Board of Education - Regular Meeting

I now call this meeting of the Board of Education to order. I would like to remind everyone that some of our meeting presenters may participate via Zoom. Ms. Ozenski, may we have a roll call, please?

Trustee Baskett, President Feaster, Trustee Muhammad, Trustee Norton, Trustee Schmidt, Trustee Wilkins, Trustee Wilkes, We have a quorum.

Thank you, Ms. Ozenski. I would now like to introduce the non-voting member at the table, Ms. Dawn Linden, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, who is filling in for Superintendent Park this evening. Good evening. Thank you. I believe that brings us down to our land acknowledgement statement. I believe I've been asking Vice President Wilkes if she would help us out with this. Oh, absolutely. Thank you.

We acknowledge that the Ann Arbor Public School District occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabek Three Fires Confederacy, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Botawatomi. The taking of this land was formalized in a process alien to Native cultures by the Treaty of Detroit in 1807. The Ann Arbor Public Schools recognizes that many other Native peoples lived on this land at different times, including the Fox, Saw, Shawnee, Kickapoo, Miami, Muscatoon, and Cherokee, many of whom were forcibly removed from their homelands. Acknowledgement by itself is a small gesture and does not exist in the past or solely in a historical context. Colonialism is a current ongoing process and we understand our responsibility in educating students about our participation. We further recognize the ongoing relationship and dependence upon and respect for all living beings of earth, sky, and water. It is our responsibility to care for this land and we honor with our deepest gratitude the native people who have and will continue to steward it for generations.

Thank you very much, Vice President Wilkes. I believe 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 needed? No changes. Seeing none, may I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So moved. Moved by Vice President Wilkes. Is there support? Support by Trustee Baskett. Any discussion? Any discussion? Saying none. Ms. Sosinski, please.

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

Yes.

Trustee Wilkins? Yes.

Vice President Wilks?

Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. That brings us down to public commentary. The board would like to remind everyone the 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. Ozinski, how many signs do we have for this evening?

We have nine signed up this evening.

Thank you.

And our first is Dave Friedrichs.

How nice not to have to wait. 55 years in the school district, but my first time to come and say something. I started a local business, and for the past 10 years or so, we've been putting solar systems on. In fact, right on this building was one of those. I met a few trustees when they visited. But We do our work intermittently, repairs and installations. And when it comes to getting badges to work intermittently at the school sites, I'm here to ask for less red tape and more opportunity for those that our company selects as employees. And we vet them and train them, of course, for their work. Badges are a common thing when a contractor is intermittent and sporadic with any large customer. At the county, you can see on this sheet, which I will make available through Amy, their badge and information. And this employee worked at all county sites but was rejected. by the process, which is a little more cumbersome that the school system uses. You use a third party out of state called higher image. And it's a complete background check. And this particular individual had had a felony when he was 16 years old, fully served and took care of it and has been employed a few years with us, but could not work, could not assist, could not work on school AAPS sites. So I think we can find better ways. And that's my request is that sporadic and intermittent contractors should not really be regarded as coming in to be educators within the system. And Possibly something can be done. You know, best ideas might come from somebody more schooled in HR than I, but I did have a couple of ideas, one just being that you could add a paragraph to the insurance requirements to say the contractor takes responsibility for their employees, which we certainly do. And another could just be to recognize that because they're intermittent and sporadic, and we sometimes need to bring somebody with different skills on just because of a situation as repair and service are happening, the contractor is responsible. So that could be, I think, in a wording, when you look at the HR wording for the state, it could be, interpret a little more leniently, perhaps like the county does, and our work with the city and stuff is also pretty simple badge processes. So that's the gist of it. I had a little bit of info just so that each of you can have it with you. I do sort of believe in restorative justice and the second chances, So we hope local, state, federal systems will be improved to emphasize corrections, opportunities, not just lifelong limits on people. Thank you.

Thank you. Kelly Dormer.

Hello, um, I'm Kelly dormer. I'm a parent of a 1st grader at 1 of our title 1 elementary schools. Um, we're a week into the school year and staffing issues are far from settled. Some students started with teachers hired less than 7 days before school began and others are in classrooms staff by substitutes because we still have not hired permanent teachers. And I guess what I'm wondering is why does every year begin like this? This is my third year in the district, and every year our school has started with vacancies and inadequate staffing. Last year, parents came to a PTO meeting in tears because their children were not receiving the supports they need, and some were considering hiring attorneys to force action. This is a failure to plan for problems that we know are coming. Two years ago, the Plant Moran Report identified failures in fiscal management and board oversight as key problems in this current financial crisis. Since then, we've balanced the budget by reducing positions, forcing out experienced educators, increasing class sizes, and now discussing closing schools and selling property. But balancing the budget is not the same as fixing the management problems that created the crisis. This summer at my child's school alone, I understand that anywhere from 17 to 20 employees left. I don't blame them, but I want to know what you're doing to stop it. Our own policies make planning hard, so teachers risk losing summer health insurance if they resign too early, so our resignations don't arrive until August. Why don't we change that? Dexter, East Lansing, Grosse Pointe, other Michigan districts have provisions allowing teachers who complete the school year to maintain summer insurance coverage. Give teachers an incentive to provide early notice so the district can recruit earlier. Make this a priority when we start bargaining again in a few short months. Posting teaching positions on August 7th when school starts on August 31st is not a staffing strategy, it's a countdown clock. The district seems intensely focused on two financial solutions, less employees and fewer buildings. Maybe some right-sizing is necessary, but where is the same urgency around contracted services, consultants, travel, purchasing cards, and other spending? With a $100,000 board approval threshold, how is cumulative spending being monitored and, more importantly, prevented? What is different about the district's financial management today than what it was in 2024? show us what has changed show us how your oversight has improved tell us how many classrooms still lack permanent teachers and where we have shortages of critical staff and tell us your plan to fill them come to the school not just for an event or an instagram reel but spend time there walk the halls talk to teachers and parents without cameras See what a classroom approaching 30 elementary students looks like and what inadequate support means for the teachers and children. Because if you're going to make choices about staffing, class sizes, consolidation, and what schools can afford to lose, you have to understand what we've already lost. We've been fortunate to have really great teachers and staff, but I have little confidence that they will be here next year because why would they stay? Why should families stay? I want my child to be here, but families cannot continually be asked to tolerate instability because leaving makes the district's financial situation worse. I'm really tired because I feel like the question is constantly, what can my child do for the Ann Arbor Public Schools? And we need to be holding the district accountable for what you are supposed to provide our children. If you want families to choose the district, give us a reason to choose it. Tell us what you're doing differently. What are you doing now so we are not standing here in September asking why another school year began in crisis? Trust will not be rebuilt simply by holding listening sessions while school closure lists are leaked to the Ann Arbor Observer. It will be rebuilt by showing us that something has changed. Thank you.

Lyndon Dibble. Lyndon Dibble.

Hello, everyone. Lyndon Dibble, candidate for Ann Arbor Public School Board, running to bring clear, consistent communication from district leadership. Healthcare access for our teachers and reducing our technology use in our schools. I'd like to start by saying I basically agree with everything our last speaker just said. Her points were all very accurate and very true. We do need clear, consistent communication, and that starts by going to events, reaching out, going to PTO meetings, going to ice cream socials, going to musicals, band concerts, everything as leaders in the district, in the superintendent's office, and as board members. to really hear and listen to the community in a more relaxed setting where people can actually have real conversations. I came up here actually today to talk about the agreement that was recently signed with the union. While I applaud that the union board have come to an agreement, it does not go far enough, especially in terms of health care access. The agreement does not guarantee teachers a good enough health care plan or as much coverage on that health care plan as they deserve. Healthcare access is very important for teachers. Teachers, if they're sick, they can't be in the classroom to teach if they're sick. So healthcare access is very, very, very important. And many people are covered by teachers' healthcare plans that aren't the teachers themselves, including myself. I'm covered by a teacher's healthcare plan. And And the whole family around that teacher relies on districts to reduce their costs, to give them healthcare access when they need it, and the current agreement does not go far enough in that regard. So I hope that this is taken into consideration when the contract's up for renegotiation very shortly. That's really all I want to say. I mean, I guess I'll add in, I'm here at the Airheart Drive building. Yet again, the meetings have still not been moved to a more accessible location for the community. This goes back to what we're talking about, clear, consistent communication. Members of our community cannot get here because it's 40 minutes away for members on the far west side of the district. This meeting location is a bad meeting location for public accessibility and access, and it needs to be moved to our high schools, to our middle schools on a rotating basis. This also goes into what happened a couple weeks ago with the transgender policy. That agenda item was added two hours before the board meeting. That's problematic because one, people could not sign up for public comment as per AAPS policy to speak on that issue. And two, two hours notice, again, doesn't give people time to get here if they live in certain areas in our district. It's simply not enough time to learn about the event, go home, arrange childcare, cook dinner really quick, drive all the way over here to give a four-minute speech about transgender rights. And it's appalling that this location makes it inaccessible for those members.

Thank you.

Have a great night. Thank you.

Rosie Meisler.

Good evening. I'm Rosie Meisler. I'm a senior at Community High School, and I also split and roll at Pioneer for Music. And I'm here today to talk about prioritizing the incredible teachers of our school district. Ann Arbor is often considered one of the most educated cities in the US. But despite this statistic, we don't seem smart enough to realize that the reputation of our education relies on our teachers. Without excellent teachers, excellent education cannot occur. But in order to maintain quality teachers, we have to treat them as they deserve. Excellent teachers deserve a competitive wage, good healthcare benefits, planning time to prepare high-quality lessons, and class sizes that allow them to connect with every student as an individual. Coming to a tentative agreement on the teacher's compensation is a good step, but that's all it is, a step. These conversations must continue if we as a district wish to progress. Communication must continue and not just occur when we're pressured in crisis. We must continue fighting for fair and competitive contracts to be signed in order to maintain our incredible teachers. Our teachers deserve to be seen as people, not budgeting issues. They deserve the support of the entire district as they face the ever-changing challenges and issues that come with the classroom. From teen mental health crises to artificial intelligence to the normal hullabaloo of the classrooms, teachers are constantly being asked to adapt to better suit the needs of their students. Now's the time for us to ask, how are we going to adapt for the needs of our teachers? How are we going to show support for our teachers, not through just words, but through actions and fair compensation? So I ask everybody listening tonight, how are you going to make the changes needed to support and maintain excellent teachers in our district? What are you going to do to improve the well-being of teachers, which is directly reflected inside the classroom? And what action are you going to take to show the incredible teachers of this district our appreciation, support, and love? I beg you to answer those questions wherever you, whoever you are, because incredible teachers deserve an incredible community, a community that can count on them to meet their needs, a community that rallies behind them when they call and ensures their physical, emotional, and mental well-being. So how can we be that community? Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Beatrix Yule.

Can I raise this a little bit? Sure.

I see it.

Hi, my name is Beatrix Uli and I'm a senior at Pioneer High School. I want to talk to you today about the recent contract that was reached and how it is not sufficient for teachers and how it affects students in a much more profound way than the board is treating it. From the start of my education, teachers have always done extra. My fourth grade teacher at Burns Park Elementary gave out fun erasers that could be earned by cleaning up the classroom trash. My third grade teacher gave us candy as a treat on special occasions. And my sixth grade advisory teacher bought art supplies for me and my friend, the only two people on optional Wednesday Zoom advisory. We would create all sorts of different crafts. These teachers paid out of pocket to give kids experiences that enrich their time in school. The current contract and the conditions created in the absence of a contract means that things are different. Going into this school year, I knew that there would be a lot of unresolved issues surrounding contracts, and I wondered how it would affect my school year. as well as the long-term for teachers and their decisions to stay within the district. Teachers care so much about their students, enough to spend their own money on things in the classroom and allow students to use their rooms during lunch. I understand there's a budget problem, but that doesn't mean teachers should take the blow after the sacrifices they make. This contract does not support what AAPS is as a whole. A community of giving should not be stingy when it comes to paying the people that make a school system great. I beg you to ask yourselves, how can we create a better contract, one that works in the long term and gives to the people who have given so much? A great school system means great teachers, and the excellence that AAPS has shown in the past will dwindle if you continue to hold out on teachers. Thank you for your time.

I'm shorter than our senior at Pioneer. All right. I am here tonight as the parent of a transgender student in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. I want to speak to you not as a lawyer or a policy expert, but simply as a parent and someone who cares deeply. I trust you with my child. Every morning I sent her through the doors of an AAPS school. I trust that the adults in this district will do everything they can to keep her safe.

I really hate having to do this, guys.

Part of that trust is believing that when my child shares something deeply personal about who they are, that information will be treated with care. Because my child's gender identity is not gossip. It's not something that should be casually shared from one adult to another. And for some transgender kids, being outed isn't simply uncomfortable or embarrassing. It can mean rejection. It can mean losing family member support. It can mean emotional or physical danger. For some kids, being outed can be life-threatening. I understand the position that this board was put in. I understand that the federal government has threatened this district's funding. And I understand why you felt you had to respond. What I'm asking you to remember, who ultimately has to live with the consequences of the language you adopt, it's our kids. And they know the choices that are being made about their futures. The federal government may be putting pressure on this district, but that does not mean AAPS has to stop protecting transgender students. I'm shaking. I hate this. You can comply with federal law and protect our children's privacy. You can honor parents' lawful rights under FERPA and make clear that deeply personal information will not be disclosed unless the law explicitly requires it, not when it is permitted. This is exactly what the proposed language that I'm sure you've all seen by now for paragraph one does. It eliminates ambiguity and it protects our students and our teachers. It does not ask you to violate FERPA. It does not take away a parent's lawful right to inspect and review educational records. It simply establishes the strongest privacy protection possible within the law. So I'm asking you, please don't wait for another letter from Washington. Don't do it. Don't wait for another investigation. Don't wait for a court to tell you whether you can protect these kids. You need to act now. Adopt this language now. Stop choosing cowardice. Someday our kids are going to look back at this moment, and they're already doing it, actually. Quite frankly, my teenager is already doing it, and say, when the school had a choice about whether to protect kids like us, what did they do? We want to be able to tell them that they chose to protect you. I want every parent of a transgender student in this district to be able to say the same thing. Please don't make our children wait for the federal government to decide whether their privacy matters. They are our children, they're a part of this community, and they deserve to know that the adults they trust will stand up for them. And I have 47 seconds left. Two weeks ago, when you voted to change the language in the transgender protection policy, you were mostly unaware of the harm that you were doing. That amendment, through the language that was nuanced, opened trans youth to very, very real danger. Tonight, you are more than aware of what you've done. We urge you to make the right decision now and tonight. Amend the language immediately to protect all students in your district. It is cowardly to say that you are waiting until you get a rejection from the federal government. They will not stop. You are allowing them and enabling them to come after our kids, and we will not forget what you do here tonight.

Emma Kenney? Emma Kenney?

I'm going to raise it back up again. Hello, trustees. My name is Emma Kenny. I live in Ward 5. I grew up in the Ann Arbor Book Schools from Haisley through Skyline. I'm here to give comment on changes to the transgender and gender nonconforming policy and where we go from here. To start, I understand that these times are perilous. I'm a transgender woman. Trust me, I understand that these times are perilous. So when the Department of Education falsely accused the public school policy of being in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, I wasn't surprised. I was dismayed to hear on 20 minutes notice that the board was going to make changes to the policy without involvement of transgender students, their family, their families or relevant advocacy or legal groups. I was there that night and I believe that you all had good intentions and that you thought that the changes would not affect the function of the policy. Nevertheless, the changes made that night exposed trans kids to forced outing by any school personnel that wish to do so. That's not my opinion. That is the analysis of state and national advocacy and law groups. I want to take a moment on forced outing. Sadly, many parents don't have the best interests of their children at heart. Many trans students, including students in your district, face the loss of housing, the loss of financial support, loss of access to food and health care, and both physical and psychological abuse were their parents to find out that they were transgender. This isn't hypothetical. This isn't theoretical. For many students in your district, this is a matter of life and death. So you'll understand why I'm telling you that the policy must be remediated immediately. There is a proposed amendment for you tonight, which I ask for you to approve without adulteration or modification. In this, I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking you to trust in the decades of experience and expertise that the authors of the amendment have in trans advocacy and federal educational privacy law. They wrote the amendment not only to close the most obvious loophole, but to form a complete and robust policy which is in full compliance with federal law while providing trans students the maximum protection possible. Please do not repeat your mistake from the 26th of August, thinking that you know better than the transgender community what is right for us and what is safe for our kids. I, as well as all of the people who emailed you today, people who signed these 70 letters that I'll pass along to you, the people standing behind me with signs, and the transgender students of this district, their parents, their families, and their allies. We call upon you, the Ann Arbor trustees, the Ann Arbor School Board trustees, to adopt the amendment before you in full and immediately to begin to remediate the harm done involuntarily. and to start to rebuild trust with our community.

Thank you for your time. You can give those to me. Leah Carr.

Hi, I'm Leah Carr. My husband and I both graduated from Huron High School. We have three children in the district, a fourth grader at A2 STEAM, and a senior and a sophomore at Huron High School. My children are third generation AAPS students. My husband and I, as well as his parents, were educated in a strong district with an excellent reputation. My high schoolers started the school year in a district I no longer recognize. of their seven class periods both of my children had two class periods without a teacher that's four class periods each day for our family that there was not a teacher present that's 28.5 percent of the school day spent without a teacher this should not come as a surprise to many of you you set the district up to have this problem aside from trustee muhammad those of you in this room who are on the board When the teachers were voted to lay off, you voted yes. You voted to lay them off. You set us up for this problem. Recently, you disrespected the teachers by not bargaining in good faith towards reaching a contract for over a year. It's clear to see how you now have a recruitment and retention problem. You've been writing checks on the bank of a reputation built decades ago without investing in the future. And now our students are paying the price. 10 days into the school year and today a new teacher started in three of my children's classes. There is a precedent set this year in El Paso, Texas. Salaried central office staff will be required to step into the buildings and substitute four days every semester. I challenge this administration to meet or exceed this precedent set in Texas, a state known to have a lower educational rating than our own state. I would like to know who is going to step out of their office in Palace Ballas and pick up the bootstraps and come teach my child's 10th grade English class. They are ready to learn. They would appreciate an explanation of your efforts to rebuild relationships with educators so that this district will not continue to have a recruitment and retention problem. The kids need answers. The kids need education. There are too many people outside of the school buildings. And there's not enough inside. I need you to fix that problem. And it cannot be fixed on the building administration level. Thank you.

Heather Seitz.

Good evening. Evening. My name is Heather Seitz. I live . I live in the Abbott neighborhood. I have two kids who attend Abbott Elementary. Two weeks ago, I read in the Observer that my kid's school might close, and so did so many other people here tonight. It was reported the district insiders gave him a list of schools under consideration, and Abbott was on it. Members of this board responded informally at the community meeting on September 3rd that the article made these decisions sound more decided than they actually are. and that all options are currently on the table. Maybe that's true, but if it is, that's on you to fix and it's not hard to fix. When a story like that comes out and the district says nothing, the story becomes the truth. We are left to read between the lines, yet every piece of information this community is missing is sitting in your building. Given these uncertain times and the looming need to make cuts to something, I have three questions for the board tonight. What are their criteria? How are you ensuring equity? And why was this tied to the teacher's contract? So what are the criteria? How are you deciding which schools stay open and which ones close? Show us the criteria, then show us the data driving these decisions. I want to see the data for every school as it stands now in projections under each closure scenario. At the last board meeting, we saw data from the 24-25 school year. I want to see the same for 25-26, once we have the numbers, and projected data for this school year and next. The year 2027 and 28 school year is actually what we're talking about in terms of closures. What is the entire resulting cost of these decisions? How many kids stop being able to walk to and from school? How many extra minutes on a bus? And what does that cost school by school? How many students qualify for free and reduced lunch? How many kids have IEPs, 504s, or English language learners? What do class sizes look like now and then at the schools that absorb these students? And how much do you expect each building and lot to be worth? Number two, how are you keeping this district equitable?

I don't think you can talk about closing schools without talking about equity.

I heard recently about a first grader at an AAPS school across town from mine who has never been on a field trip, who hasn't had the kinds of celebrations my kids get at Abbott. I know it's not only about money, but money is a part of it. Individual school PTO's ability to fundraise shouldn't be the reason whether a student is able to explore something outside their neighborhood. It's not a PTO problem, that's a district problem. We've quietly made parent fundraising part of the base budget, and then we act surprised that schools don't look the same. So how are you making sure every school gets the same opportunities right now? And how are you going to make sure that while you're changing how schools are staffed and what programs they offer? Because if the district is already uneven and you make big changes on top of that, the gap doesn't stay the same, it grows. Number three, why was any of this tied to the teacher's contract? One of the quotes in the Observer articles of the number of schools we closed depends on what the teachers get in their contract, two or four or six schools depending. I don't think that was meant as a threat, but it wasn't a throwaway comment either. It tells every parent in this district that if our teachers get paid, our kids lose a school. It puts us on opposite sides of a table we were never on opposite sides of. I refuse to see this as us versus them, parents versus teachers. My kids' teachers are not the reason my kids' school might close. Please don't ask to see it. And please don't phrase these upcoming efforts that way again. Your job is to unify this district, not divide it. So I ask, please publish the criteria before you publish any list of schools, because if the names come first and the reasons come second, no one is going to believe the reasons produce the names. And publish what you're doing about the gaps between schools, and do both before November 3rd. Five school board seats are on the ballot, and we should know the criteria before we vote. And lastly, I invite you to come experience Abbott. I will set it up.

Thank you. That concludes public commentary.

We appreciate hearing from our community. We would like to thank everyone who spoke and shared their comments tonight. Ms. Linden, are there any points of clarification?

I do have a point of clarification, and I'd like to thank everyone for coming out to speak to us this evening. Regarding concerns about policy 5011, I want to share the actions the district is taking right now to ensure protection of our students. And while the response from the SPPO is in process, We are working diligently to clarify those primary concerns regarding the language around permitted. What you're seeing on screen is one of the slides, part of our training for our entire team. They are receiving specific direction regarding this element of the policy, which is our purview at the district. The slide demonstrates very clear direction to our teams to protect our students. And as one of our speakers said, to ensure we are treating their information with care. so in the staff directive it reads FERPA permitting a disclosure is not the same as policy fifty eleven authorizing you to make it outside of a genuine emergency or an actual parent records request you may not decide on your own to volunteer a student's transgender status to a parent even if you believe the law would allow it Before any such discretionary disclosure, you must consult your building administrator and that consultation must be documented. Permitted by law is a legal question, not a staff level judgment call. This training will be given to our teams and we will work diligently to ensure our students' information is protected. We do appreciate everything that was shared this evening.

Thank you very much, Ms. Landon. I believe that brings it down to number four, community feedback. Trustees, I'd like to call your attention to the community feedback.

I apologize. One more time? Yes, I'm so sorry. No problem. Assistant Superintendent Lankford has clarifications as well. I apologize.

Sorry, I was trying to get your attention. So just wanted to clarify a couple of things in the comments, in the public commentary. One of the things that was stated is that health care does not continue through the summer for our teachers if they let us know of their resignation at the end of the year. That is, in fact, not true. And we have communicated that to staff and to the union as well. So if someone resigns June 30th, their health care continues through the summer. So there's no reason for anyone to wait until August 1st to submit their resignation if they know ahead of time. Despite that, we do receive late resignations. I think someone spoke about a resignation or a posting going up August 7th. As soon as we get a resignation in, we post the position. So if someone resigns August 6th, as quick as I can get it up is August 7th. In regard to waiting until the last minute, our administrators interview all summer. They start early and Melita and Roberta are on those teams with our administrators. We do team interviews. to fill any positions that we know are open at that time, and we hire those people at that time. So I just wanted to state that we don't wait until the end. There was a comment about layoffs and kind of why we are where we are now. Everyone that we laid off, I know most of you were on the board, was called back, anyone who remained on the list. And then I just wanted to briefly talk about the hiring process because I've heard a little bit about that. Our first priority is the safety of our students and our staff. So the hiring process is that we will get people through a new hire orientation. We will do all of those things, but no one will start in our buildings until a background check is complete. That could sometimes take up to two weeks. The reason for that is one, the ISD who does our background checks as well as the sheriff's office are backed up. So getting an appointment has been difficult for people to get an appointment within a week or so, and then we have to wait for the results. if we have a staff member who is having their prints sent from another district we are at the mercy of the other district to send us those prints so there is sometimes a two-week notice in the meantime we do have people in new hire orientation getting them all ready so as soon as those prints are cleared we're able to put them in a building but again we will not jeopardize the state safety of our staff and students by putting them in there any other time um I think that is all of my clarifications.

Thank you.

Ms. Linda.

Thank you, Ms. Langford. Appreciate that. I do also want to clarify, there were some comments made about an observer article where a list of schools was shared. I would like the community to know there is no credible list of schools. No decisions have been made despite what has been published in any article. It's not a credible district source. There are plans to engage with our community and to share data as soon as those are available.

Feel free to email me. Glad to talk to you. We do not respond to public commentary. Thank you. We are now at the community feedback section. Trustees, I'd like to call your attention to the community feedback for this evening's meeting. That brings us down to reports of association. Yes.

I can't hear. Yeah.

Later. started a letter and there's a PDF. Will we get that PDF? Okay, I'm sorry. Under the community feedback, we have a list of those who provided community feedback. The last person, it looks like she submitted a PDF. I couldn't, it didn't link for me. So, Mrs., if you could send that to us under a different email, I'd appreciate it. I just didn't want her comments to go unrecognized. Thank you so much.

Thank you. And I believe that brings us down to reports of association.

Ms. Olszewski, do we have a representative here from AAEA? Yes, I see Mr. Klein right there.

Okay.

Awesome. Good evening, trustees. Sitting in for Superintendent Parks, Don Linden, Ann Arbor Public Schools community, AAEA members and allies, thank you for being here tonight. I want to start by giving some thanks to MEA and NEA and our own AAEA members for coordinating a special guest who came to address our members in the parking lot before we started tonight. And that is our brand new NEA president, Princess Moss. She came and addressed our members, showed solidarity for our struggle, and it was great to have her along with the fiery, ever fiery Debbie Dingell, and then some of our candidates for board, as well as our MEA vice president, Bob Callender. So I want to thank everybody for participating in that. I want to thank our public commentators for coming up tonight and having the courage to address the board. Thank you. My name is Fred Klein, and I'm the president of the AAEA, and I'm here to give the report from the AAEA tonight. So as you know, The AAEA tentative agreement has now been ratified by the membership. We respect the outcome of that vote and recognize the importance of reaching an agreement that provides stability for our educators, our students, and the Ann Arbor Public Schools community. I want to thank our AAEA bargaining team for the countless hours spent preparing and bargaining for our successor agreement over this last year. They deserve more thanks and appreciation than I can put into words. But I'll say them, thank you. We also owe our gratitude for the work of our crisis and our action teams, both devoted to supporting the bargaining team on this arduous journey. They have done a tremendous job organizing, and the level of member engagement has never been higher than it is right now in this moment. Thank you. At the same time, it's important to understand that ratification does not mean that every AAEA member was satisfied with the agreement or believed that it went far enough. our members members held a wide range of views about the tentative agreement and some voted against ratification because they believe the agreement did not adequately address the longer-term concerns facing AAPS educators that distinction matters at the same time it is important to understand that ratification does not mean that every oh sorry repeating myself our members participated in a democratic ratification process expressed their views through their votes and ultimately did approve this agreement. As a union, we will honor that decision, but we should not interpret the result as an indication that the concerns that we have brought to the bargaining table have disappeared. The ratification of this agreement represents progress. However, it is important to recognize that this is a short-term agreement ending in December of 2027. While the agreement addresses some immediate concerns, it does not resolve the longer-term challenges facing AAPS. For AAEA, the next phase must focus on building a sustainable future for our educators and our students. Retaining our educators must be a priority. Since June, AAEA has become increasingly concerned about the number of educators leaving AAPS for positions in other districts or choosing to retire earlier than they had planned. At this point, we are aware of at least 107 AAEA members who have made the decision to resign or retire since the school year ended in June. We continue to hear about additional educators making similar decisions. These are more than numbers on a spreadsheet. Every educator who leaves AAPS takes with them years of experience, institutional knowledge, relationships with students and families, and a commitment to the Ann Arbor community. Replacing experienced educators is not simply a matter of filling a vacant position. It can take years to develop the knowledge, the relationships, and expertise that experienced educators bring to school. We recognize that educators make decisions about their careers for many different reasons, and no single explanation accounts for every departure. However, when an unusually large number of educators leave an organization within a relatively short time, it warrants serious attention. The question we should all be asking is, what can the Ann Arbor Public Schools do to make this a district where talented educators want to build their careers and remain for the long term? I think we know that the answer to that is compensation and working conditions. AAEA has spent considerable time at the bargaining table discussing compensation, healthcare, workload, and other working conditions. These issues are not simply contractual matters. They directly affect the district's ability to recruit and retain high quality educators. AAPS competes for educators with surrounding school districts. When neighboring districts can offer more competitive compensation and or working conditions, AAPS risks losing experienced educators to those districts. That ultimately impacts students. Students benefit when they have experienced teachers who know their schools, their communities, and their families. They benefit from stability and continuity. They benefit when districts are able to attract talented educators and keep them for a long term. For that reason, investing in educators should be viewed as an investment in students. The current agreement provides a period of stability through December, 2027. We believe that time should be used constructively. AAPS should begin developing a long-term plan for investing in educators. The plan that should include competitive compensation, affordable, high-quality healthcare benefits, adequate planning time, manageable class sizes and workload demands, and respect for educators' professional expertise and contributions. We believe that the success of the Ann Arbor Public Schools depends on a strong partnership among the district, its employees, families, and the broader community. We should celebrate the fact that an agreement has been reached. We should also recognize that a ratified agreement is not the same thing as a resolution of every concern held by our members. The 2027 expiration date will arrive quickly. The work of building a sustainable school district needs to begin now. Our community expects Ann Arbor to provide an excellent education for every student. Achieving that goal requires talented educators who are supported, respected, and able to make a career in Ann Arbor. Our students deserve the best educators. Our educators deserve to be valued, and AAPS needs a long-term plan that reflects both. We are committed to continuing this conversation and working towards an Ann Arbor Public Schools where educators want to begin their careers, build their careers, and remain for the long term. Thank you.

Ms. Olszewska, do we have anyone here from AAEAP?

I have no one here for AAEAP.

I believe that brings us down to community group reports. Ms. Osinski, do we have any groups signed up for this evening? I have no group reports. I believe that brings us down to board committee reports, and the governance committee did meet on September 3rd. It was a very brief meeting where we discussed the agenda for, I believe, this meeting and our next meeting. Also had some conversation around cell phones that we're going to continue to look into and do some research on. That's essentially all that we discussed during that meeting, but we did take up Trustee Norton's cell phone concern. Any questions? Okay. That brings us down to information number eight, the superintendent's update, and I will turn it over to Ms. Linden and ask her for her update, please.

Thank you very much, trustees. It is my pleasure to share the superintendent's update on behalf of Superintendent Parks this evening. Lots of good news to share. This Friday is Patriot Day, a national day of service and remembrance to honor the nearly 3,000 Americans who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. We take time at this moment to honor the heroism of the firefighters, police officers, and first responders who portrayed extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice. During the month of September, we honor and make awareness around suicide prevention. We remind our AAPS community of the important role we can all play in preventing suicide. We know that working together to reduce stigma, recognize warning signs and be aware can make a big difference in keeping our students safe we encourage our community to visit the aaps suicide prevention page on our website and see critical information and resources for youth suicide prevention our aaps partners with care solace year-round to provide free confidential mental health and substance abuse care coordination for students staff and their family members and we encourage folks to take advantage of that September 15th is National IT Professionals Day, honoring the IT professionals who do the critical work to keep our networks and applications running and secure. We are blessed in the district to have a stellar team, and every day these team members are called upon to resolve many technical challenges so that we can all do our important work in supporting our students and staff. We want to thank our fantastic ITD team for their expertise in managing and maintaining the essential systems and applications powering all of our digital experiences and connections. The Ann Arbor Public Schools congratulates 44 students who've been named semifinalists in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program. This year, the Ann Arbor Public Schools accounts for over 8% of the approximately 535 students in Michigan selected for this honor. To become a finalist, a semifinalist and his or her high school must submit a detailed scholarship application. They have to provide information about the academic records of the semifinalists, their participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment and honors and awards received. A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official. They must write an essay and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test. We will share the names of all 44 2027 semifinalists within the Ann Arbor Public Schools Weekly Update this Friday. Congratulations. The Michigan Department of Education opened the nomination window for 2027-2028 Michigan Teacher of the Year this past spring. That nomination window remains open until Wednesday, September 23rd at 1159 p.m. MDE welcomes nominations that come from students, parents, guardians, caregivers, coworkers, and school community members, and any individual wishing to nominate a teacher for this recognition are asked to complete an online form. For more information, we encourage folks to visit Michigan Teacher of the Year the webpage, and please contact the Office of Educator Excellence with any questions they may have. Folks, this is your way to show appreciation to our extraordinary teachers for their dedication and service to our students. Regarding enrollment, our entire enrollment team has been busy throughout the summer working diligently to ensure that our in-district transfer schools of choice and all of our new students enrollments are processed promptly and with a welcoming experience for each of our families. We wish to thank that team as well as our incredible school teams and office professionals who've been reaching out every day to our enrolled families seeking their attendance in our schools. Our daily positive attendance counts continue to grow, and preliminary enrollment trends are showing numbers similar to last year. We look forward to sharing numbers with you very soon, and as always, our official enrollment count does begin on October 7th and continues for 30 calendar days. Let's talk about transportation. All of our buses are up and running, and as usual during the first weeks of school, routes are being adjusted based on our ridership. Currently, we have nine preschool routes, 27 special education routes, 71 general education routes, and 18 cab service routes that primarily serve special education and McKinney-Vento programs. AAPS also offers space available to families who participate in in-district and schools of choice on a space available basis. This allows them to ride an existing bus route to a school, but parents are responsible to get them to that bus stop. We will notify families who've applied for those spaces after the first count day in early October if their application has been approved. As of now, we've received close to 300 applications for those spaces. With regard to food service, breakfast and lunch service is on the rise. Based on secondary meal counts and reporting from several elementary schools, we're happy to share that lunch participation is up significantly compared to last year. For example, King School served approximately 85% of students their lunch this past Thursday on September 2nd. They set an all-time elementary meal count record. Huron also set an all-time secondary record, while Pioneer and Skyline are all running well above last year's average participation. Operationally, this has been our strongest start to the school year so far. We want to thank all of our teams at Chartwells, all of our school service support folks, because we are operating at full staffing capacity with no reductions to our menus or service. Thank you to Liz Margolis for supporting that group. We are grateful that the breakfast and lunch program is free again this year. And we wanna stress to our families that it's critical that all families fill out the education benefits form or the EBF. These forms are really important. They're available in multiple languages. They can also rely on our ESL teachers and translators for help with filling out these forms. Because based on the information, students may qualify for important programs like summer food, pay-to-play support, household support such as cable or internet. And you may think you don't qualify, but chances are you may. So we encourage everyone to fill it out. These EBF forms do help us with our counts and they support grant dollars that also allow us to provide instructional staff, teaching supplies and materials. These grants provide funding for our counselors and our social workers as well. School nurses are in that group. Any professional learning connected to support for our students may be eligible. And of course, any of our family engagement programs. are primarily funded by grants that are tied to these forms. So we ask that our community please take time to complete them. Regarding school safety, we want to thank our school leadership teams and our entire building staffs for their quick response last Thursday during the tornado warning. Students were on buses and buses either pulled over or got to the nearest school to shelter in place. It was a really important and safe response. We also appreciate the welcome and care many of our schools gave to our students, including Emerson, for generously allowing two busloads of our students and their drivers to shelter in their schools. The team is currently debriefing and evaluating our response as we do any emergency response. We are continuously seeking ways to improve our protocols and responses, and we will do so for this event as well. We're excited tonight to hear an update from our community division, but I will just share how grateful we are to have received hundreds of donated school supplies from the following organizations this year. Rapport Restaurant, NSK Corporation, and the County Stuff the Bus program. These school supplies will support our students' academic success at Haisley and Lakewood Elementary Schools this year. Those donations included hundreds of binders, backpacks, writing utensils, glue, erasers, paper, markers, crayons, pencils, and more. Thank you to all of our generous donors and all of the volunteers who came to help sort those supplies. Your efforts make a big difference for our students. also from our community division. Through the partnership with Stuff the Bus, AAPS received hundreds of school supplies from that group that will support student academic success. Oh wait, that's a repeat. Okay, moving on. This is a long report, I apologize. It's all good news, so we're gonna skip that. In strategic planning, we are seeking continued efforts to get our community input in the development of our strategic plan. The community voice survey has been reopened as communicated to families, students and staff last Friday. We really want to see our families and our community members providing us with their priorities. So we encourage you to please complete that. This summer, we launched the Community Voice Survey as part of our strategic planning process. It will provide us with a roadmap to shape how we invest in our programs, our resources, and our supports for every student and staff member in our district moving forward. It's a really big deal. We know summer can be busy. We know the fall is busier. But if you hadn't had a chance to complete it yet, we very much want to hear from you. your experience in aaps matters whether things are going well or whether you see room for improvement your perspective belongs in the plan and it's not too late to share it the survey takes about 15 minutes to complete it's open to all members of the aaps community that students staff parents guardians caregivers and partners your responses are anonymous and the survey does close on september 30th the link to the survey can be found on our website All right, and now the fun end to the superintendent's report. I am pleased to share with you some of the highlights of our dedicated staff and our incredible students leading up to the start of school and in the first several days with our incredible students. We hope you enjoy.

Welcome back to the 2026-2027 school year.

We are so excited to have our students back and families back for what's going to be a wonderful year.

Happy first day. Welcome back everybody. Looking forward to a great year.

Welcome back to the 26-27 school year.

This is so good

We're so excited to have all of our Slauson Golden Bears join us this year. It's going to be an exciting school year. We're looking forward to some new spaces, a new gym at Slauson, and it's going to be a great school year.

Welcome back to Topman, everyone. Happy first day. Welcome back.

Welcome back Tappan Trojans. We're super excited for the school year. We're looking forward to having a great year. Go Trojans!

Hey team, we're excited for an exceptional new school year. Welcome back everyone.

Welcome to the 2026-2027 school year. It's going to be a great year.

Welcome to the 2026-2027 school year.

The plan for today, is anybody excited about lockers? Who wants to get to their lockers and start trying right away? All right, we are going to get to lockers.

Perfect, so Ron, Ron Anderson, follow me.

Happy 2026-27 school year. Ready to make a positive impact.

The classroom. I like playing in the kitchen and drawing at quiet times. The science room.

The classroom.

I like to play with my friend Hayden. Because she's nice. I like her because she's the best teacher right now. She lets me play with the train set. Because she lets me play with the Legos. I like my teacher because she lets us go outside.

Okay. Thank you so much for that great presentation. Does that bring us down to 8.3, Community Division 2026 update? And Ms. Bacalar and Mr. Williams and Ms. Shore will be presenting that, I believe?

That's correct. Welcome to the podium.

Good evening. You hear me? Good evening, trustees, Ms. Linden, community. We are really pleased to present an update from the community division tonight. I'm Jenna Baccalaure, and I know that the slides will be appearing any second. With me tonight are Nancy Shore, Director of Strategic Partnerships, and Sean Williams, Director of Community Education and Recreation. Um, from this point forward, we're just going to say, all right next slide please. So, tonight I will provide a brief overview of the community division, and then really turn it over to Mr. Williams and Ms. Shore to talk about their areas. Next slide please. The community division is united by our audiences and our focus areas. Starting with the circle in the middle of the graphic, students and their families are really the center of our programs and decisions. And staff are also a really important audience. We serve them through ReconEd classes and through the partnerships and volunteers that come into our schools. And finally, we engage the community more broadly to both participate in ReconEd programs and as strategic partners and as resourcers for our schools. Our four focus areas are to prioritize access and equity, offer experiences that promote health, wellbeing, and joy, provide opportunities for lifelong learning, and across everything we do, we are building community in lots of ways. So I won't read the bullet points, but they provide examples of our work in each area. Next slide, please. So, at this point, you might be thinking, where do I find the community division? I've never seen this on the website. Well, that's a good question. Our programs are really embedded in the website where it makes the most sense. So, for example, if you go to a 2 schools dot org to the student and family. Tab you'll find information on student scholarships and community resources and I really have to recognize miss sure for her ongoing work on community resources. She keeps many of these pages all of the pages up to date and it's probably 1 of the most comprehensive resources set of resources in the county. These pages that she keeps up to date along with her monthly community resource newsletter and the trainings that she provides to staff on how to find resources to connect students and families to have really helped countless students and families. Under the Community tab, this is where our community members and community organizations can come and find out what they can do for the school district. They can be a partner, they can volunteer, or they can support students through donations. And finally, you can find Rec and Ed in the departments on A2schools.org, and there are other links too. But I just want to point out that we also have a separate webpage that's AARecEdOnline, and that's our online catalog for all of our lifelong learning programs from early childhood through senior adults. You can learn about programs and register for them through that website. Next slide, please. I'm just gonna kick us off for a second with ReconEd and then turn it over to Mr. Williams. So hopefully you're aware of our motto where community comes together. That's been our motto for decades. And it really reflects our goal to offer programs where everyone from infants through senior adults can come together and learn and grow and form positive relationships. Next slide, please. As you all know, the ReconEd budget is a special revenue fund. It is completely separate from the general fund. We receive no taxpayer money. Our budget is very small compared to the general fund, but we do take great care to be sustainable and for our roughly 30 full-time staff, 45 childcare staff, and hundreds of seasonal or temporary staff. Our revenues come primarily from program fees, but we also obtain business sponsorships, we write grants, we receive donations, and we host fundraisers, mostly in our early childhood department. And our expenses, the majority of them are for personnel. So before I turn it over to Mr. Williams, Director of Rec and Ed, I just want to brag about him a little. Mr. Sorry, they do not know. Okay, Mr. Williams has worked for Rec and Ed for over 25 years. He spent many years as a program supervisor in team sports. And then he moved into facilities and operations management. So he moved into the director role about two years ago with deep knowledge of this department. And he's well-respected for being calm and thoughtful and supportive of staff. Take it away, Mr. Williams. Great.

Thank you.

Can I have the next slide, please? Good evening. So the Rec and Ed department is broken up into these four divisions. Early childhood for birth to five years old, where we have parent-child classes as well as preschool classes and camps. Our before and after care and summer camps division offering before and after school child care during the school year and camps in the summer. Our division for youth and adult enrichment, fitness and yoga classes that we refer to as lifelong learning. And finally, our team sports division for both adult and youth team sports and tennis. Next slide, please. One of the simplest measures of our overall success is participation. We saw an increase in total enrollment for the fifth consecutive year. Now, I do want to provide a little context around that number. Our enrollment totals aren't necessarily unique customers. Many of our participants enroll in multiple activities throughout the year. Additionally, the types of registration can vary from a full school year of childcare or a one-time workshop. Each is counted as a single registration in this graphic. But even with those qualifications, we're very pleased to see that enrollment has continued to grow each year since 2020. That tells us that families and staff continue to see a value in what we're providing, and it gives us a strong foundation to continue to build on. Next slide, please. On this slide, we've broken out the 2025-26 numbers by program area to show how we got to that over 29,000 that was showed on the previous graphic. You can also see the growth trend in the before and after care program on the right. A key factor in this growth is the excellent work that our programming staff does in listening to community wants and offering programs and experiences that align and make them feel welcome. Next slide, please. When I think about the past year, a few themes really stand out to me. Expanding access, building partnerships, and finding creative solutions. I'll start with something that is a great example of expanding access, safety town on the go. Many of you might be familiar with our longstanding Safety Town Summer Camp. It's a program designed for incoming young fives and kindergartners where they learn about fire safety, police and emergency situations, bike safety, and a variety of other tools to help keep them safe. We've been talking internally about whether there was a way to take that program and turn it into some kind of mini roadshow, bringing Safety Town to more students rather than asking families to come to us. And then, as sometimes happens, the timing worked out perfectly because teachers at Pittsfield reached out to us independently about the possibility of bringing Safety Town to their school. So on a beautiful afternoon in April, we brought together the Ann Arbor Police Department, Ann Arbor Fire Department, and Huron Valley Ambulance to provide safety programming to all the young five and kindergarten classes at Pittsfield. The teachers were incredibly appreciative, and it was a great example of what can happen when we take an existing program and think a little differently about how we deliver it. Our hope is to expand Safety Town on the go to additional schools this year and make this free safety education available to even more students. Another area where we were able to expand access was our out of school time grant or OST grant. For the second consecutive year, we were awarded a Michigan OST grant for our summer camp programs. The funding allowed us to provide additional scholarships to families enrolling their children in youth enrichment and sports camps with programs focused in areas such as STEM, health and wellness, physical fitness, career exploration, and 21st century skills. We were also able to directly outreach to the Avalon Public Housing Complex and engage families on-site and enrolled residents in academic enrichment camps, some for the first time. In total, we were able to offer over 35 additional weeks of camp through about $9,000 in fee waivers. That's significant because opportunities like this allow us to expand access while still maintaining our commitment to be a financially self-sufficient department. Grants, sponsorships, and partnerships all play an important role in helping us provide these opportunities without simply passing these costs along to our families. Next slide, please. Another area where we've made some progress is with program and department sponsorship. We've had sponsors for our youth sports programs for many years, but historically, we haven't done a lot of active solicitation beyond having some information on our website for organizations that were interested. We recognize that sponsorships, much like grants, are an important part of our long-term sustainability. So in 2025, we decided to revamp our sponsorship program. We developed a tiered sponsorship structure for our non-sports programs, created clear information about the opportunities available, and began promoting those opportunities through our various marketing channels. As you can see, in 2025-26, we brought in $63,000 in sponsorship revenue, a 33 percent increase from the 2024-25 year. This is thanks to the hard work by our marketing and engagement coordinator, Elise Barely, who has led the way in refreshing the sponsorship program. Our next step is to become more proactive about reaching out to local businesses and organizations and telling them about the opportunities to support recreation in our community. Partnerships were also a really important part of our work this year. One example is our woodworking program. For many years, we've offered very popular woodworking classes primarily for adults, along with some adult and child classes. But when the woodworking lab at Slauson was taken offline during the building renovations this past winter, we suddenly needed to find a new home for these programs. We explored a number of possibilities within the district, but ultimately realized that there wasn't a space that would work well for what we needed. So we decided to look outside the district and found MakerWorks, a local business located near the Ann Arbor airport. MakerWorks allowed us to turn their conference room into our classroom, allowing us to continue offering our hand tool woodworking classes in a really great facility. And there are some additional benefits to the partnership. We pay a very modest room rental fee and MakerWorks provides our instructors with free memberships so they can access the power tools there to prepare materials for their classes. So what started as a problem actually turned into a pretty great community partnership for us. We had a similar situation with our sand volleyball program. When construction started at Slauson on the new gym, we lost access to the sand volleyball courts located nearby. Rather than simply discontinuing those leagues, we looked around the community and found Wolverine Pickleball on Jackson Road. In addition to their pickleball courts, they have outdoor sand volleyball courts, and they were willing to partner with us and welcomed our leagues. That allowed our adult leagues to continue through the summer and early fall, and it provides a really nice social atmosphere for our teams. Both of these examples are reminders for us that sometimes the best solution isn't necessarily relying on another district space. It's looking out into the community and finding an organization that can benefit from working together. So I think our story is really about continuing to grow while being thoughtful about how we grow. We're looking for ways to expand access to programs. We're looking for partnerships that allow us to do the things we couldn't do on our own. We're looking for outside resources through grants and sponsorships, and we're paying closer attention to how we communicate with our community and how we make sure people know about the opportunities available to them. Most importantly, we're continuing to see more families and students participate in our programs. And that's ultimately what this is all about, creating more opportunities for students, families, and the community to connect, learn, stay active, and have fun. We're grateful for the continued support of the school district, our school communities, our community partners, and, of course, our staff who make all of this possible. I'll now turn it back over to Ms. Backlor and talk about what's coming up next this year.

It's a little commercial interruption. So I've left a few things on your desks there that we're excited about. We have over 100 classes for adults. Some of them are still registering, still open, a lot of new content. If you flip onto the page that's orange, you'll see two of our sponsors that Mr. Williams mentioned. And these are some of the ways that we build our business sponsorship program. The other graphics are the front and back of our fall backpack flyer that went out to all elementary students. The best way to stay connected with Rec and Ed is to subscribe to one or both of our newsletters, our Fund Forward for Youth and Families and Rec Connect for Adults, or to follow us on the socials, Facebook or Instagram. So now we are going to turn it over and talk about strategic partnerships. But before we do, I want to introduce miss Nancy shore. She's been with the district for 8 years during that time. She has transformed strategic partnerships into a powerhouse for the district. She's modernized systems, created new trainings for partners and volunteers. built valuable connections between local businesses and organizations and the school district, just to name a few. Because of her, more resources are flowing in to benefit students and families with a focus on families at highest need. I'll let Ms. Shore take it from here.

Okay. Thank you so much for giving me a chance to present on our work today. The goal of AAPS Strategic Partnerships is to make it easier for our schools to connect with the community and for the community to connect with our schools. Our purpose is to increase access to resources, relationships, and opportunities that help our students succeed. The work I do as part of AAPS Strategic Partnerships happens in collaboration with our teaching and learning department, our principals, our social workers, our counselors, and of course, our teachers. Next slide, please. AAPS Strategic Partnerships provides four areas of support for students, teachers and schools. First, we oversee, develop and maintain district level partnerships with community, business and university partners to benefit students and staff. Second, we connect community volunteers to opportunities to work with students at our schools. Volunteers include college students in courses, groups, and programs at the University of Michigan, community members from organizations like the Ann Arbor Rotary, and individual college students and residents with an interest in helping our students. Third, we provide a variety of opportunities for our students, families, and staff to connect with free and low cost resources available in the community. As the community resource landscape is always shifting, we also support our staff with training and resources so they can keep up to date and well informed. Finally, we administer and award scholarships and grants to students and staff. As mentioned before, all of this work is done in partnership with many other AAPS staff, including our district curriculum coordinators, EL director, social workers, counselors, and our McKinney-Vento liaison, who helps our families experiencing homelessness and foster care, and many more. Next slide, please. Now I'd like to share some highlights from this past year. A key part of the work I do is ensuring our student-focused strategic partners, who you can see on this slide, have the resources and training to best support our students. This includes an annual training for our partners, access to our learning management systems with parent consent, connections to schools, and much more. Next slide, please. In 2026, we also hosted a student mental health partnership summit. This summit brought together partners and APS staff who provide mental health services for our students. Ms. Baccalaure played a key role in both developing the content for the summit, as well as inviting our partners to participate. At the summit, Ms. Bacolor presented mental health data and engaged participants in a data dialogue. In groups, participants discussed ways we can better collaborate and made plans for future work that will enhance the mental health of AAPS students. We are excited to continue working with staff and partners on this important issue. Next slide, please. As you may or may not know, LGBTQIA plus youth are at a greater risk of mental health struggles compared to the rest of the population, as you can imagine. Last year, AAPS partnered with the Neutral Zone to offer activities aimed and support that are aimed at supporting the mental health of our LGBTQIA plus students. As part of this partnership, we met with queer AAPS high school students from Community, Huron, Pioneer, Pathways and Skyline, as well as teacher advisors from schools, genders and sexualities alliances or GSA groups. Students and teachers shared their insights on the LGBTQIA plus student experience at AAPS. We learned what's working well and what can be improved regarding the climate for LGBTQIA plus youth at AAPS. We will use the feedback we received to shape protocols and practices at AAPS to continue to make it a supportive and inclusive environment for our LGBTQIA plus youth. Next slide, please. Now I'd like to share an exciting initiative for this year. As I mentioned before, hundreds of individuals regularly volunteer at AAPS every year. They're coming in right now. The goal of our volunteer program is to provide meaningful experiences that benefit student volunteers and teachers. Last year, we did a comprehensive evaluation of our volunteer program to answer the question, what types of volunteer roles and activities result in the most benefit for our students? For our evaluation, we conducted focus groups with literacy and math coaches, met with staff and professors who coordinate volunteers, visited schools to observe volunteers in action, survey teachers and volunteers about their experience, and pulled data from our volunteer management system. From this evaluation, we learned that our mostly college student volunteer base, about 80% of the people that I work with who come into our schools are college students. They're best suited typically for roles that emphasize social engagement, peer interactions, and academic practice. Many of them have been coaches. They really enjoy working with kids. They want to get back to that because most of the time they don't get to hang out with little kids anymore. So they crave that experience. So that's really where that is their sweet spot. And so that is kind of where we're shifting a lot of our roles to focus on those different aspects. And we also created more flexible options because as you can imagine, college students are busy, but our teacher said, we're okay if you can't commit to volunteering every week, can't commit to a three month stint, we still want you. So we really tried to change and adjust some of those roles. And finally, we created more opportunities for individuals during times when they are needed the most, such as during lunch recess, when students could use a little bit more structured social engagement. We are already seeing some success in our new roles, for example, a group of University of Michigan students interested in a future career in education email me recently. Looking for an opportunity to support a school two times a month during lunch recess, I was able to connect them with Mitchell elementary who is looking for this exact kind of support next slide please. I'd like to wrap up this presentation by sharing some of the key monetary impact numbers connected to the different areas we work on as part of AAPS strategic partnerships. You'll find them on the table presented here. And last slide. I also wanted to share some feedback from our staff and partners on the importance of strategic partnerships at AAPS. It's clear that when our staff and our community works together, we can do great things for our students. Thanks so much for giving me a chance to present to you today. I'll now turn it back over to Ms. Bacalor.

Thank you so much for your attention and time this evening. We're available if there are any questions.

President Wilkes?

Yeah. First of all, thank you, Ms. Bacalore, Mr. Williams, and Ms.

Shore for this great presentation.

I just wanted to say that I'm really mostly comments. I just want to say I'm really happy to see that the safety town on the go is being expanded. I think that's whoever came up with that idea, that was brilliant. I remember safety town from back in the day, and I'm just glad that it's going to be more available to folks on the go, which is wonderful so that more children will be able to participate. So that's great. I also wanted to say that I appreciate the fact that the fee waivers are available to our families. I think that that's very important. I'm so glad that we're able to to continue to provide those to our families. On another note, are you constantly looking for partnerships? I guess this is sort of a question for viewers who may be watching. So if there are folks out there who may be interested in trying to figure out how do I partnership with ReconEd or with this community aspect of branch of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, how do I go about connecting as a partner, and if there are also viewers out there who are interested in becoming volunteers, who would they need to get in touch with?

Sure, I will give an answer and then look over at Nancy to see if she wants to say more. So back on slide four, there's a community tab and anyone interested in being a partner really can go to the strategic partnerships link and see the list. The whole list of strategic partners is very long. You guys need to check it out. and see what's available, what we're looking for. And the same thing with volunteers. That's very clearly laid out on that webpage. Anything else you would say?

So we do have a partnership request form that is on that website. And so anybody can fill out that request form and I'll review it and point them in the right direction if there's somebody that they need to talk to. And then for the volunteer section, there's an application. Anybody can fill it out. And then once they clear their background check and do their orientation, then they can see all the opportunities we have, which we get from requests from our teachers. But then I know Reconet also has their own set of volunteer opportunities that is available if people want to be a coach or do something else fun like that, high school volunteering, that kind of thing. Okay, great. All right. Thank you.

Thank you, guys. I look forward to seeing this every year, and every year it gets better and better. So appreciate you. You may have mentioned this, Ms. Bacalar, but we've had this partnership, I'm sorry, the division, if you will, for many, many years. Can you expound on the history and how we kind of got started and how we can afford to continue this? doing the great work? Because again, it's not just our students, it's the broader community that participates.

Sure. The community division came into being around the time of the pandemic when my role changed. And one of the big differences between Rec and Ed and strategic partnerships is that Rec and Ed has its own fund. and this big staff we kind of operate as a non-profit within the school district and strategic partnerships is a staff of one it's nancy and then i we we collaborate we do various projects together but a lot of it she just does herself So we are, but we're very united in our purpose. And I think, honestly, that in the current world, building community is one of the most important things we can do.

And again, you're very successful at it, team. I so appreciate hearing more and more. As Vice President Wilkes mentioned, the fee waivers are very important. No child is left out. Again, taking the safety town on the road just illustrates, again, we're always thinking of new ways to provide our children with greater access to things. So, again, I just wanted to say thank you. I love the pictures of the kids, as always, and keep up the good work.

Thank you.

Trustee Wilkins.

Thanks. I also want to say thank you for all that. And these are really impressive numbers. And I'm curious about the enrollment in particular, the number of engagements, which has gone up each year, even though our student enrollment is going down a little bit each year. And I wonder if you have some insight into what that is. I know it looks like the before and after care has grown quite a bit. Is that one of the factors or what else do you attribute that to? Yeah.

Yes, before and after care is one of the factors for that because we've just continued to try to open more sites, serve more families. But we also have a really creative staff who are looking for trends, talking to participants, doing surveys, trying to find new opportunities. new things that will be interesting to people. And one example of that is we, one of our managers, Holly Klotz, decided to try doing family workshops, like one-time family workshops. Come, have a good time, do some cooking together, learn a dish to make, or woodworking, or a lot of art and baking. So they've been really popular, and it's a great way for a family to just sign up and do a thing together, learn something new. They're very different culturally to the different experiences. So that's just one example.

Do you have any other?

Okay. I'll just leave it there. Thanks.

All right. Well, thank you all so much for the great presentation and for all you do. I believe that brings us down to 8.4, our capital program fall 2026 update. And I guess I'll turn it over to Ms. Linden to tell us who's coming forward.

Thank you very much. We're pleased to welcome Assistant Superintendent Bernie Rice, Director Jason Bing, Project Executive Jason Steinabel, and Project Designer Manager Kevin Stansberry to the podium.

Thank you, Ms. Linden. And thank you, trustees. Good evening. All right, we have a presentation here for you. I'm just going to give a little bit of a preamble and then run you through all of our projects. But I wanted to first really just say that we appreciate this opportunity to share the tremendous scope of work the district and our team tackled over this summer. 24 projects at 14 school facilities in 80 days. which includes weekends and holidays. Those project numbers do not include the five major projects currently under construction. Four new elementary schools, our first since 1977, and one major modernization of a middle school bring our project totals and workload much, much higher. This volume of work, combined with the scale and scope of the efforts, was an extremely challenging endeavor given the constraints around number of working days, persistent supply chain challenges, labor constraints, some wet weather events, and even a Canadian wildfire event that led to some pauses and delays. We've continued addressing critical needs and facility condition assessment items, focusing on improving learning environments, investing in infrastructure stabilization, such as roofing and building exteriors or building envelopes, and furthering the goals established in our environmental sustainability framework through investments in natural non-toxic flooring improvements, rooftop solar arrays, and electric bus vehicle and charging infrastructure. None of our work would be possible without the collaboration and support of our building administrators, teachers, staff, and students. We're extremely grateful for their participation and ability to adapt to environments that at times can be significantly disrupted in order to get to the purpose of our intervention, which is significantly improved buildings and campuses for our students, staff, and school communities. So they assist us when things go perfectly as planned and when things are less than perfect, we're grateful for all of their efforts and continue to consider them important members of our team. So many thanks to our manager of construction projects, Mo Nagpal, our owner's representative, Gilbane Building Company, who all work extremely hard hand in hand with our architects and engineers, our construction managers, and all of our trade contractors and consultants, as well as our regulatory agencies to successfully implement each project. We appreciate the consistent leadership from Mr. Bernie Rice and efforts of the physical properties team and the support of Superintendent Parks and this board in authorizing these projects to continue to support the emphasis on healthy, efficient learning environments for our students and staff. And lastly, just want to thank the community for supporting the renewal of the sinking fund, as this is an absolutely crucial source of capital improvement funds and will allow us to continue investing in learning environments that support our students and staff for many more summers to come now. So we have some show and tell finally, sorry, and I'll run through a very high level overview of improvements we were making this summer. So we'll start with our Angel Elementary, roofing updates and repairs, pretty simple but complicated work. At Ann Arbor Open, we did masonry restoration work, repairing one of our century buildings exteriors. At Clegg and New Logan Campus, the team continued to site work improvements, including sidewalks, drives, and site lighting. Some stormwater improvements as well. At Community, the team wrapped up efforts on a green roof installation in the courtyard, improving the energy performance and durability of the lower level roof. reducing heat island effect and adding a visual amenity for three floors of classrooms. The team also wrapped up an installation of natural non-toxic flooring projects and flooring restoration projects so that this becomes a no wax facility. Community is also one of our century old buildings. At Eberwhite, masonry efforts restored one of our older elementaries in the district At Forsyth, our team was very busy expanding the rooftop solar array, removing the deteriorated greenhouse, and replacing with an outdoor project terrace, performing exterior wall rehabilitation, and began work on an expansive soffit improvement project to be completed before the cold weather season begins. At Freeman, the team continued working on our commitments outlined in the environmental sustainability framework, repurposing the old basketball court for use as an outdoor learning environment that generates clean energy, supports healthy campuses, and our commitment to environmental education. The greenhouse project here will serve to support student-driven native planting projects and educational opportunities. At Huron High, a comprehensive emergency notification and paging clock system was installed throughout, as well as some natatorium audio-visual improvements. In the Network Operations Center, we energized in partnership with our hardworking team in ITD, removing that critical infrastructure from the Ballas Administration Building. At Pioneer, also a comprehensive emergency notification and paging and clock system was installed throughout, and the solar array expansion is in progress. At Scarlett, roofing and solar improvements are wrapping up. Investments in non-toxic natural flooring will make this another no-wax zone in the district portfolio. The Scarlett Drive was reorganized to align with Fernwood Drive this summer, which will allow the team to prepare for the new entry drive and traffic pattern for new years. Mitchell Elementary 27. This is also intended to improve overall traffic flow along Lorain. At Dicken, the team continues to make progress at New Dicken Elementary with CLT decking progress and some playground updates that will carry over into the new campus design. At Logan, the team is busy enclosing the building and working on interior infrastructure. At Mitchell, the team is already adding exterior paneling and preparing for full enclosure. At Slauson Middle School, the team is working on completing phase one with the new gym anticipated to open later this fall and has isolated the phase two work from students and staff to create a safe and comfortable experience. At Thurston, the team continues to work hard to prepare remaining sections of the building and work on enclosures for the winter. And finally, looking ahead, the team is getting ready for Skyline and Pioneer elevator improvements in calendar year 2027 and looking to continue bringing forward critical needs, identified facility condition assessment improvements, and more as we work on updated plans alongside our finance team and leadership with the community support of the sinking fund and 2019 bond funds. And with that, say thank you and happy to answer any questions on the work we're doing. Thank you all for that presentation.

Any questions, trustees? Looks like you all have been very busy. Thank you for everything you're doing, and we appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Good night.

I believe that brings us down to first briefing for the MASB voting delegates and alternate selection, and it looks like Ms. Ozenski may be presenting them for us.

Well, just calling your attention to the board selection of voting delegates and alternates for the delegates assembly, which is October 15th at 7 p.m. at the Lansing Center. There's no cost to attend the delegates assembly. Every year the board selects four voting delegates and four alternates. And typically school districts will just put everybody on the board on the list and whoever can go can go. And at least, you know, perhaps one person could go and vote on that date. So this is just a first briefing, just to let you know that's going to be on second briefing for approval. On the 16th, it does have to be submitted to the MASB portal by October 1st. And that is something that I would do for you.

All right. Thank you so much, Ms. Ozenski. I believe that brings us down to second briefing. Sorry to have you guys come right back, huh? It looks like we're second briefing under AN2289, Slauson Renovation, Electrical Trades Rebid. Were there any updates? No updates. Any questions, trustees? All right, seeing none. That moves us down to AN2290, New Thurston Required Water Main Infrastructure Modification. Were there any changes? No changes. Any questions, trustees? Seeing none, I believe that brings it down to the consent agenda. We are now at the consent agenda. Ms. Olszewski, will you please read the consent agenda?

Approve AN-2289, Slauson Renovation Electrical Trades Rebid. Approve AN-2290, New Thurston Required Water Main Infrastructure Modifications. approve the donations. From Lisa Granger, we received a portable vocal isolation booth for district-wide student use. From the Thrasher Family Fund, we received $2,000 that was donated to Lawton Elementary. And from the Morgan Wallen Foundation, we received instruments and accessories valued over $30,000 to Scarlett Middle School. approving the minutes of the August 26th, 2026 regular meeting, and approve minutes of the August 26th, 2026 closed session, and approve a closed session for the purposes of attorney-client privilege and negotiations on September 16th at 6 p.m.

Thank you, Ms. Ozenski. Would anyone like to remove an item from the consent agenda? Seeing none. Do I have a motion for the consent agenda? So moved. Moved by Trustee Baskett. Second. Support by Vice President Wilkes. Any discussion, trustees?

Seeing none.

Ms. Sosinski, please.

Trustee Baskett. Yes. President Feaster. Yes. Trustee Muhammad. Yes. Trustee Norton.

Yes.

Trustee Wilkins. Yes. Vice President Wilkes. Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you very much. That brings us down to board action. That's approved the AFSCME TSP tentative agreement. I guess we need our assistant superintendent, Ms. Langford, to come forward, please.

All right. Good evening again. So I am pleased to bring before you this evening three contracts for approval. I will start. I know you have these in your packets. I will just give a summary of what we have here. So for Ask Me TSP, that is our tech group. We have ratified, well, they have ratified a three-year deal. The first year is a 2% increase. That is for 25-26. So that is this previous year. So they will receive retro back to July 1st of 2025 of 2%. The second year is 1.5% for 26-27, and then 2% for 27-28. And then in 28-29, we would have a wage re-opener. Any questions on that one? Or I'll just go to the next one. All right. Our next one is our para group, and we are proud to announce that we have also reached a three-year deal with them. 25-26, one of the things that we are doing is we're moving those Group 3 employees who were our lowest paid employees up to Group 2, so they will receive an increase. by moving up to that group. That group is also receiving a 1.5% increase for 25-26. Same thing applies. This will be retro to July 1st of 2025. For year 26-27, a 1.5% increase. For year 27-28, a 1.5% increase. And I just wanted to note that this also includes our school-age child care staff. They are part of that contract.

Any questions on that one?

All right. And finally, we have our teachers, our AAEA members. For 25-26, 1.5%, again, retro to July 1st of 2025, so they'll receive the retro payment. For 2026-2027, we have a 1.5% increase to steps 3 to 11. And then there's a new step 12 to be added, which will be 4% higher than step 11. And that will actually not kick in until mid-year, so January 1st of 2027. Just wanna repeat that again so everyone gets it. So it's a one and a half increase for everyone on steps three to 11. The new step 12 will be added and it'll be 4% higher than the step 11 and that will happen January 1st of 2027. So a little delay there in those funds. The other two things I did wanna point out is that the district's annual contribution for medical insurance will increase by 5%. and that their cash-in-lieu increased to $5,000 from $4,000. Those are the highlights of those three.

Let me ask the first big question. Can we afford all of these and maintain our above 5%? I just want to say that on the record.

I am looking at our CFO, and he said yes.

Okay. Thank you very much. Trustee Muhammad? Thank you.

So for the insurance, how much would that mean with the increase in 5%? How much are we covering in general for their insurance?

So right now we cover, I think it's 15,000. We pay 15,000, I want to say 594, but don't quote me, even though I have these numbers in my head, towards their insurance. So that 15,594 would increase. There'd be 5% more added to that.

What percent of it? I know we're going up by 5%, or is this just 50% for everyone?

You're asking what percent of their insurance we're covering. Right now, I know we're at 72% that we're covering of their insurance. I haven't done what the 5% is going to do. I haven't done that.

Other questions, trustees?

I just wanted to say thank you, team. I know it's been a rough time, but you all have been diligent in the work, and I know it's been trying circumstances, but we're here. So, again, we can all smile, take a breath for a minute, and then we know you have to go back to work in the spring on this, but your work never ends anyway. So, again, wanted to say thank you for bringing this forward.

Thank you. I appreciate that. And I also wanted to just thank the AAEA team because, again, we couldn't have gotten here without their collaboration as well. So both teams and my team. My team was great. And again, couldn't have done it without them.

As President Wilkes.

Thank you. I just want to echo what Trustee Baskett just shared, Ms. Langford. Again, thank you to the team. It's been a long summer. It's been a long few years, actually. But here we are. And again, we will be negotiating again shortly. But again, thank you for all. of the hard work, all the hours, all the, I don't know, sleepless nights. I'm not sure. But again, thank you to the entire team. Mr. Britton, everyone. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Let's do these one at a time, I guess. For 12.1, approve AFSCME TSP Attentive Agreement. Is there a motion to approve?

Moved.

Moved by Trustee Baskett. Is there support? Support by Trustee Norton. Any discussion? Seeing none, Ms. Osinski, please.

Trustee Baskett? Yes. President Feaster?

Yes.

Trustee Muhammad? Yes. Trustee Norton?

Yes.

Trustee Wilkins? Yes. Vice President Wilks? Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you very much. That brings us to 12.2, a motion to approve the AAEAP tentative agreement as presented. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Moved by Trustee Wilkins. Support. Support by Trustee Baskett. Any discussion, trustees? Seeing none, Ms. Olszewski, please.

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

And finally, that brings us to motion to approve AEA tentative agreement as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Moved by Vice President Wilkes, supported by Trustee Baskett. Is there discussion? I will say I'm glad we're here, finally, after 200 and some odd days. I'm glad that we got here after having to go through lengthy negotiations and a lot of back and forth and anger on both sides, I'm sure, trying to get to a resolution. And, you know... Although I don't like how long it took, I know we all worked hard to get here, and I'm glad that we reached a resolution that we can at least deal with for the next year, and hopefully we'll have better negotiations and go smoother after I'm gone. Good luck to you all. All right. Any additional discussion? All right.

Trustee Baskett?

Yes.

President Feaster?

Yes.

Trustee Muhammad? Yes. Trustee Norton? Yes. Trustee Wilkins?

Yes.

Vice President Wilks? Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. All right. That brings us down to items for agenda planning. Do trustees have any items they want added for future agenda planning? Seeing none, that brings us down to items from the board. Do trustees have anything they'd like to share? I have a few things, if you all don't. All right. First thing is, as you all can see, we don't have Trustee Schmidt here. As far as I know, in my three years of being on this board, she has been at pretty much every meeting. She is having some family issues that she is having to tend to. We wish her luck and prayers as she deals with her family issues, and we miss her in her absence. And wish everyone a speedy recovery and wish her safe travels back once she concludes her business. Second thing is I did attend the community session that Trustees Norton, Muhammad, and Wilkins held. We thought it was a good community session. Got to hear from a lot of different people. Got to hear a lot of different opinions and concerns. And I enjoyed hearing that from the community. And I enjoyed hearing my colleagues. My colleagues try to answer those questions and do the best they could to make sure everyone had all the correct information. So thank you all for doing that. In terms of, oh, I attended another community session last night in regards to policy 5011. I thank the community for putting on that session to walk the community through that policy, the changes, and how things transpired. I thought that the moderator or host, Emmy, I can't pronounce her last name, But I thought she did a very nice job. I enjoyed hearing from her and learning some different things and different perspectives from her. And I enjoyed the session. And lastly, there were some yelling and cries for me to address the Ann Arbor Observer article and my quotes in that article. I am glad to address those quotes. If anyone wants to reach me, my email and phone number are public. Please feel free to reach out to me. And that is all that I have. Vice President Wilkes.

Yeah, I would just like to add that additional trustees took part in community conversations over the summer. There were three, to be exact. These robust conversations were held throughout the community, including at Peace Neighborhood, Traverwood Library, and Pittsfield Library. And I do believe that our intent is to try to have more of these conversations I just think it's really important for us to get out, not only in our school buildings. I know someone alluded to that in public comment earlier, to get out into our buildings. Someone said ice cream socials, you name it. But just having a conversation where we're just talking. And I just think that that's really important. And I would say that all of the trustees agree that that's important. So again, our plan is to try to have more of those. So just sort of stay tuned. But again, I just want to say thank you to those folks who did come out to the community conversations that we have had thus far. So thank you.

Anything else, trustees? Trustee Baskett and Trustee Norton?

Again, want to highlight the community conversations and say thank you to Trustee Schmidt's leadership on those. I know in the past when we've had them in previous years, they were not as intense with the follow-up. She took a lot of care to get the contact information of anybody who was interested and sent out the relevant information as it follows up. Again, these conversations are not to defend ourselves in any way, but to explain, to address concerns, as well as to hear from our constituents. I do look forward to participating in future ones, but folks don't have to wait. As President Feaster said, our information is public. I'm always willing to have a conversation, a productive conversation. Some trustees engage more in long emails. That is not my particular style. I'd rather have a conversation and always welcome to have those. So again, Trustee Schmidt is not here to be recognized for her leadership. But again, it took a lot of time, not only in organizing these, but the follow-up as well. So again, wanted to acknowledge her work on that.

Thank you, Trustee Baskin. Trustee Norton?

Well, speaking as one of the people who does write long emails. First off, I want to to address some of the issues around policy 5011. I was one of the trustees who, all acting independently, was looking for advice and counsel about how to repair our relationships with the community, but also how to fix any potential issues with the policy itself. And while we're not able to act quite as I might have expected, I think that what we did here tonight at least should try and make clear the intentions that we have. And I wanted to underline that the question of the future of this policy is not decided tonight and won't be decided for some time, especially since we have not yet even heard from the Department of Education and also I don't know if anyone's here. I personally feel bad that a couple of people that I work with fairly closely had trans children in the district, but I didn't know that. And so I didn't know to reach out and speak to anybody when this thing first came up. And I'm trying to rectify that. The second thing I wanted to bring up actually was just I have been for nine years a board member of the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop. And so I guess one of the last things I can do as a board member is to talk about our end-of-year distribution to PTOs in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. The PTO Thrift Shop's mission is to essentially raise funds and distribute substantially all of its surplus to the PTOs of the Ann Arbor Public Schools District to encourage equal opportunity and equity in educational opportunities and programs, especially considering the financial issues that have plagued the district for some years now. Normally we distribute about $60,000 during the year for in various ways with promotions where schools run those advertisements that you've probably seen on the backs of all your event programs and posters that are outside. And then also we have during the school year, once a week, each school gets 10% of our gross sales on a Saturday. during the year, and that's been pretty productive. We also participated in matching fundraising by the Ann Arbor PTO Council for Title I schools. We distributed $30,000 in that matching program, matching the approximately 30,000 that the PTOC raised. And then finally, we just had final numbers We've been able to do something like this in the previous years, but just recently the board voted to distribute $150,000 to PTOs across the district using a weighted formula that, although it is based on the... enrollment at each school is heavily weighted towards the number of students who are economically disadvantaged, qualify for free and reduced lunch. And that support, I think, makes a substantial difference for a lot of PTOs, especially at the elementary level. And we're very pleased to be able to do that. And we're very pleased to actually have those resources to distribute. So I just wanted to let everyone know that this is something that folks in the community are trying to do and to to encourage you to come and shop at the PTO Thrift Shop and know where your money is going. It's going to the kids in the district. So thank you. Christy Wilkins?

And it's a really good thrift shop. The young kids really, they were like people out of town every weekend because they read about that thrift shop. It's good stuff. I wanted to – I've been able to speak to a number of you one-on-one, and I wanted to issue a personal – I'm speaking not for the board, I'm speaking for me – a personal apology for – Making a decision last two weeks ago based on assumptions that I knew enough to decide what was best for your kids. and I didn't know enough and I don't know enough. So I'm grateful to those of you who have had conversations with me and will continue to help me know more toward that. I'm committed to making it better and to doing better and to building trust between this district and your community, like I talked about, so. I wanted to put that out there.

Okay. Thank you all for your item from the board. Greatly appreciate it. I believe that brings us down to a motion to adjourn. Do I have a motion to adjourn by voice vote?

I move.

Moved by Trustee Baskett. Second. Second by Vice President Wilkes. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say nay. We are adjourned at 927.

Record.