001nine o'clock and we're going to start our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance please and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice okay um we already had a facilitated workshop and we're now I'm going to go into public commentary I have about 16 cards here as those of you who have spoken before know that we have allotted about up to three minutes if anybody does want to speak Mrs Levin is going to be our timer unless you'd like somebody else to do it tonight okay she will let you know if you get close to the three minutes if you do get close to the three minutes then if you could just finish up your thought we would really appreciate it you'll come to the podium when
002you speak and a lot of opinion on this but I'm just going to ask us please let's be respectful let's have a good meeting we'll listen to everything that everybody has to say the board will not respond here it's our time to listen to you if somebody does need to get back with you we'll try to do so in a timely manner it really just depends how many we have to respond to and how long it takes us to do that but uh let's be uh the district the board the meeting that we know we can be and let's do it together with that being said um Lisa Masset if you could come forward it should be okay it's my first time great um good evening my name is Lisa Masset and my daughter Emily
003is a junior at Northern I'm here tonight to address the district's advanced math path and the advice or lack thereof that she has received from our counseling department Emily has been ahead of math since the second grade because of this she started on the Geo calc path as an eighth grader a year earlier than most on that path at the end of Emily's freshman year she was advised to take a track that put her in AP calcer junior year this year not her senior year however because of scheduling conflicts between math and foreign language Emily is not taking AP calc at Northern this year she is taking it virtually why because of the options that were provided to her she chose what seemed like the best of the worst her other options included dropping French
004altogether taking French four in a French 3 classroom not taking AP calc at all or dual enrollment it is clear that none of these options are ideal and in fact are all unacceptable as for the dual enrollment option because we did not find out about the conflict until less than a week ago college and virtual classrooms are at or very close to capacity Emily also is a two sport athlete leaving no time to add a College schedule to her High School schedule we felt very rushed to make a decision about something we shouldn't have had to even consider this is inefficient at best and at worst leaves students such as my daughter having to potentially drop Advanced courses in math foreign language or otherwise resulting in a negative impact on their high school transcripts I
005have been placated and told over the years that students who demonstrate a need for academic rigor will have those needs met however our experience proves otherwise asking a student to choose between advanced math and advanced foreign language is not meeting her academic needs the process needs to be addressed it should be determined prior to August what the conflicts are so that they can be fixed in a timely manner schedule templates should be in place prior to student submitting course requests perhaps this can prevent conflicts like the one Emily has experienced for the past two years to that end because our high school cannot offer enough sections of AP and other Advanced courses asking students to take a class virtually or perhaps not at all it's apparent that our school district is unable to support the
006needs of those who are striving to achieve at the highest level I request that this be addressed even if it might not be in time to help my daughter thank you Heather Martinez good evening everyone my name is Heather Martinez I identify by the pronouns she her and hers and I respect the right of everyone to choose their own I'm a parent of two seniors this year and a recent graduate who just went off to Grand Valley yesterday I'm also a former graduate of Walled Lake western so I am highly invested in this District I want to also congratulate Julianne Muir who I see sitting here tonight I'm happy that her role has been elevated and I look forward to the many wonderful things that will happen in our special education department moving forward I
007also want to send all my prayers and best wishes to our students and staff as they embark on a new school year this is a very stressful time for everyone and I hope that they will all be safe and feel very supported by all of you as well as our community members as a former educator I know all the work that's been done over the summer preparing for our students and I hope that everyone here can be very supportive of our teachers our staff our board our superintendent moving forward into this school year this is not the time to cut people down to use words against our teachers and our staff that are trying tirelessly to prepare our students for the future so I just want to say thank you to all of you and
008I look forward to this school year Liz Thompson good evening my name is Liz Thompson I'm resident of White Lake Township for the past 20 plus years engineer by education with over 30 years corporate experience currently a small business owner a widow and a mother of two young adults I'm also a Christian a patriot and a proud citizen of our great country and this overall community last month's board meeting was the first I'd ever attended in any District I was troubled by what I observed but I need to do some research before jumping to any conclusions because I didn't have all my facts so I went home and did that research and I ended up even more troubled the disinformation of the July board meeting especially that shared by a long-term board member was quite
009disheartening no one wants to see our children bullied or harmed in any way I watched Mrs Tice speech at the Tea Party meeting she did not express anything that could be construed as a danger to the children's District I am deeply disappointed in board members and anyone who flat out lies to portray a narrative that is just not grounded in facts unfortunately we live in a time where this there's a concert effort to divide us and to make us enemies truth is distorted on a daily basis to serve the purpose of keeping us dumbed down and repeating false narratives free speech is frowned upon as we can no longer freely exercise our Discerning minds and question the narrative let's reject this and get back to building up our communities let's sit down and have civil
010conversations over what's truly going on because I'm confident that we could come to some common ground on this recent push to put explicit sexual literature in our schools that pushes ideas of more than two genders and so much more that's not providing a safe space for our children what it's really doing is asking young adults young minds not equipped to fully understand to carry a load that they are just not prepared for some knowledge is just too heavy for our children these topics are confusing and overwhelming to Young Minds not equipped to understand them we should not be forcing children to see and feel the world through the lens of adults innocence is worth protecting and fighting for while it's important to educate children about safety healthy relationships consent Etc anything more than this should
011be left to the parents who are best equipped to tailor these discussions to their children's individual needs and values let's not divert valuable time and resources from basic academic subjects our schools already face challenges in providing solid education Encore subject matters yeah I grew up in the only girl in my family I had four brothers who I absolutely adored I spent my days playing cops Cowboys Indians Etc only occasionally did I enter my fantasy world my Barbie dolls had an adult come to me and said you know what you can be like your brothers if you want to make a change at such a tender young age I can only imagine if I had jumped on that what a tragedy that would have been my young mind was not equipped to understand what this meant
012Norm mature enough to make such a decision so that said we should certainly be supporting children who question their identities by offering love and support acceptance guidance and get them safely through their formative years let's be the adults in the room come together and line on ways to carry that load for our children until they are old enough to understand Focus school education on the core subjects let's protect the innocence of our children they'll be adults soon enough and can make those informed decisions thank you thank you Jared is it Roshan Roshan r-o-c-h-o-n they get close okay good evening everyone I just wanted to share um kind of some feelings here so the focus and attention of everyone here tonight needs to be on how we make our district better not the US versus that
013mentality currently displayed by the board most recently at the last board meeting when the meeting had to be paused the board was requested to leave the floor until order was restored select board members stayed on the floor while the rest left the floor eventually everyone did leave but then select members came back out and sat at the table they then had to be instructed to leave the floor again I don't say this to point fingers but to instead display the clear divide this is not helping our district in any way this has been very evident at the last several meetings during the public comment portion a school board is supposed to be void of political sides this does not mean everyone should just agree on every motion and each other without asking questions and just
014going along with the flow but instead means there should be a board of individuals working together with the focus being on the school district students and staff not the current US versus the mentality recently put on the table I hope tonight's facilitated Workshop creates a more united board it is time the board works together to do what you were elected to do that is to focus on making our district the best in the state and not an individual or individual's agenda the focus is every child every day not yours or my child on select days thank you thank you Katie Bartos Katie bardos hello my name is Katie bardos I have a freshman in college at FIU in Miami I have a junior at Wall Lake Northern after the three ring circus that I witnessed
015at the last meeting and to find out that they that the kids are afraid to speak and that there are number that our number one priority are those kids and also the teachers we need to make them all feel safe and give them the best resources to be successful at the united front not US versus them we need to leave politics at the door and not on the board or in the audience these shenanigans that are going on and are derailing us from what is important to make our district the best it can be we need to refocus and ensure all of our resources and energy are on our kids teachers and staff everyone every day thank you and side note Dr bernia I love the um panel of students during the disc oh my
016gosh that give me chills thank you Christy rust hi good evening I just wanted to start by saying that we had a great Geisler get going over at Banks this past Monday hopefully Geisler will be ready to open on Monday with all the changes whatever you guys were doing over the summer um I have a current seventh grader so I'm sure he'll be fine he'll be fine but for those of you that have sixth graders and especially new parents of a new middle schooler that's in sixth grade going to the building they haven't seen rest assured the staff at Geisler is incredible and they will help your sixth grader make it through the day the week whatever they need to be successful to have a start of a great start to the year they are
017amazing um I also wanted to just touch quickly on the August 3rd board meeting and I hope that some of the board members have thought long and hard about what was said at that meeting and hopefully we'll decide to not continue with their commentary but simply apologize and move on and move forward and think about the great things that are happening in Walled Lake as we begin a new school year rather than air personal comments that do not do anything but divide this community this District this board so I I do hope that the commentary goes along with kind of what Miss Casa Grande said about being respectful and let's celebrate Walled Lake thank you Teresa Renaud did officials it's good to be here again I missed last month I'm here representing myself as a
018graduate of central my husband was a graduate of Central and my daughter was a very good graduate of Central so I missed last month I did listen to the recording it was interesting I would recommend that the next training session might include at some point in the future Robert's Rules of Order I think that would be very helpful I think there's a lot of misinformation in the audience about the entire experience I actually am celebrating the diversity that our board has as it represents the entire Community my comments tonight are my own and I have two as we enter this new season I think it would be very helpful if the board would come out with our bathroom policy and our Sports policy and where those policies come from we are going to be very
019confused as a community if things continue to happen and it gets rumored about and we don't understand why where it came from and what the corrective process action should be so if we have a bathroom policy that allows biological boys to enter the girls bathroom we need to understand that it just needs to be put out there in policy and we need to understand does that come from the state or is that a Walled Lake District thing so that's number one and then secondly what's our Sports policy there's a lot in the news we need to understand where our community stands on whether or not we will have biological boys competing on the girls teams thank you Lisa West [Applause] I just want to say I really appreciate watching your Workshop it was nice to
020see the communication between all of you and I just want to encourage you guys to continue to talk because I feel like you're making grounds by communicating you have seven different perspectives up there I know just between my husband and I we see things differently and that's okay but we just need to make sure that we try to communicate effectively so there's a common goal which is our district our kids um but I really came here though was about uh well like northern's marching band and under the amazing talented director of Mary halliburger she's amazing um I had the opportunity to serve 194 students that are in her marching band as a band rep which means we as one of three band reps we get to help put the whole band all the band camps
021and everything together but these students are so talented they work really hard at school lets out in June they are you have section leaders who are contacting their students in their section some as have as many as 30 kids in a section for meet and greets to get together practice before rehearsal start in July so there's a lot of work they put in as you consider these students I want you to Envision the diversity they have there we have students who have three years of marching band experience and are entering their fourth year to students who have never marched before just coming out of Middle School band and in the case of these incoming freshmen learn to play their instruments virtually in sixth grade so this is a huge feat I think for these kids
022at the end of July the whole Band came together for two weeks of Camp first at home camp and they learned to March and do the entire preview show which I think is just phenomenal and then the following week they are bus to camp oyesa and Holly for six days and they learned the entire halftime show um within these camps we had kids who knew nobody coming in and as they left they had friends they never expected I saw seniors that took amazing leadership roles and some of these kids who are quiet they took them under their wings made sure they had somebody a bunk with and now y'all are going to see students who are high-fiving each other in the halls and feel very comfortable as they're coming into their freshman year with all
023that being said I'd like to invite you to northern's football games and witness the talent of these 194 students coming together to perform as a single unit their first performance is next Thursday at 7 pm and then on September 14th we actually have an exciting thing where the 30 seconds come in and they get to perform alongside the band in the previous show so please come and join us sometime thank you Christopher Titus hi good evening board my name is Christopher Titus and my comments tonight are about a person that's going to be leaving this board table who has had a dramatic effect not only on my family but that your family has had on ours Mrs Les I am so proud to have served my time on the board working with you and learning
024from you and also I have also appreciated the trust that you your husband had in our district of bringing your children here and educating them here in in our district in your position of being on one other side of the thing but your dedication and your work like I said affected my family and as yesterday we found out that uh um that someone in your family was affected by someone in my family and that was a great surprise and uh actually it's my wife she says if she gets laid off by Dr bernia tonight that she she'll be okay but but again thank you so much for all of your work and your effort here for uh behalf of all of our families in the district and again I would I thank you uh Bob
025from the bottom of my heart for for all of your hard work and and secondly as um as we have now witnessed um the uh graduation of our students here uh at in early June and then the completion um Dr bernia of with your help of your uh cabinet and Mr Russo of putting together all of the teacher contracts and getting a two-year teacher contract completed and three-year contracts for the rest of our of the of your work groups here um and also as being one that was uh on the board that hired you I would implore this board to start discussions of considering to extend Dr Bernie's contract because now that he has those things under under his wing he can now start doing all of these other things to uh to make the
026this District improve move on and having that leadership being committed forward from this board committed is going to be important and it will allow him to do his work so that uh that that is my comments for tonight thank you [Applause] Titus thank you Happy New Year everyone I always look at the school year as being a new year rather than January 1. so I used to start some of my classes with a big happy New Year Banner outside of my room first I'd like to thank you Dr bernia the cabinet members and members of the board who welcomed us Educators back to school yesterday it was personally heartwarming seeing two of my former students sharing their experiences of 10 of attending school here in Walled Lake so that that student panel I thought was
027just brilliant hearing their success stories and it was a great way to start off this 23-24 school year um I also um Mrs Casa Grande touched on something in her comments that spoke to me when she shared about her four boys and I found a lot of similarity between her experience with four kids in this district and my husbands and my experience with our four children what I discovered and already knew was that having four children raised in the same household schooled in the same district doesn't mean their outcomes are the same my kids are different just as the students that come to us are vastly different in so many wonderful ways I accept all kids because of their differences and that what's that's what makes us a strong and yes diverse community so the
028theme I think of what makes us different really makes us stronger so um I liked Dr bernier's comments and I've heard them before that we are a school district versus a district of schools and and that's how I choose to view my participation in this great District so thank you so much [Applause] Magnolia good evening my name is Becky spagnolo my pronouns are she her and hers I wanted to Echo everyone on both sides here that I appreciate your willingness to let everyone observe your Workshop it gives me even a small Ray of Hope that our board is moving forward in the right direction I also Echo for the call of healing in our community but I also want to Echo what was said in the meeting that healing needs to begin with an apology
029and on those notes I wanted to share a bit of insight of how I handle apologies in my family I teach my children that an apology comes in three parts the first thing you need to have is the acknowledgment of the wrongdoing a true admission of the Act without caveats or excuses the second part of that apology is acknowledging the impact and the effects of that action had on those who as it affected be it a brother who has accidentally hit or their toy taken or a community that has been wounded and the trust has been broken the third part of the apology that I require from everyone in my life is a plan of action of how they're going to move forward how the Iran doer is going to improve their behavior and show
030that they are willing to change especially without that last part any apology is empty and it is just to Simply placate those who are wronged while they wait for it to happen again and again I expect nothing less for my children my husband they expect nothing less for me and I feel like this community should expect nothing less from this board thank you Tim sawmiller good evening Tim saw Miller Commerce Township I'm a cisgender male using using pronouns he him and his some people just don't get it and that is unfortunate I'm going to take the Kinder approach because that is my nature and assume that most people don't get it from ignorance or inexperience or from listening to a few hard-hearted people with an agenda and therefore they need to be informed and enlightened
031at the last school board meeting in June a comment was made that it is being hypocritical when someone does not accept differing viewpoints the author James Baldwin tells us that we can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in the oppression and denial of a person's humanity and right to exist I think Mr Baldwin nailed it the description of gender identity as a lifestyle is misguided and damaging it furthers the misconception that being gay or trans is a lifestyle Choice rather than an innate knowledge that a person's gender identity differs from the one they were assigned at Birth many lgbtq people feel distressed about it and wish they could fit in as easily as other people would you choose to live in a way that risks making you the target of
032threats and abuse major lifestyle choices include career changes leaving or joining a religion becoming vegetarian choosing whether to marry or stay single they involve weighing pros and cons before ultimately making the best decisions it can be made at the time gender identity on the other hand is not a choice in language that implies that it is a choice is damaging and harmful to those who struggle with it this Board needs to do better for the sake of all students yes I can accept differing viewpoints however I cannot accept outright hostility toward any already marginalized class of people just because of who and what they are a person's very existence cannot be against your beliefs that is called bigotry and rightly so please sit back and Ponder what your so-called viewpoints are doing to other people
033words matter words can wound and hurt do not allow yourself to get caught up in the hysteria of a group of people whose eyes and ears and hearts are closed to everything except their own narrow view of the world we are all better than that I know we are I close repeating one of my favorite quotes the route to happiness is to accept people as they are not as we wish them to be to see them in the clear light of day and still love them thank you Mike wise [Applause] my name is Mike wise Commerce Township I reviewed a video clip of a recent Lakes area tea party political event in June where a member of our school board provided the Tea Party a recap of our recent Wall Lake board meeting introduced themselves
034as part of the Tea Party Dream Team referred to many of the speakers during the public commentary portion of a recent school board meeting as the other side ask key body members to attend school board meetings and to support the three conservatives on the board and to put out a call to action for the 2024 election indicating it is very important that two more conservative two more conservatives to win wall-leike School Board seats one of our high school students spoke at that recent school board meeting and was included in this Tea Party video clip again this board member described the student as someone from the other side the lgbtq side this board member did not take an active stance to protect that student who was shown in the Tea Party video this is acting in
035a manner inconsistent with the office of a school board member this board member has a responsibility of supporting Wall Lake Schools as a whole not just particular interest groups like the tea party they are a part of by attending this tea party meeting they are clearly making a distinction between us and them they signed an oath that they would be bipartisan and have no political affiliations they broke that oath according to the Michigan Association of school boards board members are expected to uphold ethical guidelines and to ensure that familial or business relationships or interest groups special interest groups affiliations don't contribute to a bias in decisions they are they violated these ethical guidelines their participate dissipation in this tea party meeting runs contrary to the Wall Lake Board of education's governance standards board members are
036expected to demonstrate concern for all students and support the Board of Education regardless of personal position they must be open to a discussion without prior judgment on an issue they also violated a wall a court of ethics and should be disciplined the code States I will represent all school districts constituents honestly and equally and refuse to surrender my responsibilities in any partisan Principle Group or interest I was respect respectfully listened to those who communicate with the board seeking to understand their views while recognizing my responsibility to represent the interests of the entire School Community they also shared this tea party meeting with Shane Trejo Trejo praised the Charlottesville anti-semitic white supremacists in civil as civil rights Heroes and condo their political violence Trail was also a editor of a website which celebrated white supremacists and
037their political violence and hate what is this board member thinking what should we think about this person this board member's behavior is unacceptable unhappy vehicle opens the Walling schools to Legal liability and is potentially dangerous I am writing to encourage a school board to move to censure this person and if possible remove them from the Wall Lake School Board Wall Lake upholds the belief of every child every day this board member does not share that same value I look forward to your response and a circulation of a public recall position petition thank you to those board members who contribute to a positive atmosphere in our Wall Lake Schools [Applause] Faith Frontera I'm sorry I said Faith Frontera if you didn't hear me thanks hello first I want to thank you all for all you do
038and that I appreciate your support for the Secure Storage resolution my name is Faith and while I may be one of the newer faces here I have been able to watch the majority of recorded meetings I think it's good that more people are showing up it takes courage just to end up here and every student staff and Community member should feel proud in doing so although I've lived in Wixom for the last 10 years my two kids didn't be in school in Walled Lake District until 2021 after my husband and I got married and bought our home during the last couple years I've had the privilege of volunteering as an assistant basketball coach for the Walled Lake Community Ed I've been a room mom for my son's classroom and I volunteered for several events such
039as flower sales Book Fairs popcorn days and more at both of my children's schools I love seeing the diversity of our community when I'm cheering into Iman or listening to a vocal music performance I'm not thinking about the political views of the parent next to me when I'm picking my fifth grader up from camp and I meet eyes with another parent who's discreetly wiping away a tear I'm enjoying a human connection with one goal in mind the happiness and well-being of our children together we all make up the Walled Lake community that being said I think it is important that board members fulfill their duties in a nonpartisan way there is no other side especially when our motto is every child every day all of our children deserve a high quality education and a safe
040learning environment that is free from discrimination the divisive rhetoric that has been reoccurring at these meetings is a waste of time and energy that could be better spent on real issues like the bullying that goes on in our schools one of my children will not be attending Walled Lake Schools this year due to that bullying specifically to children who may seem be seen as different because of a disability skin color religion or being part of the lgbtq community one child leaving the district may not seem like a big deal but it is when you're the parent of that child and watch them go from excited to get up and go to school every morning to having panic attacks going into the building there is a post in the Walled Lake parents Facebook group discussing children
041being bullied in middle school which has over 100 comments and reactions we can all agree no child deserves to be bullied ever for any reason maybe we can better invest our time and energy into combating that along with other important issues at the very least we can set an example to our children that we can be kind and compassionate to one another in spite of our uniquenesses I appreciate all that the board does and hope that you will continue to support our community in its entirety while holding one another accountable and failing to do so thank you [Applause] it's an eveline B eveline hello my name is Evelyn I go to Walnut Creek Middle School and I'm in eighth grade I am part of the lgbtq plus community and I've had many different experiences with
042the school I've experienced a bus driver threatened to report me to the authorities for being gay and I have also experienced a teacher standing up to me signing up for me to that bus driver I'm very thankful for the staff at Walnut Creek for the support but I'm also upset that people are bringing politics into schools it is not necessary I and many of my friends have been bullied to some extent over being lgbtq people I know have been told to hurt themselves for loving who they love which I find extremely disturbing and offensive my main point is why do we bring politics into schools we are kids after all this is a school board you should care more about your children's education than whether a girl and a girl or a guy and a
043guy like each other or a girl feels more like a boy or a reverse at such a young age we shouldn't worry about people's different beliefs and opinions and should more focus on making friends and getting a good education there has been conversation about banning books and I'm not sure it's necessary to ban them I understand if you don't want your child reading something but I think that that should not dictate the rest of the district I understand some topics can be triggering but instead of Sheltering your child you could talk to them about it if it is a major issue you could ask your teacher to give a different book to your child we can find a compromise and a common ground if we all have an open mindset you and me don't have
044to have the same opinions we don't have to agree on everything but can we please take politics out of school boards why can't we just coexist why do we have to be against each other when we all have the same goal to raise and improve future Generations we should embrace our differences or at least not hurt each other because of them there's no need to tell each other that we shouldn't feel a certain way and there's no need to even bring it up in an educational setting can we please just coexist together not only for you but also your kids thank you for listening I hope you all have a good night [Applause] Amy Owens [Applause] hi my name is Amy Owens um first I just want to say thank you for teaching my child
045how to get up at this Podium at barely 13 years old and speak her truth I appreciate it so that's my girl she's entering eighth grade at Walnut Creek my two nephews graduated from Walled Lake Northern within the past five years I am nervous scared actually to speak out tonight I'm positive some of you on the board understand that I attempted to speak up during the pandemic about better online curriculum and I got heckled by the crowd and I've been afraid to come back here ever since that experience stayed with me today and it's been with me ever since I was especially concerned for my daughter to speak tonight the reality of the world we live in is that I don't think it's safe to call attention to ourselves bullying is real hate crimes happen
046suicide is devastating I speak from experience and when I see board members participating in political campaign parties were videos of minor lgbtq members are being shared as the other side and being used to Rally those people who are against us that heightens my fear for my child's safety in this community but then I think about civil rights movements and women's equality movements and remind myself that great change happens only when the oppressed are brave enough to speak out for themselves Bullies Are silenced only when their victims stand up for themselves I will not suppress my child's voices or the voices of so many like her I will not teach her to hide who she is I will not tell her that she needs to change who she is to make others more comfortable in their
047bigotry we live in a country that is made Beautiful by our many differences and the freedom to express them however with that freedom comes an even greater responsibility to learn how to live amongst those who are different than us this truth holds weight across the entire political Spectrum we need to learn to coexist our children need to focus on their education and learn how to navigate a world where everyone is unique and brings something beautiful to the collective experience I'm here to ask the Board of Education the school staff and administration and our community at large to focus on what's most important guiding our younger generation to be successful and productive adults and citizens of this community please require your school leaders to double down on Zero Tolerance policies for bullying so that all children
048feel safe to walk the halls of our school buildings I want to leave you with this quote from LR nost and author of little hearts gentle parenting and a well-known child advocacy advocacy researcher it's not our job to toughen our children up to face the cruel and heartless world it's our job to raise children we will make the world a little less cruel and heartless thanks for listening to us tonight Sandra daus [Applause] hi thank you board um I enjoyed your meeting before this meeting this doesn't feel like a safe space to me and I'm a Community member I'm a taxpayer and I'm very disappointed that right up on your board pops up there will be no personal attacks on individuals they will not be tolerated and this board every one of you who didn't
049jump up when I felt like leaping up and saying personal attack that's a personal attack I don't care if it's on this side or this side I'm against all personal attacks and it's really disheartening to watch this board up here just being trained or counseled on how to hold meetings and when we have some diversity here quite a bit of it uh you're not willing to stand up and say we will not let you single out any board member or any person in the audience and so I'm disappointed I moved to Walled Lake in 1988 my life is likely more diverse than anyone in this room I was born or I was graduated from high school before a lot of you were born and I paid taxes for decades to support this District I would
050like to see everyone's sex lives kept out of Education I was a teenager in the 60s when sex education was brought in to solve all the problems let's just give everybody equipment to make sure that they can go about in activities and promote it and paid for by the taxpayer I'm not against people but I am disappointed that our state legislature did not agree to give the same rights to religious um expression and identification as they chose to give give to the LGBT community I believe that civil rights should be equal rights and that if one person is allowed to make their viewpoints then other people should be also and I'm I'm just disappointed that we can't focus can we all agree that we need children who know how to do math if their computer
051goes down do we need so much money being spent on computer stuff good grief 25. the children I know play with computers plenty and they know how to work them they need a good book that is not full of pictures that I as a 70 year old married woman for 48 years was embarrassed to look at and just keep it math reading science real science Hillary Glaser sorry Hillary Glaser that's okay I understand I wasn't real loud so for those of you that don't know me uh my name is Hilary Glaser I am the Walled Lake PTSA council president for the upcoming school year um I might become a regular person around here I'm hoping I do because I want to be able to provide you guys with updates on what our school ptas and
052ptsas are doing um if you I know there were a couple of you at the presidents and principals breakfast um you already know that one of my goals is to create a diverse and cohesive Community um a community that actually supports all students and we can accomplish this goal by increasing our visibility of all of the ptas within the school in our district and our ptas are actually doing a great job of that already they're leaning into their school communities and they've been doing so over the last two weeks New Beginnings are hard I'm an incoming sixth grade parent and PTA members have showed up to high school registrations they did that last week they showed up to middle school registrations in elementary meet and greets this week and they're really doing an incredible job
053of answering so many questions from any new parent providing guidance to current parents on you know what to do with the whole free lunch thing um or hey where do we go if um I need to get a bus tag whatever it is ptas are there to help and I got to watch this firsthand um as a as a PTSA president at Geisler as I'm sitting at my table and I'm watching incoming sixth grade parents come up to the table with deer and headlight looks just like their kids and having board members tell them like hey it's okay so you're gonna go do this your Chromebooks are going to be over there yes your kids are going to use Chromebooks they're also going to use pen and paper they're going to read books it's going
054to be okay take a deep breath everything will be okay um Christy you're right sixth grade they're gonna be okay um I have to keep that in the back of my head but they were doing this over the last two weeks whether it was incoming kindergarten parents incoming sixth grade parents ninth grade parents or just people who are new to the district and I'm really proud of that I had the great pleasure of attending Geisler get going on Monday I also had the great pleasure of feeding the Geisler staff this morning at 6 15. so if I'm a little tired and shaky it's been a long day but then on the flip side I also got to go to um the Wildcat welcome the Popsicles with the principal for Mary Helen guest and answer those
055questions for incoming kindergarten parents incoming special service parents who have transferred into guests and it was incredible I I love being in this position and I hope that over the course of the year I get to continue to give you these updates as something positive to look forward to but right now your ptas and I'm almost done your PTA presidents are busy putting together baskets for the Lakes Area Youth Association um Taste of the Lakes we're here to help all of our students in the community but also if you have any ideas for Creative baskets I've run out of them so I'm just gonna I'm gonna leave with that um I do want to thank you for your time tonight and I hope to see all of you at PTA meetings throughout the year thank
056you I'm going to move on to Administration administrative commentary Dr Bernier we're going to open tonight with Dr lons nothing at this time thank you Dr Bruno Mr Durkin nothing this evening Dr Bernie Mrs kohanski thank you Dr Bernie I just want to highlight I know a few people mentioned Middle School registration and high school registration um I understand it was a busy time and I just want to thank our staff especially our I.T staff that was really out there helping to support all of our parents some of those new parents that that Hillary Glaser just mentioned and help guiding them our I.T staff is small But Mighty and they really have worked hard over the last few weeks in making sure that parents and students are ready to start school on Monday thank you
057thank you we're going to go to Ms Muir thank you Dr Bernie I just want to mention that for our Pac parent resource fair that we're having this year our non-roll back to school resource Fair will be occurring on August 30th from 4 30 to 6 30 p.m at the Richardson Senior Community Center so we're looking forward to seeing everyone out thank you Dr Bernie I won't I look forward to giving a bond update and construction update in two weeks but just to assure everybody including Mrs Russ we do have all of our inspections and approvals ready for all of the schools and we are ready to open on Monday again foreign Mrs Les nothing for me either thank you Dr Meredith all right just a few from me uh we Mr Chad will hit
058on just a second ago we are so excited to welcome our students back we welcome our staff back yesterday in such a positive atmosphere and the energy was so so good and so positive so I know uh everyone on on my team we're excited to be out and see the the students return to school next week we're really really looking forward to seeing you I want to compliment the board for their work session earlier this evening and their commitment to working together I thought that that was uh that was time very very well spent and and something like that I I think takes courage and your courage to to be open to be a little bit vulnerable and to speak openly in that Forum was was positive and I think we'll serve uh our community
059very very well I want to welcome Julianne Muir to the board table for the first time she's our new assistant superintendent of special services and has just yes [Applause] and has really gotten off to to a great start uh the way that she approaches and has talked about engagement and support and empowerment for not not just our staff not just our students but but their parents as well I'm so excited about that and tonight we wish it farewell to Mrs Les this is her final board meeting I shared this yesterday and I want to share it again on the public record uh in the 11 12 school year the state of Michigan took just over 200 away from school districts in the middle of the year and then they eliminated something called 20j funds and
060there was only a small number of districts that were receiving 20j funds but Walled Lake was one of them it was more than 300 per student so in the middle of the school year Walled Lake woke up one day with a more than 500 cut over 15 000 students and that's traumatic and it created a massive deficit Mrs Les and her team and her leadership was vital to steering this District through that period of time the state then came up with something that they called the 2x formula where some districts received X and some districts received 2x if you were one of those districts that received the 20j funds even though they had been taken away from you and never restored you were in X District so while Walled Lake would receive 135 dollars per
061pupil neighboring districts which were in the 2x formula would receive 270 dollars and so the build back from that deficit took a lot of time and Mrs Les's leadership was so instrumental to making that happen at our meeting on August 3rd we met and the board approved agreements to give long overdue raises to employees on top of the raises that were given to our teachers at a June meeting and we are financially stable and we're able to do that for our employees and make the largest investment in our employ employees in more than a decade because of Mrs Les's leadership so on behalf of me on behalf of the entire team on behalf of the board on behalf of the community thank you very much Mrs Les for your work for your contributions and we
062will miss you terribly thank you Dr bernia I just want to say that that I love this District I truly do and it's been an honor to serve this District this community the students I have worked side by side with the most amazing dedicated people who truly care about kids and I'm going to miss you dearly we're going to now move on to board commentary Mrs Kaplan good evening I just want to plug uh Lake Sarah youth assistance and taste of the Lakes which is coming up September 19th at Edgewood it's from 5 30 to 8 P.M tickets right now are 25 dollars and it's thirty dollars at the door um we would appreciate if anybody wants a ticket you can see me you can call the lake Sarah youth Assistance office and we'll get
063you tickets um I know Mrs Glaser talked about the baskets that we auction off they are a huge success and a huge hit and every penny that comes into Lake Sierra youth assistance is going directly back into the kids that need assistance in our district and so the more people that participate the bigger budget we can have so I encourage everyone to come to the taste of the lakes and just on a side note what it is is we have 19 area restaurants that come and they have little taste of their food you know one of their favorite food dishes that they want to share and when you buy your ticket you can come in and you can taste all the the things that are there you can bid on the baskets there's you know
064different auction items different baskets and different things like that and it's just a it's a very fun night so I encourage you all to come and do that um I do personally want to say thank you to Mrs Les for all that she's done for this District it's been a very tireless job and she's been phenomenal at it so thank you for all that you've done for us I also want to say welcome to miss Muir um glad to see you at the table we appreciate that I'm looking forward to working futurely with you I would also just want to say looking forward to the very beginning good at beginning to the school district and I appreciate the work that us as a board did this evening so let's keep that up this is 11.
065thank you Mrs casagrande um echoing you know the welcome to miss Muir goodbye to Mrs Les I will miss your lessons um I I too enjoyed our workshop and I think that we've got a lot of good goals uh plans going forward to to really become a more cohesive unit and to be the example that our community needs us to be my kids are going into eighth grade and um I heard something from a parent today who also has a child going into eighth grade who was giving some advice to parents going into sixth grade and I think it was great advice it said be a lighthouse for your children not a helicopter and I thought that that was that was a nice way to think about the role of a parent not just in
066middle school but but throughout a child's life but to expand on that I think all of us need to be a light for our community everybody here who's passionate about anything you get up there you speak we are here we speak take that energy and be do something positive with it I think that we can accomplish so much by by taking our energy and doing good with it I think at the end of the day we are all so much more alike than we realize we have so much more in common than we realize that to focus only on the differences detracts from the things that make us similar and and really it hurts our community and I'm focused on and committed to being more of a light in the community and I hope that
067more people will join me in doing that going forward this school year Mr Peterson thank you Mr Casa Grande yes I have a couple of comments hopefully I don't get too long-winded I didn't get a chance to speak much since uh the early part of June so the first one I really would like to go back to is the June budget um sometimes we have a challenge in trying to understand why some board members will speak out and ask certain pertaining questions to budgets and how they operate and the function of them and maybe what they do show and what they don't show so um the first thing I want to say from that meeting is that for the Wall Lake School teachers that were here that may have been concerned about not being paid
068in July into the budget wouldn't be passed that just wasn't going to happen so just to reassure you all that that was never going to be on the table so but we didn't have a chance to really speak that the same thing on the budget there's got there's a lot of times when I personally will take a look at the budget and say hey there's some things that you really are looking for but you don't actually see them so one of them is new ideas or new curriculum money or things of that nature so I think that's an important aspect so when people call out you know are we being too tough on the administration or or Not that we're doing that because we're looking for that future and is that future present so at
069the same time I think there were some comments about the open schools budget that was not passed by this board in May and there was more to that the Oakland schools budget had a lot of uh things that were a little bit peculiar for this particular fiscal year one of it was they showed some reasonable Revenue increases in that budget but they had a lot of areas that were being cut back in so their vocational programs were shown fairly large cuts and so were their special needs program which are basically what they administer on behalf of the county so there's a concern there and then for somebody like myself I always want to look and see if there are some new money in there for some new programs I think we all are always interested
070in that so I think when you hear those comments so we had some board members that obviously voted against it I had to leave that meeting on some personal reasons so I would have voted for that against that budget also not because I I'm out to get Oakland schools I'm out to see that there should be those opportunities and I have to ask questions why are they cutting in some of these these really vital areas so that's something we need to ask we had a great work session and I I just want to ask everyone sitting here that we're able to view that work session that we talked at some great length about nonpartisan and what it takes to be a school board member in the state of Michigan and for some of you me
071that we're able to watch that um you have to realize that you know the state of Michigan has requirements that we all run as a nonpartisan candidate and we operate as a nonpartisan candidate so I really would hope that we can get your support too not only of you that are here today present but you that are zooming on a day-to-day basis to help us it's not an easy task by no means it's a tough task to stay in that kind of neutrality that it takes to be a good effect of local board members so I'll ask for that support from you guys all the time the other issue for me it's probably not the the one that people want to hear a lot about but I spent a lot of time when I came
072on this board about zooming and about having these meetings broadcasted publicly and I I think it's important that that it wasn't just myself but there are other board members for years in in the preceding periods that also advocated strongly for those but I think once we were able to achieve that and I thank Dr bernia for his support in getting us there in January but I think people have to realize that that's the school board and the school districts media so we do that and provide that so that you have that opportunity to see this proceeding whether you see it here live in in in real time or you view it some other time of the month months going forward but that's really there for your viewing and I think that a lot of times
073I saw a lot of comments come in that you know it's you know it's on the internet and it's you know it's public and all this it's not really that public there's a lot of things you can't do on the internet anymore you can't download music for free you can't take videos for free anymore so you have to keep in mind when you guys view these things that this is this is just a public viewing for you to to use in that form not to take it and use it in some other form so I would just you know give you the comment that there's for some of us that worked really hard to get to this point it's very disheartening when we get into a position where we're now having to go back and
074forth well why would it be used this way and why would it not so please refrain when you possibly can it's for your personal viewing um the last comment I have is I was very happy to be able to visit and watch the Wall Lake western boys varsity soccer game last Friday night with a brand new coach um Unfortunately they drew at three to three with uad Jesuit um but a very spirited game and for those of you that you probably all know I'm a pretty good soccer guy so tomorrow night I think we have Wall Lake Central and Wall Lake western at Central so at 7 p.m uh boys varsity I think it would be a very spirited game too if you have time to come out and watch thank you Miss Tice sorry
075um yeah so it's hard to believe summer is over already summer goes by so fast and I know there's been a lot of people throughout the district working really hard this summer lots of students and teachers doing summer school and so just thank you to all of them who worked so hard this summer and all the staff just trying to prepare for a new school year I was in today trying to get some stuff fixed with my email issues so there's been a lot of people working really hard so thanks to all of all of them this is less you're going to be greatly missed and so just thank you for all your years of service here and just thank you for just I know I've spent some time in your office as well and
076just thank you for all your help just trying to navigate all the stuff as a new board member appreciate that welcome to Mrs Muir um and then I just really appreciated the workshop that we were able to have tonight I think it was very beneficial to just be able to sit down and just have some just really good discussions and just hear just the um just here kind of people's heart behind things and so some of you may have already been here for that some of you may have not so just to kind of maybe if you weren't here just to repeat a little bit from earlier um I I know a lot of people think you know we talked about having that political separation being non-partisan and when um when I sit up here
077um I am not sitting up here trying to be political in any way um but um I was just telling my fellow board members that I'm not making decisions based on my politics but I am making my decisions based on my faith because my faith informs everything that I do and I can't separate my faith from who I am um because because that's who I am and for me to do so would be to um to violate my own conscience and so um I I'm a teacher and I spend my day working with six and seven-year-olds and that's where I am most comfortable I enjoy teaching my classroom full of kids and I'm excited to get back into my classroom on September 5th and I can be with them all day long and it's great
078and um coming in and talking to a group of adults talking in front of people is not necessarily where um is just not where I feel most comfortable and so um yes I did get asked to speak at a tea party um about a month or so ago and um so I had a whole speech prepared um and as I got up there I got nervous as I often do speaking in public and so um as I deviated a little bit from my speech I may I said things that in hindsight I realized um was probably not the best choice of words and as a result um you know was offensive to some of my fellow colleagues and that was never my intention it was never my heart to be that way and also I
079think as we were discussing earlier in our Workshop um um just even um you know I had made a comment about the other side and I was not referencing any of my board mem fellow board members at this table but I will say as community members get come up to this Podium and directly call out some of the new board members it does feel like in US versus them um and um not not by my colleagues here but as people get up and make public comment and and call specific members on the board out um it has felt that way that the community is against um the US new members coming in um so um you know I I do apologize for um you know being offensive in that way um you know but I
080think it's also important for you to hear my heart behind that as well and to know um you know I'm I'm clearly um not perfect and um you know I was actually I was just praying the other night that I would be able to be humble and teachable um because I believe that those are important characteristics to have and I want I want to be that um I don't claim to know everything and so when I when I am wrong I do hope that I can be humble enough to acknowledge that and um you know to take that responsibility because I think it's important and it's something that I teach my students to do and I should not be teaching them to do something that I'm not willing to do myself um and so I
081know also it was um you know brought up that some of you don't feel safe coming to the podium um but I will say that as a board member um you know watching some of you come up and make some of these comments sometimes we or I guess I shouldn't speak for the whole board but I um sometimes look and feel like okay I'm gonna make sure I walk out with somebody tonight because that you know you could see the anger on somebody's face um and so that that goes both ways sometimes we we I don't feel safe either and um I know Dr bernia has been great to you know I know if if he knew I didn't feel safe I know he would be more than willing to say hey I will go
082out with you I will whatever um you know so I appreciate um his willingness to do that um but um but I think that's something that that you as the audience also need to know and um you know and then it was brought up in our Workshop hey you know those comments weren't even so much my problem as this video that was shown um and just so you know I had nothing to do with the video that was shown um I did not do not condone that in any way um I had no part in the video that was shown so um you know I do apologize for um you know that um student not feeling safe um and I would not show videos of our minor children thank you thank you you know what
083I love about this time of year is walking into a school building uh PTSA breakfast with the presidents getting together with staff for uh the teacher and staff orientation I walked into Northern Wednesday morning yesterday yesterday time flies when you're having fun I walked into Northern yesterday about 7 30. this school was empty except for the staff that was getting prepped and I just looked at this beautiful building and I and everybody coming in was smiling and laughing and having a good time and my favorite line to a lot of the staff and specifically to some of the newer staff is please bottle it because you'll need it come March or April of next year but you know it is a great feeling it is a great time to start again to see the improvements
084to our buildings to see the uh growth at Western that is long overdue Mr Chatfield and and to visualize all of this it really gives me a lot of Hope um the student panel yesterday I think that is something we should continue to do on a yearly basis because it really highlights the end product that is coming out of this District what they are capable of doing their thoughts their ideals their visions and their hopes for tomorrow so it gives me a lot of pleasure in that uh Mrs Muir welcome I am thrilled to see you at the table Mrs Les to somebody who helped me understand School finance that I had no knowledge of well when I started that explained the numbers that when I was panicked about 20j and the cuts that year
085looked at me and said it's going to be rough tornado warnings after labs where do we inside five we have to take a recess because we have to go to a secure area so we're not sure where that is but we're going to find out from Dr Lance in the hallway everybody everybody yeah okay come okay are we back in sessions we are back in session go ahead and go ahead Mr Sandler so anyways Mrs Les you're going out with a bank too so uh just thank you I know where to find you at Oakland schools and last but not least Mr Russo I wanted to call you yesterday for the four digit lottery number but I failed that's it thank you hey welcome back everybody welcome back to the meeting after a tornado alarm
086and also to the new school year I'm sure um it brings a lot of excitement and a lot of trepidation probably not only for the students but for parents and for teachers so here's to an amazing new school year thank you Mrs Les um welcome Ms Muir and I hope that folks got a chance to watch the workshop um and that we had recently and I hope that there will be many others and I um I am personally excited and energized to be able to have discussions and conversations about topics that will move us forward in this District I think that's what we're hungry for as a board I think that's what the community is hungry for and if you didn't see it I think we took a very um a very sound first step
087to that tonight that I believe all of us were pretty um happy with so just a challenge to the community as you start to see us shift and focus on things that we want to be focused on to make our district better please shift with us and bring comments and bring your opinions and bring things that are important to those topics as well as whatever else you're feeling but um but I think that together we can set a new tone and have an amazing school year thank you and so I just have a few things I want to thank Hillary Glaser for coming and talking about our ptas and PTs and one of the things I always do is I join PTA or PTSA every year and I no longer have a students in the
088district because they've graduated but you can still join and it is an advocacy group and I would encourage everybody to hop online and you know find a PTA or PTSA to join and you know get involved in you know contacting our legislators or getting those calls to action and and letting them know what we think as a community as parents as taxpayers Etc so I'm not sure that she's she's still here but thank you for the reminder I wrote myself an action item to remember to do that and also I want to thank the I.T staff a couple of us a few of us were a little disconnected this last week when we realized when we switched over that we were a little disconnected to our email for a couple of days and I was
089very promptly by Dr Vernia and Ms silval and uh uh Mr Brian Weber I was put back in in connection with everything so that was very nice and we know things happen but it's nice to know we have that support and and Mr Siegler talked about a couple of things but we're so um glad to see the groups coming back into the buildings and and and the important um groups that that that help us start that mission and in helping to educate our students and that's what I told my husband there's you know four things that I get to do this week on behalf of the board or this month and and so I had to welcome 57 new teachers to the district that was wonderful to see all of that and we realized we're
090a little old I think our HR manager said he actually taught one of the the new teachers so that was interesting and I remember when we used to sign certificates but this time we were they were doing Southeast so that was different that was new but it was just really nice to welcome 57 new teachers to the district and so thank you Mr Russo for all your hard work and your staff's work in doing that and then the welcome back you already mentioned so I won't dwell on that um the other thing that uh do we did is we welcomed back the administrators and the and the staff and that was wonderful to to see we've shifted Personnel across the district and some are still in their same positions but to see the energy and
091you know the choices and the work that all of our administrators will do to lead in this District was just fabulous the energy in that room was just amazing and I was only there at the very beginning of it so that was that was great and yes the PTSA Council and principal's breakfast is always a a great um you know seeing all the leaders of the people who put in all that time and volunteering and effort was just fabulous so all those things happened in August before the students walk in the door and we're just really happy as a board to be able to be there and to welcome them back all right with that we're going to move on to the consent agenda on the consent agenda we have the approval of minutes from
092our June 1st 2023 special meetings we had a closed session and also a regular meeting and then we also had proposed June 8th special meeting closed session for a superintendent evaluation and then on the June 15th we had a special meeting August 3rd a special meeting closed session and then also a special meeting that was an open meeting we also have a Personnel recommendations new hires and resignations we have purchases under 50 000 for class links staff and student single user online access system a one-year annual software license renewal for forty six thousand six oh eight oh two that's coming from the general fund we also have a huddle Walled Lake Central Western and Northern High School's athletic live stream video system one-year annual subscription renewal for thirty thousand fifty eight dollars and 19 cents
093also coming from the general fund this is Cash granted Mrs Lavin I move that the Board of Education approved the consent agenda as presented all those in favor aye we now have purchases Dr bernia we're going to go down to Mrs kahanski thank you Dr bernia our first item is Skyward which is our K-12 student management system it is our annual one-year software license renewal in the amount of 146 251.62 which will come out of the general fund Mr casc Grande I move that the Board of Education approved the purchase of Skyward K-12 student management system one-year annual software license renewal for 146 000 200 146 251.62 from the general support all right any discussion all those in favor aye Oppo a poem carry 7-0 back to Mrs kohanski thank you thank you Dr bernia
094our next item for purchases is the Google for Education which we call the G suite for Education it is our one-year annual software license renewal of 51 709.75 which will also come out of the general fund the Board of Education approve the purchase of Google for Education one year annual software license renewal for fifty one thousand seven hundred nine dollars and seventy five cents from the general fund any discussion all those in favor closed captioning not available louder I moved at the Board of Education approved the purchase of iready K-8 student diagnostic assessments of reading and math one-year annual sophomore software renewal professional development services for 444 557 dollars from the state grants distributed through the general fund one that I've seen before can you give us a little bit of background on what and
095how long we've had this within the district and uh and uh just the wherewithal I again it was new to me this week so and it's a large number so absolutely I know that um I fielded a a couple of community questions too as well regarding iready as well as some board member questions about that we've used iready in the district for about 12 years we went to a diagnostic adaptable computer adaptable diagnostic system for our teachers to use because it's definitely time efficient and quicker provides standards um and a really great picture of how our students are doing in terms of mastering those standards year by year it also is a a type of a software assessment system in which our teachers can really quickly group students together I don't know if you'll remember
096when I shared data at the end of June we talked about how teachers can use this platform to actually create student groupings whether that be for students that need additional support or students that are at the high end that might need more enrichment and more challenge um and and so we've been using this system for about 12 years we used it prior to covid in terms of helping our teachers to be more responsive in terms of their instruction it can be used formatively which means that teachers can use it for planning for instruction it can also be used summatively meaning we can look back and see how have our students done in learning what we wanted them to learn uh one of the things that happened during covid is is that districts I think one
097of the things that covid may be uncovered for a lot of places is that districts were not regularly assessing students against the standards to this degree right we've always given tests we've always given unit tests and quizzes and things like that but this particular system allows us to really track progress and progress over time and it also really allows us to tailor instruction for kids based on what they know and where they need to go next so uh because of that the state of Michigan required through and I don't have it in front of me I think it's Public Act 148 but don't quote me on that number I'll check it that uh all districts are required to provide a benchmark assessment to all students kindergarten through eighth grade and that was passed in August
098of 2021 iready was one of the approved assessment vendors they're through curriculum Associates but that was approved by the Michigan Department of Education as an allowable Benchmark assessment to address that legislation that piece of legislation that says you can't just kind of hope that kids are learning you need to be tracking that and you need to be sharing that data with with your parents on a regular basis so the great news for us is that we didn't need to really change anything that we were doing to comply with that so it is part of legislation now that we have to be providing this Benchmark assessment and you know I know it seems like a really large large amount and I know it is a really large amount but we have over 12 000 students and
099so when you think about the number of software licenses that go along with that the professional development services that they provide back to us they actually come in house quarterly I would I'll look at I'll look at my schedule I'm happy to share that with you but they come in house in District and run professional development not only for our principals but for our teachers in the use of the platform and in looking at the data and making instructional decisions so it really is very robust the state does offset quite a bit of this amount for those that are choosing i-Ready as their as one of their approved vendors and we are also able to use a couple of other Grant sources from the state to pay for this so that's the information I have
100if you need any other you know specific data I'm more than happy to pull that for you just one follow-up question so that means everyone in the district all the teachers are using that software all the all the teachers kindergarten through eighth grade use it yes everybody and we use it three times a year correct right any other questions all those in favor I opposed motion carry 7-0 and now we are moving on to bid Awards Dr Bernier we're going to go over to Mr Chatfield thank you Dr bernia each year we replenish the engineered wood fiber under our playground structures for the safety of students three quotes were obtained and we recommend awarding this project to Superior ground cover same company that performed provided the service for us last year based on their low
101price of fifty one thousand dollars I move that the Board of Education approved the bid award for playground soft surface material to Superior ground cover Incorporated from the general fund any discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carries 7-0 we're going to go right back to Mr chadfield for one more bit of work thank you uh an important feature of the 2009-19 bond program includes the construction of Team buildings at each High High School Stadium Field for teams to utilize before and during athletic events these facilities will have Team rooms athlete restrooms coaches offices a trainer's room and an office for game officials however these these facilities are not field houses and are not intended for athletic training or events the total cost for the three facilities at each uh at the three high
102schools is eight million one hundred one thousand three hundred fifty eight dollars which represents bids for the 25 trade categories necessary to complete these projects I I will add each of these facilities is about 5 000 square feet of Peace westerns being slightly larger because in order to fit it on the site we had to a demo we will have to demolish the existing visitors concession stand and incorporate it into this new facility Mr Secret I move that the Board of Education approved the bid awards for the 2019 Bond projects team building bid package for wildlife Central and Northern and Western high schools from the 2019 Bond Fund and discussion just one thing yes I know there's some people uh in the community I heard guests about the cost they're concerned about the cost one
103thing I just want to remind the community is this is money that was already approved as part of the bond this is just awarding the contract for the construction so this isn't some new expense this is just who's going to be getting those bids so of course spending is is important and where the money goes is important but this is already money that was earmarked and um it's just who's going to be doing the construction thank you and it's been more discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carries 7-0 resolution board approval of Head Start program Dr Bernier we're going to go back to Mrs kohanski thank you Dr bernia um like to let the board know this is our annual renewal of Head Start we do this every year as a formality so
104in accordance with the federal Head Start performance standards the wildlife Consolidated School District Board of Education is the governing body of our program so to comply with all federal contract regulations Walled Lake school's Head Start is submitting the following items for school board approval and those were in your board packet you should have been able to take a look at those read those over so thank you this is Casa Grande Mrs Kaplan I move that the Board of Education approved the 2024 Walled Lake Head Start budget narrative and be granted permission to pursue the Early Head Start Head Start continuation application support any discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carries 7-0 and the last two items are the board policy regulations update 4000 AR and board policy administrative regulations Dr Bernie I'll let
105you go ahead and cover those together yeah so the these two items do not require a vote from the board these are administrative regulations which fall under my purview a superintendent uh the first is 4000 AR which is essentially the roster of our administrators so this updates that roster as it stands at this moment we will come back to you and update it again as you see we have a couple open positions that we're working to fill at this time so watch for that update the second is in keeping with our discussion from the spring the administrative regulations uh the board did an update of board policy in and and the administrative regulations which accompany that word policy were not published on the website and so it had been a couple of years so my
106cabinet and I went back to work updated those documents shared them with you in June and now we're here to just confirm that we're going to upload those to our website and they will be available for the community to review so those are my two items Madam president started a school year football Friday is not football Thursday Western 42 Mach 27. Michael Warriors if I joined at 10 35 thank you