Keystone Academy cuts one eighth grade class for September

Keystone Academy Charter School in Sumpter Township will eliminate one of its eighth-grade classes next school year because of a decreased number of eighth graders at the school.
There will be two eighth-grade classes instead of three in the Kindergarten-to-eighth-grade school.
The enrollment was set at 746 for the 2020-21 school year, down from 768 for the 2019-20 year.
This includes 24 in full-day Young Fives; 84 in full-day Kindergarten and first through fifth grades; 81 in sixth and seventh; and 56 in eighth grade.
“We don’t recruit for eighth grade,” said Principal Jorvonna Drain. “Other than that, the total school number will be the same as last year.”
Nancy Kouba of National Heritage Academies, that manages the education program at Keystone, said Keystone will recruit for Kindergarten through fifth grade and graduate proficient eighth graders.
School board president Vesta Losen said if students begin at the school early and stay until graduation from eighth grade, they end up among the top students at the high schools they attend.
She said often Keystone students are in the top-ten senior graduates at Belleville High School and many times the valedictorians are former Keystone students.
Principal Drain said this year there are 57 eighth graders and 59 seventh graders.
Kouba said students are making the decisions on education these days and talking parents into leaving schools like Keystone.
She said it’s not just Keystone, but other charter schools across the country.
Kouba said students want to leave charter schools to be with their friend, to play athletics, and they don’t like the school dress code.
When asked how many students are in a classroom in the upper grades, Kouba said there were 78 students in sixth grade which has 25 or 26 per classroom. In the seventh grade there are 20 per class and in the eighth grade 23 per class.
“I don’t want to see lower classes overloaded,” Losen said, and she was told by Kouba that would not happen.
The board approved the reduced number of seats available for next school year.
In other business at the Jan. 9 regular meeting, the board:
• Heard Kouba congratulate Keystone for being named third in NHA’s 89 schools for improving student attendance. Principal Drain agreed Keystone has been working on it with families. She also said the procedure in the parking lot for those dropping off and picking up students has improved;
• Heard Drain announce the new Chromebooks for students have been purchased by NHA and the school is waiting for delivery. She said Keystone is very close to a 1:1 ratio of students and computers and maybe next year it will be that. She said the students do not take the Chromebooks home;
• Heard Losen say Bay Mills Community College, which authorizes Keystone’s charter, had suggested its schools each write a letter to the six in the State Legislature who were instrumental in recently getting the $240 per student allocated to charter schools. Losen read the letter she composed and board members agreed to having it signed Keystone Academy Board and sending it on to the legislators;
• Discussed the athletic equipment shed that was approved by the board last summer and still not constructed. NHA representative Andrew Roth said the local contractor is still willing to do it, but the NHA requirement for a different kind of insurance is a hold up. Roth said he talked to the contractor and was referred to the contractor’s insurance agent to get the documents he needs. Roth said he asked if NHA could do it in case this contractor doesn’t work out. He said he hopes to have it in place this summer;
• Discussed the 2020 National Charter Schools Conference in Orlando on June 21-24 at an estimated cost of $2,450 each. It looked like board members weren’t going to go, so Principal Drain will ask her deans if they are interested in attending. Losen said the conference she attended in Washington, D.C. did not have much for a small school like Keystone, but they might get some good ideas. An action item to approve funds for the conference was set aside until the board knows how much it needs;
• Discussed proposed board meeting nights for the next school year. They generally are 6 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month. There was some discussion about changing the meeting night to a Monday to facilitate attendance of board vice president Darren Hickonbottom, who is a basketball coach with games on Thursdays during the boys’ and girls’ seasons. Principal Drain said she had changed her daughter’s after-school activities to clear the Thursday meeting nights, but she said she could deal with a change. After more discussion it was agreed to keep the present schedule, with a change from April 8, 2021 to April 15, 2021. Also, the April 2020 meeting will be changed to April 16;
• Agreed the February 2020 meeting will be cancelled due to lack of quorum;
• Approved the reappointment of Losen to another three-year term and heard board secretary Connie Shull say she has decided not to accept another appointment to the board because of the health of her husband. She will complete the end of her term in June, she said. This means the board is looking for another board member and will welcome suggestions;
• Agreed to wait until April or May when the new board member is present for a board development session;
• Heard Brittany Cook of Bay Mills tell the board to mark its calendar to attend the April 30 Bay Mills Conference. “We should all go, if possible,” Losen said;
• Heard Principal Drain report the annual canned food drive was a success with 1,718 food items donated to the Belleville/Van Buren Goodfellows Program. Miss Leppen’s class collected the most items. Also the holiday concerts by the band and seventh-eighth-grade choir students were great successes and 184 students were honored for perfect attendance for the month of December; and
• Learned Andrea Vlademar has been hired as the new intervention paraprofessional and Theresa Mitchell, who worked on the lunch program, will be a special education paraprofessional for a new third grader with needs. Now a lunch position is open. Also, a social worker position is still open.