Unedited transcript of 9-22-25 Working Group Meeting:

I'd like to call to order the whole area of schools. What session of the Board of Education Monday, September 22nd, at 6 p.m. Uh, first item auditions or changes to the agenda. Nope. Tonight. Public comments, yeah, why? Stephanieville.

I'll be quick tonight. Stephanie Boom 2205 North Point Drive Adon. Um, and I just wanted to read a quick quote. Charlie Kirk, I think, has brought quite an Awakening across our nation and even the world this past few days here. That, um, you can all think about, he said.

If you believe in something, we need to have the courage to fight for those ideas, not run away from them or try and silence them. I'm just asking you all to. Please think hard about conversation and the importance of that, even if we don't like it or we don't agree.

We need to be willing to have conversations with each other, and I'm hoping that you will open that window back up to allow conversation with opposing opinions. Thank you. The next order of business academic achievement. State of assessment data. Yeah, Mr Goff has a report that he's going to if you have a little.

All right, I'm gonna stand up, uh, over here, by the by the computer system, because? All the batteries are dead.

Um, I need to be here writing. I click through the slides. This is my first opportunity to present the student achievement, uh, data to the board, and so I wanted to start, um, with this review of the Strategic action plan. This is kind of the focus that I bring to doing doing this work as I go through looking at our student achievement data.

I want to look at it through this lens of the action steps developed for and approved by the board back in 2024, so. There were six areas of focus for student achievement in this strategic action plan. Uh, the first is that all students will be proficient in math. Second is all students will be proficient in Reading.

Third, all students will report a positive overall well-being at school. Uh, the fourth is, the district will continue to develop PLC professional learning community Concepts through the Learning Systems. Uh, the fifth is the district will continue to develop the multi-tiered systems of support through tiered intervention, and then the sixth action step was to renew and revise the District technology plan to best support the instructional program.

So that action plan was translated into the Michigan School Improvement plan, which is now known as the Michigan integrated continuous Improvement process. This is what we report to the state in terms of what we're doing to improve student performance throughout the district. Our goal is for all students to achieve math or reading proficiency, as well as to report an overall positive state of belonging.

And so, you see, those three goals are posted on various documents and drop districts. Try to make sure everybody's focused on those areas of school Improvement for the district. And we measure those in math and reading. Uh, through the m-step and the College Board assessments, the state required tests that are given in grades 3 through 11, and then the belonging goal is measured through a locally developed survey that we give to grades three through twelve.

And so this is a snapshot of where we were at the end of last year. On that reading goal, you can see the assessments given on the left m-steps, uh, in grades three through seven. And then we pick up the PSAT 8 in grade eight. We use that college board systems, uh, system in grade eight, nine 10 and 11, and so you can see the percentage of students reporting proficient in Reading on the right by grade level, but the district percentage is there, uh, at the bottom left.

We're roughly about 70, um, sorry. 68 percent of our students. Um, proficient in English across the district at the end of last year. This is that same picture in math. So, again, each of the grade levels and the assessments that we use to measure at that grade level, the percent by grade level on the right.

But as a district, we're right around 56 percent proficient in math on that second. Student achievement goal that we set back in 2024. I do want to make note about when we look at these data sets. Like, you can't look at them like, um, you would look at grades on a report card.

Um, you need to bring some understanding about the data and what we're what we're looking at. And so, this is a picture of our junior class performance on the SAT in math. You see, that top bar is our the high school performance. That's the little high school, the second, um, column there.

Is the district, so that includes Unity, High School, and then you see the? Michigan Department of Education. Those are all public schools. I think you're a public school in the state of Michigan. You're required to administer that assessment. If you're non-public, you are not required and so underneath that you see all of the testers in grade 11 in the state of Michigan and then the US and US territories and Global testers.

So, when you look at our math scores, we're about 49 of our students achieving proficiency at grade 11. 48 as a district, and you can see that that's 21 percentage points above. The Michigan Department of Education schools no schools who are required to administer that test. And 20 percentage points above the state overall and roughly, uh, the same up 19 percentage points over the U.S and the um Global cohort.

So generally, our students are performing well when compared against. Um, other cohorts that take the test, but clearly this is a difficult test. You see the same kind of trend when you look at the reading scores. So, again, the top line is Lowell High School. The second line is our district.

You see, the state, um, the state schools that are required All State testers U.S and the global testers. We again are outperforming all of the other cohorts. Uh, at grade 11. But actually, the margin here is less. Our scores are higher, but we're outperforming the other cohorts by about 15 to 17 percentage points.

Um, this is the measure on student belonging. So, this is a survey that we give to all students in the fall of each year now. Um, it's a one item, uh, survey question that we put out to measure our performance on this goal. I feel like I belong in school, strongly disagree on the left, strongly agree on the right.

Last year, when we gave this measure. The average score was 3.89 and about roughly 70 percent of our students reported a four or five, indicating that they feel a positive sense of belonging. In the school environment. So, what are the things that we're doing, uh, to improve in those goal areas in the reading goal we've established?

What's called the reading project to align K5 curriculum primarily at what we would consider tier one and tier two. Tier one is what we do for all students to ensure that they are learning the expected curriculum. Tier two is what we do when students demonstrate that they are struggling with that curriculum.

What do we do in real time as quickly as we can to provide supports to keep them on track. The reading project was established to ensure that we've got good work at both of those areas K-5. We've established a K-12 reading vertical team to ensure that we have alignment across the entire District.

Everybody is focused on the same goal. We're looking at the right data, and we're working to make adjustments each year to ensure progress on that goal. Are we organized into professional learning teams K-12? That's not news, uh, to you. I'm sure you've heard a lot of talk around that, and those professional learning teams have been.

Um, provided support to understand how and encouragement to make sure that they're focused on the four critical questions of a professional learning communities process. What is it? We expect students to be able to know and do. How do we know if they learned that material? What do we do when they demonstrate that they are struggling, and what do we do?

For students who already know it, we have some students who are Advanced, and we want to make sure that we're providing individualized instruction for those students, too. So, we're organized now, across the district into those professional learning teams and focused on those four critical questions, those teams meet at least twice a month, and sometimes they meet more, uh, depending on if we're able to work time in, uh, to the instructional day for them.

We've purchased a research-based curriculum for K5 at tier one that's a tier one resource, uh, the open court reading program. We went through a pilot process, and we're now in the first year full implementation. We provided professional development for all involved staff at the end of last year, and then again at the beginning of this year to make sure that we are implementing that with Fidelity, uh, K5, we've implemented, uh, K5 grade level, uh, problem solving processes where we bring those teams together, and they look at the available student data to determine how we're doing and what we need to do to ensure continuous Improvement.

Those teams meet twice a year when the state assessment data is available to them, so they're going through that initial process right now. And they'll do it again when we get later into the spring. We've developed an integrated and balanced assessment system. I'll talk more about that in just a minute to ensure that we have the evidence that we need to improve student learning, but also to ensure that we're being efficient.

We don't want to spend too much time testing and Gathering data. We want to limit the amount of lost time to instruction, but still get the information that we need. Uh, we have established a K-5 literacy coach to help support teachers with instruction at the classroom level. And we've implemented a K-5 literacy intervention model and established a secondary intervention model.

We have Flex time right now that is currently fully implemented at the high school, and we're working this year, uh, to. Implement something similar at the middle school to provide tier 2 intervention. When students demonstrate that they need additional time and support. I'm not going to go through each of these because you'll see when you look at what we've done in math.

It's very similar. Like, we're taking the same process and applying it to the math goal to ensure that students are getting the help and support that they need to demonstrate Improvement in math. Uh, in terms of the belonging goal, we have reviewed and revised all of our PBIS systems across each building, and we have a district-wide MTS team that monitors that data collects the data and reports it out to ensure that we are responding when students demonstrate.

Struggle in the area of belonging or well-being. We've implemented the district-wide belonging survey so that we're getting a consistent and annual measure on that goal. We participate in the my student voice survey to collect. Formative or Benchmark data. So, the my student voice survey is done in the spring.

It's much more comprehensive than the single, uh? Question that we send out in the fall and then our buildings are able to use that at the beginning of the year when they open up their buildings to look at the information they're getting from students and plan to respond to that in the upcoming year, and so all of our buildings is part of our opening.

PD presented that information to staff, and they did problem solving around the information that they get from that survey. And we've established now a K-12 vertical team to align and support this system. Just like we have in reading and math, so we have those K-12 teams with representation from every building to support each of our school Improvement goals.

In terms of the PLC Concepts, continuing to develop that again, we've organized all staff and professional learning teams. Um, we have provided professional development through the PLC Institute who've sent staff members every year every year for the last several years. This year, we took nine staff members primarily newer staff members to The Institute so they could have that learning experience around the professional learning communities at work process.

We provided all new hires with the sort of how-to manual for plc's learning by doing, and we're going to use that as part of our mentoring program. To guide the induction process of our new staff members, so they understand how that process is to be applied to student learning and the work that they do.

All staff members have been provided with updated PLC training on the opening day, so we refocus the entire district and what it means to be a professional learning community and what it is that we're trying to achieve with that process. Remember that professional learning communities is not a program.

It's the way we function as a district, uh, to keep staff members focused on recurring Cycles of collective inquiry and action research. We need to make sure that we're watching how our students are performing. We're responding to that evidence of student learning, and then we measure whether or not our responses are working.

Are we demonstrating support, uh, and Improvement among students? Are we provided PD to support staff and understanding the process to identify and review essential standards and skills? We want staff to know that essential standards are not something you pick. Like, we review those annually to ensure that we are focused on the right things for students, and we look at it against the evidence of student learning again to ensure that what we're doing is helping and supporting students.

And then we continued to develop understanding around mtss, multi-tiered systems of support, and RTI response to intervention. We want our staff to understand that everything that we do. We take a a three-tier approach. Tier one is the system that we have in place to ensure all students are learning.

Tier two is what we're going to do when students demonstrate that they need additional time and support to learn, and tier three is intensive. Support for students who may be behind and need intensive support to get caught up. Um, in terms of that, uh, final, um, action step. Review and revise the District technology plan.

We established the district technology team last year, with representation from every building, they actually meet virtually each month, uh, to review District technology implementation, and they also provide support to Educators out in the buildings, so we have additional support for technology at the building level. We're continuing, uh, the work of transitioning to the Google workspace in education.

That's the adjustment in our Network support services, and we've restructured the technology department to attach it to the curriculum Department. So there's? More integration and coordination there. The district technology team meets for the first time this year on Wednesday this week, and on the agenda is to review the district technology plan.

And. Revise that document, so I expect that I'll be bringing more information to the board at later board reports. Um, I wanted to take a minute just to. To sort of show the current assessment system. We administer a lot of Assessments in the school world. The goal is to make sure that the system is aligned and efficient so that we're not over testing.

But we are getting the information that we need, and we're meeting all State requirements. On the m-step and the PSAT SAT. Those are state required for accountability, and so we don't have any control over that. We're going to administer those in grades 3 through 11, and the state determines when that's going to occur.

Um, you can see the m-step. We administer the reading and math in grades three through seven. In addition to that, at grade five, we administer the social studies and science test. So, at grade five, they take four, uh, m-step assessments. Um, at grade eight, they received the m-step in science and social studies only because they also take the PSAT, uh, to measure their English and math progress and proficiency.

Um, and the same is true. At grade 11, they take the size of social studies m-step only because they also take SAT. And previously, they took the work keys work Readiness assessment at the 11th grade. This year, the state has switched to the. Um, work Readiness assessment, so there'll be a new work Readiness assessment, but still three tests at the 11th grade for State accountability.

So, these again, we don't have a choice over these. We administer these assessments. Part of our responsibility is to determine how we can use that data as part of our assessment system. We don't just want admission to test for State accountability. We want to try to draw as much information as we can from the assessment to improve student learning outcomes as well.

We also give two Benchmark. Assessments in the district acadians and nwea map acadians is at grades. K5 and then nwea map is first grade through seventh grade. And a little bit. At eighth grade, we still get that assessment at the beginning of the eighth grade year. These are Benchmark assessments, so they're given two to three times a year to see how students are progressing within the year.

And we have more control over these, but they also are accountability measures. We are required to have Benchmark assessments at various grade levels at least twice each year, so we are required to give them, but we get to decide when and we get to decide to a degree. How much are we going to give them just twice, or are we going to give them three times a year?

We give. We give these assessments at some grade levels, uh, three times a year and other grade levels twice a year. And then we also have common formative assessments and common summative assessments. Those are locally developed assessments based on the identified essential content. And so this is an area, um, where we have the district working.

Right now to develop more formal systems. How do we collect the data from the assessments that we're giving at the classroom level and put it into a usable format, so all team members can access it and make decisions about instructional practice and how students are doing. Um, and how we need to adjust our curriculum, so those assessments are in place.

But one of the things we've asked teachers to do this year is make sure that they are aligned that we're giving them a common schedule and that we're able to bring evidence of student learning to our PLT meetings to talk about what's going well. What? Uh, maybe isn't going well and how we can support one another in improving instruction and student emerging outcomes.

And then I've included on here just the perception surveys because. Those are also part of our assessment system to measure that third that third goal. So just, uh, some quick things, I think, to celebrate when you look at our accountability scores K-12. Those scores are strong when compared against all other cohorts.

Our students seem to be performing relatively well compared against, uh, the state and the nation. Uh, we've had some very promising math scores over the last 3 years, especially in math. I think that is related to the implementation of reveal we have in tier one resource that has been in place down there for 3 years, and so we're seeing some significant gains in student growth at the elementary level.

I expect to bring more information about that to the board in upcoming board reports. Um, excellent progress on tier one curriculum across the district. We've developed curriculum Maps, we've aligned curriculum, we have processes for staff to review that annually, and make sure that we're taking care of our tier one curriculum, and we have a tier two intervention Program in place now at Lowell high school and working to get a similar program in place at the secondary level at Lowell Middle School.

Um, next steps for me. There's a lot of work for me to do, but these are just, uh, three quick things that came to mind as I was putting together this report. We still have work to do to continue to develop the PLC process and make sure that our staff understand that this is a recurring cycle of collective inquiring action research.

This doesn't end. Like, it's not work that you finish. Um, you continue to do it because the students change the culture, changes the environment changes, and so we need staff to constantly engage in these recurring Cycles to ensure that we're meeting the needs of our students. But we need to complete the review and realignment of our assessment systems.

I mentioned that in the board report last month, what we're looking at, especially at the elementary level. How to how do we reduce some of the assessment that occurs in the spring when the m-step is required so that we're protecting instructional time, uh, during that part of the school year, and we need to complete the review and revision of the district technology plan.

So, that's a quick picture of our student achievement data from the end of last year. But also, I think a picture for the board of how I intend to approach this and make sure that you are informed about how we're progressing. In these areas that we have identified as action steps and school Improvement goals that we're reporting to the state.

Any questions? Yeah, quick question. Can you go back about six slides to the Strategic action plan steps?

I look at some of these as big, magnificent figures. As one, I'm sorry. And leading indicators, you know, you have early warning indicators. But in some of these, if these are some of the elements that we anticipate doing that will affect those scores, right, right? So if some of them are, I would say, I'd like to see red, yellow, green, and potentially black on these meaning.

Did we? Is it on track? Is it completed? Are there warning signs, or are we in trouble, and that may, because this is really, you know, the intent and purpose of of that goal. So if we're doing these things, we're anticipating that we're going to see better scores and that lagging indicator and even some of those early morning indicators, so I think it'd be helpful for me just to see.

How are we are we on track for what we anticipate each of these areas? Yeah. Yeah, we can do that. Yeah, and then M staff in the PSAT, the statement that they stopped. Do we get granular details so we can see strengths and weaknesses? And if so, do we analyze them?

Um, yes, to both, we can play. We don't get unfortunately with the m-step. Um, we don't get the kind of student level and classroom data that we do with something like the PSA fee or the SAT, but we do get some building level data and even some grade level data.

That we do pull apart and analyze to determine what we can from it. In order to continue to improve, so we're using what we can get out of it, but it's not necessarily here to help us improve. It's just an assessment, it's. It's a measure of student learning outcomes.

So, in terms of Assessments, it's what I would call autopsy, um, not a checkout. Is it the score is much too late to do anything. Yeah, one of the challenges with that at the end. Yeah, so, like, so, we'll get some preliminaries. We have some big picture things, but.

Like the, the more detailed like my questions, specific questions, specific domains like based off your standards that comes to mindset when we assassinator. So typically, we are low insulting system of divvy glazems. We need to bump that up so it can at least get. We might not get kid data, but we can get grade level data and subject data grade level subject and Trend down.

Yeah. I have a question about the the. My student voice on survey. A few years ago, the statistic was that I think there were only about 12 percent of our seniors actually took that. Um, are we doing anything to improve the biggest? I mean, statistically, 12 percent of your graduating class isn't.

Uh, you know, statistic. Relevant. Um, what are we doing to make sure that we've got kids that are actually taking us? Um, I think we've improved communication around the survey as it goes out. I don't have the numbers in the report or in front of me, but our numbers were pretty good last year in terms of.

Getting a reliable sample, so we were. I'll say we're about 60 percent at every grade level, uh. Having completed the survey, but I could provide those to you, uh, the other thing is too. Can we get this in like an email because I couldn't read that stuff right there?

Just because you know, attached to her, I guess. Oh, I've got to actually do our update next week. Absolutely, would be fine. All right. Any other questions?

Next sort of business units, our facilities and operations, and information on the deaf moment approaches. So, I'm going to start this one out with a caveat. We'd like to purchase some more. I don't know when, um, just based off of the budget. And, you know, trying to as science talked about in previous reports.

Just, you know, hang on to our funds right now. In anticipation that we may not see in October, state aid payment. Um, so once we're assured that, you know, funds from the state are going to be in place, you know, we would execute this purchase. It has been a long time since we've purchased.

Lawn equipment. Uh, there may be some sticker shock associated with this one. Um, and so one reason is because of escalating costs, and the other one is that just this is a different type of lower as well, um. If you notice the size of the deck, you know that the lures that we have have a lot of hours on they're falling apart, but it's a 144 inch deck, and so it actually has wings that come down and we'll do a 12 foot section at a time as it's going across our Fields large areas.

Um, the team has demonstrated, you know, they've they've had it to practice and to see how, how it works and? Sounds like it's pretty slick, and so. It would estimate that there would be a large Savings in time. Um, being able to use this the one that sticks in my head was said they did Alto in an hourglass, and so just that crew had an extra hour, you know, for three people to to have that time back, um?

It is. A Consortium priced object. So, or you know, items so that there's only? The one quote. This is the one that that. They liked that of the ones that were tested. There were others that were similar type Concepts, but just for that, for the price and for the reviews and the longevity and the ease of Maintenance.

This was the one that came out on top. You have anything to add to, no key points. Okay. But. You know, just, I guess. We'll be voting on it. I mentioned the price so. Looking at a 67 000, approximately a lot more purchase. So it's, it's in the morning.

We, we've had. Cost of our buses escalate, too. And all of our vehicles. And so, I think we're going to be seeing, you know, in the coming. 24 to 36 months, probably some more Vehicles. It's been a while since we've purchased this type of equipment, but a lot of our District vehicles that we use for maintenance.

Some of our vans and some of those things. So, we're going to be seeing more of these types of purchases and more of these higher costs with those as well. Are you anticipating? Will you want us to vote on this in October, or are we going to? Well, it depends.

And so, what are the greatest? So right, now, what we've said is, say, were any extra purchases were only for emergencies? And so, as we come up on the end of mowing season. Um, you can see the data on this quote was from March. We did get one more season out of our mowers, but that taught us that it's time.

So, we'd like to have this in place for spring. I'm not sure what the lead times are right now with these, but if there is a budget and we're getting an act, we know that we're getting an actual payment. It'll be on October agenda. If not, we'll wait. Till that budget is settles.

Now, um? This is going to be for the entire District, right? So, we're just going to train around. Yep, and it's. So, you know, I saw three driving through town today. This would be one of those three on that trailer. Is this flexible enough with that giant cut that it's still useful in smaller areas?

Or is it just hilarious? I would say to be determined, you know, like, I think, just the, the visibility, the safety, all of those things? Um, the report is that it's, it's maneuverable, and it goes around those areas, but? Primarily would be in the wide open spaces playground practice fields.

We have a lot of a lot of open area that takes a long time to vow. Much of our other equipment is decent. Um. I don't believe that any of it is so. Well, we've got you know our buses, but did they fill up at the bus garage, or did they development?

And some experience. Yeah, okay. Wondering if we were big ticket items? Maybe we look at an inventory? Less similar to our bus purchases just to look at what? A full view of that. Bring us at one of these Workshop meetings, a list of like maintenance on buildings, and like the priority of those was this included.

Because if it wasn't, this would be nice to like slot, yeah in there. Yeah, that would be nice and things like that. Yeah, all those other tools that you know the trailer and Trump kind of pulls this around the bands, those other things, and the transport bands abuse. Yeah, that's a good question.

But they've been in service for a while, and we put a lot of miles on the trail, and so. You know, we currently have. I want to say we have three in service, but I think the idea that would be just to expand that Fleet too, because? Um, just for some of the after school trips that we use.

It has been an efficient. Way to get kids to the to their events, and we use them during the school day as well. Some of the community-based instruction that takes place.

That's, that's the morph.

Yeah, get a couple things. Um, today was day one for doing those school principals game today. Um, there's jury line insurance. So, with the rest of staff, so it was a nice. Thing to see today. Dan Vandermillen is still there. Just seeing how? Um, contract that we built priority moving into the process of the process went very smooth.

Faster than anticipated, but there's still the transitional piece, though. So, I think Dan was there 15 days prior to the higher of Andy, and then we'll just finish off the remain. I'm 15 to help with transition. All the processes that come along the day. So it's actually kind of nice.

Um, secondly, in my office. We're working on just Insurance, getting ready for open enrollment in November. I'm seeing what the increases are. We have two main insurance plans. And we have ASAP from LA Spa. And then Blue Cross Blue Shield product through our West Michigan health insurance pool that we use.

Drivers, non-union, and administrative teams. Um, one really nice thing that was brought at the conference. I was at a few weeks ago with this Blue Cross Blue Shield product, West Michigan health insurance board made up of. Municipality schools all across Michigan and where they started and built. And the products they can match and emulate almost any Mesa product.

Any priority Health product, but they've? Red, Blue, Cross Blue Shield, and Priority Health through this group. Through all these years, we've been members since 2010 or 2011, so it's been quite some time. Um, and we're still members. Only 75 members are below, but there's some groups that are 150 plus, depending on the full.

Like, Lea is a part of it, but what they're doing now because of the big push of priority Health and Corewell. It's opening the doors opportunity. So when you're part of West Michigan health insurance pool at some point, you're not only have an option for that Blue Cross Blue Shield product, which we have all traditional and health savings.

You're also going to have the option if you'd like to lower the increase or lower option. Going to Priority Health, and that doesn't make it really nice. It's similar to, like, the retirement system, you know, and you, you play those factors with. What suits you and your family best and where you might be at different times of the year or where you're going?

It will definitely add options for all of our members in this health insurance. I thought that was a nice. Carry out in with West Michigan Insurance also. They're looking at bringing everybody into the same pool for dental envision at some point. And when more people are in the pool.

It just drives the prices or which makes it nice you're not competing as you're going at Disneyland. So right now, information is coming out, getting ready for open enrollment with our Mesa product. We do have one of the prescription plans and phasing out the end of the year. I remember our calendar, our insurance, and the calendar year.

So, this year we'll end December 30th, and it's January 1, 2026. Um, there is a prescription plan that's phasing out, so I'm having to work with the LEA. Um, to see. What prescription plan is supposedly allow you the one spacing out? And there's Mesa has a ton of opinions, so we're able to to match that as well.

You know, trying to make cost effective. If you do watch the insurance, the reason for increase is or lower caps Across the Nations because of the prescription is driving prices off, so we're trying to find plans that suit our members and cover their needs. Uh, there's been a lot of.

Polling that's been done by the Ali-A. And you know, question asking, and the one nice thing with the prescription plan that's phasing out. It's a smaller group of members, so we are able to really dial in and talk to them individually to see. And as individual, though, you know, what's your prescription?

What do you need and try to help out with that? Make sure. By the planet covers that. Um, and then lastly. You know, we've talked about negotiations all summer long. We're getting close to beginning our informal meeting with the drivers. Let's see Trevor your night, but driver negotiations are this year.

Uh, we won't go into all negotiations and fly for the new year, but we will begin informal meetings in November, and those are just discussions. On things they'd like to see. Language wise in a contract looking at wages. Brings us from the district that led to see to. We're at a three-year.

It's the end of a three-year negotiation bill that we had, so there will be a little bit of touching up some language items. And just changing a few things. So, that is to come.

Thank you. Of Finance. Not much. We haven't really seen any updates on where the stages of their budget process. Uh, like Nate mentioned, we've asked. Close to pause all non-essential spendings. We're only purchasing the things that we really have to have and holding until we start receiving our seeds.

We were told by an mde office that if the state is able to approve a budget by the 10th of October, they could potentially get a very variables, stated payment out to districts, and it would literally just be whatever the foundation allows is. Um, there'll be nothing else included because there will be time to run any other members so.

I'm hopeful that we would at least be able to get that, so we'll see. But again, I don't have any updates on whether after making progress. Uh, that means we also don't have an update on school meals and whether or not those will be free after the 30th. I worked with our food service directors last week to set our.

Um, meals prices, which we haven't had to do for a few years. So, we took a look at those we looked at what the state was recommending. Our prices would go to and just kind of met in the middle. Um, so for K through five, the breakfast price will be a dollar fifty for six through eight.

The price is two dollars. Uh, with lunches, K5 will be 2.75 cents, and then six eight would be three dollars and 25 cents. Those numbers only looks historical figures around this area. Those are pretty much in line with where most districts around us were in 22.3, so we're still pretty low compared to a lot of districts.

And given our unbalance members, we wanted to say on the lower end. But we've hired staff. Who costs have gone way up. And you know, we are sending down. Our departments are responsibility, so we need to be able to still be able to provide that service. So the? Of intense is on October 1st.

If there is not a state budget in place that provides for free School meals for all students, students that do not qualify for pre-reduced meals would have to pay for breakfast and lunch. But students who do qualify for free to reduce lunch but have free meals for breakfast and lunch.

Just a clarification I heard. When you mention the lunch prize there, just say, six, eight, but that would be for 612. I'm sorry. 6, 12. Yes, I wrote six eight on my videos. The next communication is going to. Did you have a lot of people fill out the paperwork?

I know they came out and said, if you're still going to be eligible for free. Reduce. Did we get people see it? He said that he's had way more applications just this past month than he's seen the last few years, so people getting the message they're filling out the forms.

You know, what? Like, what is that? Like, what's our greatest lunch population? Like percentage, like how many students? Well, both the top of your head scare you of anything, but I would take this one. Historically, it's been closer to 30 okay, uh, K-12. Across the district, I would say.

In recent years. If that number is probably closer than 20 percent, and so is that a measure of the number of people who qualify, or the number of people who are turning in applications is the question we just yeah, uncertainty.

In the end because? Our documentation must. That we're getting our students, but just period from families that might been used to not having to pay this expense. And it doesn't seem like a lot right 2007 for for families, and if they don't qualify or they're right on the border of free moving sponge.

Yeah, we have. There's some specific more policy than about that to make sure that happens. And just what that looks like, I mean, um, to make sure that it's a healthy. It's the same meal. It's not something where, like. Get a cheese sandwich over here, you know? Like, it's we'll, we have a great?

Line of communication open with our food service director and department, and we'll make sure that they're getting that. Not being shamed about that. How much of our food comes from local sources? Is that something that can't quantify it, but I know that the prioritize local sources as much as we can?

We're part of a grant program called Simpsons per meal, which the idea is that we get money if we purchase locally grown British Michigan grown produce fruits and vegetables. It is a priority. Yeah, I'll ask. I don't know that. The last time I started tonight. Just in general. Yeah.

I don't know if you saw they did. Farmers markets and elementary schools that was so great. That was a great idea. Well, my kids came home when they're they're, like she starts pulling out of corn. Not every bag, like, what is this?

I'm glad it came out. I am too. They were excited about it, though that was important. They have peaches. They brought them like peaches. We also got corn. It was great, and it was delicious. Yeah, I'm told I wasn't allowed to try it. My daughter ate off of it.

No, that was a great idea. That was a really good idea. I know we had topped in our last Workshop about lining up mining institutions in the event that we have a meeting tomorrow. It's our to get an update on where that's because we meet monthly with our County Group, and so our next meeting is tomorrow afternoon.

And if we do need to borrow? Can we keep track of the interest? Separate from that. Oh, we would have to. I think the other thing just in the next. You know, weaker? Like this? There's not a lot of precedent for a state government shutdown. The most recent one I want to say was 2007-2009 kind of when there was no money, and during the financial crisis.

Um, or, you know, the Great Recession? And so, just what are essential services that will be provided, like, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about, you know, the Department of Treasury, the partition Department of Education you know, are they going to follow those essential services, or are there going to be other areas that get prioritized, and so I think just in terms of what services the state is still going to provide after October 1 if there's not a state budget.

If they settle out a budget on October, you know, September 30, without the governor's signature and still going through that process, there may still be. 10 days where her team is reviewing that budget. And so, you know, we there could be a time where? I guess the point I'm I'm making is.

A lot of uncertainty about what that looks like with that state shuttle. In what services? People depend on, but then sometimes, like, whether it's a state park. Other areas law enforcement. Uncertain.

But but I, I, I guess one thing, too, I guess just to say, like? Um. I heard a rumor last week that that meant that public schools will be closing on October 1st. Our plan is to keep our doors open, and we've got money to do that. We've got plans to keep our doors open, and so.

You know, that that's not part of this conversation?

Could be an interesting fault. Next starter business, uh Communications regarding the posterior? Yeah, so this is a trip, um. And some information provided by Miss, uh, parents. Um. You may remember two summers ago when? They went to Costa Rica and had some travel if she's coming back, but they want to continue to take kids to to have this experience.

In Costa Rica. So, this is, they're asking for approval for the summer of 2027. The idea being far enough out that they can start communicating with families about the cost as well as some fundraising opportunities to have this trip. There's an itinerary included. She mentioned that it's changed a little bit from some of the trips that they've they've done or some of the sites that they've seen in the past.

But it's an 80-day trip. Um. You know, the cost is a little over four thousand dollars. Now, to do that trip, um, and so like to bring this for approval, um, consent agenda, and this one will be at the actual meeting.

That's good. Uh, that sort of business in our board leadership, the superintendent evaluation penalty. Yeah, so just, you know, continuing with, um, this conversation, and this is just kind of an annual process to talk about. Uh, what the evaluation process is, or what that looks like. So, at next month's Workshop, I'll be requesting a closed session to just discuss some of the material that we'll be bringing and some of the data.

Board will have a closed session during the November Workshop to be able to discuss the scores and discuss the rankings with a presentation of the evaluation of the disability so. This September. The the September meeting is just to talk about the process. Nothing. In October, it becomes an unfunded mandate.

Anything else? I would say that the first cool event going on a soccer team right now, so on the soccer team's wearing pink tonight. We are adjourned.