School Board to enhance police radio reception in Belleville High School

The Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to spend $41,440.66 out of its general fund to make sure police radios operate clearly in all parts of the five-year-old Belleville High School.
James Williams, director of plant operations, said after construction of the new high school, local police departments ran several training exercises in the building with various scenarios.
This brought to light some “dead areas” for radio signals within in the building. The school district has worked with police to resolve the issue at a lesser cost, but it didn’t work.
Therefore, it was decided to move forward with the Michigan Public Safety Communication System Radio Signal Enhancement Project, based on Michigan State Police parameters for public safety radio signals.
ComSouce, Inc. was the lower of two bidders, with Herkimer Radio bidding $72,848.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the six-member board:
• Heard a presentation by Rawsonville Elementary School Principal Delria Crippen and staff which started off with Crippen saying she and the staff are shaken by the resignation of Sherry Frazier from the board, which happened moments before Rawsonville was to take to the microphone. “Mrs. Frazier was highly respected,” Crippen said. They went on with their report, noting that Rawsonville has a highly transient population and a recent study showed of those students that enter Kindergarten, only 4% stay at the school until the fourth grade;
• Heard Curriculum Director Jeff Moore introduce those who will fill the two new IT teaching positions: Jason Strzalkowski, who now teaches at McBride, and Stefanie Halliday, a BHS teacher. He said there were 10 candidates for the positions and it was whittled down to two. He said they plan a two-day Educamp the second to the last week of August to give teachers more individual training in computers. There also will be after-school walk-in sessions;
• Heard three-year and five-year updates on the Sinking Fund from Rob Kakoczki of Plante Moran, CRESA. He said they plan to use from $750,000 to $950,000 per year from the fund for school projects. He said a project bigger than the usual is coming up in future years. He said engineers just found out that the street in front of the bus garage is school property and will have to be repaired in the future. Trustee Susan Featheringill suggested the district put a suggestion box on the website so people can make suggestions on what needs fixing at the schools;
• Approved the purchase of 216 Chromebooks and six carts to house them at a cost not to exceed $48,984 for use by McBride Middle School students. Moore said there are 36 Chromebooks in each cart and they will be used at school and not taken home. Sean Garlich said the 11” Chromebooks are very durable;
• Approved the 2018 General Operating Budget for Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA) as presented;
• Approved the designation of Featheringill (or Keith Johnston, if she can’t make it) as the board’s representative for the RESA election on June 5. She was directed to vote for Mary Blackmon and Danielle Funderburg for seats on the RESA board;
• Briefly discussed the district’s policy regarding cell phone usage. Johnston wanted to look into it because of fears the cell phones might be disrupting education in the classrooms. He was told some teachers have students use the cell phones in class and some require them to be turned off. Supt. Kudlak said in another district schoolrooms have a red / yellow / green sign that indicates whether cell phones can be out or need to be put away;
• Heard Featheringill introduce the first reading of new and updated policies for the district. The second reading and adoption of the policies will be at an upcoming meeting;
• Approved the retirements of non-instructional staff: Sharon Hagerman of Tyler Elementary after 15 years of service and Shirley Brooks from BHS after 17 years of service; and the resignation of Theresa Dubisky of Edgemont after two years of service. Also, the board approved the resignation of teacher Kathy Knight of BHS, who is relocating, after 21 years; and the resignation of BHS teacher Maggi Bomalaski after less than a year; and
• Went into closed-door session to consider reinstatement of Student A. When the board returned to open session it reinstated the student unconditionally.