School Board approves contracts for Edgemont parking lot, lighting

The Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education on April 30 approved expenditures not to exceed $588,835 to complete the Edgemont Elementary parking lot and site lighting updates there.
These projects were scheduled to be completed as part of the Sinking Fund three-year plan. On March 30 a formal request for proposals was issued and on April 17 sealed bid proposals were received and opened.
A post-bid scope review meeting was held on April 19 and based on information from the meetings, the project team recommended T&M Asphalt Paving with its bid of $483,662, low bid of five bids, and Osier & Son’s Electric with its low bid of three bidders for $45,173. In addition there is $10,000 for a material testing allowance and $50,000 for a construction contingency budget.
The project was estimated to cost $600,000.
The bid recommendations were presented by James Williams, Director of Plant Operations, and Rob Kakoczki of Plante Moran CRESA.
The two also presented the Sinking Fund proposal for district-wide access control/security upgrades at a cost not to exceed $141,684. The contract was awarded to Progressive Hardware Suppliers, LLC, at a bid of $128,804 plus a contingency budget of $12,880.
The recommended bid includes installing card reader access control on all entry points to each elementary school and the two middles schools.
In other business at Monday’s two-hour meeting the board:
• Approved the Schools of Choice Declaration Form for the fall semester, offering an unlimited number of openings. If a student has been suspended in the last two years, the student is not accepted here, said School Supt. Pete Kudlak;
• Heard a lengthy update from Curriculum Director Jeff Moore on the state’s data on student achievement and how it is difficult to make comparisons from year to year because the state changes the process. “We still have a long way to go,” he told the board;
• Heard a presentation from Moore and Alissa McLean of Discovery Education on a Discovery Education Digital Leader Corps project for the district. Moore will present the request for a year’s contract with its price tag at the board’s May 14 meeting. McLean said it was created by the Discovery Channel;
• Approved a three-year contract with Van Buren Township for the township’s use of school buses for transportation for its summer recreation programs. Supt. Kudlak said in the past the township would use the buses and then the school would send it a bill. Now the contract spells everything out. He said it has been vetted by attorneys on both sides;
• Approved renewal of the contract for another year with William D. Ford Center in the Wayne-Westland Community Schools which has been offering career technical classes to BHS students since 2010. About 100 BHS students are involved. Supt. Kudlak said Ford gets .25 FTE of the foundation allowance for each of the BHS students, plus $50 per student;
• Approved 2017-18 general fund budget amendments as presented by Financial Director Shareen Barker. The changes include pulling $1,400,771 out of the fund balance to balance the budget, leaving an unassigned fund balance of $6,440,959, 11.78% of the total budget. There is another $2,206,392 in the fund balance, but it has been assigned by the board of education to cover football turf replacement, enrollment reserve (50), and the WCRESA Enhanced Millage;
• Approved hiring Megan Holmes to teach Spanish at Belleville High School as of April 30;
• Approved Savage Elementary and Edgemont Elementary schools requests for fourth graders to attend a May 16 Mud Hens game in Toledo, Ohio. Travel is by chartered bus;
• Heard Human Resources Director Abdul Madyun say exit interviews have been imbedded in all termination and resignation requests. It is paperless. He also said he has attended job fairs at Eastern Michigan University, where he talked to 12-15 candidates, and to Grand Valley State, where he talked to four candidates. “The teacher shortage is real,” Madyun said, adding recruiters from Alaska and Nevada were also at the job fairs seeking teachers to hire;
• Heard Williams say he will be holding another online auction of unneeded school goods in May. He will put the information on the school web site, he said; and
• Heard Supt. Kudlak say raffles are being set up to help Rawsonville student Devon Turner, who is fighting cancer. He said CAF5 is leading the way and $1 tickets will be sold in each school. He said many unusual items will be raffled off.