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January 12 AAPS Board of Education Organizational Meeting Notes

January 12 AAPS Board of Education Organizational Meeting Notes

For the month of December, AAPS BOE Meetings are being held via Zoom. The meeting aired on Zoom and on Xfinity Channel 18. The district typically posts the recording split into segments the day after the meeting or Xfinity Channel 18 will often replay it. The agenda for tonight’s meeting is available online.

Note: Our family schedule this year does not make live blogging the meetings easy. This year’s meetings have been more routine than in 2020-2021. So, I will be recording the meetings on Channel 18 and blogging them as my schedule allows on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

I forgot to set the recording for tonight’s meeting until 7:10 so I missed the start of the meeting. Typically this is public commentary, but that is being held after election of board officers.

Organizational Meeting

The purpose of tonight’s meeting is an organizational meeting for the board. They are electing new officers and appointing members to committees. Other business is not occurring at this meeting.

Moment of Silence

After roll call, there was a moment of silence in honor of Mollie Faith Havlick who passed away on December 30, just days after her 16th birthday. Mollie’s parents shared that she was born with Trisomy 13, a chromosomal disorder and defied the odds as many children live less than 10 days and 94% of children with Trisomy 13 do not see their first birthday. She attended Westerman PreSchool & Family Center, Haisley Elementary, Forsythe Middle School, and Pioneer High School.

Election of Officers

President

I missed this section before I started recording .

As reported on BoardDocs:

Motion to approve Trustee Lazarus as President. Motioned by Kelly, Seconded by Johnson. Trustee Lazarus elected by unanimous vote


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Vice President

My recording picked up in the middle of this section.

Querijero: I nominate myself. Seconded by Baskett

Statement from nominees:

Querijero: I think I would do a great job.

Kelly: I feel I have unfinished business as board vice president. We began great work with first ever board evaluation and are halfway through our superintendent’s year. You’ll see dats for final superintendent evaluations have been added to dates. I’m honored to be nominated again and to continue to serve as vice president.

Votes: Kelly – Kelly, Johnson, Lazarus, Gaynor, DuPree, Baskett . Querijero: Querijero.

Trustee Kelly is elected Vice President

Secretary

Lazarus nominates Baskett. Gaynor I nominate myself.

Johnson: Seconds not needed.

Querijero: Second nomination for Baskett.

Johnson: I’ll second nomination for Gaynor.

Gaynor: I was secretary for several years and did a conscientious job. I was voted out when being punished by board. Secretary is not an easy job, but I am willing to take on..

Baskett: Thank you for nomination and support. I’ve been secretary and am honored to continue as secretary.

Votes: Baskett: Kelly DuPree, Baskett, Johnson, Querijero, Lazarus. Gaynor: Gaynor

Trustee Baskett is elected secretary.

Treasurer

Baskett: I nominate Querijero for treasurer. Lazarus seconded (by what Johnson said, but it appeared that Kelly was the one who raised her hand it sounded like her).

Querijero: I think I could do a great job.

Votes: Querijero: Kelly, Baskett, DuPree, Lazarus, Johnson, Querijero. Abstain: Gaynor:

Trustee Querijero elected.

Officer Oath of Office

The Officer Oath of Office was administered by Ms Osinski.

Other Appointments & Assignments

Trustees Johnson and Lazarus switched seats and Trustee Lazarus took over running the meeting.

Parliamentarian

Lazarus: Are there any volunteers?

Johnson: I will volunteer.

Lazarus: I will appoint Trustee Johnson.

Board Committee Assignments

Lazarus: Normally at this point I would assign committee positions. Since I’ve been put in this position tonight, I’d like to meet with each of you on the phone. I know you shared with former President Johnson, so I’d like to review and we’ll post on the website within the next week.

In the meantime, I know there is other business. I’d like everyone to continue in current positions until everything is confirmed.

Gaynor: What is my status on committees I was removed from.

Lazarus: According to the resolution from October, you would be removed by the president. That was done. At this point, everything is still in that position

Administrative Committee Assignments

Lazarus: We will also use the same procedure for Administrative Committee Assignments..

Board Designated Representative Organizations

Ms Osinski read the list of boards that participate in board meetings by Board Policy #1300

Motion to confirm board designated representative organizations as outlined in policy 1300:

  • Ann Arbor Administrators Association (AAAA)
  • Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA)
  • Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Committee for Special Education (AAPAC)
  • Ann Arbor Public Schools Arab American Advisory Group (AAPS AAAG)
  • Ann Arbor Student Board (A2SB)
  • Ann Arbor Youth Gender and Sexuality Alliance (AAYGSA)
  • Asian Pacific Islander South Asian/American (APISA/A)
  • District Wide Black Parent and Student Support Group (DWBPSSG)
  • Parent/Teacher Organization Council (PTOC)

Motion by Johnson. Seconded by Querijero.

Querijero: While we’er talking about it, I know its not the place for it, but I’d love to see these groups take a more active role in the coming year. I do believe there are a few groups I haven’t heard give a report in my year on the board. I understand it’s been a tough year, but I’d like to hear from them.

Baskett: I was going to say basically the same thing. For those having trouble hearing us because I am, I want to repeat. Trustee Querijero is asking the groups to take a more active role this year. I’d like to ask the leaders of each group to confirm contacts with Ms Osinski. As secretary, I will reach out to each group to see if there are any challenges and do a quarterly check-in.

Lazarus: I echo what they both said. We value their opinions, voices, and information.

Motion passed unanimously.

Public Commentary

As is our practice, we do not cover public commentary. There were only 5 comments tonight. None of the speakers were present. All of the comments are available on BoardDocs. Both comments were from doctors expressing concern about student’s mental health.

Clarifications

Swift: I appreciate all that have submitted commentary> I believe we will be addressing all the issues in our communications this week.

Lazarus: I would also like to thank our community for taking the time to share their thoughts with us.

Items for Agenda Planning

Baskett: I’d like to encourage the board to once again schedule time for Regional Alliance for Healthy Schools director to see what’s been done over the last 3 years and looking to future.

Swift: That has been on the table. We’ll reach out to them.

Kelly: As aI mentioned we do have time scheduled for Superintent evaluation. Those have been added to board docs.

Querijero: Quick point of clarification, are those open public meetings? It is the first time Trustee DuPree and I participated.

Kelly: I know you and DuPree both led the MASB training. For public knowledge, certain types of personnel evaluation are not considered open meetings. The evaluation work we do are a closed session, but the outcome and metric are made public after. It’s a mix of the two.

Items from the Board

DuPree: I want to say thank you to students from Ann Arbor Open who wrote us. It was good to see our students were so involved.

Kelly: I want to than AAEA elementary caucus for meeting with Lazarus, Gaynor and I this week. They always bring great feedback from what is happening in classrooms. We have shared challenges and opportunities and I look forward to more communication.

I don’t know if anyone caught it but Michigan Medicine had I don’t know if it was a press conference per say, but a live stream talking about challenges with beds available in pediatric ICU, changes they’re making to policies. Adult patients there is no visitation. While they’re not a governmental agency and can’t make these rules to govern our area, they were clear that they are urging folks to skip restaurants and indoor places unmasked. I can only echo that urgency. We need to treat schools like the priority they are. It’s about 30 minutes long and was sobering.

Baskett: Along with DuPree, I want to thank students who wrote us. I think we each got different students – mental health, active shooter drill and encouraging students to take it seriously. It’s always nice to hear from students and get non-form template letter.

Secondly, I want to ask for public help we attended leadership conference by MASB. One of the speakers was Brandon Fleming who headed Harvard diversity project. He took students from Atlanta and trained in debate to participate in a national debate. A few years ago the league of women voters asked me for names of contacts for our debate teams and it had been a while since I’d heard from them. I was on debate a few years ago and realized we don’t have team. The model he created doesn’t have to be the one we use. I’d like to see what are the barrier, challenges, and opportunities.

Editor note: A quick search shows Skyline has a Speech & Debate Team.

Thank you to those who sent letters, cards, and condolences to my family following the death of my mother on November 26. It was unexpected and even more unexpected was the demonstrations of love and support.

Lazarus: I was also fortunate enough to hear Mr Fleming speak. He was so inspiring he brought me to tears.

Querijero: I’d like to follow up on comments on the letters. They’re fantastic. I know we got a couple in email as well. A shout out to Cedric York the teacher who did this exercise to get young people engaged with their public officials. We also got letters from Pittsfield and Carpenter with the 5th grade as well.

I’d like to echo what Kelly said about behavior outside classes to keep them open. We know the decision to close schools is not easy. We’ve heard many public commentary. I’m wondering and would like other trustees to discuss rising cases, shortage of hospital including ICUs and children’s hospitals. I have strong feelings with rising numbers the district going virtual would be the right thing to do. Just so we can sustain the post-holiday surge in numbers that are still surging. In the interest of safety that is my personal opinion. I believe we are taking more of a risk with numbers surging and not falling in what I see.

Lazarus: Trustees would you like to comment? (no volunteers) Dr Swift would you want to comment.

Swift: I appreciate. Very challenging times. We’re monitoring by the hour. We’ve asked families to have a backup plan. Numbers do change every day. We are prepared to transition to virtual. We appreciate everyone. These cases are very difficult. We will continue hour by hour, day by day to make decisions to keep students and staff safe. Trustee Querijero you know we struggle every day with these choices.


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Adjourn

Motion to adjourn by DuPree. Seconded by Johnson. Adjourned by unanimous voice vote at 7:47p.

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