Attachments: 

Hello, Mrs. Langan,

All of us on the school board received your email this morning with questions about the upcoming Town Hall meetings and one of the policies under review (Enrollment 5111) which governs who is allowed to attend our schools.  Since I haven't been copied on a reply to your email from anyone, I thought I would jump in and try to answer some of your questions.

I had similar questions regarding how the Town Hall meetings were working regarding public involvement and how the Town Hall meeting was going to work in relation to our regularly scheduled May 9 board meeting.

I went to the school system's website and found the attached meeting agenda for Monday night at http://www.gpschools.org/cms/lib/MI01000971/Centricity/Domain/2910//5-9-16/TH5-9-16.pdf.

I have highlighted the agenda item in which you expressed an interest (Enrollment 5111).  Normal Board protocol on policy revisions is that there is one meeting at which they are reviewed and another meeting at which a vote on the policy/policy revision takes place. 

The Policy Committee (Board members Valente, Roeske and Summerfield) offered a first reading of the policy change which would allow non-resident staff working more than half time to enroll their children in our school system subject to a number of caveats at our April 25 meeting.  A copy of the policy revisions presented to us at that meeting are attached for your reference.

The Policy Committee met on Tuesday to review this policy, as it does have a lot of implications and a number of questions were raised about it at the last board meeting.  Based on the fact that it has been posted as a discussion item at this coming Monday's meeting leads me to believe that the Policy Committee may have fine tuned what was presented to us and that we may be getting a revision for Monday night's review.  You should be able to find a hyperlink on Friday afternoon to any revisions to the attached on the agenda link I provided above.

With regards to comment on the proposed policy changes, you will see that I have highlighted the item "Public Comment on Non-Action Agenda Items" on the attached copy of Monday night's agenda.  This is the point in the meeting when anyone can make comment on anything we are not voting on during Monday night's meeting.  Your comments are limited to three minutes.

With regards to the Town Hall meeting that is listed at the end of the agenda attached, I have been advised that this meeting will be dedicated to reviewing the school system's Strategic Plan and the challenges the system faces with its aging buildings and rapidly changing technology needs.  As with the board meeting that precedes it, the meeting is open to the public.  While I can't speak for the administration and/or the other members of the school board, I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on these challenges and hope that you will be able to attend.

I hope that the above and the attached answers at least some of your questions. If you have other questions, I would suggest that you email them to all of us on the school board at schoolboard@gpschools.org.  Emails sent to this address are automatically forwarded to all board members and members of the central office administration.

Thank you for writing to us and best wishes,

Ahmed Ismail

Ahmed Ismail, Trustee

Grosse Pointe Public School System

Phone: 313-343-9060 (The Portrait Place - 10am-5pm)

Email: ismaila@gpschools.com

Notice to Recipient:  The views expressed in this transmittal and its attachments (if any) are those of its author individually and are not necessarily shared by the other members of the Grosse Pointe Public School System's Board of Trustees and/or its administration.  If you would like the official school board position on an issue or would like to communicate to all of the members of the school board at once, please send your email to schoolboard@gpschools.org.  Thank you.