterson mentioned uh you know the the the free meals has been a game changer Dr Bernier was just mentioning to us before we we came in here that they are serving double the meals

097now in food service so um you know hats off to all the people that work in the lunchrooms and the cafeterias at these schools one thing that is important is even though the meals are free make sure that you're turning in those free and reduced lunch forms we probably need a different name for those at this point educational benefit forms okay that's what they're called um turn those in um you know if if there's even a chance that you might qualify for some sort of reduction it does more than just provide meals it can provide discounts on Sat um you know in whatever fees those are called my kids aren't there yet um it can provide Title One funding it can do all sorts of things so fill out the forms turn them in it's

098not just about the free lunch that everybody's getting now or in the free breakfast it's about so much more so please make sure you're turning those in and you know continue to support your students continue to support your teachers don't wait until um you know the the teacher is you know having a bad day to to say thank you you know say thank you up front point out the good things um you know everybody's human teachers are human too even though I when I was a kid I used to think they lived in the closets at school um you know say thank you early and often because it is a thankless job sometimes and um you know everybody uh enjoys a pat on the back once in a while thank you Mrs Kaplan okay I'm

099going to be quick I just have a couple things um first I just want to say on Saturday at Wild Lake Central there's going to be the preview show which is for the marching bands and other marching bands it starts at 7 pm and if you have not seen a preview show or you haven't come to witness any of our marching bands come come to Central you'll be totally impressed and amazed with what our students can do and what they do do every day so that's number one number two you've all heard me say this a thousand times the 19th is the lake Sarah youth assistance Taste of the Lakes we are in Edgewood starting at 5 p.m I really encourage you all to attend and I would love to see you all there right

100now tickets are 25 at the door they're thirty dollars and hit me up if you want something and other than that I'm glad we're back to school and go lions and let's move on foreign yeah so Mr secret you sent me something today asking if anybody was going to behind the scenes at the capitol for the board on September 13th it's from like eight to one in Lansing I know I cannot personally attend is there anybody who's planning to attend if not just take a look at your schedules and know that that's going on looks like there was a pretty good agenda and yeah just just let Dr Bernie and Ms silver know that you want to go the other thing is last time when we had our session together we talked about wanting to

101do you know some some more of those I'm hoping that we'll be able to do something again in the next couple of months I know we have some conflicts with some schedules so we'll start thinking about what we want those to look like one of the things I wanted to throw out there I know we said we wanted to communicate and and talk about different items and how we want to approach board goals and District goals Etc one thing that we've also talked about is using data to derive and make decisions so there is a a data foundations class I had talked briefly with um Dr Bernie about it we could take it separately I know I've taken it as part of a data specialty certificate but we also could if you want to think

102about it we don't have to talk about it now but we could do it as a as a board if you wanted to take that foundational course and then have a session talking about you know data and how Etc we don't have to do it that way but we could so just think about it and let me know that was another thing that was kind of on my mind and then I lastly just want to kind of talk about the the PAC event one of the things that that I was impressed with this we also we had Services there we had students who were at some of the tables we had our therapy dogs there I had never been able to make one of those events so thank you for for continuing to do that

103and and I had heard um and Mr Peterson you talked about this a little bit not having as many you know parents or people who maybe needed some of those Services there and I think just you know our continued diligence to let people know who the pack is what they're doing and and maybe people won't come all the time but just know that it's there and you know anything we can do to continue to try to advertise that and talk about it because it maybe you don't know or that you need it now but you know eventually you might so I appreciate all of the the work that we're doing there in that area yeah Mr sakler one other thing is we talked about the three meals uh you know we worked very hard in

104Washington when we were there in January that was one of our goals and you know we were fortunate to get there this year Washington will be January 28th through 30th I don't know if anybody's even started to look at their calendars yet I know I would not be able to go this year as I went last year but it's something we might want to look at okay thank you all right we're now going to move on to the consent agenda and the consent agenda we have the approval of minutes from August 23rd 2023 our regular meeting we also have new hires and resignations we have Financial reports from both June and July in June the disbursements were 22 million seven hundred sixteen thousand six hundred and thirty two dollars in July they were 19 million

105nine hundred and seventy eight thousand four hundred and twenty two dollars I move that the Board of Education approved the consent agenda as presented all those in favor I opposed motion carries seven zero now I'm going to move on to Proclamation Cancer Awareness Month October Dr bernia Madam president uh the proclamation reads whereas over the past several decades our nation has made significant advances in the fight against cancer improvements in early detection and treatment of this disease have led to decreases in the rates of new cases and deaths and many people who are diagnosed with cancer are living longer with a better quality of life despite the breadth of our process an estimated 1.8 million people were diagnosed with cancer last year and more than half a million half a million Americans lost their lives

106to the disease during Cancer Awareness Month October 2023 we renew our commitment to increasing awareness about cancer and reducing the burden of this devastating illness and whereas staff students and parents of wildly Consolidated School District have planned several cancer awareness activities throughout the months of this of September and October 2023 and whereas Walled Lake Western High School is holding its 12th annual Warriors for warriors pink out football game they are selling Pink t-shirts with the proceeds going to two Charities Saint baldrick's foundation for Pediatric cancer and Angels of Hope Foundation Michigan this year's event is on Friday October 13th additionally Western is hosting the volleyball pink on October 3rd wall like Northern has five events planned the week of October 9th in honor of breast cancer awareness with proceeds supporting the American Cancer Society this

107year's events will be held at the October 9th boys soccer game October 10th cross country meet October 12th volleyball game October 12th swim meet and October 13th football game including cheer dance and marching band whereas there will be educational opportunities throughout September and October 2023 to talk to students about healthy habits to prevent cancer such as avoiding excessive sun exposure eating a balanced diet maintaining a healthy weight and making physical activity part of each day and now therefore be it resolved that the Walled Lake Schools Board of Education Administration staff students and parents together declare October 2023 Cancer Awareness Month in Walden Lake Schools thank you next is our resolution installment purchase agreements Dr Vernia Mr Chatfield bernia the maintenance department utilizes a great deal of equipment to service and maintain the buildings and grounds

108of the district much of this equipment is old inoperable and in need of replacement we recommend financing the replacement of this equipment through an installment purchase agreement which requires approval of the Board of Education and we have a resolution authorizing such an agreement for your consideration Mr Siegler or either one acting individually officer solicit acceptance a proposal for a bank or other for the borrowing your funds to finance the purchase any discussion we had a lot of it outside of outside of this to Dr Vernia thank you for answering the questions for us or probably a Mr jackfield who did okay all those in favor aye opposed motion carries 7-0 designation of depositories for school funds Dr Vernia I'm going to turn it over to Dr lons thank you sir each year the business office

109under the direction of the assistant superintendent of Business Services or designee reviews and updates the list of Banks and financial institutions to engage with during the following school year that list has been brought to the board for your approval I move that the Board of Education approved the bank's financial institutions and brokerage firms as listed and presented as depositories for school funds for the 2023-24 fiscal year and authorized the assistant superintendent of business services and or designee to conduct all banking transactions any discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carries 7-0 School Investments Dr bernian right back to Dr lons thank you Dr Bernier each year the business office under the direct direction of the assistant superintendent of business services and thus available funds is prescribed by the Michigan revised school code available funds

110are those not required for the immediate future to cover Financial Obligations examples include bond funds well projects are underway property tax revenue received in the summer will be spent throughout the year Mr Sinkler I was the Board of Education authorized the business office under the congression of the assistance services to address School District employees as prescribed by the issue divided any discussion Mrs Levin just one thing here I noticed on this motion um it doesn't say assistant superintendent of Business Services or his or her designee and since there isn't an assistant superintendent of Business Services do we need to amend this motion to add that or is that implied somehow I I think you're okay but if you wanted to add designee that's acceptable to as it stands right now it's me until we get

111this figured out so it's applied okay opposed motion carry 7-0 adopt Lakes Area Youth assistance contract for services Dr Bernie once more to Dr Lance thank you Lakes Area Youth assistance program offers services to Youth and families including summer camp counseling family education and summer playgrounds the program is sponsored by cities of Walled Lake Wixom Commerce Township Wolverine Lake Village Oakland County Probate Court and Walled Lake Schools Administration recommends the continued support of this program the Board of Education approved a district cash contribution to Lakes Area Youth assistance of 5700 and an in-kind contribution of office space telephone and postage costs for the 2023-24 fiscal year and further that the superintendent is authorized to execute the lake zura youth assistance contract for the 2023-24 services as presented Casa Grande yes yes one question with regards

112to the motion Leia is being charged currently for postage I had a long discussion with Miss less about this at the end of last year and we got a bill for the year and she said that's what will continue going forward and here it says that you're covering postage which way are we going well I uh I did not realize that this was a question that was going to come to us um but uh I think this year we will we will accept the postage costs uh and and so that going forward for this year I really hope Mrs Les is now watching because if she is she just threw something at her screen well Dr Bernie I can take you off the hook because we have already voted at Leia that we are covering

113the cost this year because of the conversation I had with Miss less so that we just would have to amend the motion to remove the postage costs for this school year if that's I think you were just I'm just trying to get him off the hook but that's okay so that's okay that's fine yep we we accepted it Leia thank you all right all those in favor aye opposed motion carry 7-0 board policy regulations update 2000 AR Dr bernia uh thank you madam president as the community saw last month we updated and published our administrative regulations as part of that process we went back and Revisited some of our forms one of them being the student field trip form this it doesn't require your vote as it is an administrative regulation but this is us

114notifying you that we have updated that form and updated it our regulations as such thank you and next we have a board policy discussion so we know that we have some outstanding items that we need to look at some updates and then we know that we also have some additional areas that board members want to take a look at in the recent past we used to have a policy committee I am going to say I think we need a policy committee again in order to move this stuff forward and what that basically means is we can have no more than three board members on that policy a committee that then any of the discussion there comes to the full board for again first reading and second reading so the full board still looks at everything

115and votes on everything but sometimes policy work just takes a long time and it it takes sometimes an hour here or two hours there and we have some additional items that Dr Bernier tells me are probably coming on down the line so I think it may be more effective to do that and I know Mr Peterson you had expressed some interest in being on that policy committee do you still want to be on a policy committee I would accept that and Mrs Kaplan Mrs Fernandez would you also serve on that committee yes I will okay so we so we are going to then um have a policy committee on Dr Bernier you'll work with them and make sure that we get them together and get stuff moving as far as policy um so so basically

116um it'll just be the three of you um just so you know for policies we cannot have um by rule anybody else there it cannot be more than three board members so those three will work and they will bring that information then forward to us again it'll come to all of us we'll get to see everything we'll see that this is how it was this is the proposed changes and then eventually we will all vote on it but I think it's a it's a we have found that it has been a good process in the past so I think this is a good um place for us to go ahead and and start the other piece that I would like us to look at in addition to the um policy information that one packet we

117looked at is we had on our agenda to look at and to talk about the code of ethics I'd like that to be something that the policy talk committee talks about as well so we can bring that back as an agenda item and talk about it so I'm just going to kind of put that out there those were the things I wanted to talk about with policy but anybody else have any comments or questions at this point yes Mrs um I want to say I do agree with the committee approach so I'm glad we took care of that without having a lot of discussion because you don't have to do that um I just want to also put out there that I would hope uh in my opinion that the policy committee decides to address

118policies with some sort of order with some sort of plan or organization rather than just piecemeal rather than just one policy of the year one policy there with some sort of organization so that we can a follow along but B uh so there's not uh preference given to a certain set of policies where there might not be preference given to others if it's done in you know random order so rather than piecemeal uh just in chunks in some way yeah and to your point I think initially there are some things that are out of date that we need to get to first so it may seem like we're not going in some kind of order and also back in 2020 after many hours and hours of policy committee work that I did with Miss Van

119Loon and Ms Dunn and then brought everything forward all of the policies were looked at were revamped and were updated but to your point it's been several years so then we can go back and look at at the rest of them as well and we can do that whole thing again if that's what the board deems that we want the policy committee to do but I think this is where we need to start first is get the ones that are outdated or the ones that don't exist that need to exist we need to get those in place did you want to say something Mrs Fernandez yeah I was just um thinking if there was something that I personally felt um we learned or that I learned as we had some individual conversations about this over

120the last nine months it's been that uh holistic approach is something that I would be in favor of obviously as a committee will work through that together but um you know I feel like there's some very very foundational things and working through those holistically I'm glad that we have admin regs now that was something that was kind of a bump along the road as we didn't really know what the supporting admin regs were and so feels like though um you know it might not have felt like tremendous progress we did make some progress on some things and I I personally would be in favor of some a holistic approach to looking at things but will work as a part of the committee as we see fit all right good did you want to say something

121else sure Mr Peterson in all of our discussions as a board here and particularly this last three months I do believe that we really need to look fine as a financial committee also at some point coming very soon I think that's been a an ongoing discussion from the beginning of the year I think it encompasses more than just understanding the budget and the budget principle I think there's other factors in our site um you know some of our our extended contracts within the district they're old they haven't been looked at in a long time and I think that the Board needs to to take an active role in that so I'm just going to throw that out there if it sticks it sticks if it doesn't it doesn't but I do we have not had

122as a board a finance committee in any time in the relative past maybe not forever I'll talk to Dr Bernie about that we definitely do need to chew on that all right I am going to move on to the Oakland County School Board Association dinner meeting I have Mrs Levin Ms Tice and Mr Siegler anybody else planning to attend okay I move that the Board of Education approved the attendance of Mrs Levin Ms Tice and Mr Siegler at the Oakland County School boards association dinner meeting on Wednesday October 4th 2023 and authorized payment of the registration fee any discussion all those in favor I opposed motion carries 7-0 Michigan Association of school board's delegate assembly is there anybody else who's planning to attend besides Mr Siegler okay I move that the Board of Education approve

123Mr Siegler to attend the Michigan Association of school board's 2023 delegate assembly and annual leadership conference from November 9-12 2023 in Lansing and authorized the registration and payment of accommodations any discussion I'll just in favor I opposed motion carries 7-0 and we are adjourned at 8 56. thank you everybody