At a special meeting Friday night, Oct. 28, the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education decided to interview Belleville High School Principal Michael Van Tassell for the job of superintendent of schools.
The public interview will be held at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 1 at Rawsonville Elementary School. The session previously was announced at 6 p.m., but the board decided the earlier hour would be inconvenient for people who might want to attend and would be on their way home from work at that hour.
Dr. Wilmot of Michigan Leadership Institute, who the school board hired to help conduct the superintendent search, said the formal interview will be 90 minutes long, but the meeting will probably be much longer because members of the public will be able to offer their input.
Van Tassel currently makes a gross salary of $105,000 as BHS Principal. He was the only internal candidate to apply for the position.
The board met in closed session for a half hour on Friday to consider Internal Candidate A and whether to set an interview for the person, whose name was not revealed. When the board came back into regular session, it voted to set an interview and revealed the candidate’s name as Van Tassel.
Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. will be the date for a second mini interview for Van Tassel at Rawsonville Elementary School, which will follow a day of public forums at the administration building, ending with a 6 p.m. meet and greet session at Rawsonville Elementary.
Unhappy parents whose children are being moved to different buildings were present at Friday’s special meeting to again complain about their children being disrupted, especially the Kindergarteners.
A special School Board meeting will be held at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, at Rawsonville Elementary School to discuss and take a formal vote on the student shuffle before its effective date of Nov. 7.