You can watch the meeting live on Zoom (note I had to be logged in to Zoom to attend) or on Xfinity Channel 18. The district typically posts the recording split into segments the day after the meeting.
Note: We will update it throughout the meeting. Please excuse any typos, misspellings, errors (hopefully minor), etc. A summary will be added after the meeting.
Summary
A highlight of tonight’s meeting was the proposed budget for 2021-2022 with the second public hearing and voting on approval. I started covering board meetings in July 2020, so this is my first time through the budget process. The budget has to be passed before knowing how much money the state is providing in foundation grant (per pupil funding) and what enrollment will be. The budget discussion largely centered around the revenue estimate from the state and federal dollars particularly from the COVID relief bills. The budget plan calls for a conservative estimate of enrollment, state funding, and only COVID funds already allocated to the district. Based on this, the district will spend a significant portion of their fund balance next year – ending with a minimal 5.1% fund balance. A fund balance below 5% brings additional state oversight.
The 2020-201 proposed budget ended with a higher than projected fund balance since state foundation allowance remained steady instead of the predicted drop, a one time per pupil state grant and federal COVID dollars (CARES & ESSR) despite a loss of enrollment.
Both the adjusted 2020-2021 general fund budget and the proposed 2021-2022 general fund budget passed.
A nice overview of the Virtual Village Learning Programs at the elementary level was provided. A2Live is a new synchronous day much like virtual school this year. Students will be grouped in one virtual school instead of based in their home school. A2 Virtual Elementary (A2VE) is an asynchronous learning platform where students will not be in virtual school all day and work at their own pace with oversight of a teacher and periodic live checkins. A2VE students may attend live specials with A2Live students.
Students who wish to transition from a virtual to in-person option are asked to do so at a natural transition point – Trimester breaks for elementary, semester breaks for secondary.
Both A2Live and A2 Virtual Elementary are available for School of Choice students. (Most other local districts are not offering virtual options for 2021-2022). The School of Choice window is open until June 30.
The district honored all of their retirees highlighting two 40+ year retirees and especially Diane Wahl, physical education teacher, who spent 51 years at Wines Elementary. They recognized Pride Month, Summer Learning Enrollment is high, Day camps are open and have some spots available.
The first round of Before and After School Care has been announced. It will be available at Abbot, Carpenter, Lakewood, Mitchell, and Pittsfield. Only full-time morning and afternoon care is available and space is limited. Enrollment is due by July 9 with lotteries to take place July 12-14 where needed. Registration fees will be due by July 23. Other schools will be added as staffing allows.
A first briefing was provided for expansion of the Westerman Preschool Playground as a nature playground to the left of the building. Their current play area is mostly hardscape and sandbox.
The Eberwhite Playground Renovation is moving forward with a first briefing provided tonight. This is funded by their PTO through community fundraising ands state matching grants, but the purchase will be from the sinking fund and then reimbursed by the community. Their original playgrounds were community built and were removed a couple of years ago due to materials issues. This is the final part of the AAPS playground replacement. Other schools received money from the district.
The district wants to replace the Middle School Science Curriculum with OpenSciEd, an open source curriculum. However, $300k is needed over 2 years to purchase accompanying equipment and materials and purchase printed curriculum. Most of the expense is the equipment and materials. While we have the license to print ourselves, it is cheaper to purchase already printed from them. The curriculum will be phased in over 2-3 years to ensure no gaps and ease the transition work for teachers. The new curriculum focuses on student questioning and problem solving. This was a first briefing.
The current AP Chemistry textbook was published in 2003 and purchased in 2008. It is out of date, no longer provides digital supports, textbooks are deteriorating and out of print, and requires extra work from teachers to get AP approval due to curriculum age. The district wants to purchase Chemistry: A Molecular Approach by Tro. Course enrollment has ranged from 50-80 students at each of the 3 comprehensive high schools and seems to be stabilizing around 70 students each after changes in progression of science courses. (If anyone has questions, I learned a lot helping my STEM kid pick sophomore classes and plotting her science & AP future.)
The district needs to refresh the engineered wood fiber on the playgrounds as they do every year. This is 100% virgin soft wood. Trustee Kelly raised questions about toxicity with additives or adhesives (none are used). Trustee Johnson raised questions about sustainability. The district will look into the sustainability for the second briefing.
There were no updates to the first briefings shared last meeting:
- IT Infrastructure plans at Community, Scarlett & Tappan
- Firewall Refresh
- Hosted VoIP Telephone Service
- Tappan Masonry Repair
All were approved as part of the consent agenda along with the minutes from last week.
The Board approved annual license renewals for both instructional and operational software. The initial licenses/purchases of these softwares were already approved individually. This is just renewing the licenses.
Call to Order
Roll Call
Present: Johnson, Kelly, DuPree, Querijero, Lazarus, Baskett, Gaynor
Other Attendees: Swift, Osiniski, Cluley, Minnick, Linden, Kocher, Lauzzana, Rice, Kellstrom
All Board Members confirmed they were joining from the local area (Ann Arbor, Pittsfield, etc)
Agenda
Motion to Approve by Kelly. Seconded by DuPree. No discussion. Agenda unanimously passes.
Public Commentary
As is our practice, we did not cover public commentary. There were only 5 comments tonight. Comments are available on BoardDocs. Ms Osinski and Mr Cluley each read half of the comments. The total time for public commentary is limited which can lead to only portions of commentary being read when there are many comments. And, the comments are typically read very quickly to be able to read as much as possible in the time constraints. With such limited time per comment it is even harder to try to capture the context of the commentary.
Clarifications
Swift: We always appreciate that members of our community take time to reach out including at public commentary. I believe we will address some of these items in the Superintendent’s update so I don’t believe clarifications are needed at this moment.
Lazarus: I would like to make a clarification that I appreciate hearing from the public. However, this does not mean I agree with everything. However when individuals advocate removing local control through more legislation I will advocate and speak up for our community.
Second Briefing on General Fund Budgets
Ms Minnick provided a briefing review of what was presented last week for both the 2020-2021 General Fund Amended Budget and the 2021-22 General Fund Proposed Budget.
Swift: You are required to pass a budget by June 30. We work on the budget every day and provide monthly reports to the board and community. As we pass a new budget, we hold two public hearing. This is the second public hearing.
2020-2021 Updated General Fund Budget
State Revenue had budgeted for a $700/pupil decrease but it stayed flat. Also got a $65/pupil one time funding. There was a drop in enrollment, but more than offset by the increase in per pupil funding.
Expenditure highlights – staffing needs $6M and $10.6M in COVID-19 supports. The reimbursements for COVID 19.
Projected ending fund is $20.2M vs budgeted of $13M.
2021-2022 Projected General Fund Budget
The budget is a plan for allocating anticipated resources. Expecting a $50 per pupil increase in foundation, but a loss of $9M due to student loss with return to the traditional accounting method.
From 2020-2021 expecting a loss of one-time ESSR & Cares funds.
Expenditures include Full-day five-day per week. Budget includes A2Live for elementary and A2Virtual for all grades. Already includes contracts with all employee groups.
28.85% base retirement rate plus unfunded actuarial balance of 15.05 – 43.9% average retirement rate.
Predicting an ending fund balance of $13.5M
Trustee Questions
Gaynor: Maybe for Dr Swift. The cost of additional staffing seems really high unbudgeted expense.
Swift: As we showed last week, all the efforts that were COVID related – COVID testing, opening two virtual programs, contact tracing efforts. Those staffing numbers go through every area. Both additional staff for virtual programs and additional duty for many staff members who crated summer programming- last year was double normal size. Plus creating new curricula. There was additional staff like nurses and additional duty work tasks for the staff we have had.
As you know we’ve discussed how much of that do we expect to receive as we return to normal operations.
Minnick: I’d add if we were to look back at this time last year, the budget predicted reduced expenditures. But we didn’t see enrollment declines we ha anticipated, so we didn’t see savings we were expecting. They were staff we anticipated maybe not needing to replace, but we did.
Gaynor: Can we get a breakdown of this? I was talking to a board member from 20 years ago and they used to get a personnel report. I’d like to be able to monitor staffing. I realize we don’t have except annual staffing reports I don’t have a feeling for that.
Swift: I appreciate that question and will discuss with Ms Minnick and I’ve updated the board with all staff we’ve added. Scaling up two programs on the return to in school learning was significant. Ensuring substitute teachers in every building trained in Schoology and able to assist in virtual environment, doing special needs recovery services. We do update the board on the number of staff, but I aunt to share this is a combination of many staff doing much more work. Hourly staff working more hours plus some additional staff which you’re aware of – nurses, A2Virtual & other virtual supports, services through special education, etc. I can send year over year total number of staff.
Gaynor: I just want some clarity. My second question, the Senate passed a bill to release much of federal money that’s been held up. I don’t think it’s been reconciled to the House yet. Do you have any insight to how it would affect AAPS.
Minnick: You are correct, it’s aniticapted to be one time grant funding. I’m not aware it has gone through the whole process and to governor’s desk. But the intent is to release the remainder of ESSR 2 money and to release ESSR 3 money. At this point, we don’t include those values in this budget because it is not known. It’s been winding it’s way for awhile and we’re uncertain when it may pass. It is not included in our budget for next year.
Gaynor: Do you have an estimate?
Swift: We’re all aware there’s discussion that would change any numbers out there. I wouldn’t venture a guess at all.
Baskett: I want to caution trustee Gaynor for personnel reports. We as a board decide direction of Dr Swift’s work. This sounds labor intensive. We have Dr Swift’s role & our role and I want to be clear we don’t get into that. We do know in the past there have been cases of boards micromanaging superintendents. We don’t want to go down that route. As chair of finance committee, you may see things the rest of us don’t routinely see.
Johnson: Absolutely.
Gaynor: I understand it’s up to the board. I assumed it was something the board would see as part of our finance oversight. But I haven’t seen those numbers. But it’s a question to the board of the level of monitoring we decide to do.
Johnson: We absolutely get monthly monitoring reports. The question is about the granularity. Asking for that report would provide additional granularity and should decide what’s worth the time.
Johnson: I have a couple. Ms Minnick you talk about ESSR 2 & ESSR 3.You mentioned we’re waiting for them to release. Also on slide 7 of the first budget, you noted COVID reimbursements in expenditures. Is that where the funds go?
Minnick: Regarding ESSR 2 & 3, yes the 2021-2022 budget only includes the first portion of ESSR 2 that we are aware has been released to date. We’ve submitted a spending plan and waiting for approval to go through. The Bill mentioned above, is the remainder of the ESSR 2 but not sure when those will be released, so those aren’t included.
Johnson: The expenditures for 2020-2021 includes CORONAVIRUS reimbursements TBD?
Minnick: I left the Coronavirus reimbursements TBD so that we fully utilize every dollar of those grant monies. It could be in excess of those we are accounting for and assuming. We want to use those associated revenues on federal grant side.
Johnson: Once you apply the new funds, our balance would increase as the new revenues would offset expenditures we’ve already made.
Minnick: Yes
Johnson: On Slide 18, we were afraid to fall too low on fund balance. I thought it was around 4%, is it 5%? Are we getting too close to that?
Minnick: Often times the % of revenues vs expenditures, the board policy is around expenditures, but trigger is around % of expenditures.
Johnson: The % of revenues is 5% and we’re projecting 5.1% – so we’re on the cusp?
Minnick: Yes. We’re on the cusp.
Johnson: This budget not withstanding, we need to think about what we’re doing. This was a difficult year and we were what do we need to do to stay afloat. As we spend more money, we’re getting close to the financial trigger of needing to give more detailed reporting on expenditures.
Minnick: Yes, there is some additional reporting that would be required. The projections we are making are based on House prediction and flat enrollment. The consensus revenue conference is hopeful there will be more funding and more enrollment. It is unfortunate our timeline is in advance of knowing the state’s fiscal year and budget.
Johnson: I appreciate you saying that it’s a conservative estimate. We feel like there may be more chickens hatching.
Baskett: It’s worth repeating that the state giveth and the state taketh. It’s not unusual for them to give and take it back in January. We were fortunate the year that happened in January, we could weather the storm because of our fund balance. It behooves us to be conservative and mindful.
Second Public Hearing on the FY2021-2022 Proposed Budget
As with public commentary, we will not be capturing comments from submitters. They can be found in their entirety on BoardDocs. As of 5p on Wednesday, there are only 2 submitted comments.
Response
Swift: We appreciate hearing from our community. I invite everyone to continue to advocate to state that federal resources are opened so our children can benefit from funds allocated at federal level.
Information
Update: Virtual Village Learning Programs for 2021-2022
Swift: The two virtual learning are simple. A2Virtual is a program we’ve had for many years and last year it was expanded to elementary. This was some of our new staff. That side of the Virtual Village is where student works more independently. It is less screen intense. The others side of the Virtual Village is A2Live which is new for 2021-2022. It is at the request of parents who would like to keep their students on virtual learning but with live engagement in a virtual classroom. We are scaling up this program based on parent and student enrollment and registration.
Our goal this evening is to share information. Trustee Querijero shared it was important to share this now while enrollment is still open. We had community session last Thursday evening. It is still available on demand.
Linden: Thank you for this opportunity. This is the second chapter on A2 Virtual Village.
Kocher: I appreciate this opportunity to share this work with you and the opportunity to be involved in these programs and commitment to meeting families’ diverse needs.
Whether it’s feeling safe with family returning, families found this year worked for them. Our intent is to build a virtual village. Last fall A2VE launched last fall it is asynchronous.
A2Live Online learning is similar to the experience students had this past year. They are led and supported by a live AAPS teacher. Classes run Monday-Friday from 9a-3p. A2VE is supported by an AAPS teacher, but the core content is accessed at a time that works for child and family.
Both programs allow students to learn in their home environment. The choice of language virtual village is to make them feel part of our community and connected. With A2VE, live experiences a couple times a week.
In A2 Live, students are assigned to a teacher at their grade level and receive whole group lessons.
A2VE they still get assigned a classroom community that the teacher develops over the course of the year and provides high quality feedback. Students access material without a teacher there live.
Just like in person, teachers work with children and know their needs and adjust program accordingly. In A2VE, teachers are still instructing children.
Role of family is different learning at home then when sending them to school. To school – getting them on the bus, backpack packed, has a coat, etc. At home, it looks different and is important. Help them keep a schedule, set alarms, get into classrooms, making sure they come back after lunch, have a workspace, etc. For A2VE is crucial to make sure they are accessing and stay on schedule and assist in communicating with the teacher.
A2 Live will be 9a-3p. Works like a typical building schedule. It has morning meeting, literacy, math, specials, closing circle. There is also an intervention and enrichment section. Stopping new instruction, time to get supports or enrichment. There are also online & offline learning opportunities. How do we make sure there are times to “close the lid”. There are scheduled breaks, time to work with small group and other students are working offline – math journal, manipulatives, white boards, etc.
With A2 Virtual, it is more of a list than a schedule. It is recommendation to do 5 days a week with 60 minutes in literacy & math, 30 days for science and social studies.
A2 Virtual students will have the opportunity to have live specials at least one a day.
A2VE gives option to start at 7a or make a standing appointment one day a week or even swap a day for a Saturday.
There will be community events and opportunity for parents to be involved. Heritage Festival, a t-shirt contest for students to submit entries. The robot on the website is a student submission. We’ve done one school, one book. We want families to feel part of the virtual village.
The web address is a2schools.org/a2village. We have worked to make meaningful content including a side by side.
Linden: I need to point out that this program is exceptional, well laid out, perfecting what we learned this year. This would be the first place I would look for an online program. Our school of choice program is still open. Please visit that site and reach out with questions. We’re happy to answer any.
Trustee Questions
Gaynor: I’m sure a lot of work went into this. We have A2Virtual which is mostly online and A2 Live. Is the A2 Virtual Village the umbrella name?
Swift: Yes.
Gaynor: I did look at the website, I encourage parents to take a look at the sample lessons. Is there a place parents can ask questions specifically about these programs?
Swift: Absolutely.
Kocher: It’s on the website, or they can email me directly. a2velementary@a2schools.org. If they reach out & provide a phone number we can connect that way.
Gaynor: The sample lessons I assume are being used by A2VE. Will they also be used by A2Live?
Kocher: The sample lessons – and they only allow us to put a certain number not here. The curriculum is from Florida Virtual. They have experience in providing online elementary curriculum. It is standards aligned. This is not what we’ll be presenting in A2Live. It will be AAPS curriculum we are adapting for virtual setting. Continuing the work we did this year. It will more closely align to classroom experience.
Gaynor: The TLNs put together a lot of lessons, are those expected to be used by teachers either A2Live or in classroom?
Swift: A2Live will closely resemble curricula in the in-person classrooms. The A2Virtual is the Florida Curricula and we are limited in what we can do the same way. The question about the lessons on the TLN lessons that folks worked hard on this year? I know it won’t be exactly the same thing.
Linden: I’m sure you’d experience this, I’d write a lesson plan for 1st hour and I’d perfect it by 7th hour. We’ve experienced that this year and it can always be enhanced. Access to those is provided to A2Live teachers and they can adapt, make more cultural relevant, adapt to virtual.
Gaynor: I’m making this comment more as a former classroom teacher, I’m concerned that teachers know their students and what their needs are. Concerned about them being restricted to a schedule but won’t meet the needs of their students.
Swift: Yes, they absolutely are and will continue to have autonomy.
Kocher: One of the things I think we did well in virtual this year is we refined and adjusted in response to students and community.
Lazarus: This is very exciting. It’s nice to see we’re taking what we learned this last year and using it to serve our students on a new level. I have a few questions with school of choice open. I’ve talked to those in other districts. They are not providing a virtual option. How are we getting the word out to them? We are providing it and they are welcome to sign up? Is there a deadline for them to sign up for this?
Swift: June 30 is the deadline for school of choice. Ms Kocher is hearing from parents who are concerned about progress on vaccine for those under 12. That is our challenge and goal. How do we get that word out> We’re not trying to take students, we’re trying to serve needs of students and families not comfortable yet in returning to in person.
Linden: It’s a valid question. We haven’t marketed the online programming. We’ve been explicit with SOC and IDT and enrollment you would see the schools of choice application the first banners you will see are A2VE & A2Live with links. As of late, we’re hearing about a need to do more.
Lazarus: Are we putting together a radio announcement, PSA, etc.
Swift: Yes, we are working on that now.
Lazarus: About A2Live, I know the vaccine for kids under 12, parents want to sign their kids up for A2Live. If a vaccine comes in November, will parents have a change to choose to reenroll their kids knowing they won’t have their virtual teacher, but to enroll at home school.
Swift: We are supporting students and parents who want to cross that bridge from a virtual to in-school, in-person programs. We are asking at they cross at a natural transition. End of the trimester around Thanksgiving or around end of second trimester. We would coordinate the move just like we do with students who physically move buildings or classrooms. At secondary, it would be at quarters and semesters.
Lazarus: I’ve been talking to parents and they’ve expressed they’re going to choose A2Live because there is no vaccine. But they worry about the socialization their kids are missing. Being that we have good weather in fall, is it possible to have field days or something where they can come together as a class outside, large room to get some socialization. I don’t see it in the tentative schedule.
Swift: Ik now we talked bout it at the community engagement session.
Linden: Ms Kocher shared about the events they held last year. You’re right about weather and warmth at the beginning of the school year. That’s part of the thinking as they plan this year.
Kocher: We have thought about it mostly in the virtual context because so many families aren’t comfortable with in person. Thank you for pushing my thinking.
Lazarus: Something that is an opportunity for those that want to have a chance to meet their classmate in person.
Swift: Your multi-cultural night is a virtual school activity. You’re doing school building events and maybe in the fall could do some in person.
Kocher: We are learners. We’ve learned a lot over the past year and a half. We’ll continue to learn and be responsive to family needs.
Baskett: Thank you. This has been great. I have a question about capacity. How many students are we looking to attract? I know the deadline is on the 30th. You have to plan like every other program.
Swift: There is not a deadline for AAPS students. The June 30th is outside district enrollment via SOC. We do ask AAPS parents to let us know as soon as possible. We are scaling up and staffing based on enrollment. We are starting at a single classroom at each K-5 level. We will add staff as enrollment comes through. Class sizes are the same ratio as they are for in-person learning.
Baskett: In terms of our own children, the sooner the better. Is there an absolute we have to know by – say September 3. I assume we’ll still provide devices and need some onboarding.
Swift: As soon as possible. Just like in every program, there are folks who get their plans confirmed early and then folks who move into the city a week after school starts. We’ll continue to meet needs of students. It’s possible there could be a waitlist while we staff up. Not wanting to say if that’s the case – we are very agile. I can’t remember a Labor Day weekend I haven’t left the office on Friday where they weren’t interviewing for teachers & additional staff.
Baskett: We’ll take as many students as decide to come and will plan appropriately.
DuPree: Thank you for the presentation. I am looking forward to seeing how it plays out this fall. It’s a good option for parents who aren’t comfortable sending kids back. On parental support and technical support. That was available all year. Will that still be available this year?
Swift: Dr Kellstrom will have her team staffed up. We all learned a lot over the course of last year and calls dropped off. It will be interesting to see how August goes. We will be there to assist folks.
DuPree: I see one of the focuses is increased engagement. What indicators of success are you using?
Linden: We’ve talked a lot about that – how we monitor and support that.
Kocher: For how we measure increased engagement, it’s similar to how we measure in person. Are there opportunities, are children’s voices heard, etc. Is it based on hearing from child and not the adult. As adults, taking responsibility for checking in with kids who aren’t engaged. Getting to the root of the problem – tech issues, tech not working, lesson and not getting the material, etc. We’ll monitor attendance, when they participate. In asynchronous, monitor submission and regular checkins which are at least weekly. Teacher is always the first line. We know when kids aren’t engaged. They turn off cameras, don’t submit, don’t participate in conversations tc.
DuPree: You mentioned a lot of this year informed your programming for fall, can you pick one big lesson and how to apply to programming in the fall?
Linden: I’d love what Kocher said. What I’d say is what Gaynor cautioned about, with teachers scaling up knowledge of online learning, we had to work together. But we learned we can’t be cookie cutter. Flexibility is the thing we are applying more this fall.
Kocher: From the asynchronous program what I learned was we have to think differently about how we engage with students and families. What I learned is that in school setting, parents learn about teacher through child. In asynchronous, we learn about child through their family. It underscored importance of establishing relationship with family to understand child and meet their needs. We can apply to online and in person.
Kelly: Thank you for developing this program and presentation. I’m pleased to see what we backed our way into last year didn’t become disposable. We’re creating a robust program. My fellow trustees had great questions, I’m left with only one on my list. Is this program open to all learners? Can we meet all needs we can in a typical classroom setting. Are there any needs or styles you might steer in another direction.
Swift: The program is open to all learners absolutely. There are some comparisons that you might be better suited if you have these or those characteristics as a learner. But the door is open for all learners. For students served on an IEP or with specialized learning needs, that program will be customized and adapted to meet the student’s needs.
Kelly: I appreciate that. For family reasons it might be the right setting for learning, even if a child doesn’t fit the ideal learner profile. I appreciate hearing if the model is right we will make sure everyone is accommodated.
Superintendent Update
Shoutouts to AAPS retirees. 69 retiring. 1614 total years. Two employees with 40+ years – Sally Steward K teacher with 30 at Dicken & 11 at Burns Park.
Don Zekany with 42 years – Math teacher – Slauson 6, Tappan 6, Huron 24, & Pioneer 6.
And one with an amazing 50+ years of service – Diane Wahl with 51 years of service as physical education teacher at Wines.
We’re grateful they remained with us through this year and regret we couldn’t be together in person.
We want to celebrate Pride Month. We celebrate every day of the year, but especially in June.
Summer Learning Program is moving forward. Enrollment so far is 4800.
Summer Food distribution is underway. Just a reminder, no ID or anything is needed. Just drive through if it will help your family in any way.
Find our list of summer food distribution sites.
In person day camps are moving forward. They are open and running. Enrichment camps and outdoor sports camps have spaces available. Also summer enrichment for all ages.
Back to school is August 30.
This week we have offered our first group of schools with Before and After School program at 5 schools – Abbot, Carpenter, Lakewood, Mitchell, & Pittsfield. Signups are available. All parents at these schools have been contacted. Classes will be about play and fun. There is one full-time schedule for morning and afternoon. We are offering scholarships.
We want responses by July 9. These are smaller groups. Lotteries will take place July 12-14 if needed. Parents will be notified by July 15. Registration fee & deposit are due July 23. They won’t start until the second week of school (September 6).
$1.4Billion in new federal child care funding is currently on hold in Lansing.
By July and August we should have more updates on this. I want to give a shoutout to folks who are coming back to do this work.
Community Information Sessions for fall are on the front page of the website under tab that says Fall. Second parent reminder to enroll and register your child. The sooner we hear from you, the better we can prepare both for face to face and virtual students.
Enrollment for next year is ahead of pace than typical for this time of year.
Trustee Questions:
Kelly: One quick questions. For before and after school programming, I imagine people will know sooner than later. Is there a timeline for when we expect people to express interest and hold lottery?
Swift: When we send the email it will have a date we need to hear and if there is a lottery, there will be a date we need the confirmation and deposit. We can work with families, but we need an answer.
Kelly: The reason we don’t have a date on the calendar, it will be school specific.
Swift: Yes, for the five schools, there is a timeline. It is dependent on our timing. (I have the dates above).
Kelly: Thank you, I hadn’t zoomed in on the slide.
Swift: Forgive me the first day should be September 7 – September 6 is Labor Day.
Baskett: Thank you or this information. Your information brought up something I hear every year. Please update your contact information, check that unknown phone number, etc. Will there also be emails?
Swift: Email will be the primary way. Yes, and schools are reaching out to families we know don’t monitor email.
Baskett: Again reach out to your schools, in case of missed communications. Glad to see things are going so well. Thank you for all the work you guys have done.
First Briefing
Westerman Preschool Playground
Swift: We have long needed more space for our students to play and explore at Westerman Preschool. We equipped their playground during our playground renewal. It’s been a limited space behind the school. With this design, we are looking at opening a better outdoor environment. We’ll bring Westerman up to the level of our other schools.
Lauzzana: (Showed an aerial view). There is a half-circle behind the building of a lot of hard scape. The district does own a wooded area to the left of the building. This proposal would develop a portion as a natural play environment similar to what was completed at AA Open.
Clear walking path across parking lot. Gate and fence, ADA compliant ramps and pathways. Two gathering areas, perimeter of fescue grass. Native and doesn’t require continuous mowing. The interior would be traditional mowed grass. They don’t currently have grass.
Includes removal of invasive trees and shrubs, and replacement with native plants. Low carbon materials. The majority of the contract is moving earth and placing rocks and boulders. There’s a separate bid for fence, and some items below the bid limit with landscaping and a small cement pad. Total is $208K with 15% contingency included. To be paid from 2019 bond funds.
No trustee questions or comments.
Eberwhite Playground Materials
Swift: This is a second part of a huge project the Eberwhite community has undertaken in partnership. This is funded by community fundraising. The previous playground was built by community involvement, but had to be taken out because of safety issues with materials. Again this is an endeavor undertaken by the Eberwhite community group.
Lauzzana: They had two large wooden play structures that were old and failing and needed to be removed. The first replacement, AAPS did contribute $120K. One structure is already built similar to previous playground. Primarily recycled plastic instead of wood as previously. Now they are working the second replacement.
The already constructed is very popular – a long lasting design.
It is slated for October construction this fall. With COVID era, items are difficult to acquire and have large lead time. PTO has raised $56K & $50K with matching grant from state. A part was used for design fees.
$69K was lowest qualified bid. Funding provided by sinking fund, but reimbursed by Eberwhite PTO.
Swift: I do want to add that during our playground endeavor where we replaced playgrounds that we did have an equity designation of additional funds so there are many funds that received above and beyond the $120K. We didn’t make an additional contribution to this playground at Eberwhite. Trustees who have served on the board, schools in other communities where they can’t raise community funds, we provided funds and they have been completed. Eberwhite is the last one.
Lazarus: Thank you for the presentation. I know we looked this over in Finance. It’s great Eberwhite could raise the funds and provide a structure. I do have a question? Did we talk about physical accessibility? Did the design include accessibility for all students?
Lauzzana: In all our playground investments that’s been covered. There are some elements that aren’t accessible, but a portion of the elements are ADA accessible
Lazarus: And this one has that?
Lauzzana: Yes
Curriculum Adoption & Purchase for Middle School Science
Middle School Science & Ap Chemistry haev been awaiting new materials. And AP Chemistry new materials needed to meet changes in AP curriculum.
Linden: For Middle School Science & AP Chemistry, new curriculum. Ms Deller led this process over 2 years.
Recommend the OpenSciEd Science Curriculum for grades 6-8. To approve the purchase of print guides, equipment, and materials for teachers and students. They will be used over 2-3 years at a cost of $300k split over 2 years of $150K each.
Deller: This recommendation is an Open Educational Resource and it is free to use. Optimizes coherence/relevance to students. It is well aligned to Michigan Science Standards adopted in 2015. Access to learning and teacher resources.
They reviewed 7 curricula, eliminating 3 with a quick screening, and had 3 good contenders that were piloted at each grade level.
Students are involved in learning. They pose their own questions, investigate questions, synthesize understanding, reflect & review on questions they posed.
35 teachers evaluated and 21 replied with 100% of those saying yes.
Implementation of 2 new units per grade level per year. Will keep teachers busy. Plan to accommodate learning of students to ensure no gaps in topics as they progress through. Professional learning for teachers in each phases. Print materials are minimal for students.
Curriculum Adoption & Purchase for AP Chemistry
The Nivaldo J. Tro textbook. Needed to update book for the AP/College Board current curriculum. The current text was published in 2003, purchased in 2008. Digital access is no longer supported. Existing books are too worn
Teachers reviewed 3 from the recommended AP list. The recommended Chemistry: A Molecular Approach by Tro. They studied alignment to AP standards and content, accuracy, supportive digital resources, equitable representation of people & roles in text.
Questions on Middle School Science & AP Chemistry
Kelly: I’ll start with middle school. Open Source people usually think free, but the memo spells out what we;’er paying for – guides, kits, etc. Will we see refresh costs when things get out of date?
Linden: The guides and printing of them are fairly miniscule. The cost is really related to kits.
Deller: It’s unlikely in any time in the future we would need to repurchase. Each building may periodically replace equipment and they have funds for those. All the print materials are available digitally, so they shouldn’t see much wear. Student resources we are really minimizing the number of them. If a teacher or building needed a few extra copies after a few years, it would be a small cost. We don’t expect a refresh is a 7-8 year refresh cycle.
Kelly: It says we’re planning to phase in 2-3 modules a year. Will students know this is a new module & now we have to go back to the old style? Or will teachers teach others in an engaging way?
Deller: Our teachers and students are getting experience with the new style as we’ve tested them. While there will be a shift, it won’t be dramatic. But we’re hoping the shift tot he consistency of that will be shift to what it is to do science on a regular basis.
Where we have to be careful is shifting material from one year to another. We have to make sure that every student still gets the content.
Kelly: One of my question was about potential gaps, and you addressed that in the initial presentation. In the AP Chem materials, you talked about one of the lenses we used was representation of people and roles. I love that that is one of the lenses we use. Do we use that same lens for middle school materials?
Deller: Yes. The rubric we used is a piece of criteria that we ensured was incorporated. It was multiple places in the rubric.
Kelly: Taking equity to the next question, both have digital access. Digital access to what? I’m curious what the digital content looks like and how we’re ensuring all students will have access to it. It would be hard if it requires device and internet at home.
Deller: We are know in a one to one world and will stay that way going forward. All should be accessible to students on their own devices. In the middle school curriculum there are videos, simulations, and animations mostly worked with during in class learning. Any text or reading are also available digitally. The audio portions aren’t built into the open resources, we have tools that will support that access.
Kelly: So audio will be available to all, they don’t need a special app?
Deller: All students have it on their devices. The AP Chemistry has a robust set of practice materials and questions to access. Videos and alternative lectures to get another way of hearing a concept. They have an audio text. It’s a robust set of resources.
Kelly: Thank you.
Querijero: Audio issues
Baskett: I can’t remember the last time we did this. When was the last time we revamped the science currciulum.
Deller: I don’t have the year handy, but I think it was about 10 years ago. About the 8 year mark there were some parts not purchased. What we purchased pulled together a couple of resources.
Baskett: Are we on par? Should we be doing it sooner?
Deller: It’s great to always have a regular review cycle. We’re also prompted to consider when the state adopts new standards. But are our materials in a state to justify new materials. Review cycles vary from 5-8 years.
Baskettt: It seems so much changes with science. With textbooks, we are talking bout AP Chem. How many students do we see a year. How long should these last us?
Deller: AP Chem is offered at 3 comprehensive cycles. In recent years, we’ve had from 50-80 students at each building. So 150-240 students. There is some variability year to year. As we moved through adoption of new standards with high school curriculum, and recommended classes. We’re stabilizing at about 70 students at most of the 3 high schools. Our AP classes, the college board does expect you to review and have texts no longer than 10 year olds. When they review teachers & curriculum if you’re not current, you have to show how you’re supplementing and updating. We’ve had to do that the last few years.
Querijero: About the 6-8 and the OER and the payments of 2 years. I get the first payment, you need to pay it out. Can we modularize those into units so we don’t have to pay to print. How much is for print materials vs. equipment. How much are we paying for materials our teachers might adjust. The adaption of the OER is the attractiveness of it. The cost savings is really if we don’t print and adopt.
Linden: The breakdown of that cost is something we should talk about. It’s really for the kits. The printing is fairly miniscule. The first time you implement, you really want to have print materials to mark up and highlight, take notes. We don’t anticipate reprinting. Ms Deller, can you talk about the kits.
Deller: For a sample glimpse, in first curriculum purchase ($150K), it is about $30K in print materials. Your points about adapting the curriculum and making sure we have flexiblity to do that with digital resources, is the purpose of this purchase. The curriculum has scaffolding to support that. All the materials are unit specific. We can just renew or replace a specific unit. Each year we’re just purchasing the ones we’re implementing. One of the things OpenSciEd has done is to make high quality science materials for free. They’ve targeted people to provide kit and print materials on slim materials. We can’t print ourselves cheaper than purchasing.
Querijero: Modularizing the units, would the teachers do that? Is it in the works, or still open for discussion?
Deller: All our curriculum gets mapped into our mapping software Atlas. All are available in Google Docs and we live in that ecosystem. Our teachers already have thoughts on how to maintain our adaptations and ones they want to recommend.
Engineered Wood Fiber Purchase & Installation for Playgrounds
Swift: It’s great to be gathered and talking about playground chip replacement. It’s a regular, mundane order of business. It is exciting. We provide the chips to provide the cushion for the fall. It makes our playgrounds much safer. It is a rite of spring, summer and fall to see them arriving. I worried this week when I heard things are slow on delivery.
Rice: Engineered fiber wood chips for playground services. We need a fall zone on our playgrounds. It is 100% virgin soft wood knitted together to maintain a dense firm surface. They need to be refreshed yearly to maintain the fall surface.
A 3 year contract with 1 year renewals. At all elementariness, K-8 and Community HS.
Material, equipment, and team for $68K/year for 3 year with 2 one year renewals to Superior Ground Cover in Livonia. It comes from General Fund.
Baskett: Forgive me, in the old days we just called them wood chips. Why are they now called wood fiber?
Rice: They used to be called manufactured wood chips, now they’re engineered. But it’s the same stuff.
Baskett: When will these go down?
Rice: They are scheduled end of July/first week in August.
Baskett: That’s our usual routine?
Rice: Yes. The difference between regular mulch and engineered wood fiber is the wood fiber is only 1-2” long and mulch can be longer.
Kelly: When we start talking about engineering and ingredients. Can we talk about what might have gone into them and their safety?
Rice: This is 100% virgin wood. Technically it is the center of every tree. There isn’t really any ingredients.
Kelly: No adhesive, bonding agents, etc.
Rice: No, none of that.
Lazarus: I know the chips are pretty deep. How deep are they? A foot?
Rice: It’s between 10-12” based on the height of the structure.
Lazarus: When we put new on, do the old compact and become a harder surface? Do we need to dig out and start over?
Rice: Two years ago we ended up rototilling to get weeds out and put new on top and that does happen.
Lazarus: So we do monitor and make sure they’er the right depth and cushionness.
Johnson: It’s the inverse of trustee Kelly and what’s in them. Given that they’re the inside of trees, are we killing a bunch of trees for this. We have value around sustainability?
Rice: I couldn’t tell you. All I know is it’s 100% virgin wood and a soft wood
Swift: We’ll look at that and follow up. We do try to take environmental sustainability lens on everything.
Second Briefings
There are no changes from the first briefings on Second briefings will be provided on:
- IT Infrastructure Plan: Community, Scarlett, & Tappan
- Firewall Refresh
- Hosted Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Telephone Service
- Tappan Masonry Repair
There was no discussion.
Consent Agenda
The Board will vote on the Consent Agenda. Tonight’s Consent Agenda is just
- IT Infrastructure Plan: Community, Scarlett, & Tappan
- Firewall Refresh
- Hosted Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Telephone Service
- Tappan Masonry Repair
- Approving the Minutes of the June 16 Regular Meeting.
Motioned by Kelly, Seconded by Lazarus. No discussion. Motion unanimously passes.
Board Action
The Board will take individual action on the following topics.
Renewals: Instructional & Operational Software
Swift: This is an annual approval. I am happy to review it.
We bring for confirmation and community’s awareness, any new software operational or instructional comes to board for initial approval. Each June we bring an update of the annual renewals of licensing and software. One is instructional for digital tools and one is operational (financial, HR, etc)
The list can be found here.
Motion to approve by Lazarus. Seconded by Gaynor. No discussion. Motion unanimously passes.
2020-2021 General Fund Amended Budget Adoption
Johnson: We had some discussion about this already.
Kelly: There’s a 10 page document do we need to read in full?
Osinski: No we do not.
Motioned by Lazarus. Seconded by Kelly. No discussion. Motion unanimously passes.
2021-2022 General Fund Proposed Budget Adoption
Motion by Kelly. Seconded by Lazarus. No discussion. Motion unanimously passes.
Items from the Board
Querijero: June 30 Books for Kids partners with Survivors Speaks and another group (didn’t type fast enough). Happens 12:30-1:30p at Hikone Community Center. Kids get 3 free books. Thanks to CAN for hosting.
Adjournment
Motion by Gaynor. seconded by DuPree. No discussion. Motion passes. Meeting adjourned at 9:57p
