August 25th 2026 regular meeting
PAACT BOARD RECAP
August 25, 2026 Regular Meeting
Recognitions
A principal comes home to Covington
Deputy Superintendent Corey Heitsch introduced Pauline Roberts as the new principal of Birmingham Covington School. Roberts was most recently principal of Flickinger Elementary in Utica Community Schools. Before that she spent 20 years at Covington as a math and science teacher and then as an instructional specialist. Her daughter, a BPS graduate, attended with her. A second recognition on the agenda, for new Community Education Director Diane Baldwin, was skipped because she was not present. Baldwin appears on the personnel report as a new hire effective July 27.
Superintendent's Report
Staff are back, students arrive Monday
Dr. Roberson reported that teachers officially returned August 25, with building professional development and opening staff meetings that day and two more days of PD before students arrive next week. Trustees were reminded to pick up their first-day-of-school signs. Two football games open the season off site: Groves plays North Farmington at Wayne State on Friday at 4:30 p.m., and Seaholm plays Milford at Michigan Stadium on Saturday at noon.
Community House lease not on the agenda
Heitsch explained why the Community House lease did not appear on this agenda. The district received the proposed initial lease terms on Thursday of the prior week and did not have time to review them with enough diligence to bring the item forward. Inspections and the lease review continue. The background on the early childhood partnership is in our August 11 recap. As we noted there, Dr. Roberson serves on the Community House Foundation board, the entity BPS would lease from, by appointment of the Birmingham City Commission. No board discussion of the lease took place tonight.
Administrative regulations coming
Dr. Roberson said updated administrative regulations will be released to the public soon on four topics: the acceptable use policy, instructional technology, acceptable use of artificial intelligence, and a parent code of conduct. No dates were given.
In memoriam
Dr. Roberson closed her report by sharing that Karen Rodriguez, a Spanish teacher at Berkshire Middle School since 2011, passed away on Saturday after a year-long illness. She was one of the Berkshire principal's first hires. The district asked the community to keep her family and the Berkshire staff and families in their thoughts.
Public Comment
Ten speakers, one policy
Nine of ten speakers addressed the wireless device policy the board adopted July 7, which restricts personal devices bell to bell for all grades and took effect with the new school year. Several of the questions raised were addressed by administration at the August 11 study session, covered in that recap. We report what speakers said at the podium and attribute claims to them. We do not adjudicate any of it. Speaker names are as read from the podium and sign-up sheet.
Questioning the process or the reach of the policy
Luz Lawton asked why the board chose to waive a reading on this particular policy, noting that a June draft had treated high school lunch and passing time differently. She said waiving the reading removed a chance for high school families to weigh in, asked why the district's survey did not separate out high school family responses before using districtwide results to justify a high school policy, and said her own daughter's experience at Groves suggested the previous policy was never consistently enforced. She said she supports keeping phones away during instruction but not eliminating access for the entire day.
Jennifer Brodjeski, parent of a Groves senior, raised two practical concerns. First, her daughter has used an iPad for note-taking for two years and will now be limited to the district laptop; she pointed to Bloomfield Hills' bring-your-own-device approach and asked who families should contact to get personal devices approved for classroom use under the state law's instructional exemption.
PAACT Note
Context on that comparison, from us and not the speaker: Bloomfield Hills' own materials describe its high school as a BYOD environment because the district does not issue a one-to-one device to every high schooler. It provides devices in grades K-8, with classroom computers and a limited loaner and rental program at the high school. BPS issues a device to every high school student, which is part of why the two districts land in different places under the same law.
Second, she said the newly issued Chromebooks block personal email and personal Google Docs, which seniors use for college applications and essays, and asked that this be resolved immediately.
Tim Gorbatoff, a 16-year Beverly Hills resident, said the state law found no compelling evidence to ban devices during non-instructional time and that no other district had found one either. He said the policy passed without a second reading and was the opposite of what was read at first reading, referenced a national advocacy organization he believes influenced the vote, and asked the board to suspend the ban, conduct a study, and reinstate it only if the results support it.
Joy Mills, parent of a senior, asked what the policy looks like in practice for a student who leaves campus at lunch or travels to the Oakland Schools Technical Campus, where the phone gets turned in, and how she will reach her daughter for pickup when the office used to ask whether she had texted her.
Cindy Weinreb, parent of a rising senior and seventh grader, said the district is missing an opportunity to teach responsibility, that a policy has to be achievable and sustainable to work, and that a bell-to-bell approach without a lunch break is not realistic for students who will be on their own within a year.
Andee Gorbatoff, a 14-year BPS parent and volunteer attending her first board meeting, said she supports phone-free, distraction-free classrooms but not bell to bell in high school. She said the board heard from K-8 parents and a special interest group but did not make a concerted effort to solicit input from current Groves and Seaholm families, urged trustees to visit the high school hallways and lunchrooms and observe, and said she had not seen communication explaining how the district plans to manage the practical consequences of the policy.
Supporting the policy
Margaret Murray, an associate professor of communication at UM-Dearborn, thanked the board for a clear and consistent policy and read, with permission, a message from a Seaholm teacher who said teaching has been hard because students were always on their phones and that the earbud ban is even better. Murray said smartwatches and iPads are covered by state law, not just district policy, that a consistent policy is easier to enforce, and that the pupil accounting manual counts passing time as instructional time.
Sahar Omrani Eid, leader of the Birmingham Bloomfield chapter of MAMA, said she supports the policy for the cultural shift it represents, that change takes iteration, and that the issue is distraction rather than technology. She cited state test rankings, the number of states moving toward bell-to-bell restrictions, and a University of Pennsylvania teacher survey.
Natalie Kavanagh, a Pierce parent, said she empathizes with parents worried about reaching their students but supports the policy. She cited a RAND report from October 2025 in which principals reported both drawbacks, including parent concern about a direct line and some student anxiety, and benefits, including reduced inappropriate device use, reduced cyberbullying, and less distraction during safety drills.
Asking for an implementation plan
Betsy McDaniel, a BPS parent and founder of PAACT, said she was not there to argue against the policy and that going bell to bell fits Birmingham's identity as a lighthouse district. She said the problem is what is underneath the policy: a real change arrived without a visible plan to support the people who have to live it, and a policy that exists only on paper teaches students that rules here are not real. She said staff need to know what enforcement looks like and who backs them, families need to know what the first 90 days look like and where to go when something is not working, and every parent needs to know how to reach their child in an emergency. She asked that the plan catch up to the policy before students arrive and that no policy of this size be proposed without one going forward.
Formal Action
The votes
| Resolution | What it does | Vote |
|---|---|---|
| 4: Consent agenda | Personnel report and minutes of the June 23 and July 7 regular meetings and the August 11 special meeting. | 5–0 |
| 5: BAEOP contract | Ratifies a three-year agreement with secretarial staff. Hourly wage increases retroactive to July 1, 2026, plus increases in longevity pay for employees with five or more years of service, and some language changes. | 5–0 |
| 6: AFSCME contract | Ratifies a three-year agreement with custodial, grounds, and maintenance staff. Hourly wage increases retroactive to July 1, 2026. Longevity pay for employees with five or more years of service begins with this contract. | 5–0 |
| 7: History textbooks | Approves McGraw-Hill World History and U.S. History materials under a six-year contract, not to exceed $250,000 based on current enrollment. The August 11 estimate was about $200,000. Lori Ajlouny voted no. See below. | 4–1 |
| 8: Special education PAC | Appoints Greg Butera as parent representative to the Oakland Schools Special Education Parent Advisory Committee for 2026-27. He has served on the county PAC for four years and chaired the BPS PAC for two. | 5–0 |
From the personnel report
Approved within the consent agenda: 25 new hires and re-hires, 10 transfers, and 20 resignations and retirements.
Leadership changes: Groves assistant principal Jason Henshaw resigned after one year and ten months, and Seaholm counselor Mackenzie Wolf moved into the Groves AP role. Curriculum coordinator Amy Bowman resigned after four and a half years. Special education supervisor Julianne Umbarger resigned after one year; two new special education supervisors were hired August 3.
Two speech pathologists resigned in August, one after nine months and one after three and a half years. Two operations assistants retired with a combined 61 years of service. Four paraprofessionals were placed in one-year apprentice teacher assignments.
The textbook vote
This recommendation has now been before the board four times. It was pulled June 23, split off from the economics and government materials July 7, discussed at length August 11, and returned for a vote August 25. The review process administration described on August 11, quarterly teacher work with Oakland Schools consultants, university experts, and underrepresented communities to flag passages and select primary sources, is the plan Dr. Roberson pointed to again tonight. Ajlouny, a former history teacher, said she applies a set of tests to any textbook, looking at how it treats women, Black and African American history, other minority groups, and Indigenous populations, and found many areas of concern in the McGraw-Hill materials. She said she also researched alternatives and found them falling short, and that the consistent advice was to rely on supplementary material. Her objection was that she did not see how supplementary material gets chosen without a curricular roadmap, and she said she is willing to put in the work to help build one.
Dr. Roberson said there is no perfect textbook because publishers write for a national market, that she had raised her own concerns with the social studies teachers before the materials came to the board, and that teachers will go unit by unit to build a curriculum map that replaces narrative interpretations with primary sources before each unit is taught. The assistant superintendent presenting the resolution said the concern is narrative interpretation rather than entire units, and that she would not put a percentage on how much of a 500-page book is affected. Trustees noted the current U.S. history and world history texts date to 2018 and the economics and government texts to 2016, and that the 2018 edition did not cover the 2016 election.
Business Services
2020 bond closeout
David Goldman of Plante Moran Realpoint presented the quarterly dashboard and a retrospective on the $195 million 2020 bond. With interest, rebates, and other contributions, the total program budget is $201.4 million. Every category is 96 to 100 percent committed, no projects remain to be designed or bid, and the program closes out in December. Remaining funds can go to critical facility needs or roll into a future bond. Buildings passed inspection and open on time, with punch list items still being worked.
Summer 2026 work touched Beverly, Greenfield, Harlan, Pembroke, Derby, and Seaholm, with selective roof replacements at Derby, Pierce, Quarton, and West Maple and new furniture delivered to six elementary buildings. Greenfield received paving, a new monument sign, directional signage to the main entrance, main office flooring, and restroom work. Derby's pool and gym got new barrel roofs. Much of the summer work was mechanical: boilers, HVAC, and electrical upgrades. Over six years the program produced 56 board presentations, 30 bid packages, and work in all 18 buildings.
Business Services
Facility utilization, corrected
Paul Wills of Plante Moran Realpoint presented a revised facility utilization study. The numbers the board and the public were given in May were incorrect, and this presentation replaces them. For this version, principals went back and confirmed how each classroom was used in the last semester before summer.
Why the figures were corrected, in the district's own words
From the Background and Key Assumptions slide of the presentation: "Following an outside inquiry, several errors were found in the facility utilization assessment figures presented to the Board on May 5, 2026 by the district's outside facility consultants. The BPS Chief Finance and Operations Officer has subsequently fully reviewed and vetted the assessment. Revised data is provided in this presentation."
The method divides students taught in general education classrooms by the capacity of those classrooms, using 24 students per room at JK-5, 26 at grades 6-8, 27 at Covington, and 28 at high school. Art, music, computer labs, resource rooms, and preschool rooms are excluded. Wills described 85 percent as the industry target. He also showed two other class-size yardsticks the district could use: the teacher contract maximums (28 at K-1 up to 35 at high school) and the Department of Treasury figures used for state-qualified bonds (20 at K-2 down to 21.25 at high school), which BPS does not use.
| Level | May 2026 | Revised | General ed rooms | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary | 69% | 74% | 167 | 2,963 |
| Middle (incl. all of Covington) | 72% | 70% | 106 | 1,941 |
| High school | 73% | 69% | 110 | 2,130 |
| District | 71% | 383 | 7,034 |
Building-level figures in the packet range from 53 percent at Greenfield and 60 percent at Harlan to 93 percent at Pierce and 95 percent at Quarton. Among secondary buildings, Derby is lowest at 63 percent and Berkshire highest at 77 percent. Enrollment counts are as of fall 2025; the study will be updated after the October count.
Enrollment context
Wills said BPS enrollment is down about 1,100 students, or 13.4 percent, from its 2013 peak of 8,376, and that the decline tracks falling birth rates across Southeast Michigan rather than families leaving. He said the district's kindergarten capture rate has held at roughly 3.6 percent of Oakland County births, that about 22.5 percent of resident students attend private school, in line with peer districts, and that last fall was the first graduating class under 500 seniors. He said births have leveled off, so the current kindergarten class size is likely the new norm for the next five years.
The $240 million bond and the buildings
The district's 10-year capital need is about $470 million. The November 3 ballot asks voters to authorize up to $240 million with no expected increase in the current 3.80-mill debt levy. Trustee Rass noted that Midvale is the only building slated for new construction; the rest is infrastructure. Wills said the average building is about 43 years old. Dr. Roberson said preschool must be centrally located on a single floor, and that only West Maple, Bingham Farms, Midvale, and Covington are fully one-level buildings, which is why the early childhood expansion is planned at Midvale. She said the district will form a Resource Utilization Committee this fall with broad community representation to review use of financial, staffing, and facility resources, and that if a building were taken offline or enrollment changed, bond money would be reallocated to other needs, as happened when a planned Harlan addition was dropped during the last bond. Wills noted the bond would be sold in series and reviewed at each phase.
Also From The Meeting
Closed session
The board moved into closed session at 8:28 p.m. under Section 8(c) of the Open Meetings Act, which permits closed sessions for strategy and negotiation connected with collective bargaining. This is the third consecutive meeting to close with a bargaining session. The BAEOP and AFSCME contracts ratified tonight came out of that work; the BEA contract runs through 2028.
PAACT's Note
What we noticed
On phones, the room was divided on the policy but not on the questions. Parents on both sides asked the same practical things: how a student at the technical campus turns in a phone, how a pickup change reaches a senior, who approves a personal device for a lesson, why a district Chromebook blocks the email a college application arrives on. Administration began answering some of these August 11 and said level-specific communication was coming before school starts. Students arrive Monday. Whether that communication landed, and whether it answers the questions asked tonight, is what families will be measuring in the first weeks.
On The Calendar
Coming up
Students return next week. The Community House lease returns to the board once administration completes its review. Four administrative regulations are due out soon, including the parent code of conduct and AI acceptable use. The October count day is the first Wednesday of October, and the utilization study will be updated afterward. The Resource Utilization Committee forms this fall. The $240 million bond is on the November 3 ballot. Every regular meeting and study session includes public comment.
