Estrella Torrez Sworn in as School Board Trustee

The East Lansing Public Schools (ELPS) Board of Education met Monday (Oct. 23), marking Estrella Torrez’s first meeting after being selected on Oct. 9 to fill a vacancy left by Monica Fink. Torrez was sworn into office early in the meeting, taking her seat with the six other trustees. 

Ashley Schwarzbek, principal of East Lansing High School (ELHS), kicked off the meeting with a presentation highlighting goals and efforts of the high school administration. She said the efforts stem from three missions of the staff: creating a high structure, high support environment; building a culture of warmth; and focusing on high impact teaching strategies. Implemented policies and procedures include a new door monitor to welcome and process guests, cameras, an updated in-school suspension room, a cell phone policy restricting usage in class and revised hall pass policies.

Board approves 24 revised board of education policies.

The trustees adopted 24 revised board policies in one fell swoop with Treasurer Kath Edsall explaining the reasoning behind the action.

“A couple years ago,” she said, “we adopted a policy manual put out by Thrun [Law Firm, P.C.], and we pretty much exchanged all of our old school policies for the Thrun policy manual at that point in time. We went through it, policy by policy, the policy committee did, looking at [whether] this aligns with our district’s goals and so forth. There was optional language in a lot of policies and then we adopted that policy manual and since then, each year we get updates to those policies from the attorneys that wrote those policies. Specifically, most of what I just read off are very minor changes to those policies; some grammar changes, a comma here, a capitalization…fairly inconsequential.”

ELPS trustees approve motion for bond proposal for enhanced security.

The final item for consideration was a bond proposal to implement security enhancements in district buildings.

“We have,” Superintendent Dori Leyko said, “through stakeholder feedback last year, along with our safety assessments from Secure Education Consultants, have identified some areas of need at our secondary buildings to improve safety, security and accessibility. I’m primarily just focusing on secondary buildings because many structural safety and security measures were built into our new elementary buildings.”

The district rebuilt Donley, Glencairn, Marble, Pinecrest and Whitehills elementary schools and remodeled Red Cedar Elementary beginning in 2017 and wrapping up in 2021.

In the memo she provided to the school board, Leyko identified specific anticipated modifications for MacDonald Middle School, the high school and district offices. Those include addition of a secure entrance at ELHS, relocation of the central office to either an offsite location or a separate and secure onsite location, addition of an interior ramp at ELHS and MMS, unified security interface and technology/camera improvements, interior door hardware allowing teachers to lock their classrooms from the inside, interior window and door coverings, and repaving of parking lots at ELHS and MMS.

The trustees approved the motion, giving Leyko and her team its support to move forward with the consideration of the measure. Leyko indicated the bond would be approximately $23 million with no millage increases.

“May 2024 would be the earliest this proposal would come before the voters,” Leyko said.

The next board meeting is 7 p.m. Nov. 13 in the board meeting room in the lower level of ELHS.