Board of Education - Regular Meeting

Trustee Baskett? Yes. President Feaster? Here. Trustee Muhammad?

Here.

Trustee Norton? Here. Trustee Schmidt? Present. Trustee Wilkins?

Here.

Vice President Wilks? Present. We have a quorum.

Thank you, Ms. Ozenski. I would like to now introduce the non-voting member at the table, Jazz Parks, Superintendent of Schools.

Good evening. Thank you, President Feaster.

Thank you. That brings us down to approval of the agenda. Trustees, you have been provided with the agenda in advance. Are there any changes or additions? I would motion to add special recognition right after approval of the agenda and to add a resolution regarding pending litigation after community feedback. There's support? Support. Any discussion? Seeing none, Ms. Ozenski, please.

Trustee Baskett? Yes. President Feaster? Yes. Trustee Muhammad? Yes. Trustee Schmidt? Yes. Trustee Wilkins? Yes.

Vice President Wilks?

Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you, Ms. Ozenski. That now brings us down to special recognition, and I will turn it over to Superintendent Parks for that recognition.

Thank you, President Feaster. At this time, I'd like to welcome, just to introduce two trustees in the broader Ann Arbor Public Schools community, one of our new leaders. So at this time, I'd like to introduce Mr. Orlando Bogans, who is the new principal at King Elementary School. Mr. Bogans has a long, come on forward to the podium. Mr. Bogans has a long-standing career as an educator serving K-12 schools and brings a wealth of experience. He started his educational journey as an English teacher in Detroit, Michigan, and he was also a reading specialist, a curriculum coordinator, an instructional specialist, and an assistant principal. Mr. Bogan's proudly served as an elementary principal in Southfield Public Schools prior to coming to AAPS. Mr. Bogan's commitment to education has transformed the school communities in which he has served. He's led initiatives focusing on the whole child to support student social, academic, emotional, and behavioral well-being. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education and a Master of Educational Leadership, both from Wayne State University. And we are very pleased to have him join the Ann Arbor Public Schools team. Thank you. You gotta come with me, Miss Austin will hold your moms.

And Ms. Parks, could you, I'm sorry, sir, if you could give us your name again. She said it very quickly and I wanted to make sure everyone got it.

Bulkins. Bulkins.

Yes. Thank you, sir. Welcome.

Thank you very much, Lieutenant Parks. That brings us to public commentary. The Board would like to remind everyone that individuals who have signed up for public commentary will have their name called and will be given an opportunity to speak. Commenters will receive up to four minutes, and the public commentary period will be limited to 45 minutes. When your name is called, please come forward and speak at the microphone. To help manage your time, a clock will be placed on the screen in front of you. We would like to remind everyone that public comments generally pertain to the Ann Arbor Public School District matters. Comments about any individual or individuals are expressly prohibited. Also, please understand that board members do not respond to public comments, but we will listen carefully and will follow up as appropriate. Ms. Osinski, how many do we have signed up for this evening?

Ms. Osinski has stepped out, so we have 15 speaking, so each person will get three minutes. The clock will be up on the screen in a second here, Mike. And the first speaker is Alex Schmidt. Thank you.

All right, no Mr. Schmidt tonight.

We'll next go to Ashley Vaduva.

Coming.

Hello, my name is Ashley Vadoova, and I live in the Darlington neighborhood in southeast Ann Arbor. Pittsfield Elementary is in the heart of my neighborhood. It's the center around which the Darlington, Pittsfield Village, and Forestbrook neighborhoods all come together. My neighborhood was built in the 1940s, beginning with Pittsfield Village in the Darlington neighborhood, then Forestbrook in the 60s. And taking a look back through library archives, it's been really fun to see how the housing, the neighborhood, and the school have all come together. For the last 80 years, these spaces, families, and neighbors have grown up, the school and the neighbors, all together in what was originally East Ann Arbor, as our ancestors planned, and it's a really beautiful community. One of the many things I love about this city is that this kind of build out isn't unique. In neighborhoods all over the city, houses, community spaces, and elementary schools were built together, with elementary schools often placed right in the very center of our neighborhoods. Again, our ancestors knew what they were doing when they designed it this way. As you think about potential school closings, I would like you to consider the impact of undoing nearly a century's worth of community building that has happened in our neighborhoods. Our neighborhood schools bring together residents across ages and demographics. I have neighbors who strategically walk their dogs in the morning at the same time that the parade of children start walking to school. The sound of children playing is the soundtrack in the background of our neighborhood every day. When our kids wanna meet up in the evenings and on the weekends, the school playground is the place that they go. When we wanna meet families for a picnic, the school playground is the place that we go. While our neighborhood has been in the middle of a really long road construction project, it's been my neighbors who have come out of their house and stood at the intersections to make sure cars are stopping and that students can safely get to school. When we get alerts that ICE has been spotted yet again patrolling the Carpenter and Packard corridor, my neighbors come out of their houses to make sure parents are safe and seen while they're dropping their kids off at school. There is an intangible and incalculable value to having neighbors, families, and communities so closely intertwined. Our children in the neighborhood elementary bring life and vibrancy to our neighborhood, and the adults in turn help provide a safe, warm, and secure environment for these children to play every day. Our city neighborhoods were built to intentionally cultivate this intergenerational dynamic, and I don't want the legacy of this challenging era to be one of destruction and harm to a culture that's been a century in the making. Thank you.

Carolyn Siebers.

I come tonight urging district leadership to return to Ann Arbor's historical democratic governance model, emphasizing distributive leadership and collaborative decision making. We can't undo past traumas such as COVID, a costly divisive leadership change, budget shortfall, or labor relations failures. There's no time to waste. If we truly value hiring and retaining excellent teachers, there's an urgent need to prioritize district spending. I was surprised there was no effort to form a budget group for intensely looking at spending priorities over the summer. When I was teaching in the district, I was a member of a group of teachers, parents, and administrators who met repeatedly over the summer, establishing common learnings prior to the adoption of state frameworks. As I've been learning more about district operations now versus when I worked here, I've decided we've lost important structures, such as this large committee that helped our district excel. There's no way a small group of people can make and successfully implement big schooling changes in our district without community buy-in. But how do we make time for shared decision making when it's so messy and time consuming? A better question is, what are the consequences of not finding the time? I believe we are witnessing that fallout. School boards are supposed to be the voice of the people, but a decade of increased reliance on top-down directives has muted teacher and public's role in guiding our district. In my campaign for a seat on the school board, I've been advocating for the reinstatement of our budget steering committee. It was a standing committee led by central staff, bringing together teachers, parents, students, administrators, and underrepresented voices for budget deliberations. An important feature of this group is that they were self-selected. This seemed foreign to many as I proposed a strategy for regaining trust. Such a structure makes it clear that nobody is trying to hide anything. There's an immediate sense of transparency. Recently I saw policy 2420 about community advisory committees. I was dismayed to see a board policy specifically put committee membership under direct control of our executive. It was suddenly clear to me that the loss of trust voiced by parents and teachers was shared by the board and administration's distrust of the community. We owe it to our children to model how adults, even when we don't agree, can work together to resolve differences. Current sentiments make this hard. We'll have to place faith in others' best intentions. Closing schools without broad, meaningful community involvement will only deepen the wounds of recent years. I urge all constituencies to make a conscious choice. Let's set aside adversarial posture and engage in shared problem solving. Regardless of the election outcome, I stand ready to assist our district in returning the focus to where it belongs, student achievement. A sharp 20% decline in math college readiness and ongoing. Thank you.

That's your time.

Racial disciplines are urgent calls to action.

Thank you.

Evan Murphy. Evan Murphy.

It's coming.

Hello, good evening. My name is Evan. I come to you tonight not as a constituent, but as an alumni. I was an Ann Arbor public school student all the way from K through 12, graduating Skyline High School in 2016. I'm here tonight to urge you to consider protecting trans youth as you committed to 10 years ago when I last spoke to this body. Ten years ago, my classmates and I were part of a movement to encourage not only this body, but the State Board of Education to adopt protections for LGBTQ youth, namely among those protections for trans youth. I come to you today as a transgender person, and I will start reading what I actually wrote now. To say I am disappointed to be standing here Under similar pretenses today is an understatement, but this is not about how I feel. This is about doing the right thing even when it's hard. You know as well as I do that the request for these repeals will not stop if you give in now. I understand that it is an impossible situation to be put in as people who care deeply about education and about children. If we don't put our feet down, where does this continue to go? In regards to policy surrounding privacy, I can tell you from firsthand living both as a trans person as well as having been a student in the Ann Arbor Public Schools that there are parents and there are staff who will use this as an off ramp to out students to their parents. And that is, as we know, both statistically and Common sense that can be a death sentence that can be a failure of a system for these children and so When we think about these things we have to consider who we're contending with right You will never be able to come to the table and meet in the middle with people who simply do not want trans people to exist and Of course, I understand the desire and need for transparency and respect between families and teachers and staff, and considering the primary victims in this instance, the kids, right? So I would ask you to think about this as you continue to engage in these really, really difficult conversations, these really, really difficult problems that I promise you I do not envy you having to tackle, right? Don't set the clock back 10 years to when I was in high school. I'm married now. I just got married this August, right? You know, let's not go back. Let's not do that. Thank you.

Cammy Michelle's.

Hi again, everyone.

Hello.

Week two. I'm here again tonight as the parent of a transgender student in Ann Arbor Public Schools, but tonight I want to make something clear. I'm not here to speak just for my child. I'm here for all the transgender students in this district. I'm thinking about the student who is out at school but not at home, the student who is still figuring out who they are. The student has told one trusted teacher something deeply personal because they believe it was a safe place to say it. These kids are real. And what happens to this policy matters to them. Last week, I asked you not to wait until the federal government told you whether you were allowed to protect these students. Now they have. Hi, DOJ. You told us you would fight. You told this community that when the federal government rejected your response, you would fight to protect transgender students. So what does that fight look like? We're hoping to hear shortly. Because fighting doesn't mean simply changing the language, it doesn't mean finding a different way to say the same thing while ultimately giving up protections these students need. It means using every legal avenue available to you. It means talking to your attorneys, or better yet, ones that specialize in this topic. We can set you up. It means defending the strongest privacy protections that the law allows. And if there is a legal disagreement about what AAPS can and cannot do, let the courts decide it. You told us you would fight. This is the moment to show us what you meant. You asked us to trust us. Now I'm asking you to give these students a reason to trust you too. Because these kids should not be the ones to have to be brave in this situation. They shouldn't have to stand up to the federal government. They shouldn't have to worry about whether information they shared with a trusted adult will be shared with someone else. That's what adults are supposed to do. We protect kids when things get difficult. We stand beside them when they're vulnerable. and we don't make them carry the burden of a fight that belongs to the adults. So please, don't wait for another letter, another deadline, and don't wait for another student to wonder whether the adults in their school are going to stand up for them. You said you would fight. 39. One thing that I can tell you is that we will continue to show up. These people here will continue to show up. Every Wednesday night until you make the right decision to defend every student in your district. Take a look at us, we'll become extremely familiar to you. If you don't believe us, ask the regents at the University of Michigan. We have a date with them tomorrow afternoon. We will not allow kids in this district to fall prey to fascist bullies. Do the right thing. Thank you.

Stephanie Carter.

Hi, my name is Stephanie Carpenter and I live here in Ann Arbor. Thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight. I'm here to speak about the possibility of school closures and to share why neighborhood schools are important to residents like me and my children. I am here to ask you to slow down your decision-making process regarding school closures. Please, do not rush this. Give residents time to weigh in on this. I am here tonight to encourage each of you, please do not close our neighborhood schools. Why do I care about this? I'm the proud mother of three young children. Maybe you saw them in the back of the room. They're making some noise. My two oldest children attend Pittsfield Elementary and are in first grade and young fives. My youngest child is slated to begin Pittsfield in the fall of 2028. My two oldest daughters love Pittsfield. Why? It's because we're all of their neighborhood friends and peers attend. Many of their classmates live within walking distance of the school, which is about a five-minute bike ride away from our house. This short walkable or bikeable commute gives my children a lot of opportunities to connect and see their classmates on the way to school, before school starts, and after school, and on the weekends too. Our children frequently have play dates with their friends at the Pittsfield School Playground. It's an important place to us. Indeed, because so many children in our neighborhood attend Pittsfield, my oldest daughter is known by many, many children who are outside of her class and in other grades. This broad recognition throughout the school gives my daughter a tremendous sense of belonging and responsibility as she connects and plays with schoolmates who are both younger and older than her. And as for us, the parents, while we like Pittsfield because it's close, because we can walk our children to school, it gives us a chance to check in with other parents and see how they're doing, if anybody needs anything, if anybody needs anybody to pick up their kids from school because work is busy. Because Pittsfield is close to my house, I'm more likely to be able to volunteer at the school. On days that I work from home, it's easy for me to flex my work hours and run over to the school literally to assist with fundraisers or other social or educational events. You probably don't know this, but I am the school mascot for Pittsfield. I am the penguin and I can do this because Pittsfield is close and I can run over and help with fundraisers. and get the kids excited about being at school. So yeah, the secret's out now. I'm not asking for Pittsfield to be saved at the expense or sacrifice of other neighborhood schools. No, I think you'll hear many of us Pittsfield parents like Ashley argue that all neighborhood schools are worth saving. Pittsfield, Carpenter, Abbott, Lakewood, and Haisley. All of these schools are important to the neighborhoods. Indeed, I was reading an article in the Ann Arbor Observer. It's not the one that you're thinking about. This is one about the Carpenter neighborhood. It was in their community guide. And the article writer said, the beating heart of their neighborhood is Carpenter Elementary. And what better heart might any island ask for than a place of discovery and learning, friendship, and a grand grassy space for play. Our island neighborhood is one that genuinely welcomes all. Our neighborhood schools are our heart. So please, I'm asking each of you to be in deliberate discernment about the decision to close neighborhood schools. Please consider the deleterious effects that these school closures will have on our children, on the families, on the neighborhoods as a whole. Please do not close our schools.

Thank you.

Scott Ellis. Scott Ellis.

Good evening members of the board and Superintendent Parks.

Good evening.

My name is Scott Ellis and I'm a proud Ann Arbor Public School parent. Ann Arbor is widely recognized as a premier public school system and a national leader in education. That reputation is not an accident. When my wife and I chose where to raise our children, we chose Ann Arbor intentionally. We were drawn in large part to the community's deep commitment to equality and its standing as a safe haven for LGBTQ people and their families. We believed this district was a place where our children would be valued no matter who they might become. Tonight I am here to urge this board to hold the line and refuse to make any further concessions to weaken Ann Arbor Public Schools policies and practices protecting trans students or erode the fundamental privacy and safety of our transgender students. Many trans kids make their first steps in social transition such as changing their pronouns or preferred name in the safety of affirming friends and adults they find at school. They may come from homes where they face violence for doing the exact same thing. These kids are the ones that we really need to protect and care for, and I hope that you will stand up for. But this policy not only impacts them, it impacts all trans kids who are looking to this board and looking to this district to show leadership in protecting them. There are so many families that we've come across who've moved to this district because of its protections for trans kids. And it's upsetting, and I understand the difficult position that you're in, but it's upsetting to see the board back down and back away from the commitments that it has had historically. So, just in conclusion, I just want to reiterate that Ann Arbor, again, did not become the national leader that it is by shrinking and pulling back and not standing up for the dignity of all people, including, and most importantly here at this time, transgender people who are under attack across this country by this ruthless and corrupt administration. Thank you.

Raven Martin, sorry, Raven Marin.

My name is Raven Marin. I am a alumni of Skyline High School. I graduated in excuse me. I graduated in 2022. Some of you may remember me. I spoke here in front of you about three years ago. When the school had called for when there was a resolution to call for a ceasefire in Palestine. This school district was one of the one of the first districts in the country to call for a ceasefire. I know this district. is willing to stand up and fight for the rights of its students. We did that for our Muslim and Palestinian students. Now we must do that for our trans students. Outing a trans person can be one of the most dangerous and traumatic experiences for a child. When I came out, I was 16. It was during the lockdown of COVID, during online school, And Skyline was one of the places where I felt accepted. I felt like my friends accepted me. I felt like my teachers accepted me. And I was respected for my gender and my pronouns. I was allowed to be the person I wanted to be. And I want that for every other kid in Ann Arbor. Every child should be able to feel safe at school. A child should not have to worry about going to school and possibly being outed to their parents. As many speakers before me have stated, a child being outed to their parents if they come from a family that is not accepting can be both mentally and physically dangerous. I'm calling on the school board to put up a fight, the DOJ. At Skyline, I had the opportunity to take a class in history and Holocaust. In that class, I told myself, I made a promise to myself that if fascism ever came to America, I would stand here and I would fight it. Now that time is now. The time is now to stand up and make our voices heard. I know every single one of you cares about your students and you probably have children of your own. We want to protect all children. Think of your own child in this situation. What if your own child was queer? What if they were trans? And one of the only safe places they felt was at school. Make that a future for the children of Ann Arbor.

Dave Rosenfeld.

Good evening, Board and Superintendent Parks. I am a current AAPS parent, as well as the proud parent of a trans teen who graduated CHS last year. And I'm here tonight to strongly encourage you not to succumb to illegitimate threats and intimidation from the Trump administration, and instead do what you know in your hearts is right, not just for your students and our community, but for public education in general and our nation as a whole. You and I know full well, as do your attorneys, that policy 5011 does not violate FERPA, PPRA, or any other law, and it never did. Quite frankly, the DOE and DOJ know this as well. This is not really about protecting parents' rights to access records because those rights are not even being threatened here. Rather, this is a political stunt, and a sinister one at that. It's part of a broader nationwide effort to scapegoat trans youth and use them as pawns to score political points. This campaign of hate is being conducted by our government in bad faith. And that's not just my opinion. It's the opinion of multiple federal judges who have ruled against this DOJ over the last year in circumstances similar and analogous to ours. Make no mistake, the Trump administration and the rest of the radical right is waging an all-out war on transgender youth on multiple fronts. They are waging it in the arena of sports. They are waging it in the arena of health care. They are waging it in the arena of education. and today they're waiting directly on you and a small but significant portion of your student population those students who are some of the most vulnerable and at-risk kids you have in your charge need you to be strong in this moment they need you not to cower and back down to this despicable government overreach more than ever before they need you to stand up and have their backs And if protecting your students is not enough, you have your own integrity and independence as a state slash local government entity to consider. It's very important to keep in mind that you are the ones who are operating within the boundaries of the law here. whereas this administration, including its department of so-called justice, is not. This DOJ has no problem flouting our Constitution and the law in order to appease its corrupt masters. And this is perhaps the most lawless, anti-Constitution, un-American, anti-public education, authoritarian, corrupt federal administration our nation has ever seen. So please, I beg of you, I beg of you, do not do what they are trying to force you to do. The law is on your side. You will be vindicated in court, if it even comes to that, and you will not be deprived of funding. Your students will remain protected, your integrity and independence will remain intact, and we will all be so much better off because of it. Thank you.

Viva Rosenfeld Hi, my name is Viva Rosenfeld at the beginning of the year when ice was a threat to students and families in this district you stood up for them and At that time, the superintendent said, as we continue to navigate these challenging times, our commitment remains clear. We will protect the dignity, privacy, and belonging of students, families, and staff members in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Weakening or eliminating the transgender policy which goes against the spirit of that statement Will send a message to students in the district that they do not matter and they will be unprotected trans students Will face more bullying and isolation and stress right now more than ever we need you to step up and protect your students and trans people are one of the most attacked groups in the u.s in states that have passed anti-trans legislation attempts of suicide have risen to 72 percent in youth aged 13 to 17 years old i have friends who have moved to this district because of your trans of the trans policy. Some have even come from other states. I moved my kids to this district because of the policy. Please do not disappoint us. Please do not capitulate to this bully administration.

Julia Blau.

It has been a challenging time for many AAPS students and their families and for the entire district. It may be tempting to sacrifice trans kids. There's only a few of them. They're less than 1% of our population. But if you abandon this less than 1%, who is next? Once you give in to a bully, they will keep coming back. Will you be able to protect immigrant kids? Will you be able to protect kids with learning differences? Will you be able to protect kids with various disabilities? Most students in AAPS know a trans family member or a classmate or a teammate. What message will those cisgender kids hear when they find out that their trans friends are not being protected? They will hear that some kids are disposable. A major issue in AAPS is under enrollment. We've been told that over and over. Families come to AAPS because you have been a leader on trans rights. I know many families who have come here because of that. They will leave. They will have to leave if you capitulate to the Trump administration. And they will take their siblings with them. It won't just be the trans kids. My own family, we stayed in a very, very tiny house for far too long because we would not leave AAPS because we had a trans child who needed to be here. Can we afford to lose families? Absolutely not. Do the right thing. Use the resources we have in our community and protect trans kids.

emma kenny hello trustees um i'm emma i'm back again um and we'll be back um every week um until our kids are safe again um i haven't prepared a comment um so i'm just gonna say some things that we all know um and keep it short um We know that the Department of Justice and the Department of Education is not going to stop coming for AAPS. We know that the policy before currently is compliant with FERPA, that the amendment offered by advocacy groups is compliant with FERPA in full. No question. Full stop. Right? So, like, there's no satisfying an illegitimate ask, an illegitimate threat, right? And so what I'm asking, or we're asking, what I'm hoping for after these public comments is that you either perhaps restore the old policy in full or adopt the advocacy group's policy in full, restoring protections for our kids. Yeah, I think that's mostly it. Thanks very much.

Oscar Ochamogo. Oscar Ochamogo. Yeah, here you go.

I'm here as a parent. but also someone who has experienced firsthand what happens when a school community is allowed to deteriorate and families feel like their concerns are not being heard. I want to begin with my family's story because I believe it is important for you to understand what this discussion about school closures means to families like mine. Our family originally chose Mitchell Elementary through IDT. We made the decision for several reasons, including the IB program and the Spanish starting at kindergarten. and diversity of the school and community. At that time, in 2017, Mitchell was growing quickly and we were excited to be part of it. We believe we found a school that aligned with what our children's needs. Unfortunately, things changed dramatically. There were multiple changes in the administration which caused the school to lose both teachers and students and most of the things we valued at the school disappeared. My son went through fifth grade uh with 75 of the year december through june with substitutes every single day there was also a year when they were unable to hire a spanish teacher and even though it's an ib requirement there was no spanish we spoke here we attempted to work with the administration my son even read a letter here at the board no no meaningful change therefore our family and many many others decided to make a difficult decision to leave Mitchell. We chose Pittsfield. It was one of the best decisions we could ever make. From the moment we arrived, Pittsfield welcomed us. The teachers, the staff administration went out of our way to make the transition work. Principal Heather Miller made it a personal goal to ensure that our family had the best transition possible. When we have a concern, it was addressed. When our children didn't help, people noticed. Most importantly, our children felt safe, valued and cared for. Teachers at Pittsfield are incredible. I'm proud to be a Penguin parent. I wear my sweatshirt with pride. Now I see in the Ann Arbor Observer that it is a possibility of closing Pittsfield and combining that with Mitchell, which again, I'm not here to disparage anybody. All schools are important and there's teachers in Mitchell that love Mitchell. and families there. Every APS school matters. This is why I believe we should have a different conversation. When Mitchell was struggling and families and teachers left, students went from being rapidly growing in the school to now have enough to engulf a whole nother school. This raises an important question. What could have happened if the problem were addressed? How many families would have stayed at Mitchell? How many teachers would have stayed? Would we even be discussing this today about the excess capacity. Also, I want to point out that six out of the seven schools listed in Ann Arbor was Title I schools, and we need a transparent and serious explanation. You must openly confront the perception of fairness and equity.

Thank you. Kristen Ochimogo.

Thank you.

Thank you. Ren Goetz.

Thank you. Okay.

Oh, sorry.

So as you can tell, well, my name is Ren. I am not an alumni. I am not a parent. I am simply a childless trans adult who is very new to this issue. But even over the course of these public comments, and I'm glad to be going last or towards last, because I know I had points that were going to lay out things about Trust and dignity and safety and privacy and you know the the inherent worth of the lives of transgender kids but my feeling is that you know that and I've learned now that this is more a matter of reneging on promises and you know Crumbling and capitulating and ultimately collaborating with fascism I know, I want to believe that there is not a shred of anti-transgender sentiment in any of your hearts. I want to believe that you know what is right and the fact that you would let this administration, the threat of legal action, if that's enough to scare you away, awful. You said you would do the right thing to repeat someone else's comment. Thank you.

Thank you. That concludes public commentary.

thank you we appreciate hearing from our community the board would like to thank everyone who spoke and shared their comments tonight miss parks are there any points of clarification just a couple number one um as was shared i believe it was by mrs rosenfeld some previous comments um that were mentioned by me specifically we i i want to reiterate and double down on our commitment to protect uh all students this district and do so in a safe and secure environment for them so that is still the commitment please know that some of the other public commenters this evening speaking about some of the district closures and conversations about that the decision-making for that we have said multiple times will take place after significant community engagement. So there are no isolated decisions. They're not being made behind closed doors. Someone referenced an article that did not have credible sources from this district to contribute to that article for that particular detail. And so I just want to reassure our community that we don't have any feelings of adversarial posture with the community around engaging on our next steps here, which is why we will be doing the community engagements to get feedback from the community before we bring forward decisions. And once those decisions, we have all the data that we need to make those decisions, we will bring that forward to the public discussion here at the table with the Board of Education.

Thank you very much, Superintendent Parks. That brings us down to community feedback. Trustees, I would like to call your attention to the community feedback for this evening's meeting. That brings us down to reports of association. Ms. Olszewski, do we have a representative here from AAEA?

I do not see Mr. Klein or anyone here from the AAEA today.

Anyone here from a aap?

No, no one is here from aap.

All right, that brings us down to community group reports miss Ozenski Do we have any group signed up for this evening? I have no group reports this evening Thank you very much. And that brings us down to number eight board action the resolution addressing pending litigation And I'll invite miss parks to invite mr. Landau on to the podium for this discussion.

Thank you. I think he is making his way. And we'll talk us through a few details and then the resolution.

Good evening. I'm Rick Landau, and my law firm has been advising the board on student privacy policy office case number 260331. Before the Board takes up this resolution, I want to briefly explain what it does and why it is being presented in this form. On September 14, the District received formal correspondence from the United States Department of Justice concerning Board Policy 5011. Earlier this evening, the Board met in closed session, as permitted under Michigan's Open Meetings Act, to consult with me regarding the District's legal strategy in connection with that correspondence. That statute allows a public body to discuss litigation strategy with its attorney outside of open session for exactly this reason, so that discussing it does not itself compromise the District's legal position. The resolution before you memorializes the decisions that came out of that consultation in the open session where the law requires the board's final decisions to be made. It does not disclose and is not intended to disclose the substance of the legal advice given or the strategy the board has adopted. That admission is deliberate and it is consistent with the board's obligation to protect its own position in an active legal matter. In brief, the resolution does a number of things. It authorizes the superintendent in this office to respond to the Department of Justice consistent with the direction given by the board in closed session. It authorizes the superintendent to identify and retain litigation counsel. It also confirms the district's obligation to preserve documents and communications relevant to this matter. I am not in a position this evening to answer questions about the substance of the Department of Justice's letter, the district's legal position, or the advice I gave in closed session. I advise the board not to speak to these issues given the risk of litigation presented by the September 14 letter. I can only speak to this resolution its purpose in the record with that I would ask the board to consider a motion to adopt the resolution regarding response to US Department of Justice correspondence and related matters as presented thank you mr. Landau any questions or comments trustees yeah can we read it they're asking if we can read the resolution

Before we vote on it, is that appropriate? Yes. Okay. Ms. Lozinska, do you have it? If so, would you mind reading it at your leisure?

I certainly can.

Thank you.

Whereas on September 14th, 2026, the board through council received correspondence from the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division asserting noncompliance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment and demanding a response within 14 days. whereas the board met in closed session on this date pursuant to mcl 15.268e to consult with legal counsel regarding strategy in connection with this pending and threatening litigation whereas during the closed session the board received the advice of legal counsel regarding the district's response to the september 14 2026 correspondence and regarding the retention of additional litigation counsel WHEREAS THE BOARD DESIRES TO MEMORIALIZE THE DECISIONS ARISING FROM THAT CONSULTATION IN OPEN SESSION, CONSISTENT WITH THE OPEN MEETINGS ACT, WITHOUT DISCLOSING PRIVILEGED LEGAL ADVICE OR LITIGATION STRATEGY. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE ENTIRE PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD OF EDUCATION AS FOLLOWS. One, the superintendent and legal counsel are authorized and directed to respond to the September 14th, 2026 correspondence from the United States Department of Justice, consistent with the strategy and direction discussed in closed session. 2. The Superintendent, in consultation with the Board President and legal counsel, is authorized to identify and retain litigation counsel in connection with matters described in the September 14, 2026 correspondence and any related proceedings. Three, the superintendent shall ensure that all documents and communications relating to board policy 5011 SPPO case number 26-0331 and the September 14th, 2026 correspondence are preserved in accordance with the litigation hold notice issued by legal counsel.

Okay. Is there a motion? So moved. And move to adopt the resolution. Is there support? Moved by Vice President Wilkes, supported by Trustee Baskett. Any additional discussion? Seeing none, Ms. Ozenski, please.

Trustee Baskett? Yes. President Feaster?

Yes.

Trustee Muhammad? Yes. Trustee Schmidt? Yes. Trustee Wilkins? Yes. Vice President Wilkes? Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. That brings it down to board committee reports. I'll start with the Finance Committee and ask them what happened in their meeting, in their most recent meeting.

Thank you, President Feaster. The Finance Planning Committee met Tuesday, September 15th. We reviewed the items that are coming for first briefing, so I won't steal the thunder there. We also got a brief update regarding the strategic planning process, which I believe the superintendent will cover. and her update.

Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, I'll ask the Equity and Performance Committee what was discussed in their meeting, most recent meeting.

Yes, we met on September 10th at 4 p.m. The information will be shared this evening looking at test scores across the district.

Thank you very much Trustee Schmidt. And that will bring us down to the information section of our agenda. I'll turn it over to Superintendent Parks for her superintendent update.

Thank you President Feaster. We have a brief update this evening because Ms. Linden shared quite a lengthy one last week. So thanks to Ms. Linden for sitting in for me last week. I really appreciate it. So just a few items. This month marks the National Hispanic Heritage Month, which is recognized each year from September 15th through October 15th. The theme of this year's celebration is Unidos Somos Mas, which translates to Together We Are More, highlighting the power and connection, collaboration, and community strength. In the AAPS, we honor and celebrate the value contributions of Hispanic Americans on every day of the school year. This month of the special celebration provides an opportunity to listen and learn even more deeply about the rich diversity within Hispanic communities and the strong connections to all areas of American culture, literature, and history. Since the Ann Arbor Public Schools Environmental Education Program was first launched in 1960, AAPS has provided dedicated teaching staff to lead field experiences and lessons district-wide that support and enhance classroom curriculum and develop environmental literacy skills. We are grateful to be able to continue this long-running tradition of guaranteed environmental education experiences for AAPS students and to contribute to our school district's sustainability commitments. This year we will again provide approximately 500 educational, uh, environmental educational learning experiences for why five through seventh grade students and for high school environmental science classes. Our enrollment team continues to work diligently to ensure that all of our in-district transfer students, our school of choice students, and our new student enrollments are processed properly and with welcoming experiences for our students and families. We wish to thank our school teams and office professionals for reaching out to enroll families each day. Our daily positive attendance counts continue to grow and preliminary enrollment trends are showing numbers that are rising versus the official file count from last year. We look forward to sharing confirmed active enrollment numbers with you after our official February, I'm sorry, October count date, which will be October 7th. February, I have some February already, sorry. Trustee Baskett mentioned that I'd be sharing a brief strategic planning update. So just wanted to share again that the community voice survey was re-sent out after the summer months where we got about 2,000 responses. So we opened that up to capture families who may not have been able to take the survey over the summer not just families but also students and staff as well to gather input so that survey will remain open for for a short or longer and we will also be starting to do the focus groups and community groups and the work of the steering committee will also begin where they will begin after we have had the focus group meetings and the community meetings we will start drafting the strategic plan with that steering committee. And afterwards, we will reengage with the broader community to solicit feedback on that initial draft of the plan. We'll go back. We'll work on it some more. We'll bring back a final draft that will be followed by board approval. So we're looking forward to it.

All right. Thank you very much, Superintendent Perks.

Thank you.

If there's no questions, that'll bring us down to 10.2, Fall 2026 Student Achievement Annual Report, M-STEP, PSAT 8, and SAT. And I'll turn it over to Superintendent Perks to introduce her team.

Thank you very much. We have coming forward for this item this evening, Ms. Linden and Dr. Berger, who will present this item on our Fall 2026 Student Achievement Annual Report results.

Superintendent Parks, it's our pleasure to bring forward our annual fall student achievement report. In just a moment, Dr. Berger will walk you through the data, and then we'll wrap with some next steps and a summary of some of the work we're doing in our continuous improvement in the district. So I will hand this right over to Dr. Berger.

There we go. Good evening, trustees, Superintendent Park. So we presented this to the performance committee last week, and now we're presenting this to the full board. About two Fridays ago, the state released the state battery of testing results for the 2026 M-STEP, PSAT, and SAT, which is our battery of state tests. I'm going to start with a few minutes of context. The state of Michigan has a battery of 20 content-specific summative tests for most students. We have the M-STEP for English language arts for grades three through seven, M-STEP for math grades three through seven, for science and social studies in grades five, eight, and 11. For grade 8, for reading, writing, and math, we have the PSAT 8, and the SAT is our state achievement test for reading and writing in grade 11 and math in grade 11. There are some other tests that the state also requires, like the WIDA test for English learners. A number of students based on IEPs may take MI-Access instead of M-STEP, but those are outside of the bounds of what we're talking about tonight. Tonight we're just talking about the main battery of the 20 tests that most of our students are administered every spring. If you go to the next slide, please. A little more context, of course, around state testing and standardized tests in general. The M-STEP, PSAT, and SAT are given once a year. They, of course, only represent a single snapshot at a single moment in time. There's often some amount of bias present in all standardized assessments. We know that that's true. And the high stakes nature of these assessments sometimes creates difficulties in measuring actual student knowledge. If a student's having a bad day that day, if they're nervous about the high-stakes nature, you might not get a good measure. However, these assessments are carefully conceived to monitor how our students are doing across all students over time. And importantly, they serve as a way to measure how well our system is serving different student groups. We can disaggregate these data and see how we are doing for some student groups, other student groups, et cetera. If we go to the next slide, please. A final note, what we're presenting here tonight is kind of the 10,000 foot view. These are not cohort data. They're not looking at student growth. We're just looking at what is our overall achievement level on these tests that we just got the results of about a week and a half ago. So the first sort of data slide that we have is an overview. You can see here that we have the 20 different tests separated kind of by subject area. In the upper left corner, you can see the ELA test, grade three through eight. Upper right is math, M-STEP, and PSAT grades three through eight. The lower left are the science and social studies assessments, and the lower right are the 11th grade assessments in all four of the subject areas that are tested. So overall from 2025 to spring 2026, the Ann Arbor Public Schools increased our percent of students who are proficient or advanced on 60% of the state tests. So 12 of those 20 tests, we saw an increase in the level of proficiency at that grade level. And in 30% of the tests, that represents an increase two years in a row. So if you look at the table we have here, you can see the test, the grade level, the subject, and then the percent of students in bold that are at or above the proficiency level set by the state in the spring of 2026 administration. Those that have a star are ones that increased from the prior year. Those with two stars are ones that have increased in the last two years running. So a particular bright spot here you can see is our math test scores. All but one of them had an increase from the prior year, and half of the math scores in grades three through eight, we had increases in two years in a row. So I'll give you a couple seconds to kind of look at this. And then we'll move on to the next slide. So besides just looking at our overall proficiency levels, another thing that we like to look at is the Ann Arbor Public Schools compared to the other entities that we are a part of. So this particular plot that you have in front of you, you will see several that look a lot like this. So I'm going to take a minute to explain this carefully. On the left-hand side, we have that same set of 20 tests. that were administered in 2026. This represents the achievement of all students and we're comparing the Ann Arbor Public Schools to the state of Michigan as a whole and to the Washtenaw ISD, which is our county governing body, but I've removed the AAPS results from the Washtenaw ISD so that it's a comparison of us to the rest of the ISD. The green dots on the plot here are the state of Michigan. The purple dots are the Washtenaw ISD without the Ann Arbor Public Schools. And the blue dots are the Ann Arbor Public Schools. So what you can see here is, and this is also the case that it was last year, we continue to perform at overall higher levels than the state and than the intermediate school district on the entire battery of Michigan standardized tests if we're looking at all of our students together. If we go to the next slide, this is no longer looking at us compared to the state and the ISD, but this is looking internally at the various student groups compared to one another. So again, we have the same battery of tests down the left-hand side. And you can see that we have the blue dots, the bigger blue dots, mirror what you saw on the last slide. That is all of our students percent proficient or advanced. And then the smaller dots and diamonds represent different student groups. The dots are racial ethnic groups, and the diamonds are other student groups including economically disadvantaged students, English learners, and students with disabilities. So while I was happy to report on the last slide that we are coming in above the state and the ISD, I am not happy to report on this slide that as we have seen in the past, we continue to see wide disparities in performance by student demographics. We particularly see disparities and lower levels of achievement for our black students, our Hispanic and Latino students, for our economically disadvantaged students, for our English learners, and for our students with disabilities. If we go to the next slide, oh. We have a question. Yes, please.

I think it's probably worth mentioning now at this juncture. When, and if you said it, I was focused on something else maybe. When we have these different categories, people can be in more than one.

yes i forgot to mention thank you thank you because yeah these these are not mutually exclusive a student could be white and economically disadvantaged a student could be economically disadvantaged and a student with a disability etc so so the racial ethnic groups are um are mutually exclusive but the other three categories we have here are not mutually exclusive from one another a student could fit into multiple categories there thank you for reminding me of that i have a question how does this

This graphic is very disturbing, I'm just gonna be honest. I agree. And it doesn't really look that much different from last year. That is also true. Which is another disturbing observation. I know that we have some tools in place. I know we were talking about panoramic, and this is our first year using it, so obviously it's too soon to say how effective it has been to address this issue. This is a major issue.

So can we talk about that somewhat?

Because, again, just for folks, constituents who are watching, as a board member, all of us, I'm sure this is, yeah, we need to address this.

Yeah, I could not agree more. What we're seeing are historical trends in our system. They're historical trends in the state and nationally. They're incredibly disturbing. And we have a couple of slides to try to summarize some of the work we're doing. We would like nothing more than to continue to talk about what we do within the school system and without in our greater community to address it. okay thank you miss linda and we'll share some okay thank you and we welcome your questions okay thanks uh any other questions on this slide

Okay, we'll continue on then. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the next two slides. These are just the numbers that make up the slide that you just saw because sometimes it's hard to see exactly where the various dots are and things like that. So these are just the percent numbers by the student groups that were on the prior slide. And the next slide is also more of the same if you go on to the next slide as well. So those are just so that you have them and so that the public record has what those actual numbers are so you don't have to try to discern them from the hundred tiny little dots. If we go to the next slide then. So continuing on looking at comparisons at the student group level, The next several slides are going to be looking at our battery of tests and how Ann Arbor Public Schools compares to the state and the ISD, but for various student groups. So this first plot is looking just at our Asian students compared to the Asian students in Michigan as a whole and in the ISD without the Ann Arbor Public Schools. You can see here that we continue to perform higher than the state and the intermediate school district across the entire battery of Michigan standardized tests for Asian students. If we continue to the next slide. This is a similar look, but in this case, it is for black and African American students. So on many of the tests, we do perform higher than the state and the ISD, but the ISD is closer, outpaces us on some of these tests. You can see where the purple dot is kind of on top of the blue dot or a little ahead of it on a few of the subject areas. And the state outpaced us on both tests for grade three. So that's something that we'll be paying attention to moving forward. The next slide is looking at the same look, but for our Hispanic Latino students. Again, on most tests, we are outperforming the state and the ISD. Though the ISD is closer, outpaces us on some of the tests in grades six and 11. If we go to the next slide, we're looking here at students of two or more races. We performed higher than the state of the ISD across the entire set of tests for this group of students. We move on to the next slide. For white students, we also performed higher than the state and the ISD across the entire set of tests. Moving to the next slide. Now we're looking at economically disadvantaged students. So again, on most tests, we performed higher than the state or the ISD. However, there are a couple of spots. There are two tests where if you look at grade 11 M-STEP social studies, the ISD outpaced us. And if you look at grade four M-STEP ELA, the state outpaced us for our economically disadvantaged students. Moving to the next slide where we're looking at English learners. Here, again, for most tests, we outpaced both the state and the ISD. However, the state did a little better than us for grade three and four ELA tests for English learners, and the ISD did better on the grade 11 social studies test than we did in 2026. And then finally looking at students with disabilities again for most tests we outpace the state in the ISD With a couple of exceptions grade 3 mathematics test the ISD was a little higher than us and the grade 8 science test So, in summary, if we go to the next slide, Ann Arbor Public Schools 2026 percent proficient on the state assessments, increased in 60 percent of the grade level subjects tested between 2025 and 2026 spring administrations. On average, if we average together those increases, it was a positive 1.8 percentage points increased. On 30% of the tests, that represented two years of increased proficiency in a row. Of course, this means that our proficiency levels fell on the other 40% of the tests. The average there was negative 1.9 percentage points. uh... we unfortunately still see relatively large and predictable achievement gaps uh... it by it results by student demographics black african-american students are hispanic latino students are economically disadvantaged students english learners and students with disabilities And we generally outpace the state of Michigan and our local ISD across most grade-level subjects, although we did less well comparatively for some of our student demographic groups. In some cases, they outpace us. Even where they didn't, for those groups that we are not serving as well, the results are closer. So we're doing less well for some groups than for others. And I will turn it over to Ms. Linden to continue talking about our next steps.

Thank you, Dr. Berger. I think Trustee Wilkes, you started us off right where I'd like to begin, which is that the work in our district to see these gaps closing is never-ending. It's an incredible, critical, and important focus for us. I might share this in three phases with you. The first would be our focus on tier one instruction. That's the universal experience that our students have in each of our classrooms, and the work that we have done over the last few years, you've heard bits and pieces of it, and Trustee Woods, you mentioned Panorama as one of the most recent tools that we're adopting and beginning to use, but you'll recall the implementation of Sabers, that risk assessment to help us identify students quickly who are at risk of their well-being, their mental health. We've implemented the trails program, which is really focused on helping students with life skills and supporting in the system. We've implemented peer-to-peer programs across the district and have for years and will continue to do that. We are beginning the implementation of PBIS across our district and numerous community partnerships that we've recently heard from, from our community division. In addition to our focus on domain two, particularly in the first few weeks of school, where we want to make sure that every single student is known by name, by story, that they feel belonging, that they feel valued, they feel represented. And really the most important thing is that you belong here. We want all of our students to feel that. The second piece on academics is also critical, and over the past few years, you've seen us bring forward some pretty transformational changes in our curriculum, diversifying that, making sure our curriculum is evidence-based, that it's representative. We continue to do that work. You will see on this slide just a few of the things that we are doing, from teacher training to the infusion of diverse books. far more representative of our student population and the work we do in our dyslexia screener piloting and trying to implement a system that has a really tight safety net so students don't fall through any of the gaps. So when Tier 1 is not enough, those Tier 2 and 3 interventions, the way we intervene at the moment of need is really, really important. So we've been working hard to get that to be closer to the point of need, to have data that's more refined so we can catch students early, and bringing in interventions that are of higher quality and implementing those with more fidelity across the district. So the goal is... the right support at the right moment, at the right intensity. And you've seen all the changes we've made to summer school over the past decade, continuously attempting to revamp it, to get attendance up, to make sure it's engaging, to focus on skills. And that work continues, and I think it's some evidence of, I think, our focus and how hard we are working The data trends don't lie, though. I mean, we see it, and I, for one, am very tired of seeing the same trends. I don't want to present these data to our community and to all of you. We really want these scores to change. One thing that I will point to is these are grade level standards assessments, and when we are catching students up, it often doesn't show up there for a few years. We really do enjoy bringing forward our growth data to you, which we bring every spring. It's another set of measurements for us, and we're very much looking forward to the screener data and more of that tier two, tier three progress monitoring data. in the future and that's where Panorama will come in and help us to do that a little bit better. On the tier one side, you've seen in cases where, for example, for black African American students, we are below the county in third grade math and ELA. And so while these are not the same cohorts of students year to year, they're different students taking the test, the data is not far off from year to year. So on the tier one side, the curriculum is one thing, the high expectations that our staff have for students, that's another thing. And we know how critical that is. So continuing to keep the standards high, keep the expectations high, students rise, we know this, our students are fully capable. What we have is a system that is working hard to change those trajectories. And that means we change how we show students who they are. And it's painful. I just need to say these data are very painful. Over the last several years, we have transformed the ELA curriculum. This past year is the first year we've had a fully science of reading-aligned curriculum in our district, and I need to commend Kristen Smith, her entire team of building literacy coaches, and every single elementary teacher who has taken up the Arts and Letters curriculum, the Hagerty program, the UFLY program, and all the pieces that they have worked really hard to learn, including many, many, many teachers who've gone through letters training, Orton-Gillingham training, very intensive training, in order to be able to serve our students better. It will make a difference, we know this. We're not seeing it yet on this assessment, but we know it will make a difference. That same process is beginning in the area of mathematics. So that's what's on the horizon for us. This spring we will be piloting new middle school mathematics curriculum, and the following spring we will be piloting new elementary mathematics curriculum. And so we'll bring more information about that, of course, down the line. But at this point, I've talked a lot, and I know you have many questions. So we'll take your questions. Thank you.

Trustee Muhammad?

So I know, so thank you for sharing this. And I know I brought this up during committee. Obviously, as Vice President Wilkes has said, you know, these are disparities. These are things that we have seen for many years, and we've been talking about it for many years, ever since I've been on the board. And honestly, the question is no longer about the gaps, because they're there. And it's about what are we doing intentionally to urgently close them. But when these disparities persist year after year, we have the responsibility to act. And I understand that there are some interventions that we've made. there are there is interventions that you know we haven't really touched too much about it but like their evidence-based interventions for example we know that class size does matter especially in these groups you know when teachers cannot provide individual instructions the people that will suffer the kids that will suffer are going to be students with disabilities they're going to be in these five groups black students it'll be economically disadvantaged students those are the first ones that are going to be impacted when we so we have to be very intentional how we're Addressing class sizes because again those in those five groups, especially black students socio-economically Disadvantaged students are going to be the first ones that are going to be impacted also We need to have targeted intentional tutoring and we've talked about tutoring before and But it has to be throughout the year. It can't just be during summer. It's not fair for us to have certain students have to do summer school to catch up. So what can we do throughout the year to help address these disparities? Summer school is an option, but again, I would rather see more interventions throughout the schools than have these students have to go to summer school. also title one schools I understand they get more resources but they may need more than what we have that we get you know from title one funds addressing chronic absenteeism obviously we know that's that's a big issue when students are not here or they're not going to school they're not learning so what are you know what are we doing I know we're hopefully going to get a presentation about chronic absenteeism, but how are we addressing it? I know certain school districts are trying to address it. And then we can't forget about those middle, I know we have interventions early on, middle and high school students. Can we provide, you know, I have a high schooler now. I know I, thankfully, am privileged enough that I'm able to have her go to SAT prep. A lot of students don't have this. How are we being intentional to try to provide these supports to these students with their SAT scores. So I know some of that work is probably happening, but I just feel like it's great. I'm glad that we have the literacy program and now the new math curriculum. It's hopefully going to address the early elementary students, but there are students going through our system that are not there yet.

Yeah, I'll start out then, if that's okay. All your points are really well taken, Trustee Muhammad. I will add to what you've shared that even when we have had significantly smaller class sizes, these gaps persist. So class size, when we talk about effect size on achievement, is not as high as other things, the way that we sometimes think, like teacher efficacy, feedback, lots of other things that have a greater impact on achievement than just class size. Because even when we were running low class sizes, these gaps were here. We are in a community that has a resource gap that we have to tackle. As you mentioned, being able to provide additional supports and resources for your child, we're privileged to be able to do that. I'm exploring SAT prep for my own student right now. We have a research gap that we have to figure out how to address here in this community, and that's not a sole responsibility. It's a collective responsibility. It's a community responsibility to figure these pieces out. So we have been in many ways for many, many, many decades working at anything that we can try to work at to address these things, and we're gonna continue. Just please be assured of that. We have engaged with resources around high impact tutoring and did not see the results of that the way that we wanted to. And so we pivot, but we did try it just so that you all as trustees in the community are aware that these are interventions that we have put into place and have tried. And when we don't see the results that we want to see, we pivot. and we try to figure out what can work, and I know Ms. Linda can speak to that a little bit more. Absenteeism, absolutely, we're preparing information to bring forward the report as trustees have requested around chronic absenteeism, and we know that that is, when students are not in school, that is a significant impact on their learning. And so we are working on how to best have a systemic approach to chronic absenteeism also. Go ahead, Ms. Linden, what would you add?

Absolutely, thank you very much, Superintendent Parks. I think you captured much of what I would share. I will add that we do have Title I tutors in our buildings. We do have reading assistants who are providing additional tutoring and support for students in our buildings. And in our secondary, middle school, and high school, we have specific intervention courses that are part of our core plus more. So students are receiving their core instruction. They're also being scheduled into a full course intervention, so they get more. That's happening daily in our schools. So I would be remiss if I did not point out that the system is built for exactly some of the things you're sharing tonight. And I will add that it's never enough. We always need more. But we're stretching all of our resources in the areas we know are going to bring forward results because the strategies are evidence-based. I will also share that The differentiated instruction elements are happening K-5 daily. Teachers are working with small groups of students, providing specific instruction based on the diagnostics that are happening. So the interventions are occurring. I think you've touched on absenteeism. You've touched on some of the elements that are really impacting how students can receive it. but I would be remiss if I did not point out that it is not enough and we are continuously working with families. I think that's an area we can invest more in is engaging with our families. They want the best for their children and we have to do better at helping them understand what they can do to help and how they can help. So we're working together with our partnership leads, Nancy Shore, and talking more with Jenna Bacolor within the MTSS system to say, what can the system do better? Because there are really three questions that matter at the end of the day. Who's being served, who isn't being served, and what do we do about it? So the fact that we dig into these data and we look at them, it is very depressing, but it is important. And we cannot stop doing that, because the system is not serving groups of students, and we have to do better.

Trustee Schmidt?

I appreciate this report. We've seen a lot of them. I've seen a lot of them throughout my career. I can't talk enough about literacy can't sit in a silo. The literacy program allows a student to access the rest of the curriculum, and that includes math. because there's so much more reading and math in the way we are teaching it and helping students understand numerics, right? So there is a school district in Ohio, Steubenville, and people can Google this and read about them. I've heard a couple podcasts about Steubenville. It's in a Rust Belt school. It's a Rust Belt school district. And these kids are in the 93rd to 99% third grade reading proficiency rate in Ohio. And they outperform schools that are much wealthier. And the things that we're doing that we've put in place are the kinds of things that they've been doing for 20, 25 years. But I can't emphasize enough how we have to, and I know you're there. We've got to make sure that teachers are trained and that they know how to change their practice. and somebody is evaluating them and making sure they're changing their practice and they're using it with fidelity, we have to make sure that these new hires that come from the universities who haven't prepared our teachers with the science of reading, most of our colleges. I hate to say this, but it's the reality. U of M is one of them, and I'm just depressed about that. But new laws have passed, but it's hard to move the universities to have to do something until we change the teacher test. Um, so we're doing the right things, but we have to just keep pushing because like this school, if you go and listen to the story about them, it's around sold a story. They talk about everybody singing the same song. Everybody's rowing the same way. And. As Trustee Muhammad said, it's not just elementary. We've got to intervene with those middle schoolers and the high schoolers. And I know you're going to be sharing with us something that's going on at the middle school or high school, which is good. So keep doing this. It isn't going to show up right away. I'm really tired of hearing now in the governor's race, you know, we've given money to these schools. We don't see anything changing. It takes time to move this barge because you've got to have the teachers trained, right? so um i have faith that we're going to see this and i think we're seeing it in individual classrooms as people progress monitor so i'm looking forward to um before we leave in december some more information about what you're seeing in that progress and monitoring data with the reading program and spelling and writing and all that so keep it going and i guess for mr berger the question i have for you is is there some way that we can really drill down into absenteeism and performance on these tests because i mean that's a real thing if a student doesn't show up and or if they miss three days a week they never connect the dots on what we're trying to do um but i i'd really like to just see what that looks like yeah that is a noble thing i mean i don't think we necessarily are going to pay our students come school like detroit but i don't even know it's kind of i mean hey they they're they're doing what it takes to get kids to school, but I'd be very interested in that.

And again, thank you, President Feaster. I realize this is only a snapshot for one day, but again, just sort of piggybacking on what Trustee Schmidt said, when a student is absent, that's a loss of learning. And it has to have an impact on how students perform on these tests. It just does. So I just want to add that we have to, it's really painful to look at this data. I'm just going to say that again. It's very painful to look at the data. But in order to fix this problem, we have to really, really examine it closely. And I appreciate all of the questions and comments that were made by the board tonight. there's nothing like excellent teaching. And that, you can't replace that. And I know that we have a lot of resources in place with, you rattled them off, all of the new arts and letters, UFLY. And again, we just recently started that program, so it's a little early to really see the results from it. But, and again, I agree that we need to keep our expectations high. um we we do not lower our expectations and it's called scaffolding to help these students reach that level and um again this is an exceptional school district i've been in this district for over 25 years uh three sons who went through this district and i know that that all of our students are capable They need help reaching that level, but again, we do not lower our standards. And so thank you for reiterating that. And as long as I'm on this board, my goal is to tackle this. This is why I'm here, student achievement, among many other reasons, but this is the main reason. We're here to make sure that our students, all of our students are achieving. So again, this has been a difficult, slide presentation to go through, but we're committed, so thank you.

So, oh, Trustee Wilkins.

All right, a couple of questions. First of all, I wanted to thank you for getting all of these data together and presented in such a short time frame. So I don't know if it was said at the beginning, but we just got this information like a week or two ago. Okay, so a week and a half ago. So this is a lot of work, but it is really important. So thank you for getting it together and getting it presented as soon as possible. It really, that's super important. I had two questions. One you talked about and you reiterated, the high expectations. How do we measure whether teachers are doing that or whether kids are getting that?

Many, many ways. It does show up in data, for sure. It shows up when you talk to kids. It shows up when you're observing in the classroom, and that's a primary place where we see it. I've talked before about some of the Tier 1 pedagogy we're working on with Teacher Clarity. I'm really kind of queuing students in to the learning goal for the lesson and the success criteria. And that is one way we keep standards high because those those are state standards we're hitting in that learning goal. It has not been changed. It is written in student friendly terms, but it is for everyone in the class. This is what we are learning to do together. and this is how you'll know you're successful. And just like you said, Trustee Wilkes, we scaffold when students need a little bit of lift to get to that place, but that target does not change. So that's a huge piece that we are working on, and we are nowhere near there yet. We've got four years before we see that really embedded in practice, but this year we're hitting that pretty hard.

And thank you for that my other question is Most of these or maybe all of these steps that you have in would Help all students. Yes, so do we have specific steps for those specific groups that are that we're not serving, or we're serving the least, or I don't know what the... Underserving, yeah.

Underserving. Yes, we are underserving, no doubt. Underserving the most. We sure do, and it's been a while since we brought the framework for equitable learning back in front. That was fresh during COVID. We knew that COVID was going to impact our vulnerable populations more heavily, And we really worked hard to identify students in four identified areas where our tier one, where all of our instruction needed to really improve. One was being culturally responsive and we've brought forward so many elements that we've been working on and they're ongoing. So we probably do need to continue to reiterate the work that's happening there. You might recall the work around Cornelius Minor's book, We Got This, which is about high expectations and cultural relevance and how teachers cue into that. So we did a couple of years focus on that, and that remains a part of our knowledge and our repertoire and how we talk about things today. So we're just layering on as we go. We have focused on the linguistic accessibility through our SIOP work, and we're happy to bring back that framework and share a little more about each of those elements, but that's making learning visible for students, making sure that course discussion is happening so that students who are English learners can engage in class discussion. having language goals in your classroom so that people can access the vocabulary, the academic literacy necessary to participate in the learning. We have the elements around universal design for learning, which is really about entry points for all students who may have neurodiverse needs in your classroom and how do they access learning, how do they share their learning, all the multiple ways we can do that. And that's through the differentiated output hierarchy that our teachers have worked on and continue to work on. So I gotta tell you, our teachers are working hard. Really, really hard. And they're committed to the same work that I think you all as board members are and that we sure are. So we're in this together.

So I've been on this board for about three years now, and as everyone said, we haven't seen any real change. And I thank you all for all of the work that you've done and all the tracking that you're doing and all the changes you're trying to make. What I can say is that as a black boy in K-8, I did not, fully engaged in the learning process until I had teachers who poured into me, who connected with me, or unless I had material that related to me and that I could connect with. I don't know if we're doing anything on that level in this district at this time, but that's how I succeeded. And I won't say I succeeded in many classes, K through 12. You would not believe the grades I received then and me being a lawyer today. But when I got to college and I was able to select teachers who poured into me and take subjects and courses that I had interest in and could relate to, I thrived and I did very well. I'm going to leave this board not having addressed this at all. So I'm hopeful that my remaining colleagues on this board and the administration can do something to find a way to close this gap. And I don't know what the key is, but I know from a personal standpoint, the connections with those teachers and the material is what moved me and motivated me to be successful ultimately. And so maybe that happens in K through 12 as opposed to college for some people. You get to pick more teachers and more classes and have that connection to the Professors who really pour into these subject matters a little bit heavier Maybe that will help to some other kids in our K through 12 district But I thank you all for the work you're doing and I'm hopeful that somehow we can finally close this gap after I'm gone You were talking about different groups I think you asked the question are there different groups that we're not reaching I still think that our students with dyslexia are

are we're not there we're not there and i know that um you know some suggest in the research up to 20 of our students are just have dyslexia which you know it's an umbrella you can be very severely dyslexic and not and i know we're taking steps yeah to get people trained but i just can't There, I mean, when I taught at Scarlet, I got kids in sixth, seventh grade, could hardly read at all, and they were dyslexic. And once they were given the proper, you know, trained instruction, I mean, I have one little boy that went off his IEP for ninth grade, and it was like, That I, we, I feel like that is still a weak spot in this district and we continue to move, but we've got to move faster and harder because their days and their years are moving so quickly. And if you can't learn to read, we know when we look at the school to prison pipeline, the number of people in prison that are dyslexic or very low readers, third grade. We know what the outcome's gonna be, so we can't waste time on that.

We feel that same urgency, Trustee Schmidt, we really do. And MDE will release their final round of approved screeners, they say in December. We're not waiting for that, we're piloting. But we have to be prepared to adopt one that's on their approved list when they release it. But we'll be ready to rock when they do. And our teachers continue to take on that additional layer of training. So we're not letting our foot off the gas on that at all. But no, we are not there yet. You're absolutely right.

Trustee Baskett. Thank you. I was not going to say much today because there isn't much more to say. Um, we have been, as, as trustees have mentioned, we've seen these numbers.

Yeah.

I don't think you needed two weeks to come back with what we have. Um, no offense, Dr. Berger, but you know, it was pretty predictable. We know I am very convinced that there are much smarter people, uh, around who know how to resolve the issue. Um, I was told many years ago by much smarter people. It's a political will that we need. Studies have shown highly effective school boards affect student achievement. I will say we have not been there and that is a disservice to our students. It's a disservice to our community. We've spent a lot of time dealing with rallies and other issues that aren't student focused. we the board set policies but we do not teach the children that is not our center of expertise and I admire the work that we have been doing and trying to provide the tools but we don't teach the children we talk about teacher expectations or we don't talk about teacher expectations we talk about expectations on the students but where is it in terms of a collective we say this is a community issue But where is the community? We don't have rallies around student achievement. We don't have rallies that the same set of students are not performing. Where is the community outrage? We don't hold our elected officials who do disseminate the money that we need for our students. We're not getting the money from the federal government that we were promised regarding special ed students for years. Where is the political outcry regarding that? It's one thing to give a speech in a parking lot about how we support our teachers. Where are the money for the students elected officials? That's what we need. So again, these programs and tools, they cost money. Educating our kids cost money. Where is the money? We can play the shell game and taking from here to there. But if we don't have a bigger pie, we're keep slicing up the same skinny little pie. so again i commend the work but we're not seeing the results that we talk about years after years after years some of us have been very successful in getting our students to the district thank you very much from some very dedicated teachers but as a system we have failed our students and we need to acknowledge that but we have the solutions do we have the political will as a board most of us will be leaving Most of us will not be happy with the results that we've had regarding student achievement, but we do encourage you to keep on pushing, so to speak. But remember, everybody needs to be a part of the solution here. It's not just one group or another. So again, thank you. I don't mean to end on a Debbie Downer sort of moment, but I think the truth has to be spoken.

Spot on. Appreciate everything you just shared, Trustee Baskin.

We appreciate it. We appreciate your presentation. Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. I believe that brings us down to our first briefing for the CTE program lease agreement. I'll turn it over to Superintendent Parks.

Yeah, we have, excuse me, we have Mr. Pacheira and Ms. Linden back for this item. I believe Mrs. Linden is going to introduce Mr. Pacheira.

I will promptly turn this over, yeah. And he will talk us through it. Absolutely. Well, we're pleased to bring forward a recommendation for a lease agreement And we're excited about the potential for this space. And I'm gonna hand this right over to Tom Pacera, our director of CT.

Thank you. I have some slides for you tonight. So many of you know about our amazing CTE programs, two of which I'm gonna highlight tonight in regards to the lease that I hope we can partake in. Our home building and construction fundamental programs are designed especially for students who are interested in architecture, engineering design, construction trade industries. Students are involved in completing construction of a residential house from start to finish in our home building class. and all the essential elements of completing a build in our construction fundamentals class. Students develop skills that include masonry, frame carpentry, plumbing, electrical wiring, installing of heating and air conditioning equipment, blueprint reading, flooring installation, painting, trim carpentry, and of course employability skills. Students spend two class periods a day in our construction fundamentals class, and three periods a day in our home building class. Students are transported to these programs from their home schools and back. All five high schools participate. Skyline and Pioneer, as well as Pathway students, are our morning classes, quote unquote, and Community and Huron High School students attend in the afternoon. Students in their first year of the program are eligible to learn about and take their OSHA 10 tests. They can receive a certificate for that that carries with them for two years. Students that are second year program will sit for their OSHA 30 exam. And again, those certificates last two years after they leave us. Classroom hours for both these courses count towards students' builder's exams. If they want to sit for the Michigan State residential building exam, they have their hours needed to sit for that exam. And like many of our CTE programs, if not all of them, students are eligible to receive college credit for successful completion of the course from Washtenaw Community College and community colleges across the state with the state articulation program. Last year, our construction fundamentals class completed four sheds, all with doors and windows. They were roofed and sided with various siding products. Two of them had working electrical, plumbing, insulation, and drywall. One of them is still sitting outside Skyline High School if you drive by, because it's too heavy to move. Our home building class, Team 56, as you may know, some of you walked through the house, just completed house number 55, the largest house ever built by students in the nation. This beautiful 3,600 square foot home, I'm going to sound like a salesperson now, is for sale at 5172 Pratt Road for $985,000. It features four bedrooms and four baths, set on a private one-acre home site, Just down the street from me, by the way. I wish my house was this nice. It's got high-end finishes, including oak flooring, soapstone and quartz countertops, nine-foot ceilings, custom millwork, and an outdoor living space with a truck stack landscaped with a three-car garage. That's where the ad stops. So now that you know a little bit about these programs, What's going on these days? Our programs have grown thanks to the CTE millage. I'll talk more about that in a minute. And we've outgrown our spaces. So this first slide is our space that we really didn't outgrow, well, that we have outgrown, sorry, switch slides on me. This is the space that we used last year for construction fundamentals. The class ran for the first time last year, one two-hour block in the morning. with countless students across the district that wanted in. We took 20 students, all of which successfully completed the course. We were in the Skyline scene shop for that. You can see pretty tight space, tight quarters. We ended up building the four sheds out in front of Skyline with Principal Casey Elmore's permission. One of those is still there, that one is pictured in this drawing. But we did outgrow that space, and we wanted to add a second section in the afternoon as well. Sharing the space with the Skyline Theater was great, we helped them build sets, but it was a tremendous undertaking to have those sheds indoors while we were trying to build a theater set to roll off to the stage to our left there. The next shot is of the build site on Pratt Road, a nice one-acre lot. We are able to locate the construction trailer on that lot. That trailer acts as the classroom while the house is being constructed. Students are generally only in that classroom for 15 to 20 minutes a day before they are actually out on the site. Our sites for the next couple years, there's a picture of the students in the trailer. You can see it's a pretty tight space. Our students are, for the next two years, will be building on-site behind Menards in the Lombardo area. building development phase two and three. Those are quarter acre lots. We can barely fit our equipment on the lot while we're building the home, let alone our construction trailer. We are hoping to locate that trailer onsite on this new site that we'll be leasing with the construction fundamentals class. You can flip to the next slide. So this is six five four four Jackson Road Does not look like much it will be an amazing space for our program Our classes can be combined in this space for lessons and transportation costs most importantly More students can be part of our programs We'll have up to 40 students in the construction fundamentals class and we'll stick with our 30 students in our home building class We have 16 in the morning and 14 in the afternoon in the home building class. The job site is right down the street, as I mentioned, about a mile away. Our buses will transport both groups of students there in the morning. We'll have a separate transportation route midday for our construction fundamentals, and then for our construction fundamentals to come back midday from the other two high schools with combined transportation again at the end of the school day. That's all I have for you. Does somebody read the? Oh, okay, I'm just speaking to the least then.

Is this a house or a building in a trailer or is it?

So it's a warehouse with an office space in front. The office space is pictured in the outside there and then the bottom picture is what will be set up as a classroom. for construction fundamentals. The students will move to the back area, the warehouse that's pictured in the bottom right, about 4,000 square feet of space to build their sheds indoors and outdoors. The construction trailer will be located in the east parking lot, right there, and our students will take two, currently we're utilizing two minivans, because we're in that space now, we can use the trailer as it is, to the building sites and back with the instructors. We're looking for a two-year lease with an extension of two years. The lease will be completely covered, as you can see in your executive summary, by the CTE millage. We have approval from the county for that lease for up to 90,000. Your amazing finance committee asked some great questions. Our lease is not gonna cost us that much, so what do we get to do with the extra money? We'll utilize those extra funds for things like internet out at the site, fuel costs out at the site, all the things we need for the students and instructors out at the site.

When you say approved by the county, you mean approved by the WISD?

That's correct. Okay. For CTE millage expenditure.

All right. Vice President Wilkes. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pechera, for that presentation. So real quick, so why only a two-year lease? I'm curious about that. And so from the documentation that was given to the board, it mentions that the funding would be provided from the general fund. slash CTE millage. So can you explain that?

Correct. So the way the CTE millage is set up is a reimbursement millage. So we will spend the money out of our general fund and then get reimbursed by the county. We have that promise. Uh, if you will, um, the county is reimbursing four times a year for all of our CTE expenditures. So we would expect our first payment in mid October from them.

Okay.

Or we will submit for our first payment in October.

Okay, got it. And why two years as opposed to?

So we'll be on those two smaller sites for two years, and then we hope to move back to a larger site. But if we don't, we have an extension of two years.

Okay. Okay, thank you.

Sure.

So if I may?

So the team is asking for $78,000 for a two-year lease. And as we discussed in the committee meeting, there is no current available space within our district that we don't have to pay for.

That fits the bill.

If I said that correctly. That fits the bill. We're talking about 400,000 square feet you mentioned?

4,000.

4,000, excuse me, sorry. Too many zeros. So again, if the community is willing to help us out in either helping to fund or subsidize or provide a space free of charge, they have two weeks now to contact the superintendent's office and discuss with you and the rest of the team if their space would be more suitable than what's proposed here today. But again, to clarify, we have a wonderful home builders program already.

Yes, we do.

But there is a wait list of students, if you will, or has been a wait list for students. And so you creatively created this program, this class, the construction fundamentals, for students who can't get in the home builders class. Although there may be seniors taking this class and therefore they won't be around next year for the home builders class, the underclassmen who are part of this class may be able to get in the home builders class. And if you've never attended the banquet trustees, I really encourage you to attend the home builders program banquet. It is truly a celebration of the students as well as the home. Please take a tour of at least one of the homes. I've had the privilege of actually being host by a homeowner of one of the homes that she bought. And she was just bragging about the quality of work. And the rest of the guests with me were oohing and aahing over the detailed work that our students are providing. And I think more importantly, this program is not just for any particular student. Any student from any who has any interest in participating is eligible to apply. You don't have to be an engineering, pre-engineering student or any of the sort. And the skills that they take away with them is just remarkable. I've mentioned before I have a friend who I did not know his son participated in the program many, many years ago, had no thought of getting involved in construction beyond this particular program. He's not only an engineer, he also builds his parents' deck and anything else that they ask because he's a good son. But he learned those skills through our program at no additional cost. And I think it is a shame that we don't highlight it enough. And so I just wanted to stress that we have the opportunity to help educate more kids. We just don't have the space right now. So trustees, with your support, I'm hoping you will approve this so we can get these students into this particular space as soon as possible. Mr. Pachero, how soon can we get them in?

As soon as we get the certificate of occupancy from Sire Township.

Wonderful. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right. Thank you so much for the presentation. Greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. All right, trustees, that brings it down to the consent agenda. Ms. Ozenski, will you please read the consent agenda?

Approve minutes of the September 9th, 2026 regular meeting. Approve a closed session on October 7th, 2026 at 6 p.m. for the purpose of attorney-client privilege and negotiations. That's it.

Would anyone like to remove an item from the consent agenda? Do I have a motion?

So moved.

Moved by Trustee Schmidt. Second. Supported by Vice President Wilkes. Any discussion? Seeing none, Ms. Olszewski, please.

Trustee Baskett? Yes. President Feaster? Yes. Trustee Muhammad? Yes. Trustee Schmidt? Yes. Trustee Wilkins? Yes. Vice President Wilks? Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. That brings us down to board action. Approve MASB voting delegates and alternates. Is there a motion?

So moved. I have a motion to approve the following trustees as MASB voting delegates to participate, if possible, in the MASB Delegate Assembly on October 15, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the Lansing Center. That would be Trustees Wilkes, Wilkins, Muhammad, and Norton, and approves the following trustees to serve as voting alternates, Trustees Feaster, Schmidt, and Baskett. the board further directs the board's assistant to submit the delegate and alternate names through the mesb portal by october 1st 2026 as required believe it was moved by trustee schmidt second support by vice president wilkes any discussion

And none. Ms. Osinski, please.

Trustee Baskett? Yes. President Feaster? Yes. Trustee Muhammad? Yes. Trustee Schmidt? Yes. Trustee Wilkins? Yes. Vice President Wilks? Yes. Motion carries.

Any item for agenda planning, trustees? Trustee Schmidt?

Just wondering, I know that, of course, AI is in the news, you know. I know that we had a group come and present to us a And the spring, maybe? I would like to see what's happening in that regard. What do you guys think? Are you interested? I'm interested.

I'm interested. So I don't know what you mean by what's happening in that space.

Well, I know that I talked to one of the teachers that's in that group, and it was like they wanted to start gathering information from parents or something, but they were waiting to get something from us, and maybe they were going to present again. I don't know. What's the status of things?

They'd given us a draft AI policy.

Yes, last I checked.

We haven't adopted.

Right.

or anything like that, as far as I know. So I think it's definitely worth discussing.

So I guess the question is, take action on it, is what you're asking us to discuss?

Just status report of all aspects, I guess, because I know they've still, I think they still have a working group. Superintendent Parks, do they still have that group together, I suspect? I mean, maybe a few of the students graduated, but just to see what's happening.

They said it was a great program. They've got state recognition and all that kind of stuff, so I guess we have to get an update and see if we want to take any action on it.

Well, I would like to take it maybe one step further just to see sort of what's the status of AI, the use of AI within our district.

They're following. Yeah, that's part of that.

All of that.

Okay.

They've got their finger on the pulse, I think.

Okay, anything else? Seeing none, I believe that brings us to items from the board. Do trustees have anything they would like to share? Sure.

vice president wilkes yes so uh trustees i did send an email but in case um you didn't actually have a chance to see it before tonight's meeting um i just want to bring to your attention that the saturday october 17th date that we landed on for board retreat has now changed so as it turns out this date isn't going to work so again i had everyone mark their calendars for saturday october 17th that date is now no longer

going to work for a board retreat.

So rather than have a board retreat, I had a chance to talk with Superintendent Parks and I spoke briefly with President Feaster. I'd like to propose having a study session on Wednesday, October 21st for board transition planning. I think it's important that we have a smooth transition plan in place prior to new members coming on board. I need your help and input with this in terms of topics that we should cover. So again, you can free up that Saturday, October 17th now, but please look at, well, Wednesday, October 21st was actually scheduled for a regular board meeting. So again, we were talking a little bit superintendent parks and so we were sort of tossing around some ideas. But anyway, but again, either way, I need your help and input in terms of topics that we should cover. So I just want to put that out there and get your thoughts.

I think that's a great idea because you've got a lot of experience leaving our most experienced member. We need to capture that. We need to capture that historical knowledge. And I'm sure that I wouldn't be surprised, and it's all preliminary, of course, because you don't have the new members, but there will be some carryover and there might be some expertise at MASB that some framework that they, I mean, this happens to other boards too. Yeah.

And it would be facilitated, so let me just make that clear.

Not a bad idea, but trust me, you're not leaving the district, are you? You'll still be around, right?

I would ask, I'm sorry, Vice President Wilkes, if you could look to see if trustees are available earlier than 7? Assuming we don't need a closed session, that may make it easier. I like that idea. And, you know, why not welcome some comments from the community regarding what they think we may add to it? Again, I would highlight there is an article in Studies, and we've all received the article because we've received the Leaderboard magazine, but there is evidence that highly effective school boards affect student achievement. Yep. So that's a goal I think the board should aim for.

Okay. Absolutely.

Trustee Wilkins? So this would replace our regular meeting that night? Yes. Okay.

And so, Trustee Baskett, you suggested that we have it before 7 o'clock. So I'm open. I'm thinking, what, 6? What works for you all can let me know.

I want you to drop an email to us to see who can come early. Yeah. Okay. That sounds good. We can check their calendar.

Okay. Trustee Schmidt.

So, I'm just going to encourage the community to, Take the advice of our Freeman Environmental Center students who are trying to work on idling. I was very discouraged. I rode my bike past Phi Elementary with parents lined up and kind of scooched up to one of the parents and said, oh, you know, the students are working on an idling thing. yeah I know there's the sign and I said oh and she said yeah I'm not turning my car off this is messed up but um you know if you look at the on your weather app it gives you the air quality of what happens in Ann Arbor and it's pretty bad and try to get the word out parents cooperate with us would you and let's let's do this because it's insane to see these cards just sitting there and there were several she wasn't alone and i just thought and the signs are right there and it's uh so i'm just going to encourage people to turn their cars off and take a moment of peace and save the air for our kids and for us

All right. If there's nothing further, that brings us down to adjournment. Do I have a motion to adjourn by voice vote? So moved. Moved by Vice President Wilkes. Is there support? Support. Support by Trustee Baskett. All in favor to adjourn, say aye.

Aye. Do I have to vote on that first?

It was moved and supported. Do I need to vote on that, I think, and then do it, or no? No, okay. All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. We are adjourned at 9.41 p.m.