##VIDEO ID:GIO1XDNcENw## e e e e e e e e School District Board of educ and we thank you will the clerk please call the role present Mr CR present Mr Lopez Mrs Moore present Dr Nar Martinez present Mr niski present Dr Rodriguez Miss Williams present Mrs Willies pres Mr pres thank you and I do know that dras will unfortunately not be able to join us this evening so this is going to be our board for the evening next on the agenda is reading the district mission statement and vice president Moore just graciously asked if I would read it since it is my last meeting so I will read to Grace you all one more time the mission of this district is to provide a high quality education and a culturally safe and nurturing environment that supports all students to live purposeful and fulfilling lives welcome next we're going to check to see if we have any additions to the agenda see none public comment on agenda items from the clerk no that brings us to our presentations this evening first up or our only presentation this evening will be budget amendment number one I'm going to invite Miss Adams even good evening see if we can get this right tonight our first amendment this evening is a very good one as a reminder of the context we made assumptions April through June for this fiscal year we made assumptions about enrollment projections state aid and Foundation allowance Staffing totals and categorical allocations the actual fund balance changes between April and June of each year the audited fund balance is presented in November after the fiscal year 25 budget is approved and budget amendment number one reflects changes as of November 30th from the approved budget as adopted in June an overview of budget amendment number one when you adopted the budget we assumed that our fund balance June 2025 would be $4.1 million our audited fund balance showed an increase of 7.4 million which would bring our fund balance this June to 47.6 million prior to any of the other changes we will discuss tonight we will discuss the increases in revenues a net of 1.5 million additional revenues less increases to our expenditure budgets of 775,000 so we're adding an additional 773 th000 to our fund balance which should bring our fund balance June 2025 to 48.3 million and again this is a conservative estimate I anticipate additional changes as we go through the year as well as recognizing additional savings as we go through the year for our Revenue changes as mentioned before we had a net increase of $1.5 million we had increases of over $6 million primarily from property taxes miscellaneous revenue and rebates and refunds um ISD taxes Medicaid hold harmless increased as as well as the incoming transfer from the capital projects of $4 million as a reminder last year we moved almost over1 million to capital projects to help fund some of our um Capital project needs for this year but we were able to secure additional funding which has been able which has allowed us to reimburse the fund balance for $4 million we also had decreases of 4.5 million um our foundation remained at $968 when you adopted the budget we were conservative we thought we would get an additional $100 per child we ended up getting zero per child mypers had a reduction of 2.3 million our 22A 22b discretionary budgets had a reduction of 1.2 million and our food service indirect was reduced so these decreases were 4.5 million netted against the increases of six brings us to the net increase of 1.5 million above our adopted budget we also had ad additional changes or cost for Staffing we had increases of 2.5 million primarily due to administrators on special assignment negotiations substitutes um when we discussed our budget we don't expect the schools to cover the cost of Subs their staff while staff are out on FMLA leave that means they're paying twice with one pot of money so we help reimburse those costs and also fill rate we also had program Investments additional cost um outgoing transfer to capital projects those were because we had rollover projects I think I mentioned those at our finance committee meetings where we had budgets set up last year but they actually didn't complete and aren't complete yet until probably the next month or so so we had to move the budget into this fiscal year we we also had school and departmental carryover roll the roll forward projects and classroom grants we also had program Savings of $6.7 million school loan repayments midyear reduction due to enrollment Decline and the beakman transition because I didn't know how beakman was going to play out um I had a three thou our $3 million budget just set aside just in case and we don't need it so we're returning that to the fund balance so our net increases were $776,000 in expenditures a summary of budget amendment one again the adopted budget assumed fund balance at the end of this fiscal year is 4.1 million the audited fund balance came in with an increase of 7.4 million we had an increase in expenditures of $776,000 an increase in revenues of 1.5 m million which brings our fund balance conservatively as to 48.3 million this coming June and thank you do you have any questions mam president yes I just had um two questions one the change for food service does that uh take care of the thing that was mentioned in the audit of needing to bring that balance down or is that still that's separate okay so the we plan to bring down the fund balance we purchase tables um I think for all of our cafeterias new cafeteria tables and chairs and there's many other projects in the works to improve the quality of food and the quality of food being served to the kids the reduction for indirect is because we can only claim indirect on our staff costs and some of the supplies and materials I can't claim indirect on anything over and above 25,000 on our contract contract sorry with sedexo so that's why the decrease okay and then my second question two of the larger changes in the actual line items are pup transportation and outgoing transfers are those both like one-time changes for projects like this new buses yes exactly um the EPA bus rebates and the 15 new buses that we are purchasing yes so this overall total budget change is kind of inflated for this year because of those projects yes okay thank you you're welcome welcome mam I have two questions the mster reduction is due to that new federal leg legislation am I correct yes it's due to the reduction in retirement and stabilization and then why didn't we get the $100 per pup increase do we know why um they didn't give us an increase that's the state aid yes Pro State a okay sorry sure thing M Williams is that okay thank you sure thing Mr Lopez thank you just um on 2A and 2B uh discretionary reduction what caused that I'm sorry which piece uh on the decreases on uh 22A and 22b oh so that is based on property taxes and the money we get in state aid okay thank you mhm oh by the way congratulations you do a heck of a job oh thank you I thought you were going to tell me I was having a baby or something well there are the reasons for congratulations thank you but you haven't posted on Facebook so I I don't know no and it's not probably going to happen okay it's not happen I'm done donating children to the district I'm done children well I was going to say thank you you know you mentioned it was only five slides and this uh it was comprehensive so we got the information that we needed and the questions that we had asked and um I the biggest adjustment we had to make was the fact that we didn't get uh a foundation Aid adjustment which was we can only do our best projections based on what's floating around at the time we make our budget so um seeing no questions this is on our agenda to adopt later so thank you thank you thank you guys Madam president sure thing Mr Lopez I I have a question more for the superintendent okay um on the um adjustments uh let's see oh school and Department carryover um so this means that the schools didn't spend all their money and I guess my question to superent is how do we adjust that and um how does that yeah conversation look like no it's a it's a great question so you know there's always these two competing interests with the way the governments are funded you give schools money and you say spend it but you also say spend it wisely and sometimes the wisest thing to do is to not spend every dollar because you want to let's say hire a full-time employee and that you don't have enough money for so what we've actually allowed schools to do is roll money over so that they rather than just spend and lose or lose they can say we're going to save this money for next year when we can add two pieces together and actually get let's say a full-time teacher full-time Aid we also understand sometimes that maybe they want to have a big uh a big purchase a new basketball court a new whatever we rather than say we're going to plan for the future then just buy a bunch of pencils because they have to spend all that money but I also will commend Kim one of the things that her staff does is they work with the principls with Jessica as well to say hey look this is your budget we really want you to spend it we want you to spend it thoughtfully but the number of dollars that our school and Department carryovers really is not kind of overwhelming the 5 mil a lot of that was the capital projects I think that's 4 million of the 5 million so we have 25 schools if the carryover is about a million for the whole District that's not a lot but what I want the taxpayers to know is that it's good that you do that because what you don't want is a system where you force schools to spend money just because they have it right so that's usually it but Kim does a very good job saying look here's your budget spend it wisely etc etc well that's good because uh the last thing we want to hear is that schools don't have money EX can do this because they don't have money and I think we need to be aware of the fact that maybe it's it's not they don't have money it's just they don't want to spend it well and I also really am glad you bring this up because one of the things that we've been able to do with school-based budgeting is push millions of dollars more towards the schools so they're able to do it now you know I I I know when I was in school you know we sold candy bars you know we raised money for things but the good news is over the last couple of years through taxes and the government larest but also with the way we've redone our budget the schools are able to get more money and they can buy more things we have more FTE than we've had in years our ratios of adults to children are lowering so they really are getting uh things and in fact I think we're just buying I because I can hear them uh 45 new basketball uh uniforms at at Eastern so you know we are really finally getting there we know there's been a some time where there wasn't as much money and and now we're really hoping to spend on our children and our and our staff so thank you thank you thank you any further questions great next we are going to go on to our report from superintendent Mr schoner well good evening everyone it's nice to see you all I'm going to bring make my uh comments brief because it's possible that the end of this meeting I might have some things to say about some events uh of today but I just do want to say to anybody listening and to all four wonderful people in the audience uh that it is been a great first a great rest of the year um we're really proud of the work of our faculty of our staff of our children uh just this week we had our parent uh superintendent Roundtable there were I think probably over 50 people people I mean it really was pretty wonderful and just there's this new energy of activity within the district and you know parents are involved kids are involved one of the big um uh positive mentions at this parent Round Table was about uh Middle School sports uh you know the fact that we're bringing back a lot of the things that make school districts great and you know I want to thank this board because just like GMA was asking are we spending our money and are we doing right by our children and our faculty and you know if you've been watching our school board meetings I mean I don't wish that on anybody but if you do you've noticed we also just signed a great contract with Lea re really raising their salaries our teacher salaries are some of the highest starting salaries in the area you know we want to make sure that our adults are taken care of so that they can take care of our kids um there's been a lot of great things that happened this year I'll certainly write about it in uh this week's superintendent newsletter which will be the last one for the next couple couple of weeks um but you know we really feel like things are moving in the right direction there's always mistakes there's always things that we can do to get better but I just want to thank everybody uh listening at home and here just for how much they've really embraced the school district and that means an incredible lot to our community in fact uh you know one of our ET members said that they were wearing a a jacket that said Lancing school district and and somebody just in a store came up up to them and said hey you know do you work for the district and he said yes and he said I just want to tell you that I'm treated so well at Gardener and I'm a parent and so those kinds of um just little things are really important so I know we have a lot more to do we have so much work ahead of us uh but just to thank everybody for a wonderful wonderful year you know certainly happy holidays to everybody um you know uh Happy New Year and I hope that you're able to take uh the two weeks off in some capacity to rest uh relax rejuvenate and come back ready to rock and roll uh in January so I'll have some other comments later but for this I just want to say thank you everybody happy Holidays happy New Year and I look forward to seeing you all in January thank you very much Mr superintendent that brings us to our committee reports this evening we have uh committee report from finance committee Dr Kavanaugh hi thank you uh the finance committee met this Monday in attendance for Dr navarez Martinez Mr Crim and myself we did spend the majority of the time going over the budget amendment the presentation that we all just watched so I won't recap that um however I will give um a brief report for November the detailed Treasures report for the period of November 1st through November 30th 2024 is attached to this evening's agenda the following are the highlights of the report the beginning cash and investment balance was 8,951 318 receipts total 28 m94 7,494 while dispersements equaled 21,1 39,46 net interfund transfer total $ 66,1 se7 in interest from fund Investments to the school and bond funds student and bond funds sorry as well as journal entries to remove the due to Due froms in all funds the monthly transfer to the general fund for Bond expenses was 2,416 732 the ending general fund cash and investment balance on November 30th 2024 was 91,8 42,253 the General funds cash and investment balance is 42 million m1706 122 greater as compared to the same time last year I also want to thank our donors we had uh almost 4,000 in of in donations in the month of November um so we always appreciate those donations with a special thank you to Edward Jones blackbow um and their partners and uh Schwab charitable um so thank you very much for making a donation to The District and Madame President this concludes the November 2024 Treasures report thank you so much are there any additional questions this evening great seeing none that brings us to our facilities committee report which the facilities committee was very busy so uh Mr Lopez okay um I'm G to have to pass a torch to either my friend to the right or my friend to the left you do it because you two were there all right okay so the um facilities committee met directly after the finance committee meeting uh on Monday president were Mr CHR and myself um first we got an update on um our construction projects so really good news all around there um we know that the Paton Gill modular um they are just completing their punch list so that is very close to being completed um we know that Mount Hope continues a pace um Willow it sounded like they were starting some interior work like painting um so that's good news and then uh Luton is in the design phase uh still incorporating the um the parents and community members into that design process I also want to highlight that if you look at the Lancing School District Facebook page there are frequent updates about those construction projects that include really cool pictures so if you're interested in seeing more contemporaneous updates and some visuals as far as what those construction projects look like I encourage you to check out that Facebook page it's a really great resource um additionally we went over a number of different things that you will find later in our um our consent agenda so uh I will save that until we reach them uh and otherwise that concludes the facilities committee report thank you any questions I would encourage folks to take uh ask questions because we don't ask questions on consent so if you have any questions now would be the time for a mad of approvals there are two things that I want to note for um some of the things that we're going to be asked to approve um one is that there are of course there's so many I'm going to have a hard time finding but one was that there were a couple of instances where it looks as though we did not go with the lowest bidder but what you'll notice is that the lowest bidder has an asterisk next to their bid that means that the bid was incomplete in some way um and so if you're like hey that's not the lowest bid it's because the lowest bid isn't actually the lowest bid there was some kind of issue with the bid that was put forth that meant that we could not choose that particular group um now I'm blanking on the other thing that I wanted to highlight if it comes to you all right between now and then or anytime during the meeting just let us know uh next we have our Personnel committee uh Personnel committee report update uh vice president more yes Madam president I yield the floor to trusty nnsky who will be giving our Personnel report this evening thank you thank you the Personnel committee met on Friday December 6th excuse me trustees Moore and myself are present along with CEO s and HR Director Ross um reports were provided on the following topics first Recruitment and hiring updates at the time of the meeting there were zero vacancies and special education and High School teaching positions which was a phenomenal to hear uh elevate K12 staff had visited the district and provided a presentation about the services they're providing uh this is the contract we approved for the instructor to be online with a a guest teacher in person and those slides can be shared with all board members I don't know if they've been distributed yet but it was good to hear report on how that's working and efforts will be made to promote open laa positions once the new agreement salary and benefits are implemented as the superintendent uh mentioned that'll be an opportunity to try to fill those um unfilled assistant positions uh next District level grievance updates there were no new District level grievances reported so that was good to hear and efforts are continuing to respond to those that are still open for employee retention U the committee did receive feedback and reviewed that from the instructional orientation session in August um so we talked about that a bit the idea for a building level quote unquote Ambassador position of some kind uh that would be designed to welcome and support new hires is still under consideration and discussion at the building level and there was some brief conversation about ideas to promote or develop Community perks of some kind such as cell phone plans wellness fitness centers free or reduced Child Care rates dining entertainment discounts Etc that we could maybe identify with Community Partners to benefit teachers and other staff uh for contracted Services there was discussion about vacancies or fill rates for those employers that are no longer directly with the district and staff will explore sharing the links for employment with contractors through District communication channels so you could also see those jobs maybe when you are a link to those companies when you go to the the district employment page um for other just an update on the data being compiled for the types of certification and permits for each teaching position in the district you know we have many so it's a undergoing task but HR is working on tracking every position and the certificate or permit that's in place so soon that summary report may be available to share with the board and then likely on a monthly basis in the Personnel report we would see that uh breakdown of certification type for some new business for the committee um policies that have been discussed by the board previously on hiring termination resignation retirement and tenure were reviewed uh from uh uh Personnel perspective and administration will work to draft some policy change recommendations that can be bought brought to um the policy Committee in the future or the full board however that may be needed um and then there was just a comment at the end of separating out the resignation termination retirement report in future meetings as requested uh at a previous board meeting that is the report thank you are there any questions for either vice president Moore or Trustin nosky all right see n uh that brings us on to our consent agenda this evening unless Dr kavana remembered what she was gonna say she remembered she was gonna say all right Dr sorry everybody the second thing that I wanted to highlight um that you will see on the consent agenda that came from conversations out of the facilities committee meeting on Monday was the contract with greenlink um so green link remember is the organiz ation that we work with to help us find um and facilitate opportunities toward green energy and one thing that I find really notable is that the return on investment for working with green link is 64 times so what that means is for every dollar we spend on green link they bring in $64 um in terms of Grants opportunities Etc so it's been uh an amazing partnership and I would highly encourage my board colleagues to approve um the continued contract with green link thank you next on the are there any questions for Dr Kavanaugh at this time see now we're going to move on to our consent agenda I may I have a motion Madame President M Williams I move that the board of vacation approve the consent agenda as presented I'm not going to that's perfectly fine it's been supported by Miss Williams supported by truste Moore all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion passes 80 next item on the agenda is the approval of our budget amendment as detailed in the attachment may have a motion Madame President truste Williams I recommend that the board of vacation approve budget amendment number one as details in attachment second it's been moved by trusty Williams supported by Dr kavanov any questions or comments on the budget amendment as presented see none all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion passes 80 next we have a recommendation to approve um and accept a exception request for employment as included in our packet may I have a motion Madam president I move that the Board of Education accept the approval of employment res resolution as presented it's been moved by second whoa I'm g go on this side of the table for a minute it's been moved by Dr Kavanaugh supported by trusty CRM any questions or comments this evening seeing none I'm going to ask the clerk to call the role yes Mr creem yes Mr Lopez Mrs Moore yes Dr Nar Martinez yes Mr noes yes M Williams Mrs Willis yes motion passes 80 perfect next we have a recommendation to nominate nominate truste Lopez or suppor his nomination to the Michigan Association of school boards representing region 7 and I would also recommend that we combine this and recommend that we nominate rosin William to Williams to serve as um the alternate as one motion if someone would be willing to do so I open the floor for Madam chair Dr naris Martinez I move that the Board of Education nominate guo Lopez for another term on the migan association of school boards representing region 7 and that the Board of Education nominate Roslin Williams as an alternate member representing region 7 SM by Dr nvar Martinez supported by Mr Crim all those in favor of the motion to signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion passes 80 just a quick clarification Point Mr Lopez is all that you need will be a copy of the minutes from this evening or do you need a formal document signed explain this a little bit okay this is not a um a appointment to attend the conference okay this is for the election of a of a um director okay and directors don't have alternates but um certainly when when the conference come up and we need uh uh you know um delegates to delegate assembly that is where the alternates come in so I don't know if uh this would not be an alternate to the to the board of directors yeah for the for the conference this isn't for nominated this so the where we can have a proxy is when we appoint somebody to be our voting member as a delegate during the assembly what Mr Lopez is running for is to be on the MSB board representing region 7 which is different because then they actually put everybody who's running for region s up for election and then every Board gets to every individual board member actually gets toomin or we get to submit a vote as a board um and so you're how long have you been doing this Mr Lopez a while well well this this recommendation is really not I'm sorry not necessary because again this there's no alternates to the to the board of directors um there are alternates to the to the uh masb leadership in than than convention annual convention um that's where the board you know either nominates two of us I think we have room for about four of us and we we're not sending the number of of delegates that that we should so in that case uh I don't know if this board wants to designate the delegates to to to the coming conference but that's that's not the the issue here should I restate the motion and just do the first one s should I just redo the motion and no how do we do that no I actually think it's fine I it just is that technically Mr Williams is not uh going to be a um uh a nominee for region 7 because we're only going to submit Mr Lopez so it's fine and we'll talk about when you guys are ready to have delegates at the convention next year I'll just say that however you know um any board member is free to apply to to the board of directors and you would have to go through the process as we are tonight but for the purpose of of this um Rec recommended motion um there is direct I guess that's the bottom line all right thank you now on our agenda this evening we have a recommended motion to extend the green link contract contract no we're good we have we voted on that we just we're clarifying that Madam president alternate link really doesn't mean anything sorry Mr Grim I'm moveing the Board of Education approve the extension of the green leag contract as presented second it's been moved by truste C and supported by Dr Kavanaugh are there any questions or comments this evening Madame President Mr Lopez uh just one quick question it may not be related to this or not but uh we did order some panels right is it part of this this gu the solar panels nope this contract is different so we have two separate contracts with green link education one of them is completely separate on the solar piece of it this is all of the other green initiatives that we're doing thank you you're welcome I I do have a question and sorry I didn't think to ask this earlier and I certainly appreciate Dr kavanagh's comment about the 64 to1 you say 64 to1 so I have no objection to this I just want to make that clear as I asked this question but I did um see that they're asking for a $50,000 increase not to exceed amount of green leaks 2425 contract I guess I'm not clear um oh and then it says okay so it says there's a request for board approval for $50,000 increase to not exceed amount of green link education contract and then it says increase green link education contract for fiscal year not to exceed amount by $50,000 right so there I'm just trying to frame this in my mind so when we like do contracts and we have a contingency contract they need to increase with their contingency amount is to $50,000 correct so what was it yep so their current contract for this fiscal year is 135,000 right and so we're asking to increase that for the cap to be 185 the cap and because they give us build hours because they build so many hours on the front end they're anticipating they're going to go up so just we haven't hit the 135 yet no but this is to increase the cap for contingency correct because we've um applied for an additional $20 million Community Grant and they've spent quite a bit of time on that um and so we've had an increased workload with them to go for the additional 20 million yeah I appreciate the breakdown of what they did right they said we did this much more in the beginning and this is why I'm that's why I'm good with it I just wasn't clear on that language so we're good okay thank you you're welcome um was there another question or comment all right C none all those in favor of the motion the floor signify by saying I oppose same sign motion passes 8 Z next we have new business there in your packet you have a set of documents related to to um a fee appeal for a foia from Sarah Atwood through Val State Journal in your packet you have a recommended a recommended letter um to send back to miss Atwood denying the request for appeal um I would note um to the board we don't get this very often the reason for the um uh appeal of the foer was not that the district denied the foyer in any capacity it's that the requestor of the Foya has um contested the fees that were associated with fulfilling the Foya request um the district requires a 50% deposit on on Foya fees if the amount exceeds the amount of the anticipated fees exceeds that amount that I it'll come to me in just a moment but um what our recommendation is that based on um what we know that the district Personnel staff has done with communicating with their lawyers following in our for year policy that our our recommended fees um do represent the hourly rate post benefits of the two um lowest paid employees um in each of the two departments that would be necessary to fulfill those the fouryear requests so one department is HR is going to be needed in order to fulfill the request and one is within the IT department um and so those calculations that we believe are accurate and therefore our fee request stands and so the recommendations that we deny um that we deny the appeal request so that's setting things up uh may I have a motion Madame President Trustin nowinsky I move to deny the foil appeal and send the drafted letter I second thank you it's beenu by noisy and supported by vice president Moore I'm just going to look for just at our board secretary to make sure that that will satisfy the requirements for the denial just give him just a second he's got to read the the legales wording sorry we're just looking at the recommended motion to make sure what we said will work just to recap the motion on the floor is to deny the um to deny the feed to deny the fee request as outlined in the letter that's presented in our packet is that correct Mr nosky yes perfect then we're good okay thank you all right now that we have the motion the flo are there any additional questions or comments Madam president uh Mr K no I'm sorry trusty nowinsky I just want to clarify I saw the information regarding the fees and and that all seems in line um there was a a statement in there that in the letter that the appeal was to deny a public records request in part but I didn't see anything denied for the request it was just it was granted with the fee outlined and then the person is appealing the fee is that correct I didn't see anything in our initial response that denied anything in the request where do you see the in where do you where do you see the end parts which paragraph the first sentence in the letter dear Rachel I'm writing you pursuant and then it says to deny a public records request in part and requesting from the from the um Miss Atwood oh sure right the district did not deny um the she's appealing the decision made by the district to deny oh yeah to deny a record in part and for requesting $68 for the records requested and we address that we are not um then her letter goes on to say that her problem is that she was doesn't agree with the fees yeah I just wanted to clarify then in the district's response there was nothing denied that I could see correct and so we are just considering where the fees appropriately applied and from all the information I've seen I agree that they were and that's why I want to make the motion and support it to deny the appeal that's correct trusty we don't have anything that was actually denied by the district any additional questions or comments all right seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign great motion passes 80 next we are on to a brief for Board of Education on EPA clean School Bus Lottery Miss slate good evening everyone um basically this is just a quick briefing to let you know that our we have an intent to apply for additional electric school buses um it is something that is required by the state of Michigan that we inform the board of our intent to continue with that process um so as you may know we have already been awarded 20 school buses between Michigan grants and federal grants there has been an additional Lottery window open to apply for additional school um electric school buses so we are going to continue down that path and apply for an additional 10 school buses um that will uh be housed at Dean with charging stations um and this would be a fully reimbursable Grant uh that allows us to continue on our Endeavor um going for green initiative thank you are there any questions for Miss late this evening Miss SL I'm presuming um you just need to make sure that the notice was is reflected in today's meeting correct minutes perfect okay C none that moves us to our close session may I have a motion Madam president I move that the Board of Education recess and to close session for the purpose of periodic employment Ava valuation as requested and permitted in the open meetings act it's moved by Dr Kavanaugh supported by second trustee C any questions or comments motion will the clerk please call the role Cabana yes Mr Crim yes Mr Lopez Mrs Moore yes Dr Nar Martinez yes Mr noisy yes Miss Williams Mrs Willies yes motion passes 8 Z and at 648 nope 6:47 still we are in close session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we're green good to go it is 7:15 and we are back in Open session we um don't have an official motion on the floor but we do have um action for the board to discuss um a little bit about what we did in close session so just so folks know who may not be familiar um you guys know the board has a responsibility to evaluate our superintendent on an annual basis um this year the rules changed and we are also required to do what are our uh titled periodic evaluations and or midar progress reports um with our superintendent and so that is what we just completed and then once we are in public session instead of um adopting a formal evaluation or score things like that like we've done in the past what we do is we provide an update on the goals that remain for the year so that we all are are you know having a public discourse about what um we are going to be continuing to look at our superintendent um's progress throughout the the rest of uh his evaluation cycle which doesn't exactly run on a calendar year or a school year so it's just up to how we' um run our cycle over the years but I would just like to share that our goals for the remainder of the year for the superintendent there are three of them the first goal is um we have the goal of reaching an 85% districtwide graduation rate by 2027 that comes from our strategic plan that is a a strategic plan goal that the board has adopted and then our superintendent has adopted as one of his um personal growth goals as well to continue to support the district in reaching that strategic goal of the 85% district-wide graduation rate the second goal is to increase attendance by 2% based on the from the 2021 to 2022 school year numbers compared to the 2024 202 five student numbers um out of the myit plan and the final goal for the superintendent is to demonstrate a growth in 20 a growth of 20% in student participa participation in at least one extracurricular activity by 2027 based on our Baseline data which was Baseline data from school year 20 2022 through 2023 so our Baseline was 2022 and 2023 we had a baseline by 2027 we won a goal we have a goal to increase that participation by 20% it's the superintendent's goal to hit that Mark by 2027 as well meanwhile annually he'll give us progress updates on how that's going so those are our three goals um that we have adopted for our superintendent are there any questions or comments from our colleagues and certainly any questions from the superintendent okay okay Mr superintendent I just wanted to thank this board for always putting students first uh graduation is a great final number in terms of if a child succeeded at high school and through the 13 years attendance of course is a daily reminder of if a child is coming to school and of course hopefully ready to learn and one of the things that our community was very strong about when we did our strategic plan and we met with hundreds of people and got you know data was we want a district that has a vibrant extracurricular activity so I uh thank this board for highlighting graduation attendance extracurricular activities and now it is uh all of our jobs but definitely my job uh to get these three things to happen so thank you again for really listening to the families listening to the community and uh putting this in paper thank you thank you so we'll have those reflected in the minutes those will be our ongoing um goals for the superintendent certainly wish you luck with those next year Mr schoner um next on the agenda be discussion items we don't have any discussion items but I am going to make this public service announcement while just in the event there is public that is actually watching this live and there's public that's here oh God never mind I don't have to make the announcement oh God I don't have to make the announcement all right that brings us on to our report from secretary and announcements alrighty I will be making the secretary's report today for December 19th um December 23rd through January 3rd is holiday break so no school everybody don't show up no one will be here um community members if you're interested we need you please join or excuse me if you want to support the Multicultural task force um is a committee that needs you um they have six meetings it looks like um for one to one and a half hours per meeting um registration is required I'm unsure where you would register I don't see a phone number but if you're interested maybe it's on the website Y and you can email J okay you can email our wonderful superintendent or Jessica Benz if you're interested in joining the Multicultural task force which will hold have six meetings for one hour and a half excuse me an hour and a half meetings of meetings excuse me that didn't make sense but just come and join us alrighty December 20th and the 21st we will have our drive-through Mobile Food Distribution available for the community please call 517 85378 for more information once again if you're interested in the drive-through mobile food distributions um it will be available December 20th and the 21st please call 517 85378 for more information our next board me meeting will be January 9th 2025 and it will be our annual organizational meeting and our regular board meeting the annual organizational meeting will start at 5:30 I'm have a wonderful holiday and stay warm all righty that concludes our report I guess thank you do we have any public comment on nine agenda [Music] items okay next is our comments from the board I do want to Signal it is the last meeting for some of us sitting up here and I'm going to ignore that there may be potentially pertaining to myself being the last meeting and make sure that we take some time to acknowledge trustees nosy and and Crim for their contributions during the time that they have been on the board and we have something to give you somewhere do we have it okay yes we do we have something special for all of you for all of you but I don't know if we want to start first uh is it on talk to we we have like a team here so so so we're working together um you want to come up yeah I would I would love to have uh Dan niskey come up uh and Alex if you could uh bring bring the goods as it were that would be great and Madam president vice president if you wantan to and thank you yeah he gets his own Mr nisi if you could join us it's weird because we don't have our Podium we're not in our boardroom so typically we'd have you at the podium this is a note um for our greatest appreciation and gratitude to thank you for your dedicated service to laning school district and your devotion has made a lasting impact for generations to come and we really appreciate what you've done thanks for you thank you and now I would like to invite Mr Crim and for Mr crem same for you we would like to present you a token of our greatest appreciation and thank you for your dedicated service for Ling school district and your devotion has made a lasting impact for generations to come thank [Applause] you now we'll take a photo do you want to take photos over there yeah yeah little okay not for me no not for you I know all right I would like to open the floor to remarks regarding trusty nowinsky and crem um but I'm gonna take a point of privilege and go first um I would just like to thank Dan and Joshua um for all of your hard work um gosh you guys have brought just a wonderful perspective to the board and I've certainly just appreciated um I think about Dan when you applied for the vacancy um on both um both tries and both um interactions and all the interactions I had with you prior to joining the board I certainly thank you guys both for um all of the Investments That You' made and please don't be a stranger to the district um I know that I'm presuming Josh will'll continue with your coaching duties I don't think the boys will let you go if you tried um and Dan you don't stop being a parent just because you know we're not in this role in capacity anymore so I certainly look forward to continuing to be in the civilian life with you all um at the end of this month any other questions from oh Dr cam thank you both so much um so for those listening at home both Mr Crim and Mr nosky were appointed to fill vacancies which means they had to go through the Really Brave and difficult process of writing all these essays and coming in for an interview um and so I just really appreciate that both of you have such a servants heart that you were willing to put yourself forward for the community in that way um Dan you are so bright and well prepared um you have just the most thorough understanding of not just parliamentary procedure but of um of anything that's about to come before the board whenever you speak I know it's going to be something really really insightful um and something that you have really thought deeply about that's something I really appreciate about you especially your commitment to um to climate friendly updates and changes to our school I think that you've made a lasting impact in that way by pushing for those changes um Josh I've gotten to know you because we're on two committees together so that's truly been a privilege um for those who don't know Josh is both on the finance committee and the facilities committee and given his background he has been an enormously helpful voice in asking incredibly smart questions of our facilities team and our finance team to make sure that we are getting the best possible products at the best possible price and he just has such a detailed understanding of those industries that it's been really amazing to me a person that does not have that expertise of just to watch him work uh as a Committee Member in those capacities so I just want to say that you will both be missed and um you both have certainly made an impact and we appreciate you so much M president if I so I'm gonna go that way first because Dan is right here so Joshua I haven't worked on any committees but in the conversations in just a little bit of time I have grateful to know you excited but we talked about some things tonight so I know we're not getting rid of each other you know School base here Eastern coaching and everything but just some of the other things you're talking about uh uh nonprofit and profits for the schools and the things to see us the community still grow so I'm excited to help with that work with that and just keep going with you Dan and I sit on the policy committee together but a lot of times we're just sitting here okay is this right Robert's Rule so I'm really going to miss learning just when people don't even know that we're sitting in meetings and he's showing me or sharing with things the policy committee oh my god he has made me go home and do so much homework so much homework but I love it because it gives you a better understanding he's just a over around good I I say he's a silent giant with the wealth of knowledge in the room he's going to be missed but I don't think you're going anywhere you're not going anywhere right make sure I got your wife on speed doll and I'll just get the answers from her to get them from you okay so I'm going to miss you guys I Dr naris Martinez yes so um we all got appointed to the board um uh not too you know um distance and time from each other and um it's been really great kind of learning the ropes with both of you um and like everybody has said I hope that you're not going anywhere I'm going to be calling and asking for advice so please answer my call um and yeah thank you very much for your service to the board both of you have uh put in a lot of work and uh we all really appreciate it the school better the school district is better for it so thank you Mr Lopez thank you madam president well to both of you thank you for serving I mean um you put your name up and I think the board did a really good job in selecting you two three I think but but you two um as mentioned you know you were well prepared you had good questions and you presented your reports well um I just hope that you consider um running again if not for school board for another office because I think uh people like you are are needed and uh so think about it uh you got enough time but again thank you both for for your work for your contribution and um we'll miss you for sure thank you just more yes I just want to tell both of you thank you so much for taking the time to serve the community and the board um Dan it's truly been a pleasure we serve on the Personnel committee before and Dan raises lots of great questions he truly took us to another level I think so thank you again for all what you've done um to contribute to that Committee in Joshua it's really been a pleasure we haven't served on any committees together but it's been a pleasure just you know chitchatting with you so um best of luck in all your endeavors sure thanks superintendent SCH thank you um I'll also defer to our wonderful ET as well um I just want to thank both of you you've both been so much of these great lights to support this District um your work on committees your work on the board your work with the staff has been terrific certainly I can't wait to see you on the sidelines of games uh your work with our children uh has been terrific Josh and really your um experience in your day job with helping us think about our green energy thinking about construction thinking about uh building a better District a lot of the work that we're doing is thanks to your support and your understanding uh uh Dan your understanding of policies and procedures has kept us out of danger more than once um I really can't tell you how much that means to me having sat on numerous boards throughout my life having somebody at the table who understands how these things work in a really really granular way has been terrific but I also want to highlight your love of this District as a parent uh the fact that your family uh has been really just such a huge part of supporting this District um as a parent as a board member and certainly as a community member so to both of you thank you so much and I I don't know if you guys want to say anything but I know you've all worked closely with the two of them so thank you I'm happy to speak um I'm on committees with both of you um and I would just like to say that I have a great appreciation for what both of you have brought um to our everyday work sometimes we get down into the Leeds um and you guys help make us see a bigger picture um and where to continue striving to make the district a better place um and I appreciate both of you and I hope neither one of you are strangers because both of you have provided such great insight to us as employees so please uh stay in touch and stay around um I look forward to still working with both of you in the future oh thank you so you joined the family and family members never leave so you'll always be a part of this family um I didn't work much with Josh but I certainly had an opportunity to work to work with Dan um and I truly appreciate the time that we have spent together however I may not have worked with you but uh when I was sitting there I got uh some questions that made me go back and reflect so uh which is just an opportunity for growth and so that's what you brought right and so when you push us to grow the outcome is that our kids it's it's all about the kids and our kids grow because of that so thank you both I appreciate it U Mr Grim um I want to thank you for how respectful you have been in your position and like Cordelia said the questions that you ask always felt like they were well intended and for the growth of the district so I really appreciate that thank you Mr nowinsky um working with you in the palac committee uh you really took me for a a wonderful ride uh uh I have learned so much from you and uh all I can say thank you I'm not sure how to follow all that but I do I do want to say that I just really appreciated getting to know both of you though I'm not um participating of the Committees that you've been on uh it's really wonderful to know that we have two wonderful champions for the laning school district in all that you bring with uh history in the laning school district and also as a parent having your your children here and so we just look forward to many years of you championing the district uh in the community and know that this is always going to be your home so we just appreciate all of your service and time the agenda this evening uh are there any it's not over yet more it's not over yet can you advice president more can you join us at the microphone oh here say I don't know what to say oh I got no you oh oh yeah I got to get on the microphone oh I was singing y'all oh this is this is a rough one this one here is a rough one cuz she's loved by the district by the community cuz she fam all right with our deepest gratitude we proudly recognize Rachel what's your midd name relle oh Rachel Rochelle Willis for her steadfast support guiding us toward success in the laning school district you are honored for many years of dedicated service we give this plaque this this token of appreciation to this wonderful wonderful wonderful person thank you for all what you've done Ben I you know I get lost for words so you are so beautiful to us this SAR thank you nobody will ever want me to sing Ever um but words words cannot express um how much uh I am thankful to Rachel for all of the things that she's done and so we also have put together a video because there are other people that want to say very similar things who might or might not be here today so I don't know can we hit it turn it turn it on awesome yeah right we created it our own did you know yeah exactly e e for our gratitude to you and your family good luck and your new paths something is telling me that you will do very well thanks gracias hi Rachel It seems impossible that were saying goodbye to you after 13 years of service the impact that you've had on this district is wide and Broad enough to have impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of families and to have charted a clear course for the future of this District thank you for showing us what leadership looks like on a personal level I so admire your intelligence your tenacity and your ability to tell it like it is I'd say I want to be you when I grow up but you are famously a few months younger than me you're leaving big shoes to fill but the example that you've set for us is loud and clear I'm so glad that all of Ingam County is going to be benefiting from your expertise and we'll miss you so much Rachel um first of all I want to thank you very much for um being such a great mentor and a guide for me on the board when I came on a year ago you were so kind uh with your time uh to help me kind of learn the ropes and meet the people and do you know all of the learn all of the things that I you know had to had to kind of come up to date on and I'm really really sad that we are losing you on the board um because you're such a great leader and you know um you have all the institutional knowledge you have all of the uh great information that we need but I am grateful that the greater Lancing Community now gets to experience your leadership um as a a resident of Lancing I'm very excited that you get to now be on the Board of Commissioners and I look forward to continuing working with you for our students our faculty and our staff now you're you'll be in a different um position but I know that you still care very deeply about our students and I'm um very hopeful that we'll continue working together and thank you so much Rachel thank you very much for all your dedication to the laning school district I would like to mention as well that all the changes that happened in the district while you were part of it will impact future generations and and that's going to be very good for them and then I'd like to thank you for all your help during the time we have worked together I've learned a lot and I really appreciate working with you first and foremost congratulations on uh a great tenure as a school board member and a board president it was an honor and pleasure serving with you uh and looking forward to continuing to collaborate uh in this next iteration of your career uh we've known each other for a very very long time thinking back to your days at Gardener middle school as a middle schooler and uh I as the leader of the peer mediation program and you are one of my favorite peacemakers uh and now uh looking back at the leader you were then and uh the leader you've grown into um I couldn't be prouder of you uh in looking for nothing but the best moving forward congratulations Rachel I met Rachel 14 years ago we were running for the school board together I had the honor of serving with her on the school board and the privilege to watch her lead our district for so many years I'm excited for the next journey of her Public Service record and can't wait to see what she does at the County Commission congratulations Rachel you've really uh made us all proud [Music] I'll take a motion no am I okay all I got to say is your mother's daughter so with your mom for I don't know how many years uh and and you for all these years it's like all in the family you know I wish I i' um would have been able to bring a picture of the Mariachi ever and so people could see that you played the violin in a mariaa group and you probably S as well did not but um thank you thank you for your work thank you for your support thank you for your support to L School District um we won't miss you because you will just be over there I mean it's it's still part of the family so we'll miss you here but we w miss you in the community thank you very much will show so I'm going to say president Emir and now County Commissioner Willis it has been an honor a privilege a battle a teaching moment but I can say we've grown together um we've moved forward together we say we Forge a big F little sister B we're not going to say which way it go cuz with that'll tell who's the oldest for real but also I can say family cuz I have grown to love your daughter I've grown to love you as a person your husband as a friend anything you know we have our little other private moments outside of here you know the nail salon and other things but I'm so excited for this next Journey for you I'm sure you're not going to leave us cuz unfortunately you're still be my boss as a county commissioner on my day job so I can't get rid of you but honestly I can say I am so thankful and grateful for these last two years of growth I'm sure there's still going to be some teachable moments in private I'm hangout time to learn and grow so r2w from r2w with love congratulations I'm going to miss you but stay connected thank you madam president Mr whiskey I just want to also extend my thanks uh for your support of me personally and also for all that you offered to the board I know uh serving as president brings a certain weight and uh time commitment that uh we don't even understand um so thank you for that for many years of serving uh honestly and and thoughtfully and U boldly for this District uh it's not an easy role to have in the public eye and appreciate you willing to continue in a new role uh in that e effort and thank you to all the board members uh for the opportunity I've had to serve uh just for these few months it's been eye openening and uh uh en joyful uh for me to have this opportunity and I look forward to working with you again in other in other capacities go for it Dan go for it just want to say thank you for your time um I know this this is um this isn't the first time that we've met I've I've spoken to the school board when you were serving when I was in high school um and I think that it's wonderful that you continue to do that your family's been such a a um such a a huge Monument to this to this District we can count on you and I know that we continue to count on you in a different capacity now and congratulations on that I also want to thank the the school board for giving me the opportunity to serve the district here um I I've learned uh significant more about the district than I thought I uh ever would um and it's it's amazing see how much the district has come from when I was a student here and how much I know it's going to continue to grow I want to thank Ben as well as the District staff for all their their um work and their support um and you know helping me find the find the Reigns and to help me understand uh all my questions that I have whether it's in the weeds or not um I just want to thank you guys for everything you guys do I know that all the hard work you guys do doesn't always get noticed and I want to state that you guys are do amazing work and keep it up please you guys are benefiting our our students and our district in such a positive way and Manner and I hope um that we continue to go on the right path that we are thank you guys go for it just it's not I'm trying not to cry y'all only because this sugar right here means a lot to me um Rachel I don't know words oh my gosh girl words um I don't know what to say about you because I really I love you so much I have learned so much from your bossness sitting next to you can I say black girl magic you can black girl magic um I don't know what I would have done in this in this role without you sitting next to me because it is a lot of weight Dan said it all but I appreciate um your bossness I appreciate your courage I appreciate your logic I appreciate you keeping my emotions in check when I want to just fly off the handle and I look at you um I appreciate your leadership and I appreciate you teaching me and mentoring me so um this is black girl magic and um we will never um depart and I do I wish you the best in your future endeavors and um I don't know I just love you so let's hug let's hug cuz this is not the end NP this is not the end blood and blood out yes that's it all right being the floor is yours can I turn over the staff oh absolutely everybody's over there crying oh my God voice of reason voice of reason well it's actually I'm that you guys are looking the same way that I am um when I I I hope you know that when I look at you I look at more than you and and the wonderful mother that was a board member and I can go back to 2005 the first time that your family your mother walked into my office with Dave Haka day together they came in to get me uh as a as a Young Center administrator and from that day he turned out to be that she became the biggest fan of preschools and she supported preschools all through the district and um after that you came in and I want to thank you not just for the kindness and the firmness that you had but I really want to thank you for how you protected this District in so many difficult situations uh you always made the best decision for the school and the kids and the staff in the community thank you I'm G to try to turn this mic around so I can look at you when I talk instead of this way we love you girl uh you're going to be missed um speaking of remembering you know uh this is hard this this is this is tough but um you know first of all I've known your mom and knew your mom of course everybody knows knew your mom right uh and then your dad came and worked for me after he retired from the county job and then you came along and uh you would stopped in my office as director of Public Safety to check in to inquire and so we we always had uh conversations along the the the the time frame that I've been in administration and Central leadership and I want to share with you that I appreciate you I appreciate um just the casualness that you had with me and the easiness and us um just uh it felt like we were friends right I we don't see much um although we we only live about five blocks from each other but we really don't see much of each other um I think I don't know even know how long you've been over there but uh every now and then you know when when I walk uh I might see you I need to start walking more now I guess right so um and that being said um I hope that you know first of all the door it will always remain open and uh you just walk right on through okay so just we're always here we'll be here for you and for me personally if you ever need anything I'm here I'm going to make Jess finish and I'm going to go next please um I'm trying um I have not been on ET for very long um but I will say that you welcomed me with open arms I felt supported by you the entire way through hard times and through fun times um and I hope you are not a stranger and I am not losing your cell phone number and you better answer when I text or when I call um thank you very much for everything that you've done so I guess I get to be the lucky one because uh I still have you on the Multicultural uh task course so uh I do get to see her bi-weekly just don't be jealous everyone just saying um I just want to thank you for your incredible leadership your belief um not only in the school district but in me personally uh the leadership on the board and just the way that you lead very steadily um brings a very um silent confidence that we really felt um I think I can speak for all executive team in that way that you really brought uh a trust of us with the board and just with the district knowing that your leadership um really has made a difference for our kids for our schools all the decisions that you've made from all of the buildings that we now get to go on and see your name there uh so you're leaving a legacy uh for your children and uh and for us as a district that we know that your service and your time here has really led to really great great things so from the bottom of my heart I thank you um for the district but also just personally so thank you for everything thank you et for those great words to Rachel I I know Rachel and I will continue our friendship well past uh today but you know I can't be legally the last word on anything at these board meetings so I know I somebody will will follow me which is always great because I don't ever want anything to be the last with Rachel you've been such an important part of this district from being a student to being a board member to being a parent you understand this community you understand this school district and every decision you've made through difficult times through fun times through interesting times everything you've done because I've been able to see it firsthand has put children first has put this Community First and has put love and care and understanding first and that's the greatest thing that we can ever ask from a school board member and a school board president so thank you for everything and I cannot wait to hear about all all of the great work that you're going to do in a different Public Service capacity so I can go next um so that Ben doesn't get in trouble we don't get in trouble um so I said some other stuff in the video already but um just like Dr kavana I am a couple months older than you maybe 24 you know just a couple um but you've been you know a great mentor to me and being a public servant is really hard work and really timec consuming and being a mother is really hard work and really time consuming and having a career is hard and timec consuming and I don't know how you do all of that and make it look so easy because I'm trying to do that and it is not easy and I certainly don't make it look as easy as you do because I'm always late and I'm always not answering text messages and so um I I will continue to uh admire you and you know um I I'm very very grateful that you're my friend thank you where's where's we got the right there just well I I I do have I do have a couple words I'd like to say if you all can indulge me and I promise to keep a brief adjacent um something I just want to say you know people ask oh boy okay maybe I won't say a few words people ask um how did I become this way what Happ like what tell us your story and as some of you may know I'm I'm homegrown here in Lon School District by whoever went digging through the archives to find those photos know that I've been here a long time and one of my core memories is um when I was in the second grade my mom fell and she slipped on spice inside of our house and she fell and she broke her arm and it was a it was a visible break like you could see and she's holding her arm like this and children back in my day we had these things called house phones they had speed di numbers and my mom's sitting on the floor screaming and we don't call i11 we don't call my dad we called the school because that's what we knew to do that was where we were safe we called the school and my principal at the time was Mr copi and Mr copi came to our house with two staff and he took my mom to the emergency room and the two staff Mis likes and someone else stayed with us um until they could get a hold of my dad and my mom will tell this story poor Mr copi he's carrying my mom's purse and hobbling her into the emergency room and he has to go through her purse and my mom remember she was so embarrassed cuz she had feminine hygiene products and all this stuff and Mr cop is trying to find her ID and when they asked her who brought you in he goes I brought in my friend and my mom would always tell me that story and I watched how she did her service and I just want to point out from the the year 2000 to 2006 you had one of us on the board you've had one of us on the board since 2011 or 12 um so it really does feel like the end of an ER but not really U because I have a child in the district so now you guys just get to deal with me coming to you from the podium and getting my emails from my Gmail account so of mynet account and um just to share that I have that deep um enrich history with this district and I intend to instill that further with my child I joked a little bit about this being a family it's Blood In Blood Out but this has been all that I've known so I really appreciate you all I appreciate your appreciation of me you know how to make a girl feel special um and um a lot in my life has changed since I've been on the board I've um started a family I became a mom I got my Master's Degree a lot can happen outside of these uh time on the board and so I just strongly encourage you all um to Contin continue to support each other I know that the best in this District's history is still yet to come and so I just um thank you all for that I really do takeing pictures yeah pictur okay good pies do you guys want to adjourn oh got oh yeah that's right Adam president I moved at the Board of Education adjourn I second okay been moved by trusty uh kavanau and trusty Moore that the Board of Education adjourn all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign at 802 we are a joury and we have cake if you want