March 2 Reconvening of February 23 AAPS Board of Education Meeting Notes

The AAPS Board of Education Meeting on February 23 was put into recess for one week because of the refusal of certain audience members to wear a mask. It is reconvening on March 2 with a mask mandate in place at Forsythe Middle School. Check out our notes covering the February 23 recess.

These are our notes for the Ann Arbor Public School Board of Education Meeting that reconvened on March 2. The meeting was held in person at Forsythe Middle School. The meeting also 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, due to another meeting commitment, I won’t be able to live stream the meeting from the beginning. I am recording the meeting on Channel 18 and will catch up with the meeting notes.

Reconvening the Meeting

The meeting was reconvened at 7p. The Channel 18 recording picked up after Roll Call

Roll Call

The Channel 18 recording picked up after Roll Call. Attendance is based on my observations

Present: Kelly, Johnson, Baskett, Gaynor, Querijero, Lazarus, DuPree

Other Attendees: Swift, Osinski, Cluley, Linden, Minnick

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 Baskett. No discussion. Approved by unanimous vote

Celebrating Black History Month in AAPS

Swift: Thank you Madame President and trustees and members of the community joining remotely and in person.

Black History Month or National African American History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and recognizing the central role they play in US History. The theme for this year is Black Health and Wellness which acknowledges legacy of black scholars and medicinal practitioners in western medicine but also other methods of caring like birth workeres, doula, naturopaths, etc as part of the African diaspora.

Throughout the month our leaders, students, and teachers have celebrated black history across our classrooms, buildings, and communities. I’m delighted to share a video of highlights.

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Events from our Sponsors

Kindergarten Round Up & Preschool Open House Sunday, February 23

JLC Book Sale March 26-29, 2025

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Editors Note: This video uploaded to the AAPS YouTube on February 25 appears to be the video Dr Swift shared.

A special thank you to our support staff, students, teachers who did a fantastic job. Thanks to everyone who was a part of it. This type of learning goes on throughout the year in Ann Arbor Public Schools.

Lazarus: Thank you that was very nice. Makes you tear up a bit.

Second Briefing

AN-2080 CTE Business Lab Equipment Refresh

The first briefing was presented February 9 – which I did not take notes for.

Swift: Nothing has changed. I did deliver the itemized list that was requested at the last board meeting.

No trustee questions.

Consent Agenda

Ms Osinski read the Consent Agenda:

• Approve AN-2080 CTE Business Lab Equipment Refresh
• Approve minutes from the December 15, 2021 Regular Meeting
• Approve minutes from the February 9, 2022 Regular Meeting
• Approve Donations
  • 2 air purifiers to Angell, 1 to Bach, and 1 to Mitchell

No discussion.

Motion to approve by: Kelly, seconded by DuPree. (microphone cut out, but the motion was captured on BoardDocs).

No discussion, motion passes unanimously.

Board Action

The Board will vote to approve the Michigan Association of School Boards Board of Directors Candidate Designation

Lazarus: Every 2 years we have responsibility as members of the MASB (Michigan Association of School Boards) board to cast a vote for our region – region 7. There are 3 candidates and their profiles are in Board Docs. (Editors Note, the profiles are not in the public section of the meeting agenda. I don’t know if they are elsewhere).

Is there anyone who would like to speak on behalf or have any of us had any experience with these trustees?

Kelly: I’ll just say I’ve worked with Trustee McVey (sp?) with the Saline Area Schools for years. He’s been an educator for many years. As a trustee I know he has focused on his own professional development. I met im in 2017 at an equity symposium offered by the National Association of School Boards. He stepped up to participate in that due to his dedication to equity in Saline Schools and taken it to the county. I’ve served closely with him at the Washtenaw School Board executive committee. He is excellent and would have my support.

Baskett: At our last meeting I had at your seat a handout regarding MASB board of directors. All of the school districts are divided into regions. Within region 7 are Eaton, Hillsdale, Ingham, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston, Monroe (she read really fast and I listened four times and may have missed one). That gives you a perspective of who is eligible for our vote. I highly support and recommend Mr Lopez. No disparaging the woman from Monroe, but she’s too inexperienced serving just 1. I have been voted to represent our community at large. Behind the map you will see a review and my review based on just public information. Before I served on the MASB board I didn’t really have an understanding of who represented who and how small some districts are. If you look at the current makeup of the MASB board, we don’t have many directors representing the larger districts (over 10K students). No discredit to Mr McVey, and I do not support the organized opposition campaign against him, but I believe Mr Lopez perspective is needed. On page 2, as you can see we have a lot of smaller school districts. Mr Weinard and Mr Lopez are currently serving on the board representing our region. I’ve highlighted Mr McVey, we know Saline is a much smaller district. He is well educated, well credentialed, caucasian guy and we don’t need more of him on the board. The perspective of Mr Lopez will ad to the diversity and broader perspective. He represents Lansing School District and has been on the board for 22 years. His district is like ours a majority students of color and 71% economically disadvantaged. He is retired from the city of Lansing having served in human rights and compliance issues. I do know Mr McVey from our local work, and have enjoyed his company but am recommending Mr Lopez.

Gaynor: I came to the same conclusion as Trustee Baskett and appreciate her reasoning in supporting Mr Lopez.

Johnson: I also was impressed by both candidates. But Baskett mentioned quite a few characteristics and qualifications. One that stuck out to me was his commitment to DEI. Including that in his statement speaks to his dedication and awareness. He brings a lot to the table in representing a larger district with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students. We wouldn’t want to lose that. I do plan to support Mr Lopez. I appreciate trustees sharing personal experiences with both candidates.

Motion to support Mr Lopez for MASB board position by Johnson. Seconded by Baskett. No additional discussion.

Yes: Baskett, Gaynor, Querijero, Johnson, Lazarus, DuPree

No: Kelly

Motion Carries 6-1.

Public Commentary

As in the past, we will not be covering public commentary. Text of comments submitted in writing are available on BoardDocs.

Lazarus reviewed the rules for Public Commentary: Public comments pertain to district matters. Comments about individuals are expressly prohibited. Board members do not respond to public comments. We will listen carefully and followup as appropriate. There are 47 signups, 1 minute each.

Lazarus: Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts. All the written comments are on our website and can be fully read by anyone.

Clarification

Baskett: To our Pioneer Optimist writer welcome back. I suggest you give us a call to get your questions answered directly as we don’t respond to public commentary at this meeting. It will be more productive for you.

Swift: I also want to share my gratitude for everyone who has shared their comments. I believe for the most part everything will be covered in the superintendent’s update.

Superintendent Update:

Swift: We are excited to turn over to March 2022. Our students and staff are doing a beautiful job of teaching and learning. Last night, some of us had the joy of returning to Hill Auditorium for Orchestra Day & Night. Students from AAOpen, A2 Steam, Tappan, Clague, Forsythe, Scarlett, Tappan, Pioneer, Huron, Skyline. Family members were allowed to attend or watch via video if that was more comfortable for them. It’s a great way for middle schoolers to connect with high schoolers and learn from them. One of the teachers shared how she was part of Orchestra night back in 1986 and how it inspired her career. <editor’s note: the recording froze for a couple of minutes here.>

A video will be posted but will only be up for a few days because of copyright reasons. They shared a video of highlights.

I want to share 719 days since our school closed in March 2020. We want to bring forward and shared with the finance committee, a bit about feedback from community over most recent request to hear from folks and show where we’ve put that feedback and the work we’re doing.

A newly organized part of the website. The second one is community involvement and all our community forums and all of our public commentary is logged. We appreciate that our community is highly engaged.

All of the documents in the ESSER III section are not there yet. The state is moving through them methodically. This will continue to be populated.

Looking at our December 2021/January 2022 survey (not yet live on website, but on Board Docs). About 3300 participants with 3300 thoughts and rated with almost 76K ratings. Across groups – students, staff, parents, there was widespread participation as well as across grade levels.

AAPS Priorities

• 68% Hiring & Retaining Staff
• 55% Mental Health supports
• 49% Academic supports in school
• 40% hiring & retaining contracted service staff
• 38% COVID mitigation & health supports
• 37% Social-emotional learning
• 29% Before/after school programming
• 25% academic support before/after school

By total themes of thoughts, staffing is highest of priority.

I appreciate the clarity of this feedback.

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Events from our Sponsors

Kindergarten Round Up & Preschool Open House Sunday, February 23

JLC Book Sale March 26-29, 2025

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COVID Response, Ongoing Work. This is also available on BoardDocs (AAPS COVID Response to Support Students & Staff Feb 2022.pdf). This is more of a Word document, so is hard to summarize. It covers the 4 areas of priorities:

1. Student Learning, Growth & Academic Progress
2. Student Well-being, Social-emotional Development, and Mental Health Support
3. COVID Mitigation
4. Quality Staff

There is a person assigned to each area.

Swift; We can pause for trustee questions.

Gaynor: I know this is a concern of everyone here. About staff, we’ve talked about transportation and custodial, and want to mention several parents have reached out about shortage of parapros and teacher assistants. I wish there was more we could do. This effects students iwth IEPs, teachers, other students in the room. I’m just highlighting. It’s not new, or something we’re not concerned about. maybe people feeling more comfortable with COVID could let others know these positions are available and doesn’t require the same training and commitment as full time teachers.

Baskett: Before we get too far, I want to say I am so impressed with the website additions you’ve done and having it all there and categorized. I know we receive a lot of FOIA requests, it’s good there is one place they can go and get that. Hopefully it will reduce that.

DuPree: Thank you so far. This is so interesting and telling that it gives people a chance to voice opinions. I noticed a little over 3300 participants. How many could have possibly participated. Is there a goal for the number of families to participate?

Swift; Thank you that’s an excellent question. I’m going to ask Ms Linden for help. The N size is always hard to get because we don’t know the number of parents and also community can respond. For a mid-year, I was pleased and grateful for that level of support. Ms Linden for years has overseen our spring survey.

Linden: Probably between 5-6K with our climate survey.

Swift: So this is probably 3/5 of what we get for the big one. I was impressed especially including the time of year.

Swift: I wanted to address the student and family activities and volunteers in our school. We are opening our schools for activities. Principals are doing that step by step. If you haven’t yet seen it in your school, reach out to your principal. We believe in parent engagement and volunteer. We’re excited to make those opening steps. As cases continue to decline, principals and teams are extending opportunities. I checked in with my team and we are seeing Science Olympiad teams registering to work in our schools. We do have active teams in every school. Every wil have themselves open for after school activities. The priorities is to open opportunities and activities for our students during the day and after school. We want to monitor those case levels as we open our schools. Leaders are receiving requests from volunteers and conducting tours. We are moving forward step by step.

I want to note that day before yesterday was the last day of February. We finished February with above 90% attendance throughout the month. Even with omicron surge still going and winter weather. I’m grateful for the priority our students and staff place on teaching and learning. Rec & Ed have registration open for spring sports – soccer, field hockey, flag football (maybe one other).

I want to share a statement that we shared in the superintendents update on Friday. (Note I checked the email and copied from there)

Rec & Ed is committed to providing safe and inclusive recreational sports opportunities to all youth, regardless of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Youth may register using a variety of gender terms, including “non-binary,” and are welcome to select whichever sports and leagues they prefer.

Our Friday update usually includes how people should reach out about concerns. If folks should have a concern, we want to hear directly from you. We ask that you reach first to an adult at your local school (teacher, counselor, etc), we do have elementary, middle, and high school directors. We will run that in the weekly update on a regular basis.

Our spring assessments are coming up in April and May. We are back to our mandated assessments that we must give. As we get further into march we will share more specific information.

We heard a lot about masking. We are delighted to see cases decline among students and staff and across our community. We are aware of the recent adjustments in guidance, and today we got updated guidance from WCHD especially for staff in special education classrooms and with medically fragile students. We will continue to closely monitor our case levels. We are looking to see a sustained and continued decline. We will take a balanced and cautious approach. We believe masking strategy has served as a layer of support and helps us prioritize our shared goal of sustaining in school learning. We are going to continue with universal making in AAPS. We will continue to update information as we move through March. We are taking it one step at a time.

We are here at Forsythe Middle School tonight. We are making progress together. Our challenges have not dissipated, on many days they are bigger than they’ve been, but we are making progress. I’m grateful for support of trustees, parents, students, and staff. We are stronger as we work together.

Querijero: Thank you for the update. I’d like to raise 2 things. One was sparked by a report from performance committee around NWEA scores. My question is around standardized testing and specifically our outward communication in helping parents and guardians <recording glitched>. Making sure that families that choose to opt-out of testing can do that without repercussions. To me, a parent shared that she felt hunted down and was told if your kid is in the building they have to test. Somehow this was a miscommunication if the test was happening or it was a makeup test. Regardless of that, many families in our district recognize these tests as culturally biased assessments with long term effects on student performance and success and their mental health. How can it be easier to choose that path? Can we make available in template what families have to do or say to refuse the tests in the classroom. If you go to our site and search opt-out test it’s difficult to find.

Secondly, I want to talk about I believe it is time for us to hear an update on investigation of institutional racism at Pioneer High School. At the last meeting, I heard you say we had it calendared and want to get an idea what that means.

Swift; I appreciate both of those questions and duly noted about the assessment. There is not an allowance for those words to opt-out in the code. I appreciate you raising the question.

I’ve spoked to each trustee about the next steps to process and work through the Pioneer investigation that is in process. I know it has been shared with each of you. I appreciate you raising it.

Querijero: Anyone who wants to talk with me personally about how to do that, I’m happy to share my story with them.

Lazarus: Your story regarding?

Querijero: My kids opt out of tests and I’m happy to share my story of how we did that and it wasn’t easy.

Johnson: I want to thank Dr Swift for the report. Many things I heard reminded me of where we were in fall 2020 when we talked about trying to understand this new virus that we knew very little about and what we would have to institute that first year. Some terms we don’t really use anymore. I was encouraged to see that is still being used and monitoring the current environment. I understand parents get impatient with how methodical we are about this, but I know as a Trustee I’m privy to conversations that we have all the time. We understand the concerns, but are trying to be methodical in moving the dial. As we see parents invited back into classrooms and see schools are doing different things. Staffing is different, student makeup is different. It’s nice to have the flexibility to allow where we can. I do appreciate a lot of the commentary. I want to make it clear we are not counting the number of people who want A or B, we’re looking at the facts with what we’re faced with at each school or across the district. When we change a policy the public should be comforted that it isn’t because we are pressured to do it. We prioritize in person school and learning, when people feel we’re being too slow, they’re not seeing that our priority is to have kids in the classroom.

Lazaurs: I mirror Trustee Johnson’s praise. It has come a long way and we are getting through it. We always said it’s a dial. We are dialing it slowly back. It’s going to be really hard to dial it back the other way. I appreciate the staff for sticking it out. We prioritize in person learning, that’s why we are so careful.

Monthly Monitoring Report

Ms Minnick presented the monthly monitoring report.

There is a $4.5 million drop in general fund cash and investment from last year, but that is not necessarily alarming, The report of monthly expenditures is $21.1 million for January which is typical for a month this fiscal year. Collected revenues in general fund through January is up 1.7%. But the expenditures is up 11.3%. I will point out that there are 2 things at play. The implications of added supports and staffing costs with omicron surge and we’ve all seen in our household budgets that costs have gone up across the board. I do want to point out in the YTD for this year, our revenues are in excess of expenditures. Last year we added more to the fund balance.

In our budget, we are projecting to use $6.7 million of beginning fund balance.

The fund balance at this time does look favorable, but it is about this point in time that the fund balance draws down through the fiscal year as paychecks are spread out through the summer. We’ll keep our eye on the numbers and watch for any escalation in cost and keep an eye on revenues. There are federal revenue reimbursements yet to be collected.

No trustee questions.

Items for Agenda Planning

Querijero: In addition to the two things I mentioned earlier, I’d like to see a report out on the OER work we are doing in our district. I’ve brought forth before to discuss. I’d like to put something together for the community so we know what we’re talking about and cost saving initiatives. Either with existing staff or bringing in experts.

Swift: That is a part of the upcoming March 16 study session with academic learning forward that includes a look at OERs. The second part of it is the mental health, social emotional learning. We’re excited to get to a blueprint in 2022-2023 and beyond. I appreciate you raising that trustee Querijero.

Items from the Board

DuPree: Real quick, I want to extend my gratitude to Michigan Alliance for Family. I recently finished a 5 week IEP course. It was very helpful and informative as I have a student who uses IEP students. If you go to their website, there are a plethora of learning opportunities available.

I’ve also been sent a flyer for a workshop at Corner Health called Express Yourself// Protect Yourself <editors note: I added these to our calendar this morning and am including them here>

Lazarus: Are you sharing the flyer or just a link?

DuPree: I can send it in an email.

Johnson: Thanks. I want to recognize the orchestras that were at orchestra day and night. I had the opportunity to watch them and get some feedback from the composer who was mentioned. It’s a joy to see our children involved in these activities. It’s nice to see things returning to normal. It’s nice to see the fruits of the work they’ve been doing for so long.

Querijero: I’d like to announce WCC is hosting its own Michigan Community College Gender & Sexuality Conference on March 12. Registration goes through the WCC website. Saturday, March 12 from 10a-3p. You do have to preregister. It’s a good event for those who want to explore more or add their voice to advocate.

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Events from our Sponsors

Kindergarten Round Up & Preschool Open House Sunday, February 23

JLC Book Sale March 26-29, 2025

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Adjourn

Motion to adjourn by voice vote by Querijero. seconded by Johnson. No discussion. Passes unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 9:07p.

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