Check out our notes for the January 26 Ann Arbor Public School Board of Education Meeting. The meeting was held in person at the Courtyard Marriott at 3205 Boardwalk, Ann Arbor. 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.
Instead of starting at 7p as normal, tonight’s meeting was scheduled for 7:30p with a closed session beforehand for superintendent evaluation. The meeting broadcast on Channel 18 started at 7:48p with meeting agenda
Note: Our family schedule this year does not make live blogging the meetings easy this year. 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.
Call to Order
Roll Call
Based on who I see and hear in the meeting and who voted on various items
Present: Johnson, Kelly Querijero, Baskett, Lazarus, DuPree, Gaynor,
Other Attendees: Swift, Osinsky,
Agenda
The Agenda is available on Board Docs. This is the approved agenda and will include any updates and results of any votes.
Motion to approve by Johnson. Seconded by Kelly. Approved by
School Board Recognition Month
Swift: January is School Board Recognition month. The full statement can be found on BoardDocs.
Events from our Sponsors
![]() Kindergarten Round Up & Preschool Open HouseSunday, February 23 | ![]() JLC Book SaleMarch 26-29, 2025 |
Public Commentary
As is our practice, we do not cover public commentary. I believe there were 10 comments tonight available in BoardDocs.
Clarifications
We have a significant portion of the superintedent’s update that will cover many of these topics.
I do want to share that KN95s are given by the nurse as students return and they do give them as many as they need for the remanining 5 days and oversee they are being worn.
We have updated on our hiring efforts for childcare and other positions that are posted and I will continue to update. We continue to make every effort to hire healthcare staff. We remain at 17. Those positions are posted and teams are working very hard. With regard to the testing events they are managed by the National Guard. We don’t use staff. The staff that was there on Saturday was my team including me because we were shorthanded. These are salary and not hourly staff. We did not have one hourly staff working. Ms Minnick has taken careful notes and we have full text on public comments.
Lazarus: On behalf of the board thank you for submitting. All comments that were submitted are available online.
Gaynor: About Jordan Else & AASPIRE group, they also sent to us by email so we would have time to process. Especially appreciation for lengthy list of resources.
Board Committee Reports
Bond Committee
Lazarus: Met last Thursday via Zoom (January 20). We had a good discussion about many things. Former trustee Lightfoot would always say that’s where the sausage is made. Later today we’ll be hearing about major summer work and some professional proposals important to keep our projects agile, efficient, and under budget.
We want to encourage the committee to go to our new website to see all the work our team and Dr Swift’s team are doing.
Superintendent Update
Swift: We’ve launched our second semester. Our schools are engaged and participating. All are participating with in school learning. Staff and schools are invested in learning together. I appreciate everyone’s efforts to make this work especially during omicron surge.
It was great to be with AA PTOC this Monday. Ms Margolis presented on in school safety. We’ll include the link tot hat presentation.
I appreciate that they reflect and work on living their theme – welcoming all with respect, compassion and integrity. They’re mobilizing rotating teams to deliver snacks and treats for transportation team.
This afternoon I joined more than 1800 AAPS team members virtually for a 2 hour session with Dr Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz from Columbia Teachers College. We were working on equity in ongoing professional development. We’ve been exploring concept of archaeology of self and focusing on critical humility – capacity to remain open and understanding limitations of our world views and ideologies.
As we look to February, the rhythm of our school year is to start transitions for 2022-2023 school year. We’re working for those and preparing for parent and community engagement with NAAPID. For rising 6th graders, there will be information from middle schools. Middle schools and K-8s are finishing band, orchestra, and choir concert. I’ve missed in person, but it’s nice to have the video presentation to watch anytime. They are using the masks for instruments. It’s great to see that health work going on.
It’s interesting to hear this, high schools are orienting class of 2026. January 31 at Pioneer. we always encourage rising 9th graders to attend as many as they like. We do allow HS to choose campus.
Since we’ve been back from winter break we’ve been keeping close track of student attendance. You hear concern about falling student attendance this year. Over the 15 days with both virtual and in person, our mean attendance has been 89.3% which is very close to a “normal” (2019 & prior January attendance). mean attendance for in schools is 88.9% and 90.6% at virtual. This week I’ve been watching with omicron and winter weather, we’ve been averaging 89.4%. We really appreciate everyone prioritizing and supporting class attendance.
Our SISS team has been working in cooperation with WISD to offer interactive training for staff and administrators for IEP processes. We’ve been averaging about 40 in each of the 5 sessions. The work has been well received. We’re adding 2 more sessions in February.
IB evaluation and reauthorization continues. Completion of reauthroization scheduled for this spring (Mitchell, Scarlett, Huron).
From facilities and operations, during cold weather we use enhanced ventilation to the maximum extent possible. We’re replacing MERV13 filters to keep air ventilation at its best this winter.
We’ll share a transportation update with parents tomorrow. All the suspended routes will resume on Monday, January 31. Thank you for your patience and efforts with carpooling and driving to get through this. Unfortunately, we will need to suspend another set of routes on Monday. As planned we will rotate so folks don’t have it ongoing through this time. We’ll contact those parents directly ahead of next week. Beginning Monday, we will improve from 76/96 to 81/96. Most routes will be running. We will continue to reassign personnel to cover essential routes and build back up to full transportation operations. We’ve observed with continued impact and running 20-25% absence from direct and indirect COVId and other illness impact. We continue recruitment efforts. It has never stopped and we’re amping it up.
I’m asked everyday what steps you’re taking. Continue to mobilize every tool we have available to meet every challenge and maintain our schools for in school learning on any day we can. Day by day monitoring of AAPS COVID data and staffing/student impact. We work around the clock for attendance and move and mobilize to where the need is great. Winter bonus will continue for guest teacher at least through March including Monday/Friday work. We’ll continue to mobilize central team including my team and myself. We will continue with virtual professional development to reduce exposure and continue to schedule essential meetings outside school day. An all hands approach. We don’t think this will stop anytime soon. We’re delighted that all our schools will be in-school.
We’ve completed 11 vaccination events since November. Last night was the biggest vaccine clinic yet and the largest group by far was 12-17 yo getting boosters as well. A shoutout to Ms Bacolor and Ms Margolis to serve our families. Final clinic is February 1 at Pioneer.
We recently received shipments of testkits. We are focused on meeting needs of famlies with exceptional difficulty accessing tests. Title one families, partners like Peace Neighborhood, CAN, etc. who serve our families. As we get more tests we will share.
A clarification on our COVID school guidance, this has been a process over the last 2 weeks with the unveling of new school guidance. Around a topic brought up in public commentary. After we shared our guidance last Wednesday, we saw a dramatic increase in cases – 177 cases reported last week. Those cases represent just those on campus during infectious period and know that is an underreporting. It became physically impossible to trace lunchtime in every case. There are not enough staff or hours. I appreciate the volunteers, but it involves protected health activity and we can’t give it to a volunteer. It is a huge endeavor. As a result on Friday, we adjusted the language to not overpromise the tracing. Detailed contact tracing in every lunch and snack is not possible. I will note that in the presence of a gropu of cases, that contact tracing does cocur.
On Monday our COVID response leaders met with WCHD. Last week you will recall that WCHD lists lunch and snack as low risk. specifically school nurses will be monitoring and compiling student case data each day to find clusters of cases. Cases whose infectious period overlapped while at school together and look for overlap of where transmission occurred and assess risk to other students in the class. in groups of cases, lunches will be traced.
Timely notification and response from parents is what allows us to do this. If we don’t hear about COVID case until the child returns it is too hard to do the work. Members of our COVID response team will evaluate each situation based on its unique facts and details.
Pioneer Symphony band will perform Friday as the closing instrumental for the 2022 Michigan Music Educators Conference in Grand Rapids. This is a coveted spot on the program. They’ll be joined by special guests with world premieres including Pioneer’s Ms Lillefors tribute to her daughter, a Song for Charlotte. I hope to get a recording for us.
First Briefing
2022-23 Air Conditioning and Lighting Projects – Bach, Clague, Eberwhite, Forsythe, Pittsfield, and Wines
Swift: These items were reviewed by Bond Committee last Thursday. This is another set of significant projects. This is moving us closer to having every school climate controlled which is becoming more necessary with hot days of August and May/June. You have sseveral memos that have been reviewed by bond committee.
Lauzzana (presenting in person): One of the fundamental commitments of the bond campaign is to provide efficient indoor lighting and A/C thermal comfort int he building. Many buildings average 65 years old and are quite uncomfortable in shoulder months. We’ve committed to adding A/C in all facilities in the first years. The middle schools will take until summer 2023, the elementaries are one summer projects.
When we started in fall 2020, 11 buildings with 45% of square footage. This summer we brought 3 more schools on line. By fall 2022, 24 schools or 71%. To 91 %, 30 buildings by Fall 2023. By Fall 2024, all buildings will have AC.
Carpenter, Burns Park, and Angell will be completed after delays with electrical upgrades needed. They are ready to go now. Scarlett and Tappan are in progress. Clague and Forsythe to start this summer. Both are planned for geothermal heating/cooling systems. They are all electric and much more efficient adding less carbon to the atmosphere. Skyline already has a slightly different geothermal system.
Clague Middle School has a simple front entrance. We’re going to improve it to a place to be and not just blank concrete. Seating benches to gather with multiple zones for different groups, circular seating at the center. Similar to upgrades already done at Scarlett. Also adding a canopy over the front door so there’s a sheltered area where people can wait to be buzzed in or to open an umbrella.
At Forsythe, it’s hard to find the front entrance. We’re proposing signage to front entry.
You’ll see lots of bids and recommendations. We are working with a construction and program management gropus. None of those organizations are eligible to bid.
Baskett: To clarify for the community, (her microphone was cutting in and out, but she confirmed to Mr Lauzzana she was asking about timeline)
Lauzzana: Elementary started and completed this summer. Clague and Forstyhe have quite a bit more work and will be started this summer and finish next summer.
DuPree: I learn a lot every time you come. I was going to ask about our responsible contractor and section 9 points out having a fitness for duty program as it relates to drugs and alcohol. Can you give an example of what that means. (Sorry I have several masks on).
Lauzzana: I can’t speak to individual programs each company has. After we have our lowest bid, we have a post bid interview and ask questions about their overall qualifications. At that time they can provide information on training whether around drugs/alcohol, or safety or otehr types. But that would indicate they are a responsible employer.
Swift: I would interject that they are attesting they have a program.
DuPree: I want to understand section 12 that prohibits anyone who was convicted under sex offender registration, but I want to verify it doesn’t prevent us from hiring those that have felonies or have been previously incarcerated.
Lauzzana: As part of our screening, we do the iChat background – a state of Michigan background check which is required for all contractors on AAPS. That an employer hires felons does not disqualify them, but we do have certain requirements since students will be present that prevent certain felony charges that prevent them from working on our projects.
DuPree: What stands out when you are choosing a bid?
Lauzzana: There are a lot of considerations. We’re trying to understand if they can perform in the time we have available. W ask about experience with K-12 schools, tight timelines, how many in different job classifications they’ll put on the job. In addition to responsible contracting, reputation, prior experience.
Lazarus: I would also mention that if you want to talk about responsible contracting policies that we passed 2 years ago. I would be happy to walk through questions with you.
Querijero: What I’m looking for is a copy of the memo on January 10 that has the distributions?
Lazuarus: I don’t see it on Board Docs
Baskett: The committee did see that
(Editors Note: The file is there when I took notes about 2 hours behind.)
Querijero: I did notice with the schools with geothermal, there was only one bid there. Is that all ?
Lauzzaana: There are very few contractors int he whole country that do the work. We do tend to investigate when we only get 1 bid. We generally do an estimate of cost before bidding and the prices were in alignment with our budget. They are highly experienced. They worked at the state capitol in Lansing.
Johnson: Thank you for bringing that up. We talked at length in bond committee about the number of bids that came up. Also want to thank Mr Lauzzana for the photos. We didn’t see those in bond committee. It really helped understand what we’re looking at purchasing.
Swift: I neglected at the outset that we want to pause and thank our community for the ability to bring these projects forward.
Lazarus: I appreciate the drawings. I think that puts a focus on what we’re agreeing to. I want to comment on the spacemaking you’re doing for the Clague committee. That is a pretty stark area now. Kids do hang there in the morning, lunch, and after school. I also want to ask I see the Forsythe middle school sign. What type of materials- 3D, flat letters, lighted?
Lauzzana: The Main entry sign is lighted plastic sign. I don’t know material for the sing. It’s not a sticker either an acrylic or powder coated steel. I can follow up.
Lazarus: The quality brings a quality to the building. And the other question I have is the geothermal field and theres’ a baseball field. Is the field under the baseball field or the outside? I know there’s the cougar trail and they won’t lose access ot the field right?
Lauzzana: It’s in the outfield. We stay away from the infield. We may damage the trail, but we would certainly repair it. The way the system works is you drill down 300-500 feet and tie it in to the whole next to it – but that all happens 3-5 feet underground. There’s nothing sticking out of the ground.
Swift; We’ll have to put a sign up that this will be repaired when done because that trail is so heavily used by the community.
Events from our Sponsors
![]() Kindergarten Round Up & Preschool Open HouseSunday, February 23 | ![]() JLC Book SaleMarch 26-29, 2025 |
AN-2077 Professional Moving Services & AN-2078 Professional Painting Services
Swift: The same introduction applies to both moving and painting. We are pre-qualifying movers and painters and will use them as a go to service for the next 3 years with an optional 2 1 year renewals.
Lauzzana: The intention is to pre-qualify these vendors. They are not guaranteed work and we have no obligation to use them and an use other vendors via bidding if those are the best way to complete work.
For moving, we often need to relocate classrooms or media centers to complete work. The moving companies help us do that. We’ve been working with Premier Locations and also recommend Corrigan. With both, we’re recommending using reusable totes. Int eh pst we worked with Bryant Pattengil and used cardboard boxes which hopefully get recycled, but are not reused. We’re using plastic reusable totes. They stack on a base with wheels and we can move them to where we want to stash them. Then they’r moved back to be unpacked and they get reused.
On the painting side, we have various painting associated with construction work like wall penetrations and other things that make wall surface needing paint. We recommend General Painting of Rochester Hills and Pappas of Holly Michigan to be pre-certified. They would be used for pricing of contracts and works we choose to award tot hem. Generally by having more than 1 we can see who has the better price or is overbooked, we have options. We have tight timelines in the summer. So flexibility is important.
Johnson: One quick comment, you gave a good example that we discussed in committee. In the fee schedules there is different pricing for vendors that were prequalified. In some cases the hourly rate may be higher, they may be able to complete it more quickly. In some cases the overall job might be cheaper if it can be completed more quickly. Again, just trying to bring out the conversation from committee.
Lazarus: Anotehr question that came up in committee I’d like to bring up one of the items in a contract with ABM was painters to do quick work. We would use it sparingly because that comes from general fund vs sinking fund or bond fund.
Lauzzana: The ABM folks who do painting, or light bulb replacement are excellent. But they may not have the access to equipment like lifts, or specialized equipment. A hallway would be easy, but something like a gym would be more difficult for them.. We generally use them for work that can’t go to bond or sinking fund.
AN-2079 Insulation System Replacement: Skyline High School
Swift: I want to open this discussion by reminding ourselves and the community that when we see a problem we fix it. It was a while back that Mr Lauzzana did a report on Skyline insulation on the envelope of the building and discovered there were areas that needed replacement. That is why we are on this topic today.
Lauzzana: Due to repeated issues with thermal comfort at Skyline. This is my 5th year at AAPS, this is a recurring issue. This is the time of year when it is 2 degrees that it is hard to maintain a comfortable temperature at Skyline. We did a thermal investigation and then a forensic investigation once we discovered there were issues. we removed select metal panels to see what was inside. We recommend replacing a significant part of insulation on upper perimeter. It will save about $140k – about 20% of the annual electric cost. There is significant heat leakage.
The media center is not heat leakage that is not windows. Ceiling tile grids indoors show extreme cold. We opened up the building and found numerous instance of poorly installed or totally missing insulation. Photos are available in the powerpoint at this link.
There were 6 bids. Liberty Sheet Metal of Romeo provided the best bid for both bid categories. They are well referred and recently worked with Farmington and Birmingham. The total bid is $2.2 million and recommend a 15% contingency, for a total of $2.5 with fudning fromt he sinking fund.
Gaynor: I want to ask, Skyilne is our most recently constructed building. I’m sure everyone wants to know how this happened, but I won’t. However we are constructing several new schools. How do we make sure this doesn’t happen again?
Swift: I appreciate that and we’ve had good discussion.
Lauzzana: I can’t really speak to what happened 12 years ago. But anecdotally they got behind schedule, over budget, and these things tend to happen. What we have in place with Gilbane and project management group and planning. We will have a building commissioning proposal which is hiring a third party group to evaluate and typically you get them for mechanical and we will also be doing envelope commissioning which looks at design documents, review contractor submittals to make sure proposed materials align with specs, and test envelope as part of construction. Gilbane also does in wall verification and their staff would inspect before the wall is closed up.
Kelly: Thank you trustee Gaynor, that was at the top of my mind. Do we run risks of moisture or letting building breahe when we tinker. witht he envelope?
Lauzzana: It shouldn’t. You are correct that in older buildings especially houses you see people pack with insulation and get condensation and mold growth. We’ve throroughly assessed current condition and design and are making sure that isn’t a concern ehre.
Querijero: I think you might have addressed. I’m guessing there’s no recourse on what turns out to be faulty work. Second question is on the study if there are other locations to improve on it and make even better on the $140K. It’s 20 years to recoup the cost. Is there a way to maximize our savings?
Lauzzana: This is our third mobilization to improve the thermal conditioning. The first thing was their horizontal geothermal and it was expensive. Somewhere out in there we were losing the geo exchange fluid. We went through segments and found a leak in the 5th section and turned off a tiny section. We’ve installed a supplemental boiler. With the geothermal in the winter you pull heat out of the earth and at a certain point you hit 30 and the earth freezes and you get leaks, what is above it shifts, The supplemental boiler lets us not get too cold int he field.
This will make a big improvement in the building comfort. There were certain things that were engineered out. You have hallways or other rooms with full glass. Typical practice is a radiator at the base. All of that was eliminated in the building. It would be a substantial investment to install.
Querijero: Can we ask in the bid if there are other spaces we can add to save more with a similar return? I assume it would have been yiedled int he study you did?
Lauzzana: That’s part of why we have the 15% contingency. Clearly there is substandard work done. We only opened a few areas. Everything we see we will address. We fell its really the third floor where it connects with the roof.
Johnson: Thank you for that explanation. We just looked at geothermal systems at Clague and Forsythe, those are vertical. Are some of the challenges with the Skyline project remedied by a vertical vs horizontal system.
Lauzzana: Yes, a horizontal system is like a slinky pulled out. Those are typically 5′ or more below the earth. Our suspicion is it’s not that deep at Skyline. Going deeper it’s warmer and better protected. In a previous job I had a group put spikes for a tent in the ground and hit a horizontal geothermal. The vertical system you get better temperature in the earth and minimize damage to piping.
Johnson: One of the downside to innovation is the technology progresses and you learn more from early adopters. When Skyline was built it may not have been an option to go vertical.
Lazarus: I want to comment that we had a robust conversation in bond about this. I was very hot and am still a bit hot. This shouldn’t have happened. We’ll fix ti, thank you for doing the investigative work. The question the bond committee asked and we wanted Dr Swift and Mr Lauzzana to understand is we cannot have this happen again. Mr Lauzzana shared the quality control methods put into place. I want to assure the community we have very qualified people at the helm ensuring this doesnt hppen again.
Swift; If I can just tack on that none of our bond or sinking fund or facilities were on the team at the time. I’m not making criticism. This team was not here then.
Lazarus: I’m sure there were reasons and understanding..
Kelly: Do we know who those contractors were? Can we ensure we don’t work with them or have the quality warrntied this time?
Swift; A couple years ago we did some investigation into what would be the process and were not successful in that endeavor. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t ask questions int he endeavor. I’m sorry, I thought you were asking if we could recoup the costs. Sorry, your question is if we can avoid the contractors.
Lauzzana: We know who the team was at the time. We don’t know who directed who to do what. It’s possible we don’t know what decisions were made. It could be a qualified contractor who was told to go home, we don’t know who told them to be done and then closed up. No one wants to get too specific, but they were trying to get the building done.
Querijero: Thank you for the presentation and answering the questions. I know it was long.
Second Briefing
AN-2071 Summer 2022 Paving Projects
Second Briefing provided on 2022 Paving Projects at Logan, Pattengill, Pittsfield, and Wines.
No changes. No trustee questions.
Consent Agenda
- Approve AN-2071 Summer 2022 Paving Projects
- Approve Minutes of December 7 Closed Session
- Approve minutes of January 19 Regular Meeting
Consent Agenda approval moved by DuPree seconded by Kelly. Unanimously approved without discussion
Items for Agenda Planning & Items from the Board
The feed on Channel 18 cut out right after the Consent Agenda. The meeting froze, then went to a taking a break message. Then scrolled to the CTN 18 advertisement screen with music past the time BoardDocs said the meeting adjourned.