School Board to put sinking fund on Nov. 3 ballot, reduced to .5 mill

At Monday’s regular meeting, the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to reduce the request for a sinking fund millage from 1.13 mills to .5 mill and put it back before voters on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The proposal would be for a period of seven years, 2016 to 2022 inclusive.
Voters had rejected the 1.13 renewal in May and the board authorized a survey to find out why it failed.
School Supt. Michael Van Tassel put together a list of reasons to discuss at the meeting, but did not make the 54-page report of the survey otherwise available to those attending the meeting. He said he had sent it to board members the previous week.
Supt. Van Tassel said the survey gave the following insights on why the May ballot question was turned down by more than 1,000 votes:
1. Taxes are too high, regardless of their purpose;
2. Passage is good if you start your campaign with 60% in favor, but the survey showed barely 50% in favor, which means a difficult uphill path;
3. The community feels that the facilities now are in excellent shape and money is not needed at the previous level;
4. Voters are not well informed on the sinking fund and school matters. Seventy-nine percent do not have children in the schools;
5. The DDA clause at the end of the ballot question influenced 10% of the voters to vote no. It has been determined it didn’t need to be there. That last clause would not need to be on the ballot, he said.
Van Tassel recommended putting the half mill on the ballot or not to go for a ballot question at all.
He said if they didn’t go back to voters at all they would have to use about $500,000, give or take, a year for the next three to five years to maintain buildings in the district. The half mill is expected to bring in $753,255 yearly. The 1.13 mill would have brought in $1,702,355.
Van Tassel said Van Buren Township is reportedly going for 6.5 mills, a 2.5 mill increase, for public safety in the November election. He said that will pull negative voters to that election.
The decision on the millage question has to be made by July 31 and the language presented to Wayne County by Aug. 11. VBT was due to vote the next day on its millage proposal.
Van Tassel said since 2007 the working family has been in a crunch. There are a lot of things they can’t say no about, but they can say no on this, he said.
He said they need to find a balance to make this work.
Board members agreed the public has to be made aware that the 1.13 mill tax is what they are paying now, so the .5 mill would be a decrease in the tax. The current tax will be collected through the end of December.
Van Tassel said the next step is to form a committee, which will file with the state of Michigan, and then get the message out by knocking on doors and going to town hall meetings.
A woman in the audience said it would be slap in the face to voters for the board to ask for the full millage renewal since the survey was detailed to get the feelings of the public.
“The community will be appreciative you listened to them,” she said.
In other business at Monday’s meeting the board:
• Approve naming Amy Gee of Allen Park as the new principal of Savage Elementary School for the 2015-16 school year. Gee currently works for Trix Performance Academy charter school in Detroit. Her one-year contract will pay $89,359 plus fringe benefits offered to all administrators. Van Tassel pointed out Gee is pregnant and due to deliver at the end of August and then could have 6-8 family leave days after that. “If you approve, she will schedule coffee hours while she can still waddle around,” Van Tassel said. The timing depends on when she delivers, Van Tassel said. The district will figure out how to fill in for her, said Human Resource Director Shonta Langford-Green. When asked how many candidates there were, Green couldn’t say at first and then said there were 200 candidates in the original pool and nine candidates interviewed and that number whittled down. “You should not be so stingy with the information,” said Barbara Miller from the audience, referring to the figures that had to be pulled out of Green with several questions from the audience;
• Approved spending $132,126.56 out of the general fund to improve the sound system for the Belleville High School Auditorium. The bid of Sweetwater was $114,645.96 and Dynamic Group was $17,126.56 combined for the total. The district spent $1.7 million from the bonds for the auditorium. Mike Campbell said they used to have to borrow microphones and things from the music room and other areas to use on stage for musicals, but they want a functioning auditorium comparable to other communities. He said he heard members of the audience criticizing the sound quality at a recent event and, “It is just not adequate for what our needs are right now,” Campbell said. Trustee Sherry Frazier asked where Campbell was three years ago when they had bond money to spend. “Have needs changed? Do things break?” asked board president Brent Mikulski and Campbell said both things were true, since they were getting back to musicals;
• Approved purchasing a replacement for the 2011 F750 dump truck lost in last November’s fire. The board voted to buy a 2016 Ford F550 XLT dump truck from Atchinson Ford for the state purchase price of $45,979.40 and the snow plow and salt spreaders installed and painted from Truck & Trailer Specialties, Inc. for $33,750. The insurance company reimbursed the district $72,038.35, so the cost to general budget is $7,691.05;
• Heard an anti-bullying incident report from Director of Human Resources Green, since any bullying incidents that meet state criteria are to be reported to the board annually. The single reported bullying was verbal, Green said, but she did not give any further details at the meeting, other than to say it was at a middle school;
• Approved hiring the following teachers, all starting Sept. 1: Carly Rose for BHS Spanish, Kyle Gleason for BHS Math, and Betty Small for BHS Business; Tracy Rumfelt for McBride Science, Nicole Karaboyas for McBride Math, and Renee Rook for McBride Spanish; and Jotana Chester for Owen Music and Neva Jasman for Owen Special Education. When Trustee Frazier asked why there was no hiring for the elementary schools, Green said there are no openings in the elementaries because of retirees and student loss;
• Heard members of the audience ask about the survey of employees to determine morale, as presented by Richard Rytman at the last board meeting. Rytman offered to pay for the first round of a professional survey. Mikulski said there is no activity to engage Rytman’s offer. “I’m pretty sure this board is not going to address teacher morale,” said Frazier. She asked to have exit interviews as an agenda item and vice president Martha Toth said no one board member can put something on the agenda. She said board members know why every teacher left. Frazier said until the district addresses the uneasiness of staff members to come forward and contribute, “We’re going to continue to be mediocre…;” and
• Was reminded there is no work/study session in July. The next meeting is a regular meeting on Aug. 10 and then the Aug. 17 work/study meeting, both at the administration building.