School Board flips again — Haggerty School will stay open another year

After another hour and 45 minutes of discussion, on Monday, the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education voted 5-2 to keep Haggerty School open for another school year.
This follows the March 27 vote of 6-1 to keep Haggerty open for another year and then the April 10 vote of 5-2 to close the school this summer.
The motion by Trustee Susan Featheringill included doing Band Aid repairs to keep the building in shape and forming a committee to study the situation as part of the strategy plan for the district which will determine how to move forward.
The motion was seconded by Trustee Diane Pinter. Voting yes besides Featheringill and Pinter, were Trustees Sherry Frazier, Alison Bennett, and — after a long delay in her vote during which time she asked a dozen questions — Kelly Owen.
Voting no were Board President Keith Johnston and Secretary Kevin English.
The change in votes by board members was due to testimony by seven staff members at Haggerty and an audience of 30, most seemingly in support of keeping the school open.
Trustee Frazier, who voted against closing the school from the start and asked the Haggerty issue to be put back on the agenda, put together a tour of Haggerty by board members earlier Monday. Four board members took part in the tour, making sure there was not a quorum of four at any time, Frazier said. She had said board members should not be voting on closing the school until they saw it first-hand.
Taking the tour were Featheringill, Pinter, Johnston, and Frazier. Frazier also put together a six-page information printout on the school, with pictures.
One of the pictures was of the placque on the building that said it was built in 1964, not in the 1950s as announced by Director of Plant Operations James Williams when he gave the report on why the building should be closed.
Frazier said she learned that the building was not as old as announced when Belleville attorney John Day called her to tell her he was in the first class in that school in 1964.
Featheringill said after putting together the strategic plan for the district the board can reconsider Haggerty next January and if the decision is to close the school they will have lots of time to make all the decisions necessary to do it smoothly.
The Haggerty teachers had said it would be very hard to pack up everything for their classes in mid-June and be at different facilities in July.
There are six district-run preschool classes at Haggerty, put together in one group known as the Early Childhood Development Center, which has 148 students.
The ECDC includes Great Start School Readiness, funded by the state for certain four year olds and located in three classrooms. There also is an Early Childhood Program, funded by state and federal dollars and overseen by the Special Education Department in two classrooms. The Autism Spectrum Disorder Preschool is also state and federally funded and run by the Special Education Department in one classroom.
The building also has a Head Start program which has been trying to find another place to set up since it was told it had to move from Haggerty.
There also is a Transitions classroom for adult students transitioning out of school by building job skills and securing employment. This is funded by the state and run through the Special Education Department. There also is a latchkey program for paying customers, Happy Days, that is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the school year and also during the summer.
In other business at Monday’s meeting that lasted over three hours, the board:
• Approved offering a scholarship to a yet-to-be-named graduating senior of $8,000 per year for four years to study education in a field that will be prescribed by the district. The new teacher would come back and teach here for at least five years. There were lots of details that included what would trigger having the student repay the district for the money. This move is in response to a lack of teachers graduating with certain specialties and a fear that long-range substitutes could end up teaching these classes;
• Approved $433,711 out of sinking funds to pay for parking lot upgrades and site improvements at Savage and Tyler Elementary Schools and the bus garage. Low bidder of seven was Hutch Paving, which bid $390,759 and a construction contingency budget of $42,952 was added;
• Approved the second and final reading of board policy updates and new policies as recommended by NEOLA;
• Discussed details of the Superintendent’s evaluation process and gave Supt. Kudlak feedback on his work. The final meeting in the evaluation will be in closed door session in June;
• Removed from the agenda the Van Buren Education Support Team tentative agreement because VBEST members had yet to vote on it;
• Approved the resignations of two non-instructional staff members: Danielle Parker of Haggerty School after less than one year, as of April 14, and Avonne Bostic-Martin of the Transportation Department after less than one year as of April 18. Both have accepted other job offers;
• Approved the retirement of teacher June Youngoldis of McBride Middle School after 19 years of service, as of July 1; and the hiring of Gabrielle Johnson to teach fifth grade at Owen Intermediate School as of May 8; and
• Approved a May 6 field trip by school bus for 162 fifth and sixth graders from Owen Intermediate School to a Toledo Mud Hens game, with the transportation cost covered by a grant from the Mud Hens. Cost to student is $5 each.