Yes. Okay, well, one o'clock. How are we looking? You want to call the roll?
Yeah, there's one person here that I'm thinking, if this Dr Barnwell, but the person is not answering.
Why don't we take Do we have a quorum without Dr Barnwell? I think I saw we have a president, Sheffield.
We have a quorum that can vote on the city staff, but we, but we don't have a quorum for the actual meeting. Alright?
We'll give it a few minutes. Who, who are we waiting on? I know that
Dave Blaskowitz said that he was going to join.
Yes, I'm on. Oh, okay, so
we're good to go. Then,
okay, all right, fantastic. What can you call the roll? Please? Yeah,
Doctor Barnwell, Mister Barry, Barry present. Mister Blaskowitz, Miss flood is absent today. Miss Peterson, may Berry's absent today. Mister rising Present. Mr. Rose is absent today. Miss Sheffield Present. Mr. Smith
present.
Dr Viti, Mr. Walsh should be absent today. Chair, we have a quorum, okay, and then
there were two more that just joined. One might be Dr Barnwell, so maybe just call his name one more time.
Is that? Dr Barnwell to just join?
No, that's Miss George. Thank you. Okay,
thank you.
But okay, we have a Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry, yeah. In any event,
we have a quorum.
Okay, fantastic. Thanks. Beverly, with that, I call the meeting of the FRC for the city, Detroit, to order. The time is now 102, first order of business on the agenda is to approve the proposed minutes from july 29 Is there a motion to approve? So? Moved second, okay. Seconded, any discussion, any revisions or corrections? Fantastic. All in favor, say aye. Opposed the ayes. Have it moving on. Next agenda item, Patrick, you're up for the Executive Director's Report.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. Just a couple quick items today. The First off, the city remains in good standing with the Financial Review Commission, having reviewed their monthly report, they're in full compliance with all statue as it relates to their waiver. And on the agenda today, commissioners is a resolution for the city to refinance approximately $100 million in bonds. We talked about this briefly at the meeting in July. Joining us today from the ocfos office are Kevin Baines, who's the Director of Strategy for in the Department of Treasury, and his two team members, Sarah Patton and Christina Shaw, who will give a short presentation Mr. Chair, and with that, I'll give it back to you.
Oh, great. Thanks, Patrick. Do you have any comments on anything on the resolution or other matters related to the city before we move on?
I do not.
Fantastic. All right, thanks for your report. No old business moving now to new business, and I will tee it up for the city to present their resolution for approval. And I don't know if we start with Jay or Kevin. Yeah,
let me kick off like the mic Kevin and Don baglik And Kevin's team can fill in the blanks for me. I appreciate that we provided a presentation. In short, we talked about this a little bit the last meeting. The city is seeking to refund some outstanding debt which is now callable, which was had an income tax pledge on it was issued 10 years ago. The purpose of the refunding is both to kind of capitalize on the city's improved credit rating, which would allow us to eliminate the income tax pledge and to achieve the savings, present value savings we're going to receive on these bonds of all our debts, limited tax bond, debt service, and which will save the general fund, estimated savings of four to five, which is actually a trending upward number as interest rates improve. So we can only hope they keep go steadily even further. I would make one correction on the report on the presentation in a slide called summary, to keep on terms, it's tax services that federally taxable. They meant to say federally untaxable. The taxes out, and that was the whole correction, I beg. Is a fairly straightforward deal. We're going to rather than so ourselves, we're going to use the state's bond authority, the MFA, in order to enhance the bonds with the just, just your little a pledge, and kind of share the improved cities, states, credit rating also with this
fantastic Thanks. Jay Z, did you have anything else to add, or anyone from your team to add on the resolution itself?
Hello. Got another thing I'd add is that city council has proved the resolution, so we bring this to you ready to go and start a conversation upon authority.
Okay? Thanks a lot. And so for the benefit of the commissioners, I'll just advise that the reason it's being presented to the FRC today is because one of the conditions for the city to maintain its waiver status is that it needs approval from the FRC to borrow or issuing deadlines. So that's the purpose of this presentation today, and with that, I will open it up for questions for any commission members at this time you
is that stable? Did you raise your hand? Sure
I did just, just a quick question, the previous bonds will be that we'll be replacing have a $22 million debt service reserve on that expectation here, Jay and what, what will be put in place, and then maybe related, maybe not a related question. As far as backs go, my understanding is you can perfect a lien on a public receivable like this. I'm curious if that impacts any additional reserves that would be required to support the bond.
So the bonds will be issued for the through the Michigan Finance Authority, which allows a pledge and in order to backstop the money with really an intercept of revenue sharing, if necessary, they're limited tax obligations on which is the first budget obligation of the city under under state law. So there they'll be secured by the city's pledge also.
So no issue around the quote, unquote perfecting of the lane here. Right? Public to public,
okay, right? Thank you. Yeah, okay, thank you.
And Dave. In addition to that, we also need to appear because of the prior perfection of the lane. We had to have to appear before the emergency loan board because these were issued under was the other statutes losing track of the statutes, but so we will present before MFA and also ELB in order to authorize this this issuance. So thank you. Thanks. Any other questions from commission members
as just one other question, just something I didn't understand the reference to, again, through the chair Jay making use of the city's remaining fifth Lane out of its on its DSA capacity. I'm not sure I understood what, what the reference was there.
John knacker, Kevin's on can probably answer that better than mine.
Yeah, I can. Jay, um, so the the city has a number of outstanding, you know, bonds outstanding that are that are that have dsna, DSA pledge, and when the lawyers use that pledge, there were different lien levels. There was a fifth lien level that was already opened up. So this isn't an incremental lien level. It's just taking advantage of the capacity that already exists in that fifth lane. So it's really just a legal requirement to have have a lien level established, and we already do have that fifth lane. Thanks, John.
Appreciate it.
Beth, can you scroll down a little, and I'll ask John, Kevin or Jay, what's the timing? When do you guys plan to issue no? Bev, I'm sorry, scroll back up. You were on, I think you were on the timeline page, or maybe I misread. Is there an issue date on here?
Don't think we included an issue date yet. But the the target is, you know, early October, although, as Jane mentioned, our present value savings are increasing pretty significantly as the rate environment improves. So we'll be working with the underwriters to really time the market. There's expected to be a lot of issuance leading up to the presidential election. So we probably don't want to wait too long, but the underwriters will certainly help us navigate so targeting early October.
Thanks. Any other questions from commissioners on this agenda? Item i i scroll through Bev, I'm I'm trying to scroll through. I don't see any hands. I think we're
good, okay? Unless there are any other questions, I'll entertain a motion to approve the City of Detroit's request to issue up to $100 million in DSA backed ltgo bonds to refund the 2014 income tax financial recovery bonds. Is there a motion on the table? So moved? Motion. Support, Support, support. Any, any additional discussion? All right, hearing none Beverly, please call the roll.
Dr Barnwell, Mr. Barry aye, Mr. Blaskowitz, aye, Mr. Rising aye, Ms Sheffield, aye, Mr. Smith, hi. Yeah, the city's resolution 2024, four is passed.
Fantastic. Thank you very much. Good luck to the city. Yeah. Next order of business, under new business, is the presentation on the city's financials for the 12 month period ending June 30, 2024 John, Jay,
yeah, thank you. I think this is our year end presentation while we're not closed, so there's still the interest to do. I guess I'd like to just clarify, make sure everyone understands what we're seeing here. We finished a year. We think accounting wise, if I just look purely on page four,
Beth, can you zoom out a little also so we can get a little bit more of a page on the screen? Yeah. Great. Thanks.
So this is this page really represents the actual today accounting. I'm looking only at general fund, looking at general fund revenues received and come for versus general fund expenses received an Account Report. It's not necessarily what will be booked at the end of the year, but it's our snapshot of what we put in the in the account so far, and so far we've looked like we've gotten about 30, $61 million of revenue exceeded budget, and we spent $94 million less on the budget. The next slide kind of adds to that presentation in terms of our projection. And then it recognizes that the after June, we'll go through our closing exercise, and there will be some invoices that come in for goods we receded, or services received prior to June 30, and those would be accounted for in the present, in in the in the actual finance, financials, and that's on the next page. We're estimating that that's about $30 million more. So it would, it decrease. It decreases the on these expenditures, difference between the between the budget by about 30 million bucks. Our very early swag on what our financial state statements may look like at the end of the year would be there'd be $125 million less against which will be created a reserve for risk management and certain amount for continuing appropriations, leaving around a $90 million year end surplus. It's down fairly substantially from the year before, but still is, I think, a healthy a healthy number.
Any questions?
Yeah, through the Chair,
if I may, just a quick question on the municipal income tax revenue line item that was a nearly 20% mess. I was just curious if there's, there's more to the story there that needs to be told.
A projection is $17 million increase of the budget,
right? I'm just looking at the specific the reference on four. Is that just a timing issue? Then, oh yeah,
for June itself, you're saying for $9 million yeah. I
mean, that just seemed like a pretty big variance for, yeah, it's,
it's really timing. I mean, I think we've, we've seen some reduction from prior year in terms of some collections of income tax. I think it's, there's no, remember, this is withholding individual payments outside of withholding in corporate and partnership. The two things I note, Dave is that we look like we're down about 5% on our individual collections. Predominantly money comes in for the holding, but the individual collections are down a little bit. You know, the state collects all this for us. What we're believing is going on is that we've had really healthy compliance dollars coming in in the last couple of years, and after a while, that tends to trail off, because you're becoming more and more efficient in terms of who you're collecting on time. And so as we see withholding going up because we got people paying withholdings and roles are our compliance dollars are somewhat going down, but what the state matches for us against federal returns, the other thing we're seeing is a fairly healthy reduction of corporate now, I think the state's having the same problem. We are understanding this from our discussions with with with the order and this state's revenue projection folks, they're thinking the corporate income tax is looking like there's been a lot of carry forwards losses, which are going to be affect the fiscal year dollars for a year and the tax year $23 so we're seeing a reduction in corporate because of that. So withholding is kind of made up for both of those things, but that's where shortfalls are really coming.
Thank you, Jay. Great explanation.
Other commissioners questions. You covered a lot of this in our June meeting for the approval of the waiver or the renewal. Is there any differences that we need to be aware of between what was reported in June, uh, two months ago, versus now? No any variances,
no expenditures really came in in June, really close, very close to budget, John, you know, we're really, really on target. I think
great. If there are no other questions, I'll again, extend one last invitation. Any other questions? All right, with that, we'll end this agenda item. Thank you to the city for your presentation. We're now moving into the public comment section. Members of the public are encouraged to limit their comments to two minutes, and I will open the floor now to members of the public, please press the button, the button at the top of your screen, raising your hand to be acknowledged.
If you on the telephone, there's no button you can raise
all right, we'll take that as you volunteer first. Go ahead.
Okay. My name is William M Davis. I'm Sidney TERT, retiree, president of Detroit, active, retire. My concern is the fact that the city has made a number of these special arrangements of different corporations. It said that if they get these incentives, that they going to do particular projects, and the project is going to bring in X amount of money as somebody that had my annuity, clawback. I think that if these companies, these businesses, say they're going to do such and such, then they claw back. Then they reduce the scope of their business. I think the city should claw back some of the incentives they give them, especially so much they have not given the city. Chart retirees, one dying in, you know, in 11 years. So I think I need to raise that concern that 1000s of city chart retirees are raising the fact that many of us are dying because we have not received anything. And the city, there's a number of ways the city could be helping us, but they choose not to
Great, okay, thank you. Mr. Davis, duly noted. We note your comments for the record. Any other comments from members of the public?
Yes, my name is Sheila Baker, hello, and I Miss Baker, yes, hi, and I am a retiree as well, and I'm just going to piggyback on what Mr. Davis said. For 11 years, we have not received any increase in our pension or any cost of living, and then the city is taking our annuity money, which is not the city's, and they really need to revisit that, because it's illegal that you all are taking our annuity money that does not belong to the city, and we just need you to, you know, be a little bit more concerned about your city workers who did work for 3040, years for the city, and that somebody, anybody, needs to relook at why they are taking city annuity money that we saved for 30 years for our family, for our grandchildren, and you all are just totally ignoring us, and we need someone to step up to the plate and help your retirees and acknowledge that we do exist. And it's just so sad that you're taking annuity money from us. Call it a clawback, and it's not even the city's money. And there's no way that the city should have a surplus when they owe the retirees money. That's illegal as well. So somebody in the law department, on the Finance Committee, anybody with some kind of, you know, just some courtesy to the retirees that they would help them out, just on GP, you know, somebody look into it and see that it's totally illegal that you all are taking our money the way you are, and we have not had a raise in 11 years, not one penny. So I don't think either of you all would ever want to live off of something like that, to never get the raise, never get any extra money anywhere, you know, even the covid money, we asked for $1,400 and nobody would even give the retirees the due money that was due them that the State gave to you law and you spent it any kind of way you want. Everybody on your board gets praises, and we get nothing. 11 years with not one penny increase. Thank you for listening, and hopefully somebody on that board will listen and have some compassion for us.
Thank you, Miss Baker, your comments are noted for the record. Any other comments from the public?
Yes, Miss George.
Hi, Ms George, hi. How are you,
Mr. Chair? And to the good and to the board, it's good to know that council president Sheffield is on the line. Thank you, and she gets a vote, so I'm happy about that. So thank you all for that, because we voted for her also, but I do want to comment on what the retirees stated. You know, we did here have been, you know, a lot of meetings back in the past. I don't know how attorney Kevin Orr was allowed to get away with how do you take somebody's annuity that didn't say their money for years, put money in to come out their check for 30 years. So he and I'll be honest, when we did a March, we were marching in Washington, DC, for the NRA. I went past that Jones Day law firm with them, gold plated. Kind of prayed when I went past it that the Lord would grant the retirees their money that Kevin or took. So I just don't understand. I mean, I kind of understand is really an evil act, but you cannot take people's annuities. So I was glad, you know, when I heard Mr. Davis say that, I did hear about the issues with dental insurance, which now when you look at a patient's mouth, it tells a lot about their health, so it's really a health disparity. So hopefully, and like the young lady stated that they would, ma'am, you all need to go back and Sue Kevin or because that is illegal, I would say that, but I just want to back up, and that's just something that we'll be praying that they get their money back. You can't take people's savings like that. I mean, people could do it, but that's illegal and immoral. So I just wanted to make that comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair,
thank you, Ms George, appreciate your comments as well. Any other comments from members of the community,
any further comments, final call. Great, fantastic. Thank you for your input. Our next meeting for the FRC for the city of Detroit is scheduled for Monday, September 30, at one o'clock PM, using Microsoft Teams. And unless there's any further business for the order, I will entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting that we call the school district. Meeting to order. Is there a motion to adjourn?
Motion to adjourn all
those in favor indicate saying, aye, aye. Ayes. Have it next order of business. Beverly, please call the roll to start the FRC meeting for the school district Detroit. Thanks.
Dr branaval, Mr. Berry Present. Mr. Blaskowitz Present. Mr. Rising present, Mr. Wrote, Mr. Rose is absent, Miss sheffey present, Mr. Smith, Mr.
President, sorry that.
Dr Viti i three chair, we have a quorum.
Great thanks. Beverly, first order of business is Item three, approving the proposed minutes from the July 29 2024 regular school district, FRC meeting. I assume board commission members have had opportunity to review the minutes, any discussion on or requested changes for the minutes. All right, hearing none their motion to approve.
Motion to approve
support. There's a motion, is a support. All those in favor, please indicate by saying, aye, aye. Have it moving on. Item four, second, Director's Report. Mr. Dustin, you have the floor.
Okay, thank you again. Mr. Chair, couple items today, first, DPS and dpscd are in good standing with the Financial Review Commission and reviewing the financial report this month, they remain in full compliance with all statute as it relates to their waivers. Today is the first day of school with dpscd. It's going to be it's a busy day, busy week. I just want to point a couple things out in the financial report. I'm sure Jeremy will can add some more detail, but the pre audited numbers are in, and they had revenues of $1.3 billion expenditures of 981 million which they land on, the operating surplus of $333 million in November, their audit will be completed, and assuming these numbers stay, the audit will be, excuse me, the this will be The ninth consecutive year that the district had a budget surplus. So that's just really, really a great, a great run. And then I also want to point out that the food service fund reflects the reflects the one time grant that the federal that the district got from the federal government, and it turned a $2.2 million operating deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. And with that, Mr. Chair, I conclude my remarks.
Fantastic. Thanks, Patrick for your remarks. Any any questions for our executive director regarding his report? I Nice job, Patrick, thanks. Thanks a lot for your report. Okay? No, I know old or new business items for the school district today, which is good. Moving now to the financial report, the monthly report for Detroit Public Schools for the month ending June 30, 2024 I believe Jeremy is on Jeremy, do you want comment on the report?
Yes, good afternoon, commissioners and public. Just to note, these are, again, the pre audited financials. These were the financials that were presented a month ago to the district's finance committee. So the numbers have changed quite a bit. The final audited numbers will be presented to the Board in November as after we complete our audit, but we are projecting a surplus again for the month DPS and I'm just going to focus on dpscd If you want to scroll down a couple more slides. So dpscd revenue is exceeding projections. So at the end of the month, or at the end of the year after we did the budget amendment, we continued to receive higher interest earnings. So we received some additional funding there, and then the state continued to process one time grants that were received and recognized in that fiscal year, so that pushed revenue up slightly higher than we initially projected. And then again, these are the pre audited financials. Expenses were coming in slightly below projection. If you scroll down one more slide, you'll see primarily we were sort of below expectations on our purchase services. This this number is continuing to go up as we close out final audited numbers. So again, we don't expect as high of a surplus. 330 $3 million will be something slightly lower than that as we're continuing to process remaining invoices that came in salary and benefits were higher we we were approved for the Balmer and the sort of expansion summer program. And so the year ending June 30 included about three weeks worth of summer school work, and that was the expanded summer school program that was not included in our final budget amendment, but were actuals. So that's why the salary and benefit lines were a little bit higher than we had initially projected. Otherwise. The rest of the things are in line. I will just note for the commissioners is that this three and $30 million surplus is not all to the general fund the board had through the facility master plan committed transfers to the that facility master plan, and so $170 million of this will be transferred once the audit is complete, to that facility master plan, and that will complete the $700 million commitment that the board made to revitalize our school buildings. So anything beyond $170 million will be transferred to the fund balance and be available for the board to redistribute and reallocate on one time expenditures, investments and other facilities or adjustments in programming that concludes, oh, and then, just to confirm what Mr. Dostine said is we were thankful that the federal government did provide a one time allocation on the school nutrition fund that did reverse the deficit that we had projected. We are projecting another deficit for FY 25 unless the federal government increases the reimbursement rate. The cost of goods to buy the food is now exceeding the reimbursement rate, so we need the Federal Government Act to increase the reimbursement rate. Otherwise we will have a death sentence, school nutrition. We have a fund balance. We'll be able to use the fund balance for the next couple years, but without an increase in the reimbursement rate, the General Fund will eventually have to contribute, in probably the next three years to offsetting that deficit. Any questions from the commissioners?
Yeah, Jeremy, you touched on salaries and benefits the increases, and we're noticing that across the board, around the state, particularly with summer school, and it just seems like an increased demand for instructional and non instructional support. What is the district projecting going forward? Terms of it, well,
we received a grant from the Balmer foundation, so an additional $14 million a year to provide expanded summer learning that was 14 million this year, we believe we'll be able to expand that even more for next year, and this past year, summer program has now concluded. This year we had the largest participation ever, over 6000 6600 students in our k8 participated in the program, and then we had another 2500 high school students participate in credit recovery in the program this summer, taking us to close to 9000 our previous high had been just a little over 6000 during the covid pandemic. So the demand is definitely there from the community. And the Balmer Foundation has committed to funding this program for the next two years to other districts in Southeast Michigan. So we're thankful for that funding and allowing us to expand that program regarding just salaries and benefits the district did negotiate with the DFT that was approved, and that includes the highest salaries that the district has ever been able to offer. So top step teachers this year will make $90,000 and next year that will increase to $93,000 and then, as well as an increase for entry starting teachers, they will now start for those with the masters at 60,000 and again, top out at the 90,000 this year. 93,000 next year, we're still actively negotiating with all other unions and to have agreements and recognize the work that they've done, as well as the cost of living, but hopefully we'll be able to get multi year agreements with all other unions.
Thanks, other commissioners. Any questions. Scroll through here. I
Okay, fantastic. Well, thanks. Thank you, Jeremy, for the presentation. Things look to be in a good order, and we applaud you for your good work. Continue. Okay. Beverly, scroll down. Alright, so there's no other new business or business for the agenda, I'm now open it up for public comment with Agenda Item number nine, again, members of the public comment, please limit your comments to two minutes. Thank you. I can't see hands. Yes, hello, state your name, please, yes, ma'am,
yes. Aaliyah Moore,
hi, Miss Moore,
hello. Thank you so much for taking my call. Um, I did attend this meeting last month. I am a dpscd parent, um, the the way this meeting flows to me, it's just so respectful. The district is constantly, you know, trying to just combined us and silence us and just put us in a box. So I really appreciate this ability to speak. But last month, concerning the cell phone tower revenue, Mr. Vidito Kind of just washed it out. You know, everything sounds perfect in the district, right? We're working with this surplus, and everything looks good on paper, but this Commission needs to know that a surplus does not equal quality education. We are sitting on 1000s, millions, and all you all have to do is just go into classrooms. All you have to do is just hear the voices of teachers, parents and staff. I don't expect perfection, and a lot of us as stakeholders don't, but the accountability and the transparency is not there. We still have not had a presentation on the cell phone tower dollars anytime superintendent Nikolai zidi can return my email, and he's just giving me telling you what they're doing with the money, what happened to a spreadsheet, just because that revenue is going into the general fund. As a stakeholder, I'm not the only one asking about where that money is going, and so for the superintendent to be able to answer a stakeholder and say, Well, we're using it for after school. We're using it for some back to school. We're feeding you all. We're giving incentives. That's not transparency. If we don't have $1 to dollar expenditure and what you're getting revenue. So, I mean, I don't know what this board can do. We have a president, Angelique Mayberry Peterson, that promised stakeholders that we would have some type of PowerPoint presentation about these dollars. It has not happened. So if this board and this commission agrees that this district is in such good standing in the revenue and the and the surplus, it's about the quality and it's about the respect and but mainly it's about the transparency of these dollars, and they'll get sitting when our babies and our staff need them the most. Thank you very much. Thank
you, Miss Moore, and just for the record, I do want to acknowledge that Mr. Video did present or respond to this your similar question at the last meeting, and explain the surplus the use of those dollars from the cell cell tower leases. So I just want to make sure that we have that documented. And I don't know, Mr. Pedito, if you want to expound on presentation opportunities or opportunities where members of the community can get more information on that.
Yes, so they can, anyone can submit a question to the superintendent or to myself. I believe, I know we've sort of documented the cell tower you. So I'll just repeat it. We receive a little over $120,000 the revenue and expenditures are included and adopted in our annual budget. Those expenditures have been allocated to the back to school events, so those events that schools have at the beginning of the school year to fund that. So it's a it's a number of things, from supplies, materials and others. And again, if someone wants more information, they can send an email to myself or the superintendent, and we were happy to provide that information back to anyone who requests it? So, yeah, there are other specific questions. Happy to answer it. But again, the revenue is approximately $120,000 per year. It depends, again, if there's a some buildings where the cell tower has been demolished, and as those buildings are taken offline, we of course lose that revenue. And so that's when I said approximately. It depends on when, like Paul Robeson Malcolm X is taken offline, that will lose that revenue from that cell tower where there's currently is one.
Thanks, Mr. Video. Miss Moore, I hope that answered your question a little bit more certain is always opportunity for more to expound more, and I hope that the school district does so in the future, any other members from the public that like to address the commissioners on school district issues at this time,
I would Yes.
Oh, okay,
I think I heard Mr. Davis. Is that? Mr. Davis?
Yes, but Miss George, could go first ladies first okay.
Oh, thank you. George.
Yes, sir, yes. I wanted to expound on and I may have missed this, Mr. Vitos report, it did he I don't know if he said a teacher start out with $60,000 with a master's degree, or would it be 90,000 I want to just clarification on that also hopefully those towers. I know we made complaints about those towers, and I will email you, Mr. Vito, just to get clarification. I know there were complaints made about those towers coming down because of that study at Wayne State University dealing with the possible cancer risk. So I'll email to make sure I don't want to misspeak with the tower situation. Also at the last school board meeting, there were complaints about the showers in some of the high schools not being able to work and the kids not getting water. So I'm just wondering when I hear all of this surplus. I am also concerned with what's happening with the showers and are the schools. Is the money being fixed? So I'm going to have to send Dr Vitti email as well, because some of the public comment I heard from the parents were kind of disturbing with certain things that's going on in the in the school, and also with the, I'm glad, the nutrition program, we would deal with that with the money in the food. Because, like I said, I wish I reached out to the representative for the state of Michigan. She stated that she knew of there was no, there should be no problems with situations. But I know there is a, of course, the Farm Bill, nutrition bill, on the federal government. So I would make sure our civil rights organizations follow up with with that. But I'm just kind of concerned with the complaints that the students, the parents, I mean, the teachers, made about the showers. Because schools, when kids go to school, there should be resources about showers, also some of the high schools with the I think Cass tech, and there's another high school, the kids were concerned when they compete with kids in the suburbs, that the track the field is not up to par. Now I know that emergency manager, they got some kind of contract. They messed up Cass tech feel. So so that's something that we're going to follow up with to make sure our students will be able to compete. When I look at the the Olympics and these students competing, we want to make sure our students feel confident to compete with schools in the suburbs. And that's my comment. So I'll do a lot of follow up with that. Thank you. Thank you.
Commissioner Smith, do you mind if I just address one thing real quick,
sure, sure. Thank you.
I just wanted to clarify this darting salary for a teacher, a master's teacher, is 60,000 the top step that would be, Step 12 would be the 90,000 so it's not 90,000 starting, it's the first year is 60,000 and then the last step is 90. And again, in 2017 the starting salary was about 38 and the highest, believe, was about 68 and so we that's where we've increased since again, 2017 but the starting salary is not 90. I just want to clarify that, and then I'm happy to respond to any other questions at the end. Now that Kate were brought up, or if you want me, I can respond now.
So why don't we take the questions regarding district operations offline? Because I assume members of the community have access to your email address. Can email you directly, yeah,
and I can drop it in the chat as well. If people are able to see the chat,
I think some folks are on cell phone. They may not be able to see it, but, and I'll just ask, maybe just because we have Miss George, Mister Davis, Miss Moore, you guys have contact information for Mister vidito,
no, I'll look on the website. Thank you. I see mister. Oh yes, I think I do have it. Thank you so much, and I'll definitely be forwarding and keeping you all in the loop too, because everything is not as transparent as what it is proclaimed to be on this call.
Thank you.
Thank you. We appreciate that. Mr. George, you had your I mean, I'm sorry. Mr. Davis, you I think you had a comment.
Yes, yes, I do. First off, I'm disappointed that the superintendent, school superintendent Vivi is not on again. I would think he should be able to set aside one hour a month to be on this also, as a former elected police commissioner, I'm concerned about the number of schools that are abandoned, that needs to be more secure. I know some of the schools are owned by the board, some of them owned by the city, but it's still a safety crime type situation with that. Also separately, I like to bring it to fact I think more needs to be done to get rather the debt that the emergency managers made that's on my property tax. I should not be paying for debt that came up with an emergency manager that was unelected official here also, I think more needs to be done as relates to getting greater representation citywide for school board members right now, you know you have a few people, you have people elected, but most of them are concentrating just in a couple of neighborhoods. I think ultimately you get a greater representation. If the school board composition was like the city of Detroit, city council, where you have so many elected by districts and maybe just a couple by citywide. I think we have a problem, especially like I'm in northwest Detroit, but especially southwest Detroit, seems to never get its fair share, or seems to be overlooked, and a number of other areas seem to be overlooked. So I think if you want to improve the schools, I think you can improve the system of how people are elected to be part of the school board. Those are some of my thoughts, because I'm a community activist, and I wear a number of hats, but I think the whole thing is that we should be Detroit residents. Shouldn't be paying for past mistakes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Davis, for your comments. And I do want to add, I just suggest that members of the committee of the public, if you have access to the district's and the city's financial information online, please take a look at it. I heard you make a comment, Mr. Davis, about paying down the debt. And one of the things I think that we as the Commission have recognized is that DPS has done a great job actually at paying down their legacy debt through the emergency loan, and I think you will see some positive development there, and we expect that to be resolved the next few years. So I don't want to leave it out there that the district hasn't significantly paid down their legacy deficit. But appreciate your comments. Any other comments from the community?
Yeah, my name is Sheila Baker again, and I was just listening to your report. And I've lived in the city all my life, for 70 years, never lived anywhere else but the city. And I'm just listening to this report, you know, like the lady said, it's not transparent. It's not what you see. I think you all need to go out and visit some of these schools and see what the conditions are. You just sit up in your office and you make these reports, and folks send things in. It's not necessarily true. It's nothing been proven. We listening to you all, and don't get me wrong, the teachers do deserve raises and do deserve increases. But I also heard that the poor little children for their meals at school. Some people don't even some children don't even get meals, and that that is like going to be running out like in the next couple of years or so. I think you need to focus more on the children you know in the city of Detroit and what they really need. And you all need to go out and physically like we do physical inventory. You need to do physical inventory on your Detroit Public Schools. That's all I have to say.
Thank you. Ms Baker, appreciate your comments. Jeremy, you have your hand up. Thank
you. Ms Baker, I appreciate your comment as well. I just want to clarify that no kid will not eat. So every kid in dpscd is eligible and eats for free. It's a district wide program. We've had it for years. Every kid can have breakfast and lunch, and if they stay for an after school program, they get snack, or if they stay for a separate program. So that is free universal, the district has committed to improving the quality of food, offering salad bars and others so there is no kid in dpscd Who wants to eat that doesn't eat. Just to clarify that, what I said is that the federal funding for this is now lower than our operating costs, and the district will have to use its general fund dollars to fund that if this federal government doesn't increase, but at no point will the district ever, will there ever be a situation where a kid doesn't have access, isn't able to eat it's there if they want to eat, it, it's available. Some kids elect to bring their own. But we provide vegetarian options, halal options, so there's a variety of food that's available to every kid, and we welcome if people want to come out and visit schools, we just ask that you follow the appropriate process for any volunteer visitor to come in and visit our schools. But thank you,
thank you for that. Saying it publicly. I appreciate it.
Any other members from the public, any community members that want to comment at this time? Okay? Hearing none. Moving on to the final agenda. Next meeting is scheduled for September 30, 2024 immediately following the FRC meeting for the city of Detroit team. Link details will be posted, unless there is any other business, for the good of the order, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Their motion.
So moved
motion on the table. Second. Everyone volunteer at once, is there a second to adjourn? Support the port All in favor. Say, aye. Aye. Ayes. Have it. Enjoy the rest of your week. Thanks everyone for your time. See
