School board agrees 1.75 mills would be better for sinking fund

The Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education discussed how much millage to put on the sinking fund ballot in November and informally decided that 1.75 mills would be better than the 1.5 mills suggested at the May 9 board meeting.
This is to replace the 0.5 mill that had been approved for seven years and is expiring. The Headlee Amendment has reduced that to 0.4870 mill.
The board is expected to pass a resolution at its June 13 meeting to have the ballot call for 1.75 mills for 6 years starting in 2023. This would put the date of the next election on a presidential election year which board members agreed brings out more voters.
School Supt. Pete Kudlak had prepared a chart showing other districts and how much millage they are levying.
He said going to 1.75 mills would still leave Van Buren Public Schools in the bottom half of the school districts as far as millage levied.
Board president Amy Pearce said the board had discussed 2.00 mills, but she agrees 1.75 is “where we need to be.”
Matt Hiser of Thrun Law was present to explain the resolution and approval of the ballot wording needed to be passed at the next meeting for it to be on the Nov. 8 ballot.
He said new rules say the sinking fund can be used for security improvements, technology, and buying real estate, as well as maintenance of buildings and property.
Supt. Kudlak said with money to be used on buildings, it leaves more of the district’s other funds to be used in the classrooms.
In the board packet for the meeting were pages listing things board members legally can and can’t do to support or opposed the ballot proposal, prepared by the Thrun Law Firm.
In other business at Monday’s one-hour-and-50-minute meeting, the board:
• Approved the 2022-23 membership in the Michigan High School Athletic Association for Belleville High School and McBride Middle Schools;
• Approved the Wayne RESA 2022-23 budget. The total budget over all funds is $516.5 million;
• Heard spring building presentations from McBride, Rawsonville and Savage schools;
• Approved the employment of Brandy Cavazos as lead preschool teacher at the Early Childhood Development Center and Amy Ballard as the Lead Infant/Toddler teacher at the ECC, both as of Sept. 1;
• Approved the resignation of BHS teacher Hannah Sabol as of May 18 after five years of service;
• Approved hiring Sherree Smith as a school bus driver as of May 4;
• Approved the retirement of Jacquelyn Kuclo-Zweng after 13 years in the BHS food service department as of May 20; and the resignation of Nicholas Cadeau from Buildings & Grounds as of May 25 after two years of service; and
• Heard resident Reg Ion say he had retired from the school district as head custodian after 24 years of service and ran the sound equipment for school board meetings for 20 years, so he has been to many school board meetings. He said the reports of guns at the school was disturbing and the statement about metal detectors being “racist” was not right and he doesn’t think the superintendent should say such things. He said Supt. Kudlak just said he doesn’t want them and that’s the reason they won’t have them. Ion said he doesn’t like metal detectors, either, but he’d rather have them in place than have something happen and wish they had had them. Ion said, actually, they should have been built in when the new school was built. He said the superintendent threatened to leave if they put in metal detectors and that reminded him of Michael Van Tassel who also used to threaten to quit if he didn’t get his way. Ion said if Kudlak can’t take it, maybe this is not the job for him. Ion also asked about the use of the pool by the community who paid for it, the way they used to do it, and the flagpole he has asked them about for a year or more.