001good evening we're going to start our Board of Education meeting if we could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and I just love it when we have all the students here and I can hear them saying the Pledge of Allegiance so loudly and proudly we're going to move on to our golden apple Awards Dr bernia yes our first golden apple this evening goes to William Rayburn William where are you William Gooden step on up right there in the least comfortable spot in the room there we go tonight's first golden apple recipient is William Rayburn categorical teacher at Keith Elementary School previously William also worked as Ed Keith as a paraprofessional William was nominated by Lisa Brewer fifth grade teacher at Keith because William engages with all of our students and always goes the extra
002mile to make meaningful connections with them this includes a special connection with students who find School difficult William lets him know they have a person they can count on at Keith in Williams nomination letter Lisa shared William always comes to work with a positive attitude he uses his great sense of humor to engage with students and staff he's able to handle conflict with students calmly while displaying a sincere interest in their well-being we are so lucky to have him at Keith Elementary William seeks new ideas by attending training when necessary he works collaboratively with staff in order to meet students academic and emotional needs he is self-motivated by the desire to meaningfully connect with all of our students not just the students in the classroom he is assigned to William goes above and beyond each
003day he is driven by the desire to connect with students and be a positive influence in their life he also makes a very concerted effort to maintain relationships with students he worked with in the past he has even volunteered to give up his own break time in order to spend time with students who may benefit from his support the students at Keith adore Mr Rayburn Dr Marcy Augustine principal at Keith Elementary Champion Williams nomination letter sharing William Rayburn is an outstanding teacher at our school he is hard-working and dedicated to his students he always goes above and beyond and is willing to support our students the teachers and his colleagues with anything his positivity and Outlook supports our vision and Mission at Keith William thank you for your hard work and dedication on behalf of
004everyone at Keith Elementary it's our honor to recognize you this evening you may speak oh she said to you I've never passed up enough to you well there you go well they said I didn't have to speak but I can't pass it up so it's a brewer I want to thank all the teachers that Keith in the time that I've been there they've been nothing but supportive I can't imagine a better staff anywhere in the world and I feel blessed and lucky every day that I wake up and I get to go there and work thank you very much [Applause] thank you our second Golden Apple recipient tonight is Andrea Schmidt laying Andrea are you here all right come on up Andrea right there in front of the podium go on the other side sorry
005sorry it's the live stream it's not me all right second Golden Apple recipient is Andrea schmidtling crossing guard at Keith Elementary School although Andrew's nominator wishes to remain anonymous that individual did share Andrea was being nominated because Andrea works hard daily to keep all children safe Andrea is a positive role model for others by working so hard and going above and beyond each and every day she makes efforts to know all of the students and families she crosses by name and truly cares deeply for their safety Andrea has worked with the West Bloomfield Police Department to ensure she's doing all she can to keep students safe she arrives at her post early uses all of the safety equipment and got permission from police who trained her to also use a cone in the road to
006stop traffic from turning when they shouldn't in an email to building Administration a Keith parent shared the following I wanted to make sure the crossing guard at the intersection of Keith and commerce roads that's not an easy job friends gets the recognition she deserves we honestly saw her save a little boy's life after school today we were in our car on Keith at the light our light was fully green and the crossing guard started walking out across Commerce Road with her stop sign a little boy who was the only one Crossing at the time started to run ahead as they always do she grabbed his backpack just in time and pulled him back into the snow pile as an SUV going West on Commerce completely blew the red light and did even slow down I
007wanted someone to know that if it weren't for the crossing guard being so alert and her quick grabbing of his backpack the worst would have happened Andrea thank you for your selfless Act of heroism on that day and for all you do to keep our students safe every day it's our honor to recognize you this evening [Applause] um I'm not a person to speak out loud but um I appreciate this very much thank you very much and like as he said too that my kids these kids are my kids also so thank you we now have our Earth Day poster contest winners Dr bernia for this one I'm going to turn it over to Mr Chatfield thank you Dr bernia good evening everybody we are pleased tonight to recognize the winners of the 2023 Earth
008Day poster contest this is the 12th year of the contest and we have what I believe is a record number 278 entries that were submitted from students across the district through an online voting process District staff selected one winning poster from each each division elementary middle and high school and I believe we have one or two of those winners here tonight to accept our congratulations on creating exemplary exemplary posters that highlight the conservation of our planet and its resources uh Mrs Mindy Miller Mindy oh right in front of me is our energy manager she started this poster contest to bring more awareness to our Energy Management program and environmental stewardship under uh Mrs Miller's Direction our Energy Management program has saved over 28 million dollars since 2004. those are dollars that would have otherwise been
009sent to the utility companies so I would like to uh thank Mindy for running a great program and getting our students involved through this Earth Day poster contest so could I have we know our High School winner a lot of mariak is a 12th grader from northern we know she has some other school obligations tonight and couldn't be here is ikoi ajiro here tonight we weren't sure if ikoi could make it ikoi is an eighth grader from Walnut Creek Middle School and we will show you their um their artwork here in a minute but I believe Chloe Newman Chloe are you here awesome show the audience your work Floyd um Chloe is a fifth grader from Walled Lake Elementary her her design was voted as the favorite of all the elementary designs and for good
010reason it is outstanding so congratulations Chloe and uh so I just I wanted to uh let everyone know in in recognition of the great work that all the students did our winners artwork has been created in life-size form and they will get to proudly display that for the rest of your life so congratulations uh toy and all of our winners and thank you very much [Applause] we will be sure to get the other winners do you have theirs their artworks as well Midland great work everybody thank you [Applause] we're not going to move on to the kindness matters Awards Dr Vernia it's time I'd like to call Mr Nyle mctarick principal of Clifford Smart Middle School up to the podium hello good evening everyone my name is Nyle maktar I'm proud principal of Clifford h
011smart middle school and co-chair Pearson of the diversity equity and inclusion committee along with Dublin Elementary principal Danielle BG Walled Lake Elementary principal Julie amen and Clifford h smart Middle School assistant principal Dan Holland a significant part of our committee work is centered on honoring individuals dedicated to the service of others and in making our community a better place and I'm honored to be here this evening to recognize our kindness matter Award winners this year we received over 50 nominations which the most we've ever received which tells us what we already know we have many incredible men women and children residing in Walled Lake Schools our nominees being honored tonight our individuals and our school Community who exhibit kindness care towards others by demonstrating kindness on a frequent basis going out of their way to
012make others feel better and inspiring others to show kindness this year we have five individuals that were selected recipients of the kindest matters award can the following awesome individuals please come down we have Rosalie Johnson Mackenzie Hurst Sherry Lux could not be here this evening but her daughter Jacqueline Lutz is able to join us [Applause] and Carlson Dan had another commitment today but ran over here and make it in time so thank you and we have Nancy van lewen so Glengarry Elementary principal Rosalie Johnson was nominated by Glengarry elementary teacher Sarah dots Rosalie is always advocating self-care at our staff and consistently shows compassion and empathy towards everyone that works at Glengarry Elementary she often checks on people and they don't feel well and personally checked on each individual with ties of Michigan State University
013and those who have college-age children filing a traged that struck that campus Sarah shared that Rosalie is the first and foremost a kind human being she exercises empathy and a other people matter mindset every day she looks for the very best in each person and she meets and she looks for other points of view and always assumes positive intent congratulations Rosalie [Applause] Commerce Elementary student Mackenzie Hurst was nominated by mother Rachel Hurst and supported by her teacher Catherine mondoc and principal Christina Carlin MacKenzie's always thinking about others feelings always inclusive an example this is what instead of buying Valentine Day cards she decide on her own to hand write a letter to each student in her class she took the time to find a compliment for each and every classmate Commerce elementary teacher Catherine mondoc
014shared I definitely supported receiving the award she is an amazing student and has a big heart she is very pathetic and always looking for ways to help others congratulations Mackenzie and great job next we have a Dean transportation bus driver Sherry Lutz she was nominated by Walled Lake parent Kelly Burnham and supported by Dean Transportation director Brian rojavec and Dublin Elementary principal Danielle biji Sherry always has treats for her children takes time to help them work through conflicts in a productive way parents have noted how well she has a difficult job she handles it with class and kindness Kelly shared that every single morning Miss Sherry shows up with a smile on her face to drive our kids I never worry about my son's safety or anything on the bus because I know she'll do
015everything she can to protect our children congratulations [Applause] next we have Walled Lake Northern High School teacher Dan Carlson nominating supported by Christina Carlson and Walt Lake Northern High School assistant principal Chuck Froning Dan volunteers his time at Walden Northern High School at his church and within his community while we can list the many things they had to hand volunteers for I believe what really stood out to me was when it was shared that after a tragedy MSU Dan went to the campus several days later and volunteered to welcome students back and also brow with them over 500 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to hand out his wife Christina shared that he circulates kindness everywhere he goes in any situation and Chuck Froning shares that dance energy and positivity is amazing and admirable his daily
016positive effect on kids in Northern is noticeable and it's recent effort to comfort students MSU is indicative of his service to others thank you Dan next we have Wall Lake Schools retired teacher former Board of Education trustee and current passion promoter of the Lakes Area Youth assistant organization which supports local youth Nancy van lewen nominated by Keith Elementary principal Dr Marcy Augustine from volunteering individual School supporting disabilities awareness workshops to her very generous donations each PTA and PTSA in Walled Lake Schools Nancy has spent her entire adult life dedicated to the service that children adults of wildlife schools Dr Augustine shared that I believe her contributions to our school and Community have proven that Ms van lewen is determined to make a difference in our world Nance sorry excuse me Nancy's passion and dedication student
017learning is inspiring her leadership character and dedication all Walled Lake students make her an exceptional mechanic for the kindness matters award Marcy you have to say to everyone that has pleasure of knowing Nancy would absolutely agree with you congratulations [Applause] congratulations to all of our kindness matters award recipients and those that nominated them thank you for your acts of kindness selfless commitment to making the lives of this better we appreciate you thank you [Applause] we're now going to move on to Art recognition Dr bernia uh yes Madam president members of the board uh for the final time this year I know this is what's brought so many of you but being that this is our last art recognition I wanted to just take a moment before we get started and really thank uh Mrs Jennifer
018Todd art teacher at Oakley Park Elementary for working so hard uh the this I I had worked here for about a week and and I was approached and and said could we bring back the art Awards uh it's something that's that's kind of been put away and and we'd like to do it again and I I said I said yes but the way that she jumped into action and organized this and put this together for all of us I really enjoyed this part of our meeting every month and and it wouldn't have happened without her considerable effort so before I turned the floor over to her I want to thank Jennifer Todd for her hard work and ladies and gentlemen the aforementioned Mrs Jennifer died well thank you thank you very much and we have
019been completely honored to have these Awards back in person this year I can't thank you enough for trusting us and my right hands Lisa silvol Dan Durkin and everyone else to help make this work so first of all I want to say good evening I am Jennifer Todd the Elementary art department chairperson and on behalf of the visual arts department it's my honor to welcome our distinguished artists parents Guardians and dear family members and friends to the opening reception for the spring Wall Lake Schools K-8 visual art exhibition let's give our young artists an Applause yeah I know we are thrilled to have you here to celebrate our students incredible creativity and talent the smiles and Joy on everyone's faces illustrate how proud We Are of you and your exhibition I encourage you to explore
020the hallway Art Gallery the scrolling art show above and our district website next week to view the students artwork tonight's art show and recognition night is a special opportunity to showcase the exceptional work of our students spanning kindergarten through eighth grade we would like to express our gratitude to our Walled Lake School board thank you very much Administration Visual Arts teachers and families for supporting our district Visual Arts programs and these students we are proud to be a part of educating the whole child every day and we hope this exhibition inspires and encourages everyone to explore their own creativity tonight we are honored to recognize a select number of artists from Dublin Elementary with their wonderful art teacher Mrs Whitson can you raise your hand sometimes we can see you they're the ones with the
021big smiles on their faces too they're very proud of you our wonderful art teacher from Keith Elementary Mrs Hartley new to our district this year our wonderful teacher from Mary Holland guest Elementary Miss grinner thank you [Applause] and from Sarah Banks middle school the great art teacher I just got to meet him face to face today was Mr laprice these artists have demonstrated creativity Innovation and Visionary thinking through various media and it's our pleasure to celebrate their achievements so tonight superintendent Dr bernia will feature each artist by school to honor the artist this evening artists when your school is announced all of the featured artists from your school will walk to the front as a group and meet to face the audience that way no one has to walk up alone when your school is
022announced artists please walk to your art teacher so your art teacher will be standing right up here next to Dr murnia and receive your show certificate and then proudly return to your spot in the group as other students are featured after all of the students from your school have been recognized Dr bernia our school board president Mrs Casa Grande and your art teacher will stand behind all of you for group photo opportunity parents that's your turn and Guardians you are welcome to come up the center or side aisles if you'd like to take a photo at that time artists remember to hold your certificates and smile after the photo opportunities students will return to their seats and we ask everyone to remain seated until all four schools have been honored the board will have a
023brief intermission after the awards for families to exit once again congratulations to our talented artists and we thank you and thank you excuse me to everyone for supporting our visual arts program we hope you enjoy the exhibition and leave feeling inspired Dr bernia will call the first school to be featured thank you [Applause] thank you very much we will open this evening with the artists from Dublin Elementary Schools if they would come forward with their teacher [Applause] congratulations to Bailey Wagner Marley Tobin [Applause] Cameron condrat Leela Ledbetter [Applause] I just didn't want to interrupt that Grant Benjamin Addison cancer a sin Cairo Nash Kiba Antonio cornetta Emma Ferran Cole and Daniel Hurley [Applause] thank you all right here congratulations guys [Applause] I'd like to welcome forward the artist from Mary Helen guest Elementary [Applause] congratulations
024to Elias filler Juliet Kammer mirei sugimoto Margaret Randall Alex Zaria Harper baboyage Parker demsky Megan virvu soah sekau Toby Hagen [Applause] Joelle thorrington Connor McFarland [Applause] suun Kim Dominic Canfield congratulations [Applause] congratulations to the artists from Keith elementary school if they would come forward with their t-shirt [Applause] congratulations to Charles Kraft [Applause] Yulia Walton [Applause] Hadley Oswald Tobias Frederick Anderson Atwood [Applause] Lucille neems Jordan Martin Joseph Maywood Winnie Weiss Elizabeth Hawkins [Applause] see I do Kamara Liam wechstein Ava Walton [Applause] A-list Mayo Camille Hampton [Applause] madelina Miller and River coach congratulations [Applause] foreign [Applause] our final school for tonight our final score for tonight with these artists and the teacher from Sarah Banks come forward [Applause] yeah you're good you're good congratulations to lyanna fajita Bianca Gibbon [Applause] Rihanna [Applause] James Wright Scarlett odish Aiden
025Galvin Maxwell Bros Savannah Geisler Elliot shepas Logan Blankenship Dima gasai [Applause] Cindy louisea ohendes Dylan Perry Annie Gutierrez [Applause] you make Knutson congratulations [Applause] thank you [Applause] yeah foreign we'll resume the regular portion of the meeting at 7 45 so if if you want to stay that's great if you have other places to be we won't be offended it is 7 45 we are back and we're going to move on to Proclamation employee recognition recognition week Mr Dr bernia sorry okay Madam president uh next week is uh next week is employee recognition week uh it is uh it is a week where we stop and take stock of how important our employees are and all that they do for the children of the community uh and and that that cuts across many lines all of
026us sitting at this table have a School employee that changed our lives in one capacity or another whether it was a teacher you had or your bus driver or the school secretary or your principal or uh or in my case the school custodian who supervised my detention time which I still which I still hold the record for at my Catholic School um but uh certainly we do want to recognize our employees next week uh they are exceptional people that show up day in and day out uh to serve our children well so the the proclamation reads whereas the week of May 8th through 12 2023 has been designated Walled Lake Schools employee recognition week to recognize the excellent contributions of all employees throughout the district and whereas the staff of Walled Lake Schools is an
027outstanding group of employees each and every one of them essential to maintaining the quality education we offer our students and whereas although the board of education has honored employees on an individual basis during the year the other devoted and dedicated staff members in the district have received little formal recognition for their able and distinguished service and whereas our para Educators Food Service workers secretaries Warehouse delivery persons mechanics maintenance persons teachers supervisors and administrators are highly valued members of the Walled Lake Schools family now therefore be it resolved that we the members of the Walled Lake Schools Board of Education and the administration hereby Proclaim May 8th through 12 2023 Wall Lake Schools employee recognition week and thank and congratulate all our School District staff for their excellent contributions to the education of the students of
028Walled Lake Consolidated School Districts thank you we're going to move on to public commentary for those of you who have not spoken before this is your chance to address the board when your name is called you can come up to the podium over here to the right typically you have about three minutes if you can use that time you can use less time if you do get close to that three minutes Mrs Levin over here will time and she will let you know if you're close this is your chance to address the board we ask that you address your comments to the to the board and to the administration here and if there is uh something that we need to get back with you we'll try to do so in a timely manner typically within
029a few business days and I'm going to go ahead and and call you up the first person is Susie Crafton hi those in attendance and thank you to the board for all that you do I just wanted to publicly thank the PTA and ptsas in our district they have either done or are going to do an incredible staff appreciation week that requires tons of volunteers and lots of hours making things look beautiful taste beautiful and be just the smidgen of the thanks that our staff deserves thank you to all of the staff teachers administrators for all you do for all kids every day you're very appreciated thanks Linda Brandis thank you for offering parents and citizens the time to come and speak to you in this day where children spend most of their time on
030anything with an electronic screen what parent wouldn't be thrilled to see that the child is brought home a book from school especially if it's a an older child in high school that is until we see what book They're reading it's come to my attention that a book named Orcs And Creek a novel by Margaret Atwood that's oryx oryx I might recognize it and is available in both the northern and Central High School which seems to be nothing but a training book for the sexualization of our teenagers every parent should write down and use this site booklooks.org this site allows you to input the name of a book and will give you a summary of the book and any concerns a parent might have for the book I referenced when I re viewed it online I
031found 18 Pages they list per page what the offensive language is and make notes some of it was so bad that in good taste I would not even read it to adults a school should be a place of learning but not there's not this has nothing to do with learning how it's found on a shelf I I just can't um I can't imagine the summary of concerns lists this book contains alcohol use drug abuse sexual activities sexual nudity profanity suicide violence inflammatory religious commentary and inexplicit bestiality what does this have to do with learning anything that comes from our high school thank you it's for this reason that the greater School initiative was needed in the first place and for those parents who may not know what this is or never heard of the term
032GSI this is a group of concerned parents and community members coming together to inform parents of their rights within the Michigan school system the state of Michigan has strong laws regarding schools and sex education parents have the right to opt out of their student their student from any and all sex sex education discussion promotion and coercion without penalty to your student I encourage all parents and concerned citizens to go to the greatschoolsinitiative.org and be informed if it is then your choice and you want your child opt out of these types of books in your schools and classes there are appropriate forms and information that can be found I am not saying that we should be banning books but I think we should have appropriate books in our school for the appropriate level of the student
033um in this upside down world where books like to Kill a Mockingbird are no longer considered appropriate yet a book which offers absolutely no value somehow has made it on to our bookshelves do the limitations of time tonight I've singled out this one book but this is not the only book of concern to parents can I just finish my I'm on my last um thought well I'm here to comment and inform other parents on the uh to watch for what their children are reading I'm asking you our Board of Education who exactly approves these books how do they and it's a serious question how do they make it onto the shelves of our school who has fun we can have somebody follow up with you I appreciate that who has is there one person that
034has a final say and most importantly what is the process to remove them thank you next we have Kathy Murray Kathy Murray good evening my name is Kathy Murray and I'm a first grade teacher at Mary Helen Gast Elementary School I'm here this evening to tell you some of the great things that's happening in our school um one of the things is our level 3 resource room program adopted a cow this year through the discovery Dairy the free program provided multi-level lessons in cross-curricular standards the students found out that guests requires five cows to provide milk for school each day they learned the whole process of curing for a calf to getting milk to the dinner table they took Virtual Field Trips of the dairy farms and even watched a live feed of a calf
035being born their cow Daisy was born on 9322 at 92 pounds it was adopted from Battle Creek at Crandall Farms the milk from their cows are used for various mozzarella cheeses and Edie's ice cream yum students weighed each other to find which combination of students would weigh the same as Daisy at various stages of her development at six months she weighed 450 pounds the students also enjoyed choosing facts and pictures to hang in the hallway to display for other children to learn about students are enjoying a new GaGa ball pit that was installed this year on the playground and our PTA is currently looking to install a new rock wall in the gymnasium third graders made cards and friendship bracelets for local foster care third graders have also have a classroom tower garden that they
036grow healthy snacks such as snap peas that they eat from first graders received grants from the Detroit Zoo for Virtual Field Trips they learned about polar bear adaptations and Penguins first graders also received a grant to help with the cost of bringing the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum to Mary Helen guest Elementary for in-house field trip with 10 exciting science experiments we are proud of the Mary Helen guest Wildcat singers choir we have this extracurricular group has 54th and fifth graders it's 40 percent of all of our fourth and fifth graders that are in the choir they perform with the Middle School choirs in March and they had a successful all-school assembly in April and last of all guest Staff Care so deeply about the children and families we have a closed Pantry a food pantry
037and we have a partnership with Easter Seals where the Easter Seals counselor is housed at guests two days a week to provide services to students and families each year we provide meals and gifts for other for over 30 guest families during the holiday season thank you Christy rust thank you I wanted to start tonight by congratulating Mr Riley at Geisler Middle School on his pending appointment he's a great fit for Geisler and I'm assuming that it will probably take place since he's here I would hope you wouldn't he wouldn't come he's been great transition it was sad when Mrs lown left but he has just been wonderful for the students there so this is very exciting since I have a sixth grader there I also wanted to touch base about I know you're looking at
038or bringing forward a new Social Studies textbook for second and third graders and if my math is correct those are like seven eight-year-olds maybe turning nine um and in part of the teacher edition it talks about creating a culture of inclusion which is fantastic right I I'm a school teacher which most of you know I've been in many schools with lots of different students always in elementary um the part that's concerning about this is it talks about pictures considering the pictures that you hang on the wall in your classroom and it says quote um are the CH they're children of many ethnic and racial groups represented are there children with disabilities fabulous that should be there it's the next part that's concerning children with various sexual identities these are seven and eight-year-olds I'm not sure
039why this is in the teacher's manual about what you might hang on your wall when you're talking with seven and eight-year-olds so I would consider you to look elsewhere and find find a social studies book that um doesn't include sex when you're talking about seven and eight-year-olds and then finally I just wanted to say that um I've been coming to these meetings for a long time and speaking for a long time and it is nice to hear dialogue from Administration and from the board about what's going on in the district and also questioning things that come up I like to hear the dialogue the concerns and the thoughts that board members have so it is it's a breath of fresh air to actually hear some things when you come to the meetings thank you foreign
040Gregory hi I'm so excited to be back here I've been a parent and still get a charge out of being here it's great you do a lot for kids and I think that's so special and kids really do have a good education here and I'm proud to be here tonight I was here 15 years ago with a book I'm back with a new addition and this is a gift to the Board of Education local residents myself and my husband bring us the history of Pleasant Lake in the southwest section of West Bloomfield Township Michigan engaging the reader in the creation habitation development and current status of Pleasant Lake and its surrounding area filled with antidotes this Memoir of a loved place is enough information for readers to enjoy reflects the development of Greater West Bloomfield
041from indigenous people to European descendants with farms and the first West Bloomfield store to a 1922 subdivision planted for detroiters as affordable summer Resort with the 1940s Association of Summer Cottage private owners with communal property a small Factory riding stables and a 1989 condominium development all see shape what we see today a Pleasant Lake the project began for our 71st fifth birthday is a small book then it was reproduced in 2007 is 98 pages and then for our 100th anniversary we were out of copies and so we reformatted it and we did it during covid so we have 40 percent more tax taxed 150 color pages three seven and 100 and 375 images as a full collar softcover book a different stunning full color photograph is featured on the front and back of the covers
042the table of contents is 120 subheadings and contributions from 32 sources provide perspectives Scenic photographs canceled development projects covered memories Donahue drained installation historic and Pioneer research Land Conservancy natural beauty property donation and Wildlife settings sightings there'll be a YouTube video of our home movies that will be now aired online soon a copy is being donated to the board Pleasant Lake Elementary Walnut Creek and Wall Lake Central and I hope to deliver them to the schools this month then with multiple printings to correct production areas I have additional copies that will be available for educational purposes so I'm looking forward to really putting them in the hands of students a quick flip through is it's just chock full of photographs in the history of of this area so it was fun to do and there's
043a lot in it about the schools that are here the beauty of Pleasant Lake Elementary of Walnut Creek the natural Trail the pathways it's a great area so it's been fun to put together thank you if you want to give the book to Mrs Miss Silva she'll take it thank you Lisa West good evening um first I want to go ahead and let you know um Mrs Johnson who received the kindness award she absolutely deserves that she is an amazing principal at Glengarry Elementary I see her always having a smile on her face when you walk with those Halls consoling a child who's crying to kids coming up and giving her hugs she's amazing so very well deserved um I do want to address though from I gave a comment last month regarding security um
044approximately 20 people gave up a comment last month about half of them spoke about security I um I don't know about other people but I know personally I never respond had a response back regarding my concerns which is very disheartening considering that the board is elected by the citizens and yet we're hearing nothing um security is a strong topic it's a hard topic I understand that it's very sensitive but we need to have this open discussion you know um just a couple days ago a mile from my house we all received that email from Dr bernia regarding the um the Arcata gunman it's a mile for my house just the day before I actually had an appointment with Dr with Mrs Johnson regarding security at Glengarry who'd think that the next day my husband tells
045me he sees a SWAT team outside just down the street from us we need to have an open discussion I know it's not easy but it has to happen it's never easy one thing I was really impressed with Mrs Johnson when we had were able to have this open discussion was the Alice training that they did the fact that next to each phone they have a number to make sure next because when we're in emergency we forget things and that's okay because our minds just go but next to each phone is a phone number they're going to include update it with the address of the school because like I said we forget things as well as the room number they're in and she said that they do that at their school but she's not sure
046if it's done at every school I think this is a wonderful protocol that is done um they also used fire hoses to put over the hinges of their doors because that is they're strong enough to help barricade and make sure that doors connect 30 seconds we need to continue talking about this I've given suggestions I understand that there are things that can't be discussed because they're confidential and the vulnerability but we still need to have something done so please Mrs Levin I want to thank you for announcing that you received a security appraisal I know it can't be discussed but that's okay but we need to have like let people know what's going on so I appreciate that thank you Marlene is it raw for rof thank you my name is Marlene Rolfe and I
047live in the Walled Lake School District I would like to first thank the school board members for your service to the community you serve without pay you have many issues to consider study and review on your own time I think that attendees at this meeting and all the parents watching on live stream should remember that also I don't think it is appropriate to single out individual board members for criticism at this meeting whether you have children currently attending schools in our district or whether you are affiliated with certain Community or political groups is irrelevant irrelevant you are now the elected members of the school board just as our school board president stopped audible audience disapproval of one of the speakers last time it would seem appropriate to stop or remind speakers not to disparage any
048one of the board members let me repeat I appreciate your service I want to address the issue of inappropriate books in our school libraries there are actually three that I have to reference today the first one is a book called Perfect by Ellen Hopkins and it's in three of our high school libraries it's an interesting title because in my opinion it is perfectly obscene and inappropriate it depicts in graphic detail sexual activities including I won't even say which ones the world is dark and troubled enough without filling the minds of teenagers with such hopeless and degenerate material and the other two inappropriate books are Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen and this is also in all three High School libraries and this one also contains sexual nudity sexual activities Etc of course major media Outlets
049he preys on this book and highly read it in our hypersexualized society people are conditioned to regard this stuff as normal and desirable those of us who see serious problems are branded in mocked as Square uneducated and interfering with the First Amendment rights of others what about our rights as parents to protect our children from being immersed in this garbage there are laws against Distributing explicit material to minors why aren't these being observed and the next book is called The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and it also includes sexual activities I support the efforts of Great Schools initiative to combat the hypersexualization of children parents can download their from their website they opt out forums it's about time something is done about all this thank you Tatiana Santana I get that corrector
050close okay good evening everyone my name is Tatiana Santana I have three children in the Wall Lake School District I have had the opportunity to review the new AP Government textbook which has been proposed proposed for use in our school district and I'd like to share my opinions about it I'm concerned about the lack of balance and bias in this material it is often subtle and sometimes even blatant the problem we often see is that we apply the moral lens of our era to complicate to complicated issues of the past we therefore unfairly denigrate people who should be respected and admired for good things they accomplished Let me Give an example on page 36 it says that the issue issues of slavery was not debated in terms of morality or Liberty at the Constitutional Convention
051but rather in terms of state's representation the issue of slavery was settled not based on high ideals but on practical political considerations does we paid we paint the picture of the Founding Fathers as Hypocrites and not worthy of the respect they usually have been given for the past 200 years the next step is to debunk the U.S Constitution after all wise value something produced by men supposedly lacking in moral integrity we know that many of the founders were slave holders not a single one of them argued that slavery slavery was good none of them Justified it the problem was what to do about it they had just fought an eight-year war with Great Britain in the perspect of engaging Another War of this The South was horrendous the account was already trying to recover her
052family is torn apart by War and the nation was in great financial debt we understand that the constitution was a compromise African-American Frederick Douglass who was an abolitionist he started out saying that the constitution was a pro-slavery document it was a continent with death in a pre in a pack I'm sorry in a pact with hell he said but Douglas changed his mind he changed his mind later as he read the document and came to understand that his his historical context in political necessity behind it he referred to the Constitution as a glorious Liberty document he said the appropriate way to get rid of slavery was by constitutional means even if took time and not by Revolution or War why doesn't this government textbook reflect and include this View the book The Textbook is filled
053with attacks and mocks Republicans all over it every single page in every single chapter of it and I was wondering while looking at those pages why we don't have any Republican side being represented in the book so I think it's just I shared this because I think we need to reconsider whether this textbook is appropriate for our students and we talk about diversity all the time but when we are supporting religion or Republicans we don't have the diversity included and I love to see it I love to see balance inequality in every single thing including Republicans in in religion thank you so I think it's not appropriate for our kids thank you [Applause] our next person is dorina and I'm not going to say the last name correct so I'm going to let you say
054it foreign [Laughter] ER I know I try so hard I just don't want to get it wrong I have two children attending in Walled Lake School District I was able to review the new proposed curriculum for K through two social studies I would like to make a few comments about it in the teacher's instructions it advises the teacher to set up the classroom so that every child feels welcome pictures on the wall should represent children from many ethic and racial groups and kids with disabilities and various sexual identities this inclusiveness is to be a daily priority of teachers sexual identities wait a second there in kids from kindergarten to second grade my kids know their identities it was not assigned to them at Birth it was God given it is offensive to me that this
055ideology is creeping into all our classrooms and teachers must embrace it I don't want my children to be exposed to this confusion based on my religious beliefs there are two Sexes male and female there are two symbols that represent sex orientation hanging in the room of my son's sixth grade math class sexual oriented symbol should not be in a math class this is against Michigan law under these new ideologies that are being taught my children are being shown no compassion and consideration for there needs to be affirmed in the religious and Traditional Values my husband and I want for them if you are choosing to bring sex education to our schools that should be taught in a specific classroom by a teacher who is certified for the subject and not all over the school parents
056should have the right to sign up their children for the class or opt them out and schools must accept the out up out excuse me the opt out form even if it's written on a sticky note by a parent I understand the effort to teach about diversity of cultures I would hope that is that in doing so the American culture is not down is not put down it is unique and should be valued just as much I say this from the perspective of an immigrant respect for the beautiful American flag singing the National Anthem in some schools teachers are being told not to use the word American as it may be distrustful to some people I will tell you what words are upsetting Cuba North Korea Venezuela I am proud to be an American and
057I want my children to be proud to and not ashamed of this beautiful country thank you for your time [Applause] Christine Titus good evening I'm Christine Titus I'm a proud educator at Hickory Woods Elementary and May the 4th be with you um just a a few things some good things that I've been seeing across the district I noticed that seven of our schools were recognized for being Green Schools my building one of them and I just wanted to give a little bit of a shout out to my my teammate Karen Burl Duggan who makes um great strides in making sure that our school qualifies for that Evergreen status and I know a lot of hard work goes in to those recognitions so I would like the folks to know that their work is appreciated and
058making sure that our planet is sustainable and we do what we can at our buildings to to make that so um Mrs Kaplan I'm sorry I might steal some of your thunder but Tarzan was awesome um put on at Walled Lake Central um Mr Titus and I had the opportunity to go see it and we absolutely loved it as we love all of the musicals put on by all of our high schools um on April 27th um the half day that we just had we had for our folks our Educators and Pairs and and all those folks an edcon event um thank you to Mrs kohanski and her team for um pulling together a bunch of very dedicated folks to present to their colleagues and the feedback that I got from colleagues in my building
059was that it was a half day well spent and they learned a lot of great information to help them teach the students in this District in in a manner that that that's befitting of them and it's it's great to be able to tap the resources that we have within our own District to be able to present to other colleagues so I wanted to acknowledge those folks and Mrs kohanski in her Department finally um as we are approaching employee recognition week I wanted to kind of give a little immemorian to um a teacher who passed away last month Linda Smith she was a first grade teacher at Oakley Park and personally I didn't realize until I was thinking about her Memorial and such that she actually inspired me um as a parent volunteer to go into
060teaching which I did as my husband calls up my third career so as a parent volunteer she inspired me to become a teacher and um just wanted to give that recognition to her and to memorialize her work in the district for many many years so thank you so much Amy flowers and guest he's working overtime thanks Chris for making me cry I also worked with Linda Smith so she was a wonderful woman hi I'm here from wallig elementary to share with you some of the amazing things that are happening right across the street first off we have a fantastic positive behavior system at Wallick Elementary that encourages students to show their tiger traits by being respectful responsible and Cooperative we honor students daily with little orange tickets that recognize positive behaviors students names are drawn
061weekly and shared on the news to help encourage positive behavior around the school we also celebrate positive behavior by each adult in the building giving out a Golden Paw award once weekly to Showcase students going above and beyond the expectations we have a second step assembly that coordinated with our second step lessons they bring our school Community together and show students that we all have the same expectation for our school's social emotional learning our recess supervisors are working hard to integrate the strategies that they have learned throughout their play Works training a new favorite of students is the weekly games that are taught to them we are also very lucky to have a group of parents who have stepped up to become our building substitutes they are going above and beyond to learn the ins
062and outs of the classroom and to have ensured that we are able to be away from our classrooms when we need to be and have our classrooms covered we are excited to be offering our second set of before school tutoring offered through the grant money our first two sessions included math support for fourth and fifth no sorry third and fourth graders and coding for third and fourth grade girls our second two sessions are focusing on literacy instruction for kindergarten and first grade students we also have our service dog Wally we are able to offer to the staff a schedule for him and it really helps support our classrooms and our students and our staff this has brought us all closer together and it's something that we're excited about and he's a rock star um Wally
063is a big part of our community we are fortunate enough to be welcoming a part-time behavior interventionist using grant money she will be joining Walled Lake Elementary with the hopes of continuing to create Behavior plans that meet the needs of both students and staff um I'm gonna skip some of this kindergarten is excited to welcome potential new kindergartners to a story hour and they're also lucky to have community volunteers to read to our kindergarteners once a month this year kindergarten and first grade welcome to over 40 parents as volunteers to facilitate an amazing 100 stay celebration first grade is finishing about teams and vowel towns and Mr Mullins is going to tell you about the rest of our school Ben milanes [Applause] there's so much happening at Walnut Hill you need two of us um
064thank you to the board I'm Ben milonas I'm a 29 year a 29 year teacher at Walled Lake Elementary I'm very proud I I thank you for letting me talk about a place that I love um as Amy said uh our first grade recently finished learning uh different things in literacy and they're working on applying high-level vocabulary in their reading and writing through rich Mentor texts in addition they've organized a visit with an author who shared her story and love of Patchwork quilts second grade has a field trip coming up they will be visiting the Walled Lake Police Station fire station Public Library to it all all into support there and enhance their social studies curriculum third grade enjoyed a virtual field trip to the Capitol Building in Lansing to kick off their government unit
065in social studies and they recently invited a Petoskey stone Enthusiast to share about our amazing State Stone they are preparing to host a second speaker at Walled Lake Elementary to culminate they're learning about Michigan's history with an interactive experience about the life of a voyager during the French fur trade our fifth grade classes have been buzzing with excitement and energy as they explored a variety of subjects through Innovative and engaging activities one of the highlights of fifth grade curriculum this year has been the participate participation participation in fantasy book clubs the students have been eagerly reading a variety of fantasy novels And discussing them in small groups not only has this helped to fall through a love of reading but it's also allowed the students to develop their critical thinking skills and to learn how
066to analyze literature in a deeper way in addition to fifth grade book clubs each of the students has also created an informative Google website on The Road to Revolution this project allowed them to dive deeper into a history and research the events leading to the American Revolution in February wle had a title one family engagement night we partnered with the Wixom and walbik libraries and helped families sign up for library cards families learn math games to play at home and students attended a free book fair it was a great evening the families that attended were surveyed and 100 of them said that they would attend another wle family engagement night one participant even added I wasn't sure what to expect but we honestly enjoyed everything about the evening the fact that we were able to
067receive useful tools to better assist our child's learning on top of everything being free what more could I ask for maybe milk and cookies oh wait that's how the night ended this is honestly one of the best events I've attended at an elementary school thank you so much on behalf of the teachers at waldick elementary we are I want to say that we are incredibly proud of the effort and dedication that our students have demonstrated throughout the year and we could not do everything without the support of our Administration our support staff our PTA our Board of Education and the community as a whole thank you Jennifer Todd hello now I'm going to face you guys for once dear school board and District administration I want to speak to you not just as your art
068department chairperson but as one of your graduates of Dublin Clifford Smart and Walled Lake Central so I'm a product of this district and am passionate about the things and the successful things that are happening I'm honored to speak to you about the remarkable points of pride of our K-12 art Department this year made possible by your support I am honored to be a small part of such a unique team that works kindergarten through 12th grade every year our art Department has dedicated itself to developing the art curriculum exploring content-specific PD supporting Walled Lake Schools Arts initiatives and reintroducing the in-person art shows and most of all teaching our wonderful students curriculum this year our work to update the K-12 art Creek curriculum I'm trying to speed can you tell has been a priority we have
069been exploring New National Art standards and how to integrate the new approaches with the Michigan Arts curriculum regarding professional development we are proud to have sent our Elementary art department members to attend the Michigan art education fall conference we've also collaborated with the art of Education Flex curriculum to develop our teaching practices some of our teachers workshopped and applied for the foundation of Excellence grants and were awarded media to help them support their students in terms of walls walled Lake's and state initiatives are teachers and students actively participate in District events such as the MLK school projects PTA Reflections program and Earth Day poster content our high school students in state events receive gold silver in honorable mention in Scholastic art Awards and one of our biggest points of Pride was the reintroduction of the
070in-person art shows this year thank you to Dr bernia Administration and board of education for welcoming back our monthly K-12 and spring art show other wonderful shows that included were at the high school Central had their show Northern and Western in the spring and we are also featuring featuring artwork monthly at the Walled Lake Credit Union speaking of the return of the K-12 show here's my Shameless plug um I might should say my points of Pride we look forward to unlike the kids with the certificate upside down to our final culminating art K-12 spring Show starting May 20th through the 28th at the Commerce Township Library a special reception for the public and artists will be held Wednesday May 24th from 5 to 7. thank you to Lisa sovel Dan Dirk and Jason Lewis and
071Pam Cole for working with myself Brandi Carlson and Kelly Tillman to promote celebrate and share the art show with the public we are grateful for the support of the school district and administration and Board of Education making these accomplishments possible Jennifer slowed down um we are excited about the future and look forward to continuing our partnership and collaboration with our district to provide our students with the best possible art education thank you thank you [Applause] we're going to move on to administrative commentary Dr bernia oh we're going to go this way tonight we'll start with Mrs Les thank you Dr bernia this uh the state budget season is well underway we've now had an opportunity to review all three plans that have been proposed both the Senate house and executive plan I've summarized those for
072you you'll receive that tomorrow that gives the details of each of the plans and the impact that each of those would have on on Walled Lake Schools it's my understanding that the May Revenue estimating conference is going to be held on May 19th so we would expect that further progress would be made after that so we'll keep you posted Mr Russo thank you thank you Dr Vernia for the consideration tonight on the consent agenda you will be voting on the appointment of Mr Riley to the principal at to be the principal at geyser Middle School Mr Riley has a bachelor's degree from Eastern Michigan University a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin has spent 30 years in Walled Lake part of which is spent just recently as an interim principal at Geisler two and
073a half years as a principal as assistant principal at Walled Lake Central 19 years as the Director of the Walled Lake outdoor education center and eight years teaching fifth and sixth grade it is my pleasure to recommend him as part of your consent agenda Mr Sheffield thank you Dr bernia uh just wanted to remind every everybody that Bond work is underway we have begun demolition in the media centers at Pleasant Lake Meadowbrook and Oakley or hickory woods again greatly appreciate the patience of those schools and allowing us to get in there early and and get some much needed productive work completed before the end of the school year and we had a great topping out ceremony at Walled Lake western a couple of weeks ago where the final beam that was signed by hundreds of
074students and staff were placed atop of Western and we now begin completing the envelope so we're extremely excited about that Mrs kohanski yes thank you Dr bernia we were excited Mrs Titus kind of stole my thunder a little bit I wanted to just mention that April 27th we had a wonderful half day professional development session a lot of colleagues leading colleagues in learning and that's something that our teachers have been asking for in feedback surveys they they want to learn from one another and they want time to collaborate with one another and so we were able to offer that for them and so the feedback has been incredible I want to thank those that presented as well as everybody's participation because it really was a big a big lift to organize a giant event like
075that and we were we had every elementary teacher and I believe special services teacher at Banks middle school so thank you to Mrs calhorn and her team for hosting us at Banks and welcoming Us in so we could set up uh one other piece just to piggyback off of what Mr Chatfield talked about with the bond work I was really happy in the last few weeks we've in the last month but just last week we were continuing our work with the high school Furniture committee so as you know as part of the 2019 Bond Furniture Renovations are part of the overall work we've been able to pull together a really nice comprehensive uh group from the high schools including Administration and we will be looking at establishing some really nice furniture standards coming up for
076uh for the work that will be done at Western and Central coming up in the summer of 24 and then Northern will receive those updates in the summer of 25. thank you Mr Durkin nothing for me this evening Dr pernia Dr Lance nothing for me thank you Dr Bernier I wanted to let the community know to Be watchful we're set for our spring Community conversations much like the last time we will move around the community and so we we took your feedback this time and we alternated some days and we alternated some times so we have uh we have a morning slot and an afternoon slide and then an evening slot and we hope to see you we'll be out in your neighborhoods and and hope that you can make it I want to also
077underscore you know we we thank we're going to stop and focus on our staff and predominantly that focuses on the staff in the school buildings that work with the children and that is right but we also have a number of people that work uh at our operations center and work here at the ed Service Center that are just tireless employees who show up every day um folks that have gotten to know me know that I come from uh I come from a small town full of farmers and so when I say you work hard I'm from a farm town so that means something different and I can tell you that the people here work very very hard and uh and really do a great job and are focused on doing the right work for the
078right reason and so I appreciate them too particularly in my cabinet that's been working so hard lately and last we are in the era of live stream and uh it's come to my attention through some text messages and phone calls my parents watch the live stream so I wanted to give a shout out to my mom and dad especially as Mother's Day draws near just let the record get that in the minutes if you don't mind um yeah please thank you madam president move on to board commentary I'm going to start over here Mrs Fernandez anything tonight yes thank you so first of all Tarzan the Musical was just fabulous so congrats to everyone involved and thank you Walled Lake Central for sharing your talents with us it was amazing I also want to thank
079the Community member who brought forward a book in last uh last month's meeting that was in a couple of libraries um and uh you know they're uh it taught us some things I think or at least I learned some things as a board member and that is that uh you know there is a form there's a form that's on the wlcsd.org website it's in the Board of Education District policy administrative regulations 3006 citizen request for consideration that's out there it's available and uh and I think that parents and others in the community should know about it and it's not uh it's it's not a it has options in the form so you can request a whole range of things from don't assign it to my child to withdraw it from everybody to reconsider it or
080assign it to another grade level you know and so um it's it's quite a robust thing and as folks are bringing forward more concerns I just thought it was important to um to mention that I learned that that is available to folks in the community and then I know we're going to move to the consent agenda and I do have some comments before we vote to approve that edit and approval of the minutes and the consent is um is really meant to be a unanimous thing there isn't technically you know a bypass the discussion and and just out vote you know what's in the consent agenda we're supposed to agree on the consent agenda and to force the issue any one of us would just openly oppose you know and then then we have to
081deal with that separately but tonight I'm not going to do that because I believe as a board you know we are genuinely talking about and trying to address some of those form and format type issues um I did however you know so I um I think it's important to mention that I particularly did request some edits to the minute so that weren't made this month they were mostly in public commentary where the notes were not wrong they just weren't very proportionate to what we heard and so you know we know there were 70 percent or a a wide majority of speakers raising concerns about sexual content and refusing opt-up forms and security and the notes in those areas were less than 45 percent of the notes and three speakers with very different opinions were 40
082in the notes so um so that was a little bit of just um some of the exception that I took the meeting minutes are meant to be a record of the actions that take place and there's a whole mountain of rules that dictate how and what we do there and I'm excited to address those with all of my colleagues in future board meetings some of the items I'm hoping we address are how to edit and approve them and the timing and how much detail should be in the in the minutes and and why we don't vote to approve an agenda so I also want to be supremely clear that as I mentioned that and and we moved to the consent agenda there's absolutely no I'm not I'm not intending to to say anything that is
083any reflection whatsoever on our on our minute taker extraordinaire Mrs Silva who does an amazing job I think we'd be lost without her and um and so I'm super grateful for her thank you for your patience with a longer commentary but I do think this is a lot quicker than than objecting to the consent agenda and causing a whole bunch of other stuff to happen so Mr Siegler if you think yours was long wait first of all echoing on Tarzan uh phenomenal the student talent and faculty and Community talent that we have in this area is unbelievable I had the pleasure of seeing Mrs Dunn there who was working behind the scenes and helping to construct sets and then when somebody else was showing well she did this she did this she did this and
084her husband and I mean it was just amazing and my hat goes off to every performance that we've had this year because they all have been wonderful a little plug I know Jackie Gerwin if you're watching the foundation for Alex Excellence golf outing in June we are still open to sponsors we are still open for golfers if you want to have a wonderful afternoon and help support the foundation please join us Employee Appreciation month goes without saying thank you to everybody in this District that contributes in any way shape or form Mr Chatfield touched on the beam at Western uh heard some very nice comments on that if you look at the uh postings you'll start to see student accolades for our upcoming graduation and for our senior student students just a wonderful tribute this
085is less touched upon the budget and uh when Dr Bernie and I were in Washington we had the pleasure of meeting with all of our representatives and senators from Wayne Oakland and Macomb County and we went in with a priority list of things that we would we wanted them to address this was the first year that I have in my memory were all of them were on the same page I mean there was an argument about what we needed to do and I know it's a little bit early to have the wish list but some of the things that we're already seeing come up uh proposed in the budget and you can correct me if I'm wrong is increased funding for mental health and idea one thing about funding for special ed idea is that's
086one of those things that once it goes in they very rarely take it back and it stays in that line item for forever so happy to see that meals free lunch and free breakfast and lunch for students who qualify there's a talk there is actually a discussion for free lunch free breakfast and free dinner for those students who qualify which would greatly benefit everybody safety literacy funding early childhood education funding teacher recruitment funding or build your own or build within funding for that uh if all this comes true uh I'll be happy to dance on the desk because it will it'll be one of the greatest accomplishments we as school board members have had have had the benefit of and it has long range effects on all of us so thank you Miss Tice yeah
087thank you Mrs cosgrande I think as we approach the end of the school year the months just seem to go by faster and faster but um I too got to go see Tarzan a few weeks ago um and so it's just evident we have a lot of talent here in our district um and I also saw Mrs Dunn there and her daughter had one of the leading roles playing Jane and um she just had to be that had to be a proud mom moment because her daughter did a phenomenal job and she's got quite um quite the beautiful voice so um it was really good to be able to begin some discussion surrounding security this past month and because that did take place in closed session we can't really um discuss that here um but
088it was good to get that conversation going and just kind of see what just some different ideas Administration has and um just one thing I kind of was thinking about is it might be good to maybe see like what administration is prioritizing out of those ideas um as we go to make um you know for their plans surrounding security but I look forward to just continuing that that discussion last month a Community member did share with the board a book that was found in our library containing some explicit pornographic written content I think we did as Mrs Fernandez said learn a lot just about the process so um since she explained it I won't um I won't repeat that but I did read through the excerpts that were given to us um and it was
089kind it was rather appalling that uh such a book with such inappropriate graphic content would be in our schools available to our minors um so I really want to thank Dr bernia for his quick action in removing the book while it's under review um for the record I don't think books should be banned simply because one doesn't agree with viewpoints expressed in the book there's a lot of things that transpire in history that I don't like or agree with yet I can't change what history is um I believe children should be taught historical facts free of biased opinions and I believe they should be taught facts even when they're facts that maybe I don't like um I think we can all agree that um you know even history even historical facts should be taught um
090at age appropriate times to kids um but I think that children should be taught um how to take facts and draw their own conclusions based on unbiased facts and they need to be taught how to think not what to think so with that being said I think that this book in question um in in my opinion after reviewing it was definitely a type of pornography um it wasn't just a history book that we're trying to um you know teach historical content to our kids through um and so I just don't think it has any business um being in our schools a couple months ago we had a discussion just on the district devices that were we were trying to purchase for the students here and so the question was raised about you know how are
091we going to protect kids from being able or from you know going to sites that were inappropriate um you know and we said that the district does take measures to block pornographic sites and so um I just think it only makes sense then that we would also block all pornographic content whether it's depicted with pictures online or words in a book Mrs Levin thank you Mrs Casa Grande um so I I wanted to give an update kind of on what I've been up to the last couple weeks um on April 19th I traveled to Lansing to attend a Michigan Association of school boards behind the scenes event it was a great day of presentations and networking I had meaningful one-on-one conversations with several of our local Representatives one thing that surprised me about the masby
092portion of the day was how much Focus they place on non-educational things they wanted to talk about electric buses evaluations health clinics and schools but there wasn't so much focus on improving student educational outcomes and I realized we have been part of the masby association for a long time obviously Mr Siegler sits on its board but I'm less impressed with the group The More I interact and I don't know what other similar organizations exist that maybe we could draw from but I hope that our board our Administration will seek a more balanced Viewpoint when considering where we get our advice and guidance our focus should be on providing a quality education to our students and to do it safely hard stop I think we should reconsider you know our membership or participation in the organization
093if it's not focusing on these two topics additionally I also attended the Leia event about substance use and dangerous consequences that was held at CHS the panel was fantastic I'm glad we had a few people in the audience I wish we had more parent participation but I know an evening in the spring with everything that families have going on is certainly hard hopefully if there's a good recording we can find a way to put that out on the website it's clear from the presentation that vaping and marijuana use are the top two substance issues in our community and in our schools and we parents need to take an active role to curb these issues we have to take responsibility for our own children we can't rely on the schools to do it for us for
094other people to do it starts at home and I think that we as parents really need to take it seriously because it is a problem here in our own District finally it's been touched on a couple times but we've got Employee Appreciation Week some schools are celebrating this week some schools are celebrating next week I just want to say thank you to all of the amazing teachers and staff in our uh in our district and to the parents and ptas who are going to be or are already putting on Amazing staff appreciation weeks as a former PTA president myself it's a big undertaking but it's really fun and I think the the parents have as much fun as the teachers do so thank you all for everything that you do for our district Mrs Kaplan
095say I'm going to be quick and simple tonight and if everyone heard about Tarzan it's fantastic go see all the shows in the district not just Tarzan it's we're at the end of the year but Western Northern and Central do fantastic shows the middle schools have fantastic shows so I encourage everybody if you've not seen one go see them all of our sports teams are wrapping up their Seasons as well since we're coming to the end of the year go watch some of their events you know we have some great athletes some great you know actresses and actors you know in our systems you know go check out what wild lake has to offer because we are a fantastic community and we have fantastic amount of talent and our kids and our families are fantastic
096um I want to say thank you to every one of the staff members in Walled Lake you guys are phenomenal while they could not be who we are without you so thank every one of you and I appreciate you a couple of things that I'm going to miss coming up in May is so I just want to give a couple of shout outs so we're soon going to be celebrating our retirees and that is always one of those celebrations I really enjoy we get to hear stories about them Mr Russo did an absolutely phenomenal job last year I'm sure he'll do a wonderful job this year too uh just you know highlighting them individually Etc you know it's a it's a private invited event but it's always well very well attended but I just want
097to do a shout out to our retirees because we really appreciate you and we'll miss you in all of your years of dedication and service also I will miss our PTSA Council celebration which is going to celebrate all of our ptas and and PTSA leaders and I just attended the PTSA council meeting with Mrs Levin and I'm going to specifically shout out that uh Mrs Sarah pigott who is our PTSA council president right now is stepping down and I want to thank her for her service she's been I'm absolutely wonderful and helping to lead all of our parent groups across the district and we really appreciate your support and your leadership next we're going to move on to the consent agenda on our consent agenda we have the approval of minutes proposed April 13th and
098for a special meeting and also for a regular meeting we also have Personnel recommendations and administrative appointment new hires resignations we also have a purchase for math intervention grades 6 through 12. that particular purchase is coming from the general fund for 41 287 dollars we also have disbursements in the amount of 22 million 906 thousand and one dollar and we also have a head start director's report Mr Siegler I move that the Board of Education approved the consent agenda is presented Carrie 6-0 we're going to move on to purchases uh Dr bernia the first one is our K through two two Elementary science curriculum yes Senator Mrs kohanski yes thank you Dr bernia so we do have a K2 Elementary science curriculum uh that has teacher guides professional development and online support after review from
099our K2 science committee and looking at a number of resources they've selected this kit based program and it's very engaging and the staff that were part of the adoption committee are very excited about this recommendation it's from cereal City Science out of Battle Creek area mathematics and science center and the publishing date is 2022 on those materials and the amount is 111 155.94 which will come out of the general fund get a motion Mr Sinkler I move the Board of Education approved the purchase of K2 Elementary science curriculum teacher guide an online support provided by serial City Science by Battle Creek area Mathematics and Science Center 2022 any discussion Mrs Hernandez so I have issues with the criteria that I want to highlight um for uh for this purchase and for other purchases um I
100know that the criteria are going to vary a little bit for each book that we purchase and I do understand that the curriculum selection Falls squarely in the realm of administrative processes and I also appreciate the many Educators that devote their energy to finding the right books for us but the criteria that I personally want to see removed this is my opinion from future book evaluations I'm going to highlight three of them the first is usually oftentimes there's an alignment with inquiry-based teaching as a specific criteria and this particular book is K through two so the teacher aides that tell teachers not to provide information or procedures until students have had the opportunity to develop ideas of their own or at no time children are going to be told they're wrong or they should shouldn't
101be immediately corrected are just baffling to me and I hope I have to believe that many of our great Educators quite frankly just ignore those instructional guides that are part of those materials so the criteria aligning with inquiry Based training training or teaching I have some concerns about another criteria is culture and gender representation and inclusive education and I think my my challenge with that is that it's oftentimes pushed through the specific instructions to the teachers and the third criteria that I am hoping that future evaluating committees consider removing or modifying as presentation including accuracy of materials but there's no real mention or qualifier that sets an expectation to be balanced or apolitical so those are three criteria that I um I that I am challenged with in this book purchase and for that reason
102I I am intending to vote no on this curriculum and I will probably apply those same standards to Future book purchases and I hope that some of the selection committees will consider will consider the uh their criteria I do think we can choose great books I think sometimes we might choose the same books but putting those as specific selection criteria for me is is a challenge thank you any other discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carries five one next we have under purchases the AED or automated external defibrillator Dr bernia turned over to Dr lons thank you Dr Bernie the purpose of the additional purchases of the AED is to increase the safety of our students and the guests in all of our buildings that we will be adding approximately two to every
103let me rephrase that we this will allow us to have two AED devices in all of our elementary schools and three AED devices in all of our two-story buildings so that is the purpose of this purchase okay kill emotion this is camplin I move that the Board of Education approved the purchase of AED automatic external defibrillators from school health health core and aepa Cooperative vendor quality of 20 quantity excuse me 25 for 4 45 362 and 39 cents from the school aid grant fund support I can support any discussion yeah just a question for Dr Lyons will any of these AE or are any of these AED devices outside of the building not at this time no will this purchase change that it will not change at this time if I may follow up sure
104right at the high school level all of our trainers do have portable AED devices they bring with them and our trainers at all athletic events we have a trainer on site for all practices and all athletic events but they can't be at each spot all the time okay any other questions or discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carries 6-0 next we have a settlement agreement Dr Bernie the district has reached a settlement agreement in a lawsuit we met about this earlier and you have our recommendation um I move that the Board of Education accept the settlement agreement for the case named GT on behalf of it versus Walled Lake I was proud that I figured out what obios wildly Consolidated Schools at all and authorized the superintendent to execute the agreement on behalf
105of the district any discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carries 6-0 next we have the social studies curriculum recommendation Dr Vernia back to Mrs kohanski thank you Dr Bernie I'll preface this with just saying this is the presentation of the committee's recommendation of this uh textbook um so there will not be action taken until the following board meeting in June so just to just to preface this uh the current second and third grade social studies curricular resources are teacher adapted lessons from 2009 which have been taken from Oakland schools units and the content is in need of updating as these units do not align with the Michigan Social Studies standards developed in 2019 they do not align with the C3 framework for inquiry-based teaching and have limited materials and resources available and they
106do not have textbooks and represent outdated teaching strategies with no online or digital resources for teachers or students the committee led by Andrea Abraham our K-12 social studies coach reviewed several resources and they have recommended the resource my world interactive Savas learning 2019 and 2023 the recommendations summary from the committee and the quote for the purchase of 188 925 is being presented to the board and the process has been endorsed by Administration a motion for approval of this textbook purchase will be presented at the June 1st 2023 regular board meeting thank you thank you and next we have advanced placement government recommendation right back to Mrs kohansky thank you Dr Bernie yes again this is just a presentation of the committee's recommendation at this point the current High School advanced placement government textbook is from
1072011 and no longer meets the College Board expectations of resources published within the last 10 years as well as the 2019 College Board guidelines that were established for this course the committee again led by Andrea Abraham our K-12 social studies coach reviewed several resources the committee focused on Resources with engaging instructional strategies online access for teachers and students supplemental materials and resources and an aligned assessment component the recommended text is presidential election update American government stories of a Nation for the AP course Bedford Freeman and worth 2021 the recommendation summary from the committee and quote for purchase of 23 874.95 is being presented to the board the process has been endorsed by Administration and a motion for approval of this textbook purchase will be presented at the June 1st 2023 regular board meeting thank you
108okay and next we have transportation services Second Amendment extension Dr Bernie let's move to Mr Chatfield thank you Dr bernia since 2013 Dean Transportation has proven to be a reliable partner in providing safe and effective Pupil Transportation Services in November of 2021 a service enhancement incentive the first amendment was approved that was used exclusively to increase the compensation of all Dean employees in Walled Lake Schools the dean Transportation First Amendment expires this June 30th 2023. this amendment assists in recruiting and retaining Transportation employees in a challenging employment Market Administration recommends extending the amendment which would be the Second Amendment for an additional three years from July 1 2023 through June 30th 2026 which coincides with the end of the current Transportation contract with Dean got a motion Mrs Kaplan I move that the Board of
109Education approved a three-year extension of the service enhancement Amendment Second Amendment with Dean transportation from July 1st 2023 through June 30th 2026 and authorize the superintendent to execute the necessary contract documents any discussion Mr Nice go ahead um so I'm just curious because I thought that that had that used to be I heard just like a one-year thing so I'm just curious as to why it's now going up to three years Mr Chevy so it was approved in November of 2021 as a result of the loss of a number of employees who left four neighboring districts who were frankly poaching our employees with hiring incentives and and wage increases that we um that we had to find a way to combat in order to provide transportation services when that situation occurred we lost I believe
11011 or 12 bus drivers in the span of a couple of weeks we went through a period from November through February where we canceled a rotating series of routes sometimes as many as 12 routes per week that put an extreme burden on parents to get their children to school so this performance incentive was approved again used exclusively to increase the wages of Transportation employees so that we could attract and retain them and it proved successful that Amendment had a an expiration date we had hoped that the um that the the higher green challenges would be temporary that so it had an expiration date of June 30th this year we are in an environment where we are still challenged with hiring enough bus drivers to drive all of our routes every day and without continuing this
111amendment um the wages of our transportation employees will be cut and um we frankly fear we will lose a large number of drivers which will make it extremely difficult frankly in in some cases we will undoubtedly be faced with again canceling routes which was a very unpleasant time for us yeah absolutely so um if I understand correctly just from all the the notes that we got um this is being funded through the general fund like it's already in there right now this is just a vote to continue that on and is like so that won't affect any like funding for anything else that's or well that's correct no that that's correct so when the board initially approved the uh the enhancement Amendment it did require an amendment to the budget that amendment was then built
112into the budget for the 22-23 school year and so those funds are currently um uh Mrs leskin correct me if I'm wrong but those fonts are currently planned for uh to be included in the upcoming budgets for uh the remainder of the dean contract so for the next three years which are General funds okay okay and Mrs lemon I think you wanted to comment so one of the the items that's currently being undertaken as a facilities study how is the potential decline in enrollment perhaps leveling off of that being taken into consideration when it comes to committing to you know paying potentially more money for three years if there that need potentially changes what happens if we've committed to it but you know number of routes decreases number of drivers needs to decrease how is
113that being factored in and perhaps should it be something shorter so we can address it as needed is there a reason it has to be three years as well the the expectation is that uh we will need the number of routes that we currently have for the foreseeable future we pay on a per route per day basis so we only pay for the number of routes that go out on the road every day we expect you know we know that our enrollment numbers are projected out for the next few years we believe we are going to need to compensate our employees at their current level in order to avoid losing many of them regardless of the number of kids we're transporting right but why does the contract have to be for three years like previously
114it was it sounded like maybe a little over a year why does it have to be three years committed to that not that we don't want to pay drivers more but maybe in a year something's different the current contract with Dean Transportation runs through June of 2026. so this amendment would simply coincide with the end of the current Dean contract so it would be an amendment that would run alongside the existing contract and then at that time the entire arrangement with Dean will have to be renegotiated so I just wanted to say also that if the if our enrollment does impact the number of routes that we have then we're just paying for Less routes we're paying for less people so the amount that's in here in terms of the cost is what it would
115currently be that would actually decrease and we and we would have less expense if our routes did in fact go down so we're not locked into a total contract price we're just locked into a per route per day price I think that the a big reason our recommendation goes out three years is because the marketplace has not cooled down with respect to compensation and competition to hire drivers so our drivers are currently being sought by other districts and so it's our belief that an annual re-up of this you know I can tell you that there has been there's been some stress and some Outreach from drivers to Administration about this proposal and about this going forward so we believe that the three-year recommendation will hopefully stabilize that and and settle the matter with Dean Transportation
116until it's time to renegotiate the contract um we we believe that this is an attempt or a good faith effort to stabilize our employee pool and and so that's another reason for it our feeling was if this became an annual thing drivers might look to drive for other districts in the area where they don't have to annually wonder if you know this recommendation is going to be carried forward going to be wondering if you know their wage is going to decline every July 1st we just wanted to stabilize it and extend it to the end of the contract so that was another reason for a recommendation Mrs Hernandez so I'm very sympathetic to that concern that folks would have especially if this amendment expires June 30th I also feel like um I think I understood
117properly that there's no reason we can't do a shorter Second Amendment and there's no reason why we couldn't add another amendment to that as we see the results of the facility study and some of the other things that are in play we couldn't quickly or more timely extend a third time after we get some more insights so um so unless I have anything wrong there I would I would like to make a motion that we amend the motion on the floor to run from July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2024 and I would be in favor of something more timely as we look at how all these pieces fit together I I would be extremely concerned to change that to a one year versus a three year for exactly what Dr bernia just said we
118have already seen that our transportation department is worried and concerned they're in this area I absolutely have trust and support in Dr bernia as well as Mr tatfield and Mrs Les there is there is no way I'll tell you I I was here when we privatized transportation that was by and large the most difficult meeting that I ever ran and to me um it's it's almost insult to injury not supporting this for them and giving them three years where they don't have to keep thinking about it for every year and wondering again as Dr Bernie has said to me this is the least we can do to try to tell her that we absolutely support them and we don't want them to have a wage decrease Mr sabler the outcry from parents from the community
119the chaos that this caused that the buildings when bus schedules were canceled and parents were forced to drive or carpool their children to school was something that I don't want to have to go through again and I don't want to have to put our parents through that again the cost is still it's built in right now for the three-year period as part of our budget we are only paying by the route I cannot see any reason why we wouldn't want to support this yes Mrs Kaplan say I I agree with Mr Chatfield Dr bernia um we need to support our bus drivers and make them feel that they're comfortable here in Walled Lake and doing a one-year contract extension there again in a six months they're going to be worrying are they going to have
120a job are we going to um take the price hike for them or what are we going to do and I don't think that that anybody wants to feel that in any form of employment that you're at that every year you have to worry what kind of employment situation you're in so I agree with the three years so I I understand and I think I'm being very clear that I'm not um not I am also very much in favor of um of showing our employees that that's important but we have other large-scale items and we're told repeatedly that there's decreases in the population I and we did a year and a half in it in when the situation was far far worse so um I still um you know I still feel like it's you
121know we can easily revisit this we don't need to make them wait to the very last minute and you know perhaps it's not an amendment to emotion that will carry but I feel like you know I feel like we should be thinking about an immediate fix for this so that they don't have to worry anymore and we can revisit that in light of sooner in light of the other District studies and issues that we're looking at any other discussion all right I'm going to call the vote so don't we need to vote on the Amen on the amended version I I think we need to vote on the motion that's on the floor I think if emotion is if you move to amend the motion you have to first unravel that motion and then vote
122on the motion that's on the floor okay well conversation conversation proceeded immediately after that can I remove can I remake the motion uh no I'm gonna call for the vote and then you want to do something else we can go from there all those in favor I opposed nay all right motion passes five one parent advisory committee board Representatives Dr bernia Dr Lance thank you Dr Bernie Oakland the Oakland school's plan for the delivery of special education programs and services specifies that each district appoints two parents to serve on the Oakland schools special education parent advisory committee for a three-year term Corey Hensley and Amy page have agreed to be Representatives on the Oakland Schools parent advisory committee from the 2023-2024 school year through the 2025-2026 school year and I don't believe Amy or Corey
123is here but I would like to also state that Corey will will also be the county-wide PAC president so we're very fortunate to have her as a part of our district and we're fortunate to have Amy willing to give both of their service thank you Dr Bernie Mrs Levin I move that the Board of Education approved Corey Hensley and Amy page as parent representatives to the Oakland School of special education parent advisory committee from the 2023-24 school year through the 2025-26 school year any discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carries 6-0 resolution for the I always like to have this spelled out but I'll just use the acronym mhsaa Cooperative team application with Dr Vernia we're going to go back to Dr lons thank you sir Walled Lake Central Western and Northern High
124School boys hockey teams participation has declined over the past several years and similarly throughout the state of Michigan as a part of history in 2016 Walled Lake Central did not have enough players to form a full team and formed a Cooperative agreement with Waterford Kettering and Waterford Mott high schools during the 2021-22 school year Western formed a Cooperative team with Pinckney High School which runs through 23-24 season While Lake Northern is now faced with a shortage of players for the 23-24 season Administration has reviewed all of our high school boys hockey programs and the best option for our district is to form one unified team Wild Lake western needs to complete its two years two-year agreement with Pinckney High School ending in 23-24 administration recommends that Walled Lake Central and Walled Lake Northern form a
125mhsa Cooperative team for the 23-24 season and Walled Lake western will then be added to the mhsa Cooperative agreement in 2425 to form one unified Walled Lake team to go back a little further in history just as a reminder when boys hockey came to Walled Lake it was one unified team we were fortunate at that time to have it expand and as with many of our Sports it's now Contracting this is the maybe third Cooperative agreement I brought this year so it's an opportunity for us to continue to give opportunities to our students and athletes thank you Mrs Kaplan approve the mhsaa Cooperative team application to combine Wild Lake Central and Wild Lake Northern High School boys varsity and junior varsity ice hockey programs beginning the 2023-24 athletic season any discussion this is Casa Grande
126yes the motion where it says you know the 20 23 24 athletic season do we have to do this again then to include Western the following year Miss civil would know better than I on that one that's my understanding um thank you any other questions all those in favor aye opposed motion carries 6-0 board policy review Dr bernia yes so just last week we had a really good session where we started to discuss this and the district has brought forward Administration has brought forward a compilation of all the updates to the board for your consideration so tonight is the first reading and then we'll have a month to go through that and then we'll come back for the second reading at our meeting on June 1st okay and everybody's receive the information if you have
127questions please let Dr Bernie know we'll be happy to answer anything all right last we have the resolution Oakland Intermediate School District the oisd budget Dr bernia we're going to go to Mrs Les thank you Dr Bernie the Michigan school code requires the Intermediate School District budget to be presented to the board of the constituent districts for review in addition each constituent Board of Education not later than June 1st of each year shall review the proposed ISD budget and adopted board resolution to support or disapprove the proposed budget I the assistant superintendent of Business Services I've reviewed the proposed 2023-24 Oakland Intermediate School District's proposed budget and based on the information prevent presented in the review of the materials provided I do support the budget Mr Sinkler any discussion this is Lovin so I totally
128support Mrs Les and and the work that she does but I um have some questions about the Oakland schools budget unfortunately they're not questions that can be answered by anybody here and um the the budget it was 117 pages so it took some time to go through unfortunately I couldn't come up with my questions in any reasonable amount of time to get an answer but um some of the questions that I had um were you know kind of higher level like the budget seems to be largely based on an assumption that real estate values and therefore tax revenues will be increasing this is really contrary to sound business practices not to mention um what most Financial experts are forecasting for next year it's far more likely that a recession is upon us so it would
129seem that the budget should be more conservative um and and that's concerning to me um the fund balance appears to be going down year over year so in layman's terms this just means that you know we're dipping into this saving they're dipping into the savings rather than creating a budget that doesn't need to dip into the savings and it would seem more fiscally responsible to find a way to balance that budget without having to decrease the fund balance over the several years that they mentioned I was also very um interested in what our cabinet incentives that are increasing by 24 the cabinet of Oakland schools I was curious why communication services are going up 11 research and evaluation assessments are going up 15 phone costs are going up 17 um and then when you compare
130the Oakland schools budget to like the Macomb ISD the flow through to schools in Oakland schools is only 41 versus in Macomb it's 76 percent of their budget so why is the flow through in Oakland County so much lower and then enrollment is down uh you know across the county over the last several years by you know some percentage but the budget is up 116 percent so I'm not understanding why these things um don't align and then finally one of the talking points for the Oakland County School Board Association in masby or one or the other or both was supposed to be an increase in attention or funding to CTE Career and Technical education and it appears that the budget for that is staying flat so I'm not sure how that's reconciled with the associate
131associations that we are a part of so for these reasons I will be voting no on the budget and I I would like to see Oakland schools answer these questions and perhaps come back with an amended budget Mrs list do you have any comments on any of that I mean I want to put you on the spot but anything else that sorry I kind of did fully respect the the questions and it is certainly a large document took me a long time to get through it as well so I would really respect getting the answers to those I know that we've already sent those to them and and have not yet heard back but I'll let them respond Mr secret you know a few months ago from three individuals the three-year and five-year projections on
132budget and real estate and they thought the valuations were actually going to be late but that you know that was that was part of the GRC so yeah a few Bank founders of it Miss Ice just a quick question like is there any way to maybe table this until those questions can get answered you have to have this approved by June 1st so I don't think so no because we're not going to have another meeting like this where we're going to vote before June 1st any other comment s discussion all right all those in favor okay opposed all right that is 3-3 that does not pass and with that we're adjourned thank you