School Finance Director Shareen Barker resigns to move near her daughter

The Van Buren Public Schools district has begun a search for a new finance director, following the resignation of Shareen Barker who has been in that position for four years. The resignation was to be effective Feb. 15.
At Monday’s meeting of the school board, School Supt. Pete Kudlak said Barker is moving to Tennessee or Kentucky, where her daughter is located. Barker was not present at this meeting or the last school board meeting on Jan. 28.
Later he said Barker’s daughter is in the military and stationed at Fort Campbell, which is located in both Tennessee and Kentucky and Barker wants to be closer to her to help her.
Barker’s salary had been $97,570.70 with total compensation of $149,275.80, which includes FICA and retirement and health benefits, according to the 2018 salary list provided by the school district and published last week.
Since the Finance Director position includes oversight of the Transportation and Food Services departments, Supt. Kudlak said the Transportation responsibilities have been taken over by the administration temporarily, gesturing to Human Resources Director Abdul Madyun. There was no announcement on who would be watching Food Services until a new director is hired.
Kudlak said a posting for the position has been prepared and was sent to Wayne RESA for review. The job was expected to be posted Feb. 12, for two weeks, and then the hiring procedure will be followed.
Later in the meeting, Curriculum Director Jeff Moore addressed the rising number of snow days called by the district because of recent frigid, snowy, and icy weather. He said it has been a tricky series of events, since the days were taken off during a time of exam, report cards, and teachers’ personal development days, which had to be rescheduled.
“It’s been a challenge,” Director Moore said, noting many people may think educators like to have emergency days off, but it’s been hard.
Kudlak said he was at a superintendents’ conference recently, where the number of snow days was addressed. He said the state allows six snow days and as of Monday, the Van Buren district had seven. [The next morning another snow day was announced, so that makes eight.] He said the state school superintendent wanted to do a blanket waiver of two to three days for all the schools in the state, but found she couldn’t. She told the superintendents to apply to her separately for waivers and she will be very flexible.
He said the waivers could only be for two or three days. He said a district can’t go nine days without adding additional days at the end of the school year.
Also at Monday’s one hour and 16-minute meeting, the board:
• Heard Curriculum Director Jeff Moore announce that Owen Intermediate School Assistant Principal Andrew Lindsay has been named the Assistant Principal of the Year by the Michigan Elementary & Middle School Principals’ Association;
• Heard a presentation by Jason Strzalkowski and Stefanie Halliday, district technology coaches, on the progress made this year regarding teacher support with software programs and computer hardware training;
• Voted unanimously to cast the district’s Region 8 ballot in the Michigan Association of School Board’s election for the board of directors for Darlene Pomponio, PhD;
• Held the first reading of a policy update as recommended by Thrun Law Firm, having to do to arbitrage. The district had a policy in 2013, but it was not adopted for some reason, so Thrun drafted one which complies with IRS rules and is clearer to read. The second reading and approval will be held at the board’s Feb. 25 meeting when it will be attached to closing documents on the bond sale;
• Heard Director Madyun and Supt. Kudlak tell of their visit to a Lansing health clinic that does everything free for employees of three school districts, including primary care physician visits, x-rays, and lab work. Each district pays to enroll employees for this service and all that use it cut the use of health insurance costs for the district. “It’s a way to control heath-care costs,” Kudlak said of the program. The clinic they visited is the only one in the state, but a company runs them all over the country. Madyun said each doctor spends 30 minutes or more with a patient to talk to the patient about what’s going on. “It’s more family oriented. There’s no copay,” Kudlak said, adding employees don’t have to go there if they’d rather use their insurance; and
• Heard school board member Kelly Owen tell the story of how high school students in Michael Musser’s class raised money to pay more than $300 for glasses that were a present for him. He is color blind and these glasses allowed him to see color. “He was very touched,” Owen said, noting he wrote letters of thank you to all the students.