WSD Voice - Podcast

We always miss our students during the summer, so in Episode 1, Season 6, we couldn’t wait to get back into the classroom to hear our students' excitement about the new school year! 

After visiting the classroom, Superintendent Adam Martin and Director of Communications and Community Relations Sarah Davis dive into the Non-Homestead Operating Millage Replacement that will be on the November 3, 2026 ballot. The district's Visioning Forward initiative is also discussed.

This episode’s featured guests are:

Zion Hannah, Knudsen 5th Grader
Evelyn Gannon, Mason 7th Grader
Alyvia Kymla, Mott 12th Grader

Hosts: Sarah Davis, Director of Communications and Community Relations
Adam Martin, Superintendent
Producer: Justin Harnack, Communications Specialist

Hello and welcome to WSD Voice, a podcast focused on positive and informative news in Waterford School District. I'm your host, Sarah Davis, the director of communications and community relations, and I'm here with Waterford School District Superintendent Adam Martin. We are excited to be back for the 2627 school year. We always miss our students when they are away. So for this first episode, we couldn't wait to get back into the classroom to hear what the excitement about the new school year is all about.

Yes, Sarah. And in addition to that, from a district perspective, we have two pretty big things. Our non homestead operating millage is on the November 3rd ballot proposal. And we also have the Visioning Forward initiative that we're rolling out with a big community survey that that's live and accessible for all of our communities. Yeah, absolutely. Two very important initiatives.

But first, let's hear from our students about how the start of the school year is going for them.

Welcome. This is Adam Martin, superintendent of Waterford School District. I'm hosting a WSD Voice here live at Mott High School with one of our seniors, Alyvia. Alyvia Kymla, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. Thank you for joining us. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? All right. Question number one. How is the energy and atmosphere on campus been so far this year?

Three weeks in, it's been very energetic. We're in the middle of planning homecoming and elections for student council. So, yeah, everyone's pretty excited for homecoming. So you guys have your homecoming theme all already? Yes. Do you have your dress? I do not yet. Not yet. Okay. All right. So are you a part of student council? Is. Okay. Student council and leadership.

All right, so talk to me about student council. What's your role on student council? So right now we're still doing elections, but I am going to run for the exact board president. Okay. So yeah. And then for leadership, we are mainly working in committees to plan homecoming. Okay. But, student council is also helping with that. So when you say plan homecoming, talk to me about some of the things that you guys are involved with planning.

So we have a couple of different committees. We have game day pep rally, the actual dance committee. Okay. So we have like a group of five people per committee, and we just work on planning the specific each one of those pieces. So which one are you planning? I'm planning the pep rally for the pep rally. So is pep rally the Friday of spirit week?

Yes. Okay. All right. All right. What's your favorite game that you guys are planning for at the assembly or pep rally? So we are letting the school body vote for a couple games. Okay. But last year, we did the watermelon eating contest, which is a pretty popular and fun to watch, so I'm excited for that one. All right.

Cool. Do that. When is home? When is the homecoming dance? This year. The dance is on October 10th. Okay, that's Saturday, so then all the Spirit Week festivities will be that week leading into. And the dances right here at Mott. Right. Okay. Awesome. What other clubs, sports or leadership activities have you or are you going to be participating in this year or have you participated in the past?

So I am in the Leadership Link crew. Student council and I run cross country and track. Okay. Can you give us any insight into how that has helped shaped your high school experience? So being very involved in the school has made me. I've created multiple relationships with my tears and the staff members. So it's just made it a lot easier to have people to talk to you.

How did it go helping ninth graders this year with Link Crew get accustomed to the building and doing that. It went pretty well. We had a couple games that we had prepared for them and I think they enjoyed it. Awesome. Awesome. How do you think your experience here has helped you prepare for life after high school? And where where are you thinking you're going to be post-high school?

So we have a lot of different programs here, which I love. I'm doing co-op currently. Okay. So that's really nice. And, I just think all of the elective classes we have are helping a lot. Yeah. Economics and stuff. Okay. For your co-op. So you're leaving school earlier or are you coming in a little bit later? I leave after fifth hour.

All right. All right. What are you thinking? Post-high school. So I definitely want to go to college. All right. Maybe go into dermatology. Okay. All right. So, looking back over the total career at at at modern Waterford School District, what are some teachers or experiences that you look back on most fondly? I love the admin here. I think they've done a lot of things to help our school.

So I think just all of the different rules they implemented throughout the year is really helping, not as a whole. Okay. What middle school did you go to? I went to Mason. You're a mason. And then what? Elementary. I went to Grayson. Grayson. All right. So who was your favorite teacher at Grayson? Did you have one? I think miss the Costa.

I think she goes by miss Grant now, but I guess her. Yeah. All right. Well, Olivia, thank you so much for your time. Is there anything you would like to to share as a send off? No. No, no. Go, corsairs. Yes! Go, corsairs. All right. Thanks, Olivia.

Hello, this is Adam Martin, superintendent of Waterford School District. I'm hosting w SD voice on location at Mason Middle School. We have a seventh grader with us. I do want to go ahead and introduce yourself. Hi, I'm Evelyn Gannon and I'm in seventh grade. All right, Evelyn, I got a few questions for you. Just getting a feel for how the school year went.

Is that okay? Yeah, yeah. So how are things going? Good. Good. All right, so, how is your time here, Ben? And what do you enjoy most about being a middle school student? My time here at Mason Middle School has been good. I mostly enjoy the independence that you get when you are in middle school. Okay. What?

When you came here as a sixth grader, what independence was it? The that was most profound to you? Or you were like, well, this is, that, like, you don't have to walk in a straight line to class to class. You just kind of get a walk by yourself. Okay. So they they expect you to be a young adult?

Yeah, yeah. All right. So middle school offers a lot of new options. Which class, elective or extracurricular club are you most excited about right now? I'm not in much clubs right now, but I do enjoy my choir class. Choir? Yeah. By Am and scouts too, so if that counts. All right. What other electives are you taking?

Right now, this year I'm taking the anchor program and choir. Okay. Yeah. Talk to me about the anchor program. What is this? It's where we go and help the special needs kid. Okay. All right. Yeah. So do you like that? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Did you sign up for that, or did someone ask you to. To kind of.

So at the end of the school year, they have you signed up for the classes that you want. Okay. For the next school year. So I just signed up for that last year and I got it. Okay. Awesome. How do your teachers and fellow students at Mason help make the school a positive and supportive place to learn? The teachers are very supportive, and my friends like.

And classmates make it like a very, like, fun and entertaining and funny environment to learn it. What is one personal or academic goal you've set for yourself at Mason for this school year? So what are you hoping to, I'm open to keep my grades up. I've always made now, besides one seed plus in science. Okay.

And I'm hoping to get Eagle Scout by the school year. Okay. Those are great goals. Yeah. You know, I was a science teacher once, a long time ago. So if you ever need help tutoring with science, you know this one vocab test. One vocab test for you. Yeah, it's earlier in the year, right? So you don't have enough assignments where if you if you don't do.

Great. What are you studying in science right now? Do you remember? We're just focusing on vocabulary right now. Okay. All right. What is one piece of advice you would share with an elementary student who may be coming to Mason in a couple of years? That, like, it's like a big change, and it may be scary, but they got this, and they'll get used to it pretty quickly.

And they just want to be their self. Have fun, try new things and don't forget their locker combination. Wow. Locker combination is a big one right? Yeah. What elementary did you go to? Cooley. Cooley. All right. Do you have a favorite teacher from Cooley or favorite experience from? My favorite teacher from Cooley is Miss Rinehart, and she's an assistant principal this year at Mason.

All right. Yeah. So that was a cool homecoming a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, Evelyn, thank you so much. I appreciate the time and look forward to seeing you around and you being super successful in choir, chorus, chorale everywhere. Sound good? Yeah. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much.

This is Adam Martin, superintendent, Waterford School District on location here at Knudsen elementary for WSD voice. And I have a very special fox with me. My name is scion Hanna. I'm in grade five and I'm ten. Thank you. Zion. We're happy to have you here. Who's your teacher, Mr. Gardner? He's actually a really good teacher. Yeah. Mr. Gardner, you like Mr. Gardner?

Yeah, yeah. And how was your fourth grade year here? Pretty. Pretty successful, would you say? Yeah, it was good. It was good. I did a lot of work. It was really successful. Okay. All right. I like the orange and the blue here. Tell me about that. Why'd you choose orange and blue today? Because our school colors, since we are the foxes, our colors are blue and orange.

So I decided to go with jeans and the orange shirt. Okay, so you're representing the Knudsen today? Yes. All right, you could if I ask you some questions. Yes. All right. So what was the most exciting part about coming back to Knudsen? This school year? Meeting my friends, meeting the teachers, and learning math and reading and science.

Which one's your favorite math, reading or science? Science. Sciences. I love experimental, cool stuff. Like we are. We're like planting now. Yeah, yeah. You know, I was a science teacher a long time ago. You were, I was. That was cool. Yeah, yeah. Did you guys have you guys started playing around with germinating seeds and getting them to sprout?

Have you guys done that yet? I don't think so. I don't think so. You would know if you did because it's pretty cool. Yeah. So talk to me about when you walked in fifth grade. Brand new teacher, your class roster. Did you have some old friends in there that you were excited about? And have you gotten any new friends?

I have some of my old friends in there, and I have since it's a new student, I had become friends with her. Okay. All right. At recess time, do you see the other fifth grade class? Yes. Yeah. The other fifth grade class has also some of my friends. And I'm pretty sad that we're separated, but at least we get to see each other.

Yeah. So are you in? You said your teacher was whom again? Mr. Gardner. Mr. Gardner, are you with Mr. Gardner all day long, or do you guys switch back and forth between the two fifth grade teachers where we're at the Gardner on the long. Okay, so do you enjoy recess time and getting to connect with some of those other fifth graders?

Yes. Yeah. Who's one fifth grader in the other class that you really like connecting. Connecting with either at lunch or recess time? Probably Luca, my best friend. We play basketball with each other all the time at recess. Okay, so basketball is your thing to do? Yeah. All right, so when it snows or rains, not a good day.

Yeah, because we don't get to go outside and I don't get to see him inside. Recess. Not your not your biggest state. I don't really like it, but I do like playing with the Jenga blocks. Yeah, blocks are cool. So talk to me about your specials classes. What's your favorite specials class? Gym. Gym. All because I like I want to play basketball when I grow up.

So then a gym like probably a unit before probably next week we're going to play basketball and I could learn more stuff and become better at basketball. So when you say you guys are going to play basketball going back to fourth grade year, do they split you up in teams or are you just in there? Playing and having a good time?

Kind of pick up like you would at recess. Like sometimes we'll have, like, a warm up practice way, like some teams and stuff. And then at the end we're probably do like some couple teams versus teams and then. Yeah. Okay. What is your strength as a basketball player? You got a good handle. You got a good shot. You got good quickness.

You're a good defender. I think I'm a good defender. I have quick and I get good at shots okay. Do you play basketball anywhere else other than here for PD? I practice with my two brothers at home and we always like because my big brother, he's he loves basketball a lot and he wants me to become a basketball player when I grow up.

Or he does. So we can be successful. Okay. How old are your older brothers? Yeah, one of my brothers was like, 23. Okay. And my middle and my other brother is 18. 18. Did they take it easy on you? They do sometimes when I asked to. They just want me to learn a lot faster. Okay. If a guest walked into Knudsen for the first time, what is the coolest thing in your school that you would show the.

Probably the teachers in the principal because they're super nice. Yeah. And they introduce them really well and get to know other students really better. Okay. What is one fun thing or goal that you're really looking forward to doing in your classroom this year? Becoming a good math musician or become a scientist or something? Okay, so keep it learning.

Math and science. Yeah. All right. So what's going to happen next year? So you're going to go from fifth grade to sixth grade. Where do you go next? I might go to piers because it's the closest one to my house okay. And then I might learn Ela or Nath again or science or. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Continue. Learn it.

All right. Are you a little bit nervous about leaving Knudsen in here? Yep. Yeah, because I think some of my friends are going to Mason. Okay. With, like, a lot of my friends because they live, like, close to Mason while I go to. Plus, some of my old friends are going to Pierce, too. Okay. So you're gonna you're gonna meet, have an opportunity to meet new friends, right?

Yeah. Anything you want to say to your your foxes, your friends. Anything to the lower grades that's lower than me. Make sure you don't get into any trouble and do good actions. Okay? So talk to me. How do you stay out of trouble? If I if it's like, something that it's something where I'm, like, at, I just walk away or telling the dog.

Okay. All right. So if you, if you see some action going down, go find somebody to help. Yeah, yeah. How about in class? Do you, do you, do you chit chat a lot. Do you have a good time or do you know, you know when there's a time to be quiet and the time to talk. When is it time to be quiet?

I make sure I'm quiet. And if someone's trying to talk to me, I quiet and quietly tell them, can you please stop talking? Okay. All right. You seem like a man that gets things done. Is that true? Yes. Yeah. All right, man, keep it up, I appreciate you. Thank you. Yeah.

Welcome back to the studio. Hearing directly from our students at Knudsen, Mason and Mott is always the best reminder of why we do what we do. That first week, energy, enthusiasm and focus on growth is what back to school season is all about across our district. Absolutely. And, you know, hearing them share the heart of Waterford school districts.

Just amazing. All of them are settling in and being able to look forward and look backward. I thought from each of those students provided a different perspective and an incredible impact that we're able to have, but also our students are having on us. So yeah, it was great to great to meet and hear from them. Yeah. So like you mentioned earlier, there's two major district initiatives that are going to directly impact the student experience this school year and give our whole community a voice in shaping the future.

So the first is the non homestead millage proposal that's appearing on the ballot November 3rd. In the second is our new Visioning Forward Community survey. So we're going to start talking about the millage first and unpack what our families and residents need to know. Okay. So Adam, you're going to be explaining a lot of these things. Are you ready?

I will try my best to make an as simple as possible. Okay. So what exactly is a non homestead millage and does it impact property taxes on primary homeowners in Waterford. All right. So let me start with the second question. It has impact on primary homeowners in Waterford. Their taxes. They will not see a tax increase. I know there's some out there that hey this is going to be a tax increase.

That that is not true. If you're in your primary home, there is a zero tax increase. For what is the non homestead operating millage. So non homestead refers to properties that are commercial real estate second homes like vacation properties or businesses. So this only impacts those locations. I, I would call it. So the non homestead operating village the way the state of Michigan collects or funds school districts is 18 mills from those non homesteads are levied and that those local taxes are revenues come to the school district.

Right now Waterford School District is not collecting the full 18 mill levy. We're at I want to say 17.7 something like that. So the non homestead operating millage restoration or renewal is asking the voters to be able to return that 17.7 to the full 18 mills. Because the gap between those 18 mills and the 17.7, the state does not give us funding for that.

And we're missing out around half $1 million a year because we're not collecting the full 18 mills. Right. So it's just a fraction of a difference. But for us, it makes a really big impact, especially when you're adding it up annually. Absolutely. Yeah. It's it's about a .25 mill increase on again the non homestead properties. So just want to be clear non homestead are businesses commercial properties secondary vacation homes.

It is not people's primary residence. If you are a primary resident you're voting on this will not impact your taxes at all. Okay. How does this fit into Michigan's overall school funding model. Kind of touched on that. And how does state law expect the local districts like Waterford School District to handle this portion of the school funding?

Yeah. So, the the state law expects that the full 18 mil is being collected locally to school districts. If it isn't, the state doesn't do anything other than they have this mechanism, which is go back to the voters and have the voters allow a school district to override that rollback and be able to collect the full 18 mills.

Okay. What was the first part of that question? I'm sorry. Let me see here. How does the millage fit into Michigan's overall school funding model? Oh, I'm going to try to simplify that as easy as I can. So the school funding model I've been explaining it as two fist or two buckets. First is the local non homestead which is 18 mills.

And then the second is the school aid fund that comes from the state and that comes from various sources. The lot of money is in their state taxes in there between the two. The state uses those two amounts to ensure that the $10,300 per pupil at full time equivalency basically is given to the school district. So when they look at it, they look at how many total students you have.

They multiply that by $10,300. Then they look at your property taxes that should be coming in for the non homestead. And then the school aid fund is what the state distributes you distributes to make up the rest of what that pool is. So if any of one of those buckets is less than full, there is no mechanism to make up that money, right?

So in this case, the non homestead operating millage or renewal is asking the voters to approve us to collect the full 18 mills and restore that half $1 million that we're currently not getting in the state does not backfill for us. Right? Right. They won't supplement that. No, they do not. So then what happens to our district operating budget and day to day programs?

If this millage is an approved by voters, I mean, certainly it's going to impact what we do. Around 87% of our total operating budget goes into operations, facilities, transportation, teaching and learning. You know, so if you want to use that, round it up, 90% of it, $450,000 is 90% of $500,000 would not be available for teaching and learning and bussing and some of those other pieces.

So is there one specific thing that gets impacted by it? Not necessarily, but it would be spread around. In the way that we spend our general fund money as well. So, okay, I'm going to answer this next question for you. Good. So looking for some help here. Yeah. We're can parents, staff and community members go to get factual information about Election Day?

We have a dedicated operating millage web page wsdmi.org/millage. And on there we have posted factual breakdowns, ballot language, and frequently asked questions so the community can feel free to go there and really dive in deeper into what this means and the impact that it will have on our schools as well as them selves of any.

Yeah. And on their two recent board meetings, we've been sharing and talking about a lot of things, these things as well. So yeah okay. So now we're going to go on to the next big topic, the Visioning Forward survey, which is currently live right now. Yep. But let's start with why are we doing this and why are we doing it this year?

So the Visioning Forward initiative is allowing our district leadership team to really capture what our community wants for Waterford School District as we envision forward. Right. So we had this strategic plan back in the winter. That really is our compass North. We've had plant Moran reappoint share some enrollment and some facility utilization data. The good thing is the district is in a really healthy space, right?

So how do we proactively gain or gather input? So that way, we can vision forward and create the future that we want for Waterford School District. Okay. Who is invited to take the survey? He everybody. Everybody. Parents, students, community members, alumni, employees, anybody and everybody who has a connection or had a connection to Waterford School District or Waterford Township for that matter, is invited to participate in the survey.

The more input, the more feedback we get. It's more data points and opportunities for us to be able to unearth and identify some common themes, some common initiatives that our community is wanting or seeking from us. And then it's our job to figure out, okay, how do we prioritize that and then start taking action in terms of what that is?

What were some topics in some areas that administration was specifically looking to hear feedback from that people will encounter when they're taking the survey. Yeah. So, academic programs, what are, what are things that, we would the community would like to see us do. So I think let me go backwards. What are the things that we're doing really well?

What are things that they would like to see and then what are opportunities for us to improve? Right. So academic programs is one of them. Oh, man. How our facilities are serving the community is another, you know, school of choice is another one. We do have School of Choice students coming in. We have School of Choice students going out.

But it's trying to really cast a wide net to be able to allow our community to provide some pretty directed feedback for all of the different things we do transportation, and all of the different ways that we interface with our community. And then part of that too, is kind of trying to ascertain or what we've been calling internally so far, our portrait of a graduate.

Can you talk a little bit about what portrait of a graduate is? Yeah. So the portrait of a graduate really is a portrait, right? So, a picture of what it is we want all of our, students attributes that we want all of our students to have, as they're great as they're graduating. Correct. And it really is starting with the end in mind.

Right? So one of them is, you know, an effective communicator. Like, what does that mean? I think all of us would agree we want all of our students to be able to, to read and write and speak and to be able to engage in conversations where there are disagreements. But being able to do that in a, a really professional and I'll say eloquent way.

So for us, it's really casting a vision of what are the attributes we want of our all of our Waterford graduates to have. And then, what's going to be incumbent upon us is how do we build in those experiences over the course of 13 years, and how do they build upon each other? So that way when we are graduating students, not only are we graduating students who have a diploma, but we're graduating students who can sit in a seat and we can feel very confident that they are going to be successful because of who they are as individuals, and also what skills or attributes that they've ascertained in their 13 years with us.

So we're gathering all this information and by the time the podcast comes out, the survey will no longer be available to the public. So once that's done and it ends up it ended September 28th, I guess I should say. What does the board and admin at the school level plan to do with all of this data and information that has gotten from the survey?

Yeah. So phase one of this visioning forward process is really gathering feedback. Feedback. Sorry. Gathering input. Phase two will be really analyzing what that what that feedback is. So our hope and our belief is as we start unpacking we're going to see some common themes, some common directions in terms of what does the district do.

And at that point it will be really unearthing and sharing those themes with the board and board of education meetings with the community as well. I mean, I have an intention to be able to, as we are working our way through this, be able to make sure that transparently, we're sharing this information with the community as we move ourselves forward and that so phase two is really, analyzing the data.

And then phase three early 2027 is making a recommendation to the board about what the survey said and how it aligns to the strategic plan, what the analysis and what the impact of that is. Making a recommendation to the board in early 2027 and then taking action. And that could be action that happens, like the next month or action that might be, hey, this is 3 or 4 years away, right?

Okay. So for community members who want to stay involved, now that the survey is closed, who want to stay involved in the visioning forward process, what are some other opportunities, perhaps for them to participate? So we have we will have a Google survey like a FAQ that they can continue to provide feedback as we're presenting. But at the board meetings, kind of from here on out, we will be coming, coming and presenting information.

And, you know, we'll try our best to be able to give them as we move ourselves forward where we're at and what the stage is. I have my student advisory council, my parent district parent committee. We are going to put together a community council and a staff advisory council. So I would say, depending on where you're at, within the community, reaching out to those individuals.

I, our district parent council, I'm assuming, I believe will be at the PTAs because that's where most of them are sharing information and being able to disseminate information that way. And we also plan to have regular updates on our district website, and I'm sure we'll be putting some stuff out on our social media to us as we go through the process, so people can always follow those channels to stay tuned.

Yeah. All right. Well, that's it. That's us talking about our two, those two big initiatives again. Yeah, the election and the Visioning Forward survey. Very important things that are all happening at once. But it's good to get it done. And we need to do it in the beginning of the school year for both of them.

So. And both of them are really good things. Right. The non homestead is an opportunity for our voters to make a decision about, you know, a zero tax increase on primary homeowners and ensuring that we have or are able to collect those full 18 mills. And then for the visioning forward opportunity to provide feedback. What are we doing?

Well, what are the things that you'd like to see us do and what are the ways that that we can improve? So we're continuously trying to improve and want to give the community an opportunity to share their feedback in that. Okay. Thank you. Adam. And thank you to our three students, Zion from Knudsen, Evelyn from Mason, and Alyvia from Mott for sharing your back to school excitement with our community.

This podcast is brought to you by Waterford School District's Department of School and Community Services, and is produced by communication specialist Justin Harnack. I am the host of this episode, Sarah Davis, and you can find all episodes of WSD Voice on our website at W s or any Waterford Community cable channel. We also invite you to subscribe to the podcast, which is available on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Amazon Music and if you want to watch the recording on our WSD YouTube channel.

We so appreciate you listening today and encourage you to tune in to future episodes of D voice as we discuss topics geared toward inspiring, educating, and empowering our students, staff, alumni, and community.