001and to the Republic for which it stands one indivisible with liberty and justice loved hearing the student voices there thank you we're going to move on to our recognition first we have our golden apple Awards Dr bernia thank you very much Madam president members of the board good evening our first Golden Apple award winner tonight is Lisa heich Lisa were any of you come up and stand right there by the podium [Applause] tonight's first golden apple recipient is Lisa Heights recently retired business and school store paraprofessional at Walled Lake Central High School Lisa was nominated by Lisa jastrab Career Tech teacher at Walled Lake Central because Lisa was a great role model for the students and staff the students absolutely loved and trusted her she was always there for the kids and she's always looking
002out for others and Lisa's nomination letter Lisa shared working with Lisa for 17 years has been a true joy for me I'm honored to have worked with her and even more honored to have been her friend we have missed her since she retired last year and the store has not been the same without her Lisa was an employee of Walled Lake for 27 years her dedication to Wall Lake Center was impressive and her hard work was inspiring Lisa loved her job and was amazing at it whenever she was tasked with trying something new in the school store or the careertech program Lisa was always willing to embrace the challenge she was always looking for ways to bring new life into the program Lisa also routinely challenged students to think outside the box and become responsible
003human beings through the development of important life skills Kyle medier principal at Central supported Lisa's nomination sharing Lisa worked hard on behalf of students at Walled Lake Central for many years her work in the school store helped provide learning experiences for students giving them hands-on experience in the world of retail and marketing Lisa's friendly demeanor and great sense of humor helped her come to work each day with sunshine in her heart and a smile on her face before I conclude Lisa's son is the assistant superintendent where my daughters go to school and he never hesitates to stop and say hello to them and is known not only to be exceptional at his job but just to be a true caring professional so a side note she raises good kids too Lisa thank you for your
004commitment to the students and families of Wall Lake Central High School we wish you nothing but the best in your retirement and it's our honor to recognize you this evening [Applause] our second Golden Apple recipient tonight is Lila nuzzi French teacher at Walled Lake Central High School Lila was nominated by Nancy catula Spanish teacher at Walled Lake Central because Lila is always looking for new ways to create a passion for French with her students this includes setting up programs with schools in France where both classes engage in video calls which allows students the ability to practice their non-native language together Lila is a graduate of wall of Lake Central and takes great pride in returning to Central to teach she's always sharing Praises with the community about the district and of course Walled Lake Central
005and Lyle is nomination letter Nancy shared you can always find students in her room before and after school during lunch Etc they love and adore her because she sees each one of them as an individual and is always there for all of them as I stand at my door and watch students go into her room it's always like they're watching into their home or walking into their home excuse me Lila doesn't need to be told to do things she knows what is best for her kids in her department and she works hard making sure she goes above and beyond Kyle medier principal at Central agrees with agrees with Lila's nomination saying Miss newsy is a tireless educator co-chairing our world languages Department leading our French Club serving as a wlea representative in our building and
006ensuring that instruction in her class is always Innovative engaging and completely worthwhile on any given day Miss Newsies classes could be zooming with students across the Atlantic Ocean creating French culinary Delights or judging French music videos Lila is the type of teacher that every parent wants for their child Lila thank you for all you do for our students and for your efforts to continue to help them grow to be the best version of themselves it's our honor to recognize you this evening foreign [Applause] support person of the year award Dr bernia so as I was getting prepared for tonight I I knew of the Betty camping award but I discovered how special the Betty Campion award is to Walled Lake because Mrs Campion actually served on our Board of Education and and served for 21
007years as a PTA member in our district um and so that's that's nothing short of remarkable and a nice connection for us to this award nominees of the Betty Campion award are a District's support staff person of the year and so I can't think of anyone better to extol the virtues of our Betty Champion winner than Mrs Kathy Russell the principal of Wixom Elementary so Kathy come on up [Applause] thank you Dr bernia as Dr bernia said my name is Kathy Russell and I am the very proud principal at Wixom Elementary I am thrilled to be here tonight to introduce to you our Walled Lake Schools Betty Campion support person of the year nominee Mrs Patty Thorson Phillipson she is our Wixom Elementary social emotional support paraprofessional I've had the great Fortune of knowing Patty
008for nearly 20 years since our children attended Wall Lake Schools together when her own children were in school Patty used to volunteer at the schools join field trips and her she was known for reading to the students in the classroom once her children left Walled Lake Schools I was a teacher in the building and Patty used to come and read to my class after I when I became principal she decided to come and read to other classes and she would always bring the absolute best books that anybody could imagine and the kids loved her in March 2020 we hired her as our social emotional support para in her primary role was to support students with their social emotional well-being using her social emotional approach program called Second Step but is anyone in our school can
009tell you she has become so much more than that Patty has an absolute Heart of Gold she cares deeply about everyone at Wixom Elementary the students adore her and are always excited to see her and get to spend time with her Miss Patty as everyone lovingly calls her has the ability to see and love the whole child and the students can feel that she makes connections without with even our most challenging students so she can help them identify their feelings make a plan and handle whatever challenges come their way always with the ultimate goal of helping them emotionally so they're ready to learn and grow at school Patty makes everyone feel special and important and most importantly seen and this is both for students and staff alike she's always there to lend an ear give
010a hug to anyone who needs it and can often tell when someone needs it even before they say a word as part of Patty's job she continues to read books to our students to help them through difficult situations and to remind them how to be good people and everyone knows Miss Patty has the best books part of our submission to the Oakland County included letters from some of our staff and I just want to read a couple of excerpts of some what some of our staff members said about her Teresa scussell one of our first grade teachers said Patty is a beloved and integral member of our staff she lends books from her personal collections to teachers and students and then always leaves a kind note or small gift for our staff members she's wildly
011creative and she dedicates times Beyond her paid hours to create displays and bulletin boards to make her school look even more more welcoming and inviting Patty has developed many wonderful personal connections with our students she's incredibly patient and instills a love of reading with our students one time she purchased a drawing Book for a student just because when she learned he loved to draw she thought it might help him to draw when he was having social emotional difficulties Alexis magazine Lindsay Lopez two of wixoms kindergarten teachers said in a letter when Patty comes to our room she reads wonderful books to our students plays game and most importantly gives hugs all the students look forward to spending precious time with our Miss Patty last year when the kindergarten did a kindness project Miss Patty helped
012support and facilitate this project by working with students to collect items for an animal shelter she helps set the tone of kindness and relationships in her building she gets students involved in helping make an interactive bulletin boards with positive messages for our students not only does Miss student Miss Patty support our student our children but she's also an amazing friend colleague and support system for our staff so as you can all see from this it's clear why Miss Patty was selected as our Walled Lake Schools Betty Campion Awards support person nominee for Oakland County Patty is not only amazing at her job but she's also an incredible role model Mentor coach and friend to all you could not find a more wonderful and more deserving recipient for the support person of the year than Miss
013Patty Thorson Phillipson congratulations foreign thank you Kathy I am so fortunate to be at Wixom Elementary I have a limited skill set but I love being a mom and when my friends asked me what my job is I'm I'm the building mom I really am that's that's my job so it comes really easy for me so thank you thank you [Applause] and we're going to move on to Art recognition Dr bernia this time it is my honor to introduce Jennifer Todd I'm gonna try to get this slide sure hello I'm just trying to get your wonderful amazing work up on the screen so everyone can see it Mrs soulville knows all the tricks foreign while she's getting your beautiful artwork up on the screen uh good evening I'm Jennifer Todd the Elementary art department chairperson
014on behalf of the visual art Department it is my honor to welcome our distinguished artists parents Guardians dear family members friends to the opening reception for the spring should I say summer spring wild Lake Schools k-12's visual art exhibition what a gathering we have here tonight artists look around you see the smiles and the Joy on everyone's faces we are truly delighted to celebrate you today let's give a round of applause to The Talented artists we are proud to celebrate [Applause] spanning kindergarten through eighth grade the show and recognition night is an extraordinary opportunity to feature talented students through the visual arts thank you to our Walled Lake School Board and our Administration Visual Arts teachers and families for our for supporting our district Visual Arts programs and these students we are grateful for the
015opportunity to be part of educating the whole child every day tonight we recognize a select number of artists from Glengarry Elementary with art teachers Miss starler and Miss Warner [Applause] featuring artists from Walled Lake Elementary with their amazing art teacher again miss Warner students also from Wixom Elementary with their wonderful art teacher again miss starler these amazing two ladies share Glengarry as well so that's their amazing team and then we also have from Clifford H middle school art teachers wonderful Miss Feld and Miss card thank you through a variety of media the artists featured tonight demonstrate creativity Innovation and Visionary thinking to honor the artist this evening superintendent Dr bernia will feature each artist by School artists when your school is called announced all of the featured students from your school will walk to the
016front so you guys all come up at one time to meet together and face the audience when Dr Bernie announces your name to celebrate your accomplishment you the artist will walk over to the our your art teacher to receive your art show certificate next you proudly return to your spot in the group as the other students are featured after all the students from your school have been recognized Dr bernia our school board president Mrs Casa Grande and your art teacher and if your administrator wants to come up they can come up too well stand behind all of you for a group photo opportunity parents and Guardians feel free to come up the center aisle at that time if you'd like to take a group photo artists I always say a helpful hint is to hold
017your certificates and smile you got it after all of the schools are honored before leaving the board will have a brief intermission after the awards for families to exit congratulations artists we are so proud of you now Dr Bernie will call the first school to be featured congratulations all right we will open this evening with artists from Glengarry Elementary can you please come up and join your teachers [Applause] all right congratulations to Melissa plaskow [Applause] Haley kwatowski Wyatt gribis [Applause] Lanning mikolich [Applause] Grace low [Applause] Elena White [Applause] Asher green Lexi James [Applause] Natalie Burns [Applause] Victor Rangel Guzman [Applause] Austin Pearl [Applause] Harper Singleton and Tori Harris [Applause] would our artists from Wixom Elementary please come forward [Applause] congratulations to annalina Kushner [Applause] Emma lauritsen Iris Wyman [Applause] Elliot Ware [Applause] Isabella Haddad [Applause]
018Brandon Stokes [Applause] Madden Geisler Braden Aoki [Applause] Aaron Jackson [Applause] Carson petrack [Applause] Aryan bashall [Applause] Skyler Yee [Applause] Jacob Trudeau [Applause] Arya katari kahokowski code Miel arabor [Applause] sayana koliva [Applause] tomorrow [Applause] could we please have the artists from Walled Lake Elementary come forward [Applause] congratulations to Wyatt Marcou [Applause] Avery Sammons [Applause] Aria case [Applause] Adam e show [Applause] Christopher vialda ohendez Leah tongdore J.C mellick [Applause] Alan Nino Lopez [Applause] Faith Bivins [Applause] Arthur hilt [Applause] Allison Holmes [Applause] Bella Abreu [Applause] Lucas seismadia Antonella jarbo congratulations [Applause] foreign [Applause] and our last school this evening with the artists from Clifford Smart Middle School please come forward [Applause] what's that oh yeah we did I have a great team congratulations to Leone Bustos [Applause] Shannon Blanchette Lola Roebuck [Applause] Julia Gutierrez [Applause] Everly Hoover Julia
019Drennen Ava petrovski Kalyn Fox Addison Emmert [Applause] Eleanor Fraley [Applause] analog Maribeth Smith [Applause] Charlie Strickland [Applause] Sasha is mylova [Applause] dasho menkari [Applause] Bella carrier [Applause] Vera sakala [Applause] Savannah tankersley August Welsh and Gabby Francis [Applause] foreign [Applause] okay we're going to take about a 10 minute break and start back at 7 40. if you want to stay you may if you want to exit out at this time that's fine too testing tonight different is everything right I said I said 7 40. I'm just waiting till 7 40. in case somebody was waiting to come back in at 7 40. it's trying to be true to my word okay we're going to go ahead and reconvene with the rest of our regular portion of our board meeting our next topic is the superintendent update
020on goals Dr bernia thank you madam president uh earlier this evening we met to really kind of dig deep on my goals and my performance since I started here as you all know and as the community is aware I began my work in Walled Lake on October 17th so this gives you a snapshot I was able to give you a snapshot of what I've been doing as it relates to these different items my first goal is to build what we call a data review cycle so for those of you in the audience wondering about that a data review cycle looks at various data points for the district in terms of demographic data so who goes to our schools who works in our schools student achievement data which obviously you're familiar with it's how we're performing
021in reading and math and then we we have something that we call program data so who's enrolled in our programs do they go on to continue with the district and then there's lastly perception data so that would be survey information that comes to us from uh from parents from staff members and and the like so I shared with the board some artifacts I've shared with them some data points and I'll continue to do that a good data review cycle is refreshed every July so we sit down and we say did we learn what we wanted to learn last year what questions do we have now how do we want to move forward and so each August I'll update the board as to what we anticipate the cycle being for the year and so this year
022really October through June is really a lot of us working through various templates and structures and data points to see what's most user friendly to my cabinet to me and to the board so that's kind of where that stands the second goal I have this year is to conduct a formal Facilities Review so the board approved us working with plant Moran cressa on that and so we've done on our team kind of a whole systematic view so plant Moran cressa comes in and they do an analysis of our enrollment our enrollment projections birth rate and it should come as no surprise if you follow the news families have gotten smaller birth rate has gone down and so schools across the state are making sure that they're managing their footprint efficiently and effectively so that's a
023lot of the work that plant Marine cressa has helped us kind of think through in addition to thinking about our schools we've also thought about some of our other sites and some of our other facilities as well as some of the other piece is a property and things that go along with the district and so I was able to give the board a nice snapshot of that and then lastly my third goal is to focus on student growth the law requires me as well as instructional staff and schools to have a growth component to our evaluation so for me I'm using the i-Ready assessment and graduation rate as as a measure which is a standard practice for most superintendents in metro Detroit so that is kind of the kind of the quick update certainly for
024the folks at home and for the folks in the room we we had a I think a pretty good session for about 90 minutes where I was able to present the work that I've been doing and collect some some input and feedback from the board which is really beneficial to me and and will be really beneficial to me going forward I just want to close by again saying I really do appreciate the opportunity to come to work here and I really enjoyed getting to know all of you and and I enjoy working for you very very much so with that that is my report Madam president thank you we'll now move on to Proclamation volunteer recognition week Dr bernian a volunteer recognition week is coming quickly I do have a bias my favorite group of
025volunteers happens to be seated at the table and that's not just because we talked about my evaluation seconds ago doesn't hurt but nevertheless so I I'm proud to read the proclamation whereas the week of April 17th through April 21st 2023 has been designated Walled Lake Schools volunteer recognition week to recognize the excellent contributions of all volunteers throughout the district and whereas The Volunteers Of Wall Lake schools are an outstanding group of volunteers each and every one of them essential to maintaining the quality education we offer students and whereas although the board of education has honored volunteers on an individual basis during the year the other devoted and dedicated Volunteers in the district have received little formal recognition for their distinguished service and whereas our volunteers are highly valued member of the valued members of the
026Walled Lake Schools family now therefore we the members of The Wall Lake Schools Board of Education and administration hereby Proclaim April 17th through April 21st 2023 Walled Lake Schools volunteer recognition week and thank and congratulate all our school district volunteers for their excellent contributions to the education of the students a of Walled Lake School District thank you very much thank you [Applause] we're going to move on to public commentary I do have quite a few cards if there's anybody out there who still does want to speak and hasn't turned in a card the cards are out right when you leave the the double doors to the right of me left of you and I would just ask that you bring it to miss oval and she'll get it to me uh well um I will
027call you up individually I will try my best to do correct a name pronunciation if I mess up a little bit I ask for a little bit of Grace for those of you who have not spoken before you have up to three minutes if you are getting close to that three minute time frame Mrs Levin here we'll let you know that you're close to that if you are told time then we just asked you that you finish what you're saying you're not gonna you don't have to leave immediately just finish your your thought and then we'll move on to the next person but we thank you for coming tonight and I'm going to go ahead and and call you up you can come up to the pony if you'd like to speak and the first
028person is Christine Titus good evening I'm Christine Titus and I am a proud educator at Hickory Woods Elementary and some of my colleagues are joining me here tonight and we just wanted to kind of let you know about some of the great things that are going on in our building um one of the first things that happened this week is our fifth graders are off to fifth grade camp and look at the week that they've got to be there and just enjoy that Outdoor Center so it's been a little quieter in the building but uh um there I'm I know that they're having a great time based on some of the tweets I've seen we also started m-step this week so some of that data Dr bernia is gonna it started to be gathered this
029week in our building and I know across the district um for our kiddos also in the past week and the past month or so we've been blessed with some some grants coming in the foundation for excellence came in this week and blessed some of us with some some money to enhance our classroom instruction and and such so I was a personal recipient so I'm very very grateful to the ffe for for their work and we also wanted to acknowledge appreciation for Nancy van lewen's gift to our PTA so I know Nancy's here thank you very much we certainly appreciate that and we know that we'll put that to good use um our building started renovation several months ago right after the holiday break and uh they're they're moving I will tell you they're moving I've
030seen new Outlets I used this this is kind of not gross but I used the restroom and didn't have to turn a handle I just put my hands under the faucet so that to me helps keep us a little safer a little healthier so thank you but our library is just about all packed up too so some major renovation is going to be starting very soon there um the um we just finished up March's reading month and our goal was kind of a baseball goal so the kids really batted it out of the park with with their reading and just in time because as I said our library had to get packed up so um I am I'm very fortunate to be in this profession to be at Hickory woods and to be working with
031the great Educators that I work with there and the folks that I work with across the district so we're very happy with with where we're at and what we're doing so thank you very much thank you and we have Kara McAllister hello everyone uh thank you very much for inviting me or letting me speak to you tonight and uh tonight was delightful I enjoyed seeing all the students here um I guess my whole comments have to do with asking for increased um transparency and Communications with taxpayers parents or not in the district and I mean it would be easy things to do like on your website and in Communications just so parents know more of what's going on um my name is Cara McAllister and I'd say most taxpayers are alarmed at how extremely political
032our public schools have gotten and as elected officials you the school board are not only to approve curriculum but to represent those who elected you please think about whether the curriculum that is recommended to you is what the majority of the people want is it really in the best interest of underage children because 99 0.8 percent of the children K through 12 are going to be under age um or is it a fad or is it a political Dogma you are pressured to choose the success of this district and the children lies in your hands kindergarten through 12th grade kids are underage minors and who belong to their parents parents and legal Guardians are the only ones who should guide and teach their children morals information on sex and reproduction and religious and political perspectives
033until they are adults we do not want to co-parent with the schools or co-parent with teachers unions or the government we want schools to teach academic subjects and sports and music and art like you saw tonight the curriculum and goals of our public schools has gotten way out of line parents you should know and you should look online a little more about what the American Federation of teachers the teachers unions the Michigan Department of Education is suggesting you probably won't like it a lot of them a lot of us think that they're trying to get in between you and your children so when people leave this District if they do please consider that might be one of the reasons as all public schools are doing parents please know there's help available it's called Great Schools
034initiative dot org that's great schools plural initiative singular dot org we have a four-page opt-out form for you to submit to your principal if it's not honored we'll back you up it is actually illegal per Michigan sex education law for your opt-out form not to be accepted so know that there's help available and that there's something called a sex education Advisory board that you can serve on you can request as well as clergy and teachers in the district and outside the district so those are the types of things that I think should be available to parents online as well as bathroom and locker room policy a lot of schools are allowing transgender students to use those without time is up letting the parents know thank you thank you pale wolf kale wolf good evening my
035name is Hal wolf I've been a resident of Commerce Township for over 31 years and my youngest graduated from wall Lake Central in 1999 just to give you a bit of a reference here I want to thank the board for the discussion last meeting on some of the budgetary items that I'd like and the new members for initiating those discussions I think it's important for everyone to know just what goes into a cost at I.E the Chromebook it's not just a device it's the software etc etc and people should know that secondly uh you discussed a thirty thousand dollar expenditure for slot buckets and cat litter not real happy about that given the fact that you what was discussed also there was possibly getting armed armed officers in the schools to that I would like
036to have everyone take a look at the back of the room and notice an armed peace officer for this meeting it may in fact be necessary or you feel it necessary that's fine I get it but you're not affording the same courtesy to the students in the schools either you put the bucket in the in the corner here and take this poor guy out or put people like him in the schools lastly I'd like to leave you with a two-word phrase most of you should know it if you don't you need I would suggest you look it up the phrase is local parentis I will give you a hint 30 seconds it is not it does not mean crazy parents thank you Melissa Paul hello hope you're enjoying this lovely weather I'd like to read
037to you a quote by a local director of school security and another nearby District who is responsible for the hiring of security guards whom they call security coordinators in his school he says quote response is critical and best handled by highly trained and professional on-site security coordinators our school security coordinators are assigned to each school and serve a very specific role law enforcement is a critical partner in School Safety and Security however they can only respond to a crisis or emergency our security coordinators are in a position to immediately react to a crisis School Board you are now sitting on a 1.4 million dollar Grant to use specifically for School Safety and Security I did the math you can now hire the right security guards which all of our schools need and have money left
038over if you are smart about it find Qualified retired officers who already have insurance and pension if you don't slow walk this and if you don't waste it there is a petition at wlcpr.org which Any teacher parent grandparent or concerned Citizen May sign to request a security guard in each of our schools it just became available already there are over a hundred names one signer said in the country where I'm from we have a security guard in every school and daycare I'm shocked it isn't the same especially in the U.S I would like to end by reading something written by a decorated retired police officer specifically for this school board meeting quote I have been working security in schools for the past 10 years after a full 25-year career in law enforcement from day one
039as security officer I have been welcomed by the students staff administrators as well as the parents of the students there is not a day that goes by that I don't hear a thank you or a thank you for keeping us safe from someone related to the school he goes on to say the bottom line is this schools need security but too many people brush it off saying it won't happen here try saying it to the parents of the students killed or injured in the recent school shooting in Kentucky or the parents of the students killed or injured in the 377 school shootings across the country since Columbine in 99. or to the 349 thousand students who in some way shape or form have been affected by school shootings in the U.S it shouldn't be a
040political issue anymore our children's Futures are at stake those children need protection in schools on a daily basis security officers in school are the first line of defense even before police and emergency Personnel get there with unwanted armed subjects approaching school property time is critical having armed security on school property can be there for that critical time schools need with the appropriate use of force needed in that critical time frame please consider this for our kids sake end quote Lisa West good evening so first of all I'd like to go ahead and just kind of give it a little appreciation note for a few people in the district um at Glengarry there's a gentleman named Brian who always delivers food in the mornings I see him as I drop my daughter off for prime time
041and he's always just so friendly and with a smile on his face and I just wanted to recognize him also to Mrs kohanski and the teachers at CHS for helping me navigate the Chromebook situation that I brought up at last month's meeting and finally from Mr besky at Northern for her um being very helpful regarding some concerns and giving students the best opportunities in the lrc program um but I really came here one of the things I came here to talk about was the school safety Grant fund um first I'm glad to see that funds are being considered for the AED I think it's really important in today's light um it's unfortunate with even consider these things but I'm glad that it's being considered however I still don't see where there's a list of priorities
042that are going to be included to update the safety features around the district since our last meeting in March there were a couple school shootings and I had brought up numerous times multiple people have brought up numerous times the issues that are around our district and you guys can be held accountable if you don't address these situations I don't take this lately I don't think the people in this room take this lately our school and our our students and our staff deserve better um so as I mentioned before with over 20 buildings in the district one million dollars doesn't go very far and as board members it's your job to be fiscally responsible with the district funds portable toilets that were approved for the purchase of a cost of thirty thousand dollars last month's meeting
043does not show prioritization nor show fiscal responsibility especially when other items are needed I along with others have given suggestions of items that our school should have as well as items that staff members would find useful or find or other use districts have found useful but there's no feedback I hope and pray that there's never a situation where these items are needed but not provided because you thought a bucket took priority do our second class sorry classrooms have window ladders there is an emergency such as a fire or a lockdown situation do our delivery doors like cafeterias have cameras to see who's on the other side of the door have you surveyed staff to assess your safety wants and needs have you made sure all locks are working properly have you looked into the night
044locks or stopped the bleed kits that were suggested my last email and finally I want to address the prime prime time care is that I saw the rates were increased and speaking to a parent recently they pay 800 a month for two kids at a time Prime Time both morning and evening and that's almost unaffordable for low-income families so I'm hoping that you'll take that into consideration and find a way to cap the cost so that way it's affordable for all time thank you [Applause] I'm not sure if if I can read the last name I think it says Linda Brandis is it brandes okay sorry I wasn't sure thank you I'm sorry I just wasn't sure if it was an RNs at the end thank you oh you're fine Madam president Dr bernia board
045members my name is Linda Brandis I'm a resident of Commerce a mother a grandmother and I come to you tonight to speak about the issue of school safety as well two weeks ago the unthinkable happened again and this time writings were left behind by the gunman that made it clear this was calculated and planned she targeted the school because she knew it was a soft target with no protection in place in fact she made the decision to shoot and enter through a school glass door because she knew she could it's only due to the local police and their exemplary training that they were on site and killed her within 15 minutes no doubt saving lives I'm here tonight to ask what is being done to ensure the safety and protection of our kids there's been
046many has there been any discussion about armed security guards or reliable locks for doors for our children what about security cameras or metal detectors I noted from the last school board meeting as it seems many of my neighbors have as well that there was a vote to approve a purchase of a classroom lockdown kit for 800 classrooms totaling thirty thousand dollars these kits contain buckets to be used as toilets I question whether this was the best use of funds when our kids are at risk I look at those children's lost in Tennessee and you know what I see I see my grandson's face I knew this would get me he's the exact age as those children that were killed I don't I want something done before this tragedy comes to my home and my family
047some worry about armed guards at school [Music] and think they don't prevent school shootings CNN has reported recently that armed guards are now being returned to schools in Denver after they were originally taken out by the The District Board of Education because of the beginnings of the George Floyd time period the mayor now says the ban was a mistake why does it take an actual shooting for common sense to Prevail among school boards and administrators let's get serious about safety before something happens in our community what is it going to take to have a serious discussion about putting security officers in school how much is too much for my grandson's life how much is too much for every child in your care I understand there's a million dollar grant for the school safety as we've
048started to discuss will you madam president make the commitment to me to the parents and citizens sitting here tonight as well as the hundreds that are watching online to create a coalition of school officials teachers parents law enforcement to come together and find a use for those funds that will keep our school and our students safe from our own tragedy which could happen I have one sentence left these precious children are our future what we cannot afford is to lose them to misguided ideas of social societal change at their expense thank you Tim sawmiller Tim sawmiller good evening Tim sawmiller Commerce Township as you can hear there's been a lot of chatter about a grant of money available to the Walled Lake Schools for security and how this money should be used for armed guards
049in the schools I believe using that money for arm guards would be a waste first of all if my understanding is correct this is a one-time Grant so that money would last a year maybe two then what in addition armed guards or armed teachers as with armed police on the streets the assumption is that the shooter will be neutralized only after shots have been fired returning fire expertly can save others but that cannot save the first victim unless there's an active preventive action like lockouts or stop and frisk and armed response strategy assumes there will be an acceptable number of casualties before a shooter is neutralized so the question becomes how many casualties is acceptable if the answer is zero an armed guard solution fails and we have seen armed guards fail totally time and
050again in many school shootings something else is needed if the goal is zero casualties you must invest in prevention and deterrence many school doors are mostly windows we have seen those shot out entirely bypassing a lock to door so maybe we should invest in bulletproof glass if there is a glass that can withstand a barrage from an AR-15 or maybe bullet resistant metal doors another idea is metal detectors just having them will provide a level of deterrence and there may be other more tangible methods for establishing Security in the schools that will last for years to come after a one-time expenditure ultimately I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all security solution that will take many methods to attain an acceptable level or degree of security I urge this board to consider all of these ideas
051and others and openly advocate for robust firearm regulations thank you next we have dorina I'm going to spell the last name because I probably won't say it right it's g-j-e-k-a-j foreign thank you my apologies I didn't want to mess it up good evening my name is dorina jaikai I am a parent of two students in this District to my husband and I our children's safety is our top priority school should be the safest place on Earth but unfortunately in the recent years they seem to be the first Target for mass shootings and violence I apologize about my emotions at the last board meeting you had a discussion and voted on some lockdown supplies for our schools what you really should be discussing is how to secure our schools in high school I had to experience
052a lockdown and I really don't want to go into details of that story as you can imagine but one thing I never thought of was the bathroom issue I don't think anyone would think of that in that type of situation because nobody really cares we were fearing for our lives and praying to make it out that that building safely there is so much more for you to discuss in terms of safety of our students teachers and staff we can do much better than that our students and teachers deserve so much more those buckets and toilet tissue you are going to order could have easily been donated by parents and community members for the four of you that thought those buckets were so important could you please explain to our community how are those buckets going
053to save our students when their life is in danger also how long are you thinking a school will remain on a lockdown we need you to increase the security in our schools by having a police officer or an armed guard at every school if the police officer standing here at every single board meeting did not make you feel safer then why do you call them to be here since we are paying taxes for schools and police departments why can't each one of our schools have a police officer so students and teachers can feel safer just like you do when you have one standing here I am not really sure which one of you came up with that idea of those buckets making it so important like the import the most important thing in your list
054but if you really think increasing Security in our schools is less important I suggest you resign from this board especially you are spending thousands of dollars and some toilet paper in buckets the child is the beauty of God presented in this world that greatest gift to a family Mother Teresa 30 seconds board members superintendent of our schools district administrators we are sharing our greatest gifts with you every single day please consider their safety your top priority thank you Teresa Renault good evening I am Theresa Renault District director for state senator runstad and it's an honor to be here supporting our mutual constituents our elected officials superintendent and administration we are in a very profound um situation right now you know just I missed last month I heard a lot about some different things obviously we
055have a lot of you know passion emotions uh going on right now and I I'm going to follow up with that woman's comment our children are a gift from God we're all responsible but we're sharing them with you and the primary responsibility that we're giving to you is education academic education and safety and um I don't I think the senator would I'm sorry that I'm actually probably a little bit emotional right now but I know education and safety is important to him um prioritizing safety and getting it right is probably one of the number one top priorities of this group right here so um I will be thinking of all of you and asking for guidance to our God that um we make the right decision so thank you for this opportunity to be here
056this evening Karen Mitchell thank you good evening my name is Karen Mitchell and I have two daughters in Wildlife Consolidated Schools I'm here tonight to express my concerns with the Safety and Security of our schools and administration buildings within our district recently I'm concerned with the choices made recently for our district spending the Board of Education voted five gallon buckets it's sorry um the Board of Education voted for five gallon bucket commodes for our classroom five gallon buckets for our children to urinate and defecate in case of a mass shooting in our schools not only is this disgusting but it's completely unsanitary Walled Lake Schools has over 1 million and a Security fund to help improve the security and safety measures in our schools this is a gross management of our tax dollars they spent
057over thirty thousand dollars and bought five gallon buckets for every room in our buildings which of the majority of your teachers don't even know even exists out there so somebody may want to put a memo out there so they know that these exist um in every building so our students have a place to defecate during a mass shooting to say I'm mad would be an understatement I'm completely outraged I send my girls to school and I'm so happy there are no kids in this room right now I send my girls to school every single morning not knowing if they will come home alive that day and what I mean by that is tomorrow I'm just going to put it out there my 17 year old daughter is sitting in class boy sitting next to her
058decides that day he's going to bring in fully loaded gun into that building in his backpack not one of you people even know that this kid's got this gun in this classroom he decides what the hell why don't I just start shooting up this room while I'm at it start shooting the room up literally how would that make you feel that's how I feel every single day so then the question is what do we do how do we stop it we sure don't buy five gallon buckets to defecate in our neighboring school districts I really encourage all of you to start talking to them we have a neighboring School District that has a dog her name is Rosie she's the sweetest thing ever actually matter I am a huge fan of these therapy dogs huge
059fan my daughter uses our dog Willow at 35th on a daily basis but if I could just ask for you to take a look at this dog Rosie she's a multitasking dog she's not only a therapy dog she's a bomb sniffing dog she sniffs out weapons and she also sniffs out drugs the dog has a Handler and is used within the school district one other thing I want to let you know is that we can seriously make these changes happen however they're not going to happen if we continue to allow nonsense being voted in one final message I would like to say my daughters are very well aware of these five gallon buckets and believe me they will not be using them during a mass shooting or lockdown is the last thing on their mind
060so I would like to see for you guys to seriously start spending this money a little bit more wisely than what you are thank you Kayla Toma hello my name is Kayla Toma I welcome the opportunity to address the school board members I am a Precinct delegate and a lawyer and I come from the Chaldean community I think it's important for you as school board members to ask questions and probe every aspect of the various programs the school district is engaged in no one who identifies as an expert on a subject should be immune to questions and challenges often a different perspective or Insight results from a civil discussion of facts when questions and challenges are presented yes U.S school board members may not know everything but neither do experts let me uh take a
061moment to speak about the issue of the Great Schools initiative the GSI childhood used to be a time of Innocence unfortunately as our culture has become more and more sexualized children have become the casualties of adult exploitation so efforts to expose or expose our children to what many parents consider to be age inappropriate content and to make parental notifications opt out difficult or impossible undermines a parent's constitutional right to control their children's education on sensitive topics such as human sexuality effort Public Schools should not be the place to uh to place where children are exposed to radical sexual ideologies transgender ideology gender fluid Concepts the use of pronouns is yes considered Radical by many millions of Americans it is bad enough that this is being shoved down our throats as adults as a new Norm
062but it is especially horrific that children the raising generation are being immersed into this yes I am well aware that citizens as myself and expressing my opinion will be labeled hateful homophobic or right away and extremists emotionally unhinged whatever you want to say so be it labels are resorted to to when people can't address the issues at hand with sound reasoning and thought and another uh plug for the Great Schools initiative is seeking to call out school districts for uh for letting the sexualization of children creep into their classroom since they're a regular opt-out forms don't properly protect children from their unacceptable exposure it is well it's a welcome event that parents are taking matters into their own hands with their own opt-out forms such as though one that GSI provides School teachers Administration administrators
063excuse me school boards should not be dictorial on this matter with either take our forms or else the Michigan Department of Education is wrong on this issue and it needs to be um called out and it will be called out thank you Stephen hatch Stephen hatch good evening my name is Stephen hatch I have a child who attends Walled Lake Northern High School and I'm here to voice my concerns regarding the sexualizations of our children over the past year I've read several articles about school board meetings here in the great state of Michigan where parents have been detailing instances of sexual topics being addressed in schools a few examples Midland Michigan in January 21st 2022 where children were exposed to the idea of being a furry and even provided a litter box in one of
064the unisex bathrooms Dearborn Michigan October 11 2022 where parents voiced their objections to sexually explicit material let me excuse me being made available to their children through the school library and in Portage Michigan December 12 2022 where ten thousand dollar Grant was awarded to the school to provide students with a gender affirming closet now this stuff these examples are what concerns me because my views and opinions concerning sex sexuality sexual relationships sexual orientation and gender differ from what is allegedly being discussed between teachers and or other state employees and the students attending these schools Now My Views and opinions are rooted in My Religion the definition of religion here being a personal set or an institutionalized system of religious attitudes of beliefs and practices and it looks like to me in schools today that the
065topics of sex sexuality sexual relationships sexual orientation and gender are being addressed from only one perspective and this perspective is so unified in its views and opinions that I think it is fair to label that perspective as as coming from a religion meaning that the views and opinions held by many members of the lgbtq community can fairly be stated as rooted in a religion the cases of Everson versus Board of Education of Ewing Township 1947 McCollum verse Board of Education 1948 and Engel versus vital 1962 where the fundamental rulings of the Supreme Court that removed religious teachings from our schools these decisions made it clear that teachers and other state employees are prohibited from discussing broaching or alluding to religious topics with other people's children while at school these decisions also set a precedence that
066teachers and other state employees are limited in the topics that they can discuss approach or YouTube with other people's children furthermore these rulings also set the Precedence that it is the parent not the teacher or other state employee that has the right to determine what their child is taught in school it's my request that if a teacher or other state employee is prohibited from expressing views like mine such as the sanctity of marriage the Peace of Mind of abstinence and the clarity of only two genders then they should also be prohibited from discussing broaching or alluding to the topics of sex sexuality sexual relationships sexual orientation or and gender those topics should be left to their parents and the child and your policies should reflect that thanks [Applause] good evening I sent an email to
067all of you on the board and some of the administrators maybe not all of them regarding the sign that is at Geisler middle school regarding who they accept I don't have a lot of issue with it but I do have the issue with it say dating that they accept all sexual orientations these are middle school students who are from age 10 to 14. we we shouldn't be talking about sexual orientations with 10 year olds it doesn't matter they we need to keep their innocence and we can be accepting of all people and not worry about who they're in love with and and those kinds of things so while I'm waiting for an email back from Mr Riley at Geisler to find out where the poster came from how many are there are they all over
068the district I would like someone to go take it down and change it because we shouldn't be talking about sex with our 10 year olds especially at school I also wanted to touch base a little bit on the security guards at the schools um you all know I work in a different district and we have a security guard at every school I love having him there we've had some instances where he has come in very handy with our walkie-talkie system he comes to my classroom at the end of every day because I dismiss my kids out the back of the building so he's there with me every day however we had a situation where CPS had to be called and because you never know I mean we're many of us are Educators when you have
069to call Child Protective Services you're not sure what's going to happen when a family is notified so for a number of days my officer wasn't back with me which is fine because he went to the other classroom where they were concerned that possibly that parent that significant other there might be an incident at the end of the day so what better place to have someone that has a gun there protecting those kids so it's just one instance how we we utilize our security officer and he's amazing 30 seconds um you can see tonight The Passion of the majority of this room that wants to keep our kids safe you've got multiple emails you have people speaking to you one-sided I just don't know why we can't have a community conversation where we can dialogue back
070and forth about our ideas your ideas what we think might work bring in the law enforcement bring in people that can help us decide what's best for our children to keep them safe so that we as a community don't have to experience what so many other communities have so I implore you to pick a date and let's have an actual conversation with those of us that want to keep our kids safe because I think we all do thank you Becky I think the last name is berens am I close Barons thank you good evening members of the school board Dr bernia administrative staff my name is Dr Becky Behrens and I have here a bottle of Tylenol now we all know that these bottles are not easy to open and they are made that way
071to protect children from access to them and we don't want them to harm their physical bodies I also have here a pretty thick book called A PDR which is a Physician's Desk Reference it's very heavy I use this a lot in my practice of Medicine it contains warnings about side effects and proper dosages of medicine so that physical harm is not created so my question is what about the potential harm and side effects of material absorbed into the minds and emotions of Children and Youth what about the effect on them spiritually there are a number of books in our high school libraries that can have adverse effects on young people I believe we should protect our youth remove the obscene reject the extreme one of these books which is present in two of our high
072schools in the wall Day School District is entitled push written by Sapphire this book is about the life of a teenager who is heavily sexually abused whose life changes when a mentor teaches her to read this book has explicit sexual activities including incest molestation sexual nudity excessive and frequent profanity racially insensitive commentary drug use and violence including self-harm now I am not going to create a spectacle by reading excerpts from this book to you you know where I'm going with this it would be considered in bad taste and inappropriate but apparently not so for high school students so I will submit to you the material that is obscene and inappropriate for you to review in private now there are people who consider themselves quite educated who will get all worked up screaming book Banning book
073Banning heaven forbid we can't have that or they will say such a book is Cutting Edge or has socially redeemable value or it gives a needed dose of reality to teens so they can relate to those who have been abused really can anyone here defend graphic sex acts and violence as socially redeemable there is a vast amount of research detailing the harm of exposing kids to sexual content yet we have media corporations School Educators medical societies again the so-called educated smart people in our society who think there is value in exposing kids to the gritty and dirty part of life Common Sense should tell us otherwise let me finish my thought 50 years from now people will say what were they thinking to our Educators I say remove the obscene reject the extreme and protect
074the minds and hearts of our children just as we would protect them from exposure to medications that harm their bodies thank you Kathy do you want to speak [Applause] hello I don't I'm not a great speaker but I'm going to tell it like it is about a person named Dennis wesinski I don't know if someone else was going to speak of him I went to work for Wallach schools in 88 and he was the director of special services and he was a man he was a good man and he cared about kids he cared about the staff he cared about teachers and even the Paris he cared and he gave so much and at one point near the uh after 30 years they asked him to step down and he said no I'm not ready
075to retire because he became a principal or vice principal at Wall Lake Central and he'd had fun he had some fun with those kids and it was a great year of basketball there but what a man and we've lost him and I hope that the district does something to say thank you somehow to let people know about the goodness and greatness of Dennis wesinski he I can't tell you when he spoke about the children you just wanted to cry because you could feel that he cared so much about them and and he was wonderful with me because I fight if I believe something's wrong and I will stand up and I would stand up to anybody that bugged me I don't care how high up they were in the school district but he listened and
076he was fair I hope we can get back to great people in the district I don't know if you have that many and we haven't had a good special ed director since Dennis wesinski so I hope this new one that you just put in after several other kind I hope this one will make it great here in Wall Lake I really do but remember the name Dennis wesinski he was worth remembering thank you Nancy sure hope I got that correct well thank you everyone um it's wonderful to be here this evening and see so many passionate people I am actually a kindergarten teacher over at Meadowbrook Elementary and I just want to talk about our Shining Moments within our building that um maybe not everybody knows about um we feel like since covid we are
077these flowers blossoming and we know that the kids are back in school our masks are off things are getting back to normal um some of the things that we celebrate in our building is that our i-Ready Improvement this last year was phenomenal when we look at our fall to our winter scores and our new principal Mrs Van wagnan who is willing to sacrifice herself for a dance party or a pie in the face if we can rock it even further she is really quite a good cheerleader for us and we just love it um we're we just completed our March's reading month where we raised the roof with reading and I will tell you those kindergartners they documented every minute no Mr share it's 22 minutes not twenty two I got an extra two so
078it was so wonderful to see The Passion of those little ones um as an educator we're in our K through two you know we're getting the new units of study with Lucy Calkins and her team we're embracing it we are our kindergarten team is utilizing the new units starting mid-year which is really a challenge to switch a curriculum in the middle of the year but this one is meteor and better and we're ready for the writing units as we approach the next couple of years we celebrate our literacy intervention team our our leaders there Maria kuzmich and others we had our tid tidbits with Tim bits and this was a little literacy activity we did a breakfast instead of an after-school activity and the attendance was crazy who knew Timbits would bring in so many
079people it was wonderful we celebrate our first musical since covid we're starting up girls on the run this is wonderful our PTA is back in full swing with our Fun Run and our Bingo nights and then our student council is really getting involved and we love to see that student involvement we just completed Pennywise we're going to find out tomorrow who the winner was and all the proceeds go to the Humane Society and then next week we're off to Spirit Week and so when the the board is visiting us next week we know and it's hat day Miss V said make sure you guys wear your hats because it's hat day on the day you guys arrive so thank you very much and we're very proud of our kids at Meadowbrook Elementary Heather Martinez good
080evening my name is Heather Martinez and I identify with the pronouns she her and hers and I respect the rights of everyone to use their own I'm the parent of three students at Walled Lake Northern High School I wanted to ask I asked at the last board meeting and I didn't hear back from anyone where what happened to the money that was in a GoFundMe account that was being used to previously sue the school district which included a current board member I didn't hear back from anybody to hear where that money went the next question I have and I asked last time are there any current board members that are members currently of the Thomas Moore society that Society has set up for the sole purpose of taking away public education in the United States
081I also want to know why is there a board member on our board that chooses not to bring their children to our school district furthermore I'm speaking I'm sorry I understand but we've let everybody else speak thank you I also would like to know where can I find out more information about the diversity equity and inclusion committee for our district I was told that we had one and then it was taken away please let me know where I can find more information out about who is involved in that and how we can support it as a community for those efforts I also want to know I heard that there was a student in one of our AP classes that wanted to do a project concerning Roe versus Wade and she was censored I would I
082really want to know and I hope that this isn't true because I heard that it was done by a central office employee and if that's the case they jeopardized our District's right to have AP classes in this District that cannot happen for our students especially our high school students that work very hard to try and get further in their education and set up for a success in college finally I want to thank our Educators and our police officers who put their lives in danger every day to be supportive and keep our students safe those are the same people that our society has continued to undervalue and devalue over the last few decades and if we want these people to continue to do the jobs that they're doing every single day and keeping our kids safe
083then we need to take a look and see what we're doing for them and make sure that we're supporting them because they are the ones that are putting on their lives every single day on the line to make sure our students are safe so please when you're coming up here and talking about things make sure you're also putting your money where your mouth is and supporting our police officers and our teachers thank you Bill Cassie good evening everybody I'm Bill cussey from wall Lake western and on behalf of our staff and students at Western I'm here to give us some of the shining stars at Western does earn every year every day and Aaron Muller was also here she's a former grad from Walled Lake Central and attended all 12 years of school through Walled
084Lake Schools the first thing I'll mention is that our new building is underway students and staff are very excited that will be in a 21st century building planning more interdisciplinary lessons with engaging in applied learning Bill Chatfield did ask me today about the beams what is is nice the construction crew has three beams up in the front of the building for students to sign and then there's one in the Teachers Lounge for staff to sign and it looks like to be one of the ceiling beams and the thought of um the next time that building is let's say remodeled or tore down most of us will be passed on because it'll be 50 years and I've been a proud member at this uh in this district for 28 years and been through the model remodelization
085of Western and I do remember some of the staff when I first got hired in 98 saying that one of the big arguments was the furniture blonde or brown and it's funny because the The Architects have a classroom set up for um desk and different types of furniture that may go into that building and staff and students are able to look at it and try to see what's going to work best and it's just a a great feeling that we and the students have a say in what's going on um we had a great football season basketball season wasn't as great but football season was great made it to the playoffs Pat zazinski had two jazz band performances at the MSA boa in Troy and one team finished in second division and the other in
086first Beth Smedley took 21 students some parents and some staff to France Switzerland and Germany over spring break this two weeks ago Kim chumney got an AP environmental science book um foundation for excellence Grant prom this year at Western something that I've been a class sponsor I'm not a coach is going to be at the Henry Ford Museum and I always love that because if you're not a dancer you have something to do because the museum is open and it's just a great great venue for our prom thank you thank you Nancy vandolin my name is Nancy van Lewin I'm a taxpayer I'm a former teacher I'm a former School Board member I have done a lot around here but I have some comments to make and I apologize Mrs Kaplan because I'm probably taking
087one comment away from you but I want to express the real strong appreciation to the staff at Oakley Park Elementary and Wixom Elementary for their contribution and hard work in raising funds that they contributed to Lakes Area Youth assistance recently over four thousand dollars was raised by those two schools and that will in turn come back and help the students of the Walled Lake School District so thank you very much to those particular schools I also want to comment that we in Walled Lake and I know it's inappropriate to speak back to someone who has has spoken at this Podium before but we have excellent people in Walled Lake we have people who care we have people who want to do the work of everybody we have people who are devoted to the students devoted
088to the the parents of this district and I believe in my heart of hearts that the professional staff in Walled Lake is second to none thank you I'm going to now move on to administrative commentary Dr Bernier uh we're going to start on this side tonight with Dr lons nothing at this time thank you sir Mr Durkin nothing this evening Dr Bernie Mr Chatfield thank you Dr bernia I just wanted to a board and the community know that Wednesday April the 19th uh we will be conducting the what is referred to as a topping out ceremony at Walled Lake western as Mr cussey uh just mentioned we have beams inside the school right now that the contractors placed in there for students and staff to sign the topping out ceremony is a um it has
089a long history in the construction industry as commemorating the completion of the installation of structural steel so it's going to be a a fun event for the school Wednesday next Wednesday at 1 pm and as Mr cussey mentioned people who signed that beam will be forever immortalized in the Walled Lake western academic wing wing Edition it's going to be pretty cool so uh and and that's a great milestone because that keeps us on track to begin closing in the building and uh to be ready to open that new edition in the fall of 2024. thank you thank you Mr Russo nothing for me this evening Dr Bruno this is Les nothing for me either thank you I wanted to to share two things I didn't want to take away from the recognition of Lisa Heights
090at the beginning of the meeting but I know her husband George was headed for home and he said he was going to watch on the live stream tonight which I I would think that he as somebody was a long time superintendent Dr Heitz was a long time superintendent in Oakland County I I would think that he would have better things to do with his evening because he's had so many school board meetings under his belt but uh Dr Heights was one of my mentors he took me under his wing when I was uh 27 years old and a very young school administrator and saw something in me that I didn't quite see in myself just yet and so I wanted to take this opportunity he was here tonight to thank him for that and then
091another one of my mentors whenever I got to this time of year would remind the entire audience uh that it's getting warmer and so now kids are out on their bicycles so uh keep your eye out be careful go to board commentary and Miss Tice I remembered you get to be first tonight well this is really great to see so many of you out this evening so thank you for coming and sharing your evening with us and just getting engaged and what's going on in our schools and in our community um I want to congratulate our Apple award winners and just thank them for a job well done and also congratulate our art winners I'm always amazed at their just their talent and their ability um especially I'm just I'm not artistically inclined at all
092so it's quite amazing to me to see all of that um so I I wasn't able to be at our last Workshop that we had so I just want to thank Terry for taking time out of her busy schedule to meet with me and get me caught up on just all the budget stuff that we went over in the last meeting she just worked so hard and just does a great job with her job and just want to thank you for taking that time with me a couple weeks ago um it is quite tragic what happened a couple weeks ago in Nashville and my heart goes out to all those that were affected on that tragic day and um you know I want to thank our officer that's that's here tonight and just um you
093know just my appreciation for all the men and women in our community that put their lives on the line daily to ensure our safety um I know that that's a topic that's near and dear to um to our hearts and um and two obviously many of you who expressed your concerns tonight so thank you for sharing those concerns with us and um you know many of you many have also emailed us concerns and safety is an issue that is um quite concerning to me as well so I really look forward to being able to collaborate with my colleagues here soon and hopes of coming up with some effective plans to protect our students and staff sometimes our students can be and you as a parent as a grandparent as a community member there are a
094few things shock me or take my breath away but recently a group of our middle school students was in Washington and I believe it was Clifford Smart students were placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to watch it on Facebook I will tell you I was sitting there crying it was something that made me proud as a community member proud as a parent and proud as a board member that our students had the ability and the dignity to express something that sincere and I truly thank them for it anything Mrs Fernandez yeah first of all thanks again to all those who volunteer in the district I think it's great for that we had that call out and I'm still thinking about the fact that fifth grade Camp is going on right now
095and it's a wonderful thing it's how I started in the district and you know just sending Good Vibes to the folks that are working with those kids because it's got to be a lot of energy that's going on over there I also wanted to just say you know I am uh as we start to go through these Series where we have recorded meetings and there's virtual participation I'm excited by that and um I uh I hope that it is driving the engagement of participation of the community and that you know we keep doing that so that we reinforce each other and we begin to uh to have healthier more robust conversations in the community as a whole around the issues and topics that are important to us I personally am interested in continuing some of
096our earlier discussions around just the mechanics of how some of those things make it to minutes and how we add items to agendas and how we go about you know furthering these conversations and bringing them to you know not only discussion but action and um and so thanks um to all the community who's either watching or listening or participating this these are your schools and we're to serve the community and um and this is helpful for doing that Mrs Kaplan anything tonight because I just want to say thank you Mrs Van lewen for taking part of my discussion tonight I too want to say a very big thank you and I have a huge check sitting over here that was given to Leia from Wixom Elementary in Oakley Park Elementary um it is greatly appreciated
097will be greatly used thank you Mrs Russell I see you sitting back there um for the generosity of both your school's Leia definitely appreciates everything that you've done for us um on a different note I want to congratulate all of our wlp members and our Color Guard who are state champions some are which are in Ohio right now um going on for National competitions so congratulations to all of them next week is Tarzan at Wild Lake Central I hope that you all come out to see Tarzan it's going to be a fantastic show so please get engaged in that and I appreciate you know all of your contents on Safety and Security it is very near and dear to I can probably I don't mean to speak for all of you but for all of
098us and all of our hearts and we are here to make sure that your children are safe as much as we can possibly attest to and so we are looking at security and we will continue to be looking at security for our students this is Levin thank you Mrs Casa Grande um since our last regular meeting I had the great pleasure of being a mystery reader for March is reading month and I told all the classes I would shout them out so thank you to Mrs wechstein's and Mrs Haddad's second grade classes at Dublin Mrs Raymond's Junior kindergarten class at Pleasant Lake and Mrs Estes kindergarten class at Keith I had a great time uh reading with you thank you all for showing me your schools and for having me I know we are now
099in the home stretch of the school year with nicer weather and testing and bicycles and not much more time off this can be a really trying time for teachers so if you're inclined send a note of thanks and coffee to the teachers and staff in your life as they make it through the Finish Line with your kiddos since our last school board meeting we had a special meeting where we talked about the budget and agendas and policies I really enjoyed finally being able to have a two-way discussion with the rest of the board and I'm looking forward to those discussions continuing more importantly I'm looking forward to those discussions leading to meaningful update States and changes to how things operate on the board and around the district I would hate to spend all that time
100talking for the end result to be the same as where we are right now I've seen all the emails heard all the public comments from parents about a number of topics including drugs and school safety and these remain a top priority you know for the board and for me just this evening the board did receive a copy of a report a security report we can't share the contents we haven't really reviewed it yet but our next meeting will have discussion about school safety and I'm looking forward to really diving into the recommendations from the report and I'm glad that things are starting to move along um I know that the board has received communication um about a demand letter and I know that there's still some more information coming I want to you know thank
101Dr Bernier for providing us with summary updates but I'm hoping that there are still more specific updates coming about um you know specific actions as a result of the letter that was received um and unfortunately I have to be a little vague on purpose but um I'm hoping that the board will receive uh you know some more detail about you know the results of an investigation plans going forward things like that um finally I do want to point out that our discussion meetings if you've noticed our Board calendar we're having more meetings uh you know every month we're having what I'm calling a second meeting of the month so the usually the third this month I think the fourth Thursday I don't have a calendar um but those meetings are where we are going to
102mostly talk about certain topics that we've brought forward to Mrs casagrande and Dr bernia that we want to talk about those meetings are not live streamed so if you you want to hear what the board is talking about and see that two-way discussion I encourage everybody to come to see it public comment is still allowed but I think that it's so important for the community to really understand the discussion behind a lot of these topics for many years um you know votes were 7-0 there was no discussion no transparency and so now that's available and I hope that people will take advantage of that so thank you all for being here for sticking around thank you fellow board members for everything that you do Dr bernia for everything that you put up with and uh
103I hope that everybody's enjoying the weather because it's going away interesting anything this evening I want to mention that we've just uh gone 30 days on a really important milestone in the district and that Milestone is that we are live streaming these events that we have worked so hard for for such a long time for the sake of transparency and for the ability for more in the district to be able to review and see what these proceedings are and have some involvement um it's been I've had so many people this month uh respond to me that they've had the opportunity to go back and re-review or watch these proceedings it's been a long time coming and it's just not not just board members of like myself who have really advocated for a long time but
104previous in passport members so I'm very thankful that we have made this uh this plateau and I think it's already seemingly we're kind of moving past it as what it is and kind of taking it for granted already so it is an important Milestone but I think a lot of people that were involved in getting this accomplished and that there's a guy on the other side of that wall that does a lot I'm sure he's listening to right now we had uh surprisingly interesting uh data from the first meeting that was broadcast last month um they have no clue how many people have re-reviewed it but I know from just the comments I've had through throughout the district a lot so I will say it just heads up for all of us it's been a
105great day and I will just a couple of things not to repeat a lot but I just wanted to mention with Tarzan the Musical that I happen to run into Mrs Denise Dunn who used to serve on this board and it's even more special when you realize that somebody who is here serving and is still a volunteer in the community in other areas as well that she is behind the scenes four Tarzan the music almost every single night knowing her she's probably watching us while she's doing this but her daughter has a lead role in Tarzan the Musical so she's pretty proud of that and her daughter is amazingly talented along with the other kids not to take away from any other ones but when you know somebody is kind of extra special um also
106I've been seeing a lot of things on the the district feed and on social media about the signings of our Sports and athletes who are going on to sports after a college so that's really exciting to see it's also um wonderful to to see kind of the the end of school starts to go fast right and then we'll before we know it we'll be you know graduating students and that's what we're all here for is uh to to support them and whatever their next journey is and the last thing I want to vary deliberately um say we did have a very brief superintendent update on goals and I told Dr Bernie I was going to do this and I know he doesn't always appreciate the attention but he takes the good the bad he's out
107there in the community he's trying to get to know people and we just brought him here you know less than six months ago before we know it in June we're going to be you know doing our first evaluation with him but we um from the board want to thank you we appreciate the work you're doing what you've accomplished to date the different ideas you're bringing forward but also preserving some of those things that people really appreciate about this district and we just want to say thank you I think that your goals update that you gave us in our closed session which is absolutely your right to do so gave us a lot to think about and also showed us a lot that you've already accomplished so we want to say thank you appreciate that and
108now we're going to move on to the consent agenda on our consent agenda we have the approval of minutes from various meetings that we had on March 9th we had two of them three of them rather and March 23rd we have two of them we also have Personnel recommendations new hires retirements Financial reports from February 2023 disbursements in the amount of 16 million one hundred and fifty eight thousand five hundred and forty one dollars we have purchases under 50 000 for advanced placement biology High School textbooks and um we that is not on there anymore we have a head start directors report and may I have the motion all those in favor I opposed motion carry 7-0 and our next agenda item is the K through two science curriculum recommendation Dr bernia Mrs kohanski could
109not be with us this evening due to another commitment so Dr lons lost the coin flip Dr Lyons thank you Dr Bernie the current K2 science curriculum was adopted and purchased in 2005 this curriculum no longer aligns with our current Michigan science standards based on the results of the examination of available curriculums it is the committee's recommendation to adopt cereal City Science by Battle Creek area Mathematics and Science Center 2022 this K2 science curriculum is an accomplished stem Works program cereal City Science provides a science kit for each grade level extensive teacher support professional development and online support the cost of the curriculum materials will not exceed 112 000 and includes all teacher support materials professional development online access and shipping thank you that's our first reading and we'll bring that next month next is
110our Head Start cost of living adjustment the cola funds Dr Bernier we are going to go right back to Dr lons Who's regretting his decision to call Tales this is why do not go to the casino President Biden signed the Consolidated approach Creations Act of 2023 into law on December 29 2022 all Head Start early start and ehscc partnership grantees are eligible to receive Cola and quality improvement funds the cola budget narrative and the program narrative for the 2023 will increase Walled Lake school's Head Start program funding for the period of January 1st 2023 through December 31st 2023 in the amount of thirty two thousand nine hundred thirteen dollars the cola amount provided to a Walled Lake Head Start of 19 329 will be used towards step increases for Head Start employees based on the
111Walled Lake para educator Association approved increases from July 1st 2022 the quality improvement funds amount provided to the Walled Lake heads excuse me Walled Lake Head Start of 13 854 will be used towards French benefits for Head Start employees based on the wlpa contract Mrs Kaplan I move that the Board of Education improved Walled Lake Schools Head Start cost of living adjustment budget as presented any discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carry 7-0 next we have a resolution for The mhsaa Cooperative team application Dr bernia thank you sir as the board knows this is not the first time that we have come forward with a request for a Cooperative team application just as a point of reference the purpose of these is to make sure that we can still have the sports available
112to all of our students that are interested in it without a Cooperative agreement such as this it would be difficult if not impossible to maintain that opportunity so for tonight Walled Lake Central Western and Northern high schools are requesting to combine their programs and form a junior varsity girls lacrosse Cooperative team for the 2023 spring season due to low participation numbers combining the JV girls lacrosse programs will allow all three schools to participate in girls lacrosse at the University level while Walled Lake Northern High School will still continue to maintain its girls varsity lacrosse team Administration recommends the board approve the Michigan High School Athletic Association Cooperative team application just as a point of reference if we would have combined everyone at the varsity level that team would not have been allowed to compete at
113our state competitions so we had enough at Wild Lake Northern so they can maintain their status and this then maintains the ability for us to have a JV combined team perfect Mr secretary the Board of Education approved the mhsaa Cooperative team applications combine while they're central western and other high school girls junior varsity lacrosse Cooperative team programs for 2043 stray athletic season any discussion Mrs Kaplan so just so I'm understanding Dr lines so the teams from Western and Central combined with Northern for just JV but they cannot play Varsity with the northern students that's accurate okay thank you and I just want to thank you for the district for doing this because we you know are still able to offer the uh the program and and I know the the parents and the students appreciate
114that all those in favor I opposed motion carry 7-0 next we have the 2022-23 budget amendment Dr bernian I'm going to turn it over to Mrs Les tavernia the Administration has evaluated the budget line items as we do throughout the year and adjustments have been made to more accurately reflect 2022-23 revenues and expenditures you have a motion Mrs Kaplan I move that the Board of Education adopt the resolution to amend the 2022-23 budget as presented any discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carry 7-0 move on to some uh purchase for I'm just going to send it just purchase I'll send it right over to you Dr Maria all right let's begin uh with the first purchase for Keith Elementary School Mr Chatfield thank you Dr burniam uh we have a tonight for your
115consideration the purchase and installation of a interior Court yeah Turf system for Keith Elementary this is a project that the PTA has worked hard at fundraising and at Keith Elementary we have an interior Courtyard that is very difficult to get to very difficult to maintain uh they would like to put a Turf system in there to provide more in educational and instructional opportunities for students so the PTA uh would would be funding 40 uh the total cost of the project uh recommended to be awarded to environmental Land Management in the amount of 89 671.80 the PTA would be funding 44 671.80 of that while the the Keith picture school picture fund which has a substantial balance would fund the remaining forty five thousand dollars of that project Mrs Levin I move that the Board of
116Education approved the purchase and installation of the Keith Courtyard Turf system from environmental Land Management in the amount of eighty nine thousand six hundred seventy one dollars and 80 cents with forty four thousand six hundred seventy one dollars and eighty cents funded by the Keith PTA and forty five thousand funded from the Keith Elementary School picture fund any discussion discussions Mr Peterson yeah I just wanna one Clarity basically you're asking the board just to allow the facilities to be updated by the the graciousness of what they've done at Keith on their behalf is that really what the question I'm just trying to get this one it's a it's a great great idea I just want to make sure that you're asking the board just to give access to the property is that it board policy
117uh requires that the board approved a project of this amount they've done a great job raising the money to do it and I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that uh discussion or questions all those in favor aye opposed motion carries seven zero next we have a bid award Dr Bernie right back to Mr Chef okay I was gonna say it did I miss something okay thank you Dr bernia um next up we have a recommendation for a roof replacement project a roof area a at Geisler Middle School this is a it's an original roof a Geisler middle school as most people know is a large shingled roof however in the very middle of the school is a small rubber roof membrane that deteriorated actually partially blew off over the course of
118this winter and we've taken bids we recommend awarding that project to Newton crane of Pontiac in the amount of 127 thousand dollars no motion Mr Ziegler I apart any discussion Mr Peterson Mr Chatfield can you uh explain to me why we chose the sinking fund to do that since this is a page four bond school I'm just curious how we we make that balance sure um we have um over the past several years we've funded almost all of our Roofing projects with the sinking fund because the cost of roofing the cost of every construction related project have increased significantly so we're doing our best to make sure that the bond budget stays within budget and so by funding the side projects that frankly this one was not originally projected to be completed in this project
119with the sinking fund we will have no detrimental impact on the bond budget any other questions or comments all those in favor I opposed motion carries 7-0 equipment usage request Memorial Day Parade Dr bernia one more time Mr Chatfield thank you Dr bernia the Walled Lake Schools transportation department has participated in the City of Walled Lake's annual Memorial Day parade for many years a Walled Lake D Transportation a bus driver drives the bus or buses in the parade procession which provides a great public relations opportunity during what is a highly anticipated Community event this year's Memorial Day parade is on Monday May 29 2023 administration supports participation by Walt by the Walled Lake transportation department and allowing them to use two Walled Lake buses up to two Walled Lake buses for the parade the employees
120will donate their time to drive the buses in the parade and clean them up afterwards I moved at the Board of Education approved the request of the transportation department to use up to two buses in the wall or in the City of Walled Lake Memorial Day Parade on Monday May 29 2023 any discussion I just want to say thank you for you know bringing this to us and letting our buses be in the parade if you haven't gone to the parade it's a fantastic parade to go see and it's very nice to see our buses roll down the street so thank you yes Mr Peterson with the special knowledge in this area I want to thank the dean Transportation people for their kindness of their heart to donate all the giveaways that they also uh
121utilize during this this day they go to a very large extent a lot of donations from all the bus drivers and so so again let's give them a special heads up thank you all right all those in favor I opposed motion carry 7-0 we now have Port board policy regulation updates Dr bernia Madam president uh for your review tonight is some administrative regulations specifically fees and fines that you will see for your review specifically school schedule facilities and the facilities Outdoor Center costs fees have been updated uh to reflect the rates for the 2324 school year and this is for your review thank you we appreciate that we also have a a board meeting date change the 2023-24 board meeting dates were publicized as you all know back in January 2023 at that board meeting
122and to better accommodate board member schedules the board is going to consider moving the August 17 2023 regular meeting to August 24 2024. yeah why does it say 20 . it is you're right we could but you know it is after nine so yeah we're doing pretty well so I I will go ahead and make the motion I move that the Board of Education moved the August 17th 2023 regular board meeting to August 24 2023. any further discussion and we talked about this at the workshop this is a date that worked better for us and it still worked within um the business that you might need to get done in August as we start almost start back to school okay all those in favor aye opposed motion carries 7-0 and we are adjourned at 9
12315. thank you