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?

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

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.

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 matte

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?

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.

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.

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. Olszewska, do we have anyone here from 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.

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

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 pleas

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?

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.

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.

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?

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

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

Thank you very much. That brings us to 12.2, a motion to approve the AAEAP tentative agreement as presented. Is there a motion? Moved by Trustee Wilkins. Support. Support by Trustee Baskett. Any discussion, trustees? Seeing none, Ms. Olszewski, please.

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

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 issu

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

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 Feas

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 deci

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

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? Moved by Trustee Baskett. Second. Second by Vice President Wilkes. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Any opposed say nay. We are adjourned at 927.