School Board committee to consider sale, purchase of properties

An ad-hoc committee of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education will consider reports from the Liberty Mutual insurance company and Plante Moran CRESA and come back with a recommendation to the full board on what district properties should be sold, if any, and what should be purchased, if any.
James Williams, director of plant operations, said Liberty Mutual offered to do appraisals of all the district’s properties worth over $1 million, so those documents were ready for study.
At a recent meeting, Williams presented the board with a report from Plante Moran CRESA on the estimated worth of vacant properties owned by the district.
Williams said CRESA had recommended leaving the Career Tech property as it is to see if there are any offers to buy it with the buildings in place.
“If it just sits there,” Williams said. “We could demolish it.”
At Monday’s regular school board meeting, Williams said he wanted an ad-hoc committee of the board to meet March 13 or 20 to come up with a recommendation to the full board. He said the committee should list property to sell, if any; list which properties to “stand pat” on; and the possible purchase of land.
No board members volunteered for the committee and School Supt. Pete Kudlak said they would come up with a committee for the review.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the board:
• Approved the retirement of Pamela Johnson after 18 years of service at the Administration Building, as of June 30. She currently serves as assistant to the superintendent;
• Approved the employment of paraprofessional Chelsea Mittlestat for Rawsonville Elementary School;
• Approved bus usage by the Van Buren Township Recreation Department for its summer camp program, June 18-Aug. 10, with no camp on July 4, and its field trips. Supt. Kudlak said a list of charges would be compiled and the township would only be billed for what it used;
• Approved a field trip for 14 members of the Robotics Team to St. Joseph High School for a robotics challenge March 8-10. The mentors and coaches will transport the team. Teachers are Aaron Lang and Aaron Watkins. Parents/mentors attending will be Bill Wolters, Wade Fields, Jonathan Williams, and Yogesh Sharma;
• Watched a Savage Elementary School presentation on the Grapeseed Young 5s program being tested to get students a good start in reading. Principal Lisa Preuss and teacher Angelique Morrison said they would like to use it in all the kindergarten classrooms. Preuss said Savage has three kindergartens and one is a Gifted and Talented classroom;
• Heard Finance Director Shareen Barker say the payout of the 2010-12 money owed to former employees will be March 1. She explained all the things her office has done to make sure the payouts go to the appropriate people;
• Heard Curriculum Director Jeff Moore point out the OK2SAY link is on the bottom of the district website, so students can alert officials to things that aren’t right;
• Heard board member Darlene Gerick say she attended the recent State Board of Education meeting at RESA and found the board meetings are recorded and available on YouTube so anyone can watch the state board sessions;
• Heard Supt. Kudlak discuss the repercussions of the Florida school shooting. He said warnings are happening at schools everywhere. He said attendance was lower on Friday in the Van Buren schools when the local warning came in, which turned out to be from last December. And, he said, students are responding. He said at BHS the students are meeting with the administration to let them know what the students are planning. He said when students get together and plan something it brings wonderful skills for the students for their future lives and, maybe, it will head off problems now; and
• Went into closed-door session to consider student discipline.
Board secretary Kevin English was absent from the board meeting.