School Supt. Van Tassel starts giving brief reports to School Board

School Supt. Michael Van Tassel is becoming more of a presence at the regular school board meetings. He’s always been there, but he’s taking on a stronger leadership role.
A new item was put on the agenda at Monday’s regular meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education: “Superintendent’s Report.”
At meetings in the past, Supt. Van Tassel has sat quietly during regular board meetings and only spoken up when asked a question or he had something brief to add to an agenda item.
On Monday, Supt. Van Tassel said this new item will be on the agenda for his comments from now on.
On Monday, he reported on the first day of school, calling it “very successful.” He said his central office staff was out at all the schools and he got into every single classroom in the district.
He said there were some bus problems, but they are making progress.
“I was very pleased with the first day,” Van Tassel said.
Trustee Sherry Frazier said there were 80 kids from Owen School to be transported to the Boys & Girls Club at Edgemont and there was only room for 30. That got worked out.
Next, Van Tassel spoke of the student count, saying Monday’s meeting was held just a few days into the school year and he would give a more complete report at the next regular board meeting (Oct. 12).
He said this year the count dropped in Kindergarten numbers and there was a bit of a drop at the high school, with a small freshman class and a higher than usual senior class. There’s a difference of 50 kids and that’s a lot when you think of $7,000 from the state for each kid, he said.
Trustee Frazier said she thinks the board needs to address online programs. She said two former students are now in school completely online. They will be missing sports and extra-curricular activities, she pointed out.
“The education process has been turned upside down,” Frazier said.
Van Tassel said he is aware of that and there are several kids in the high school taking some classes online.
The third thing Van Tassel wanted to talk about was the staff survey taken the week before in order to get credit for professional development.
Van Tassel turned that part of his report over to Director of Instruction Jeff Moore, who said on Sept. 1 and 2 the staff had professional development days and then they were able to take an electronic survey on how they liked the sessions. He said they ranked each session from a 1, the lowest score, to a 5, the highest.
He said the overall scores were mostly 4s, he said, which would be A’s. He said there were 3s, as well, and a 3 is a B, Moore said. [Retired teachers in the audience quietly disputed his comments on the grades, noting 5 would be an A.] In other business at Monday’s meeting, the board:
• Approved the nomination of Christina Whisenhunt as a representative to Wayne RESA’s Parent Advisory Committee. The board’s previous representative’s appointment has expired;
• Approved the resignations of non-instructional staff members Vernor Wilson from Food Service after 10 years as of Aug. 19 and Kisma Davis of Transportation after one year as of Aug. 25. Also approved the hiring of Jamie Baker as a parapro at Rawsonville as of Sept. 8;
• Approved the resignations in instructional staff: Megan King of Edgemont after five years as of Aug. 20; Matthew Kazmierski of Owen after two years as of Aug. 24; Bridget Dennehy of Rawsonville after one year as of Aug. 25; and Katelyn Hadyniak of BHS after one year as of Aug. 28. Frazier said these resignations make a total of 11 resignations of first and second year teachers from the district. Human Resources Director Shonta Langford Green said three of four on the list came to thank them for the jobs, but they wanted to be employed in the district closer to home;
• Approved hiring the following instructional staff, all starting Sept. 1: Danielle Smith to teach English at McBride Middle School; Keyon Hoskins, third grade, Rawsonville; Kim Ferrell, special education at BHS; Fatima Thompson, no assignment noted at Rawsonville; Victoria Henderson, ELA at McBride Middle School; John Hill, English, and Robert Taylor, Math in New Tech, both at BHS; and Keith Kelsey, music at Owen Intermediate;
• Heard Director of Instruction Moore give a presentation on a plan to analyze data of all kinds to impact student learning. The project is called Data Dialogue based on the book “Got Data? Now What?” It starts with Principals’ training Oct. 7 and 8 in Novi and continues through district training Nov. 3. He said in the past analyzing data has been different at each school and now there will be a districtwide, systematic approach;
• Heard Board President Brent Mikulski turn the meeting over to vice president Martha Toth to explain the 41 pages of board policy revisions proposed, only to have Van Tassel say he would be doing the Board Policy presentation. This is considered the First Reading of the changes. He said each spring and fall the district gets the changes from consultant NEOLA to keep the district in compliance with new state laws. One change is that the board can evaluate the superintendent every other year if the superintendent got “highly effective” ratings for three years in a row. Also, there’s a new method for getting a waiver for immunizations. Van Tassel said about 5% of the VBPS students don’t get immunized, which is also the state average. Also, the entrance age is revised to be Sept. 1, as well as other changes;
• Heard Athletic Director Jon Zajac present information on the 2014-15 athletic season. Van Tassel quoted an article that said by the year 2020 only 30% of schools will offer athletics. Frazier noted that lacrosse is a new sport at BHS and Zajac said they are working on getting an equestrian team sport; and
• Heard Frazier state that the board is not embracing its public relations through the two newspapers published locally. “We need to have those papers available at the board office,” she said, noting 79% of the people in the community do not have kids in the schools. “We need to mend whatever we need to,” she said, noting the district is going out into the community to ask for a sinking fund. She said she appreciates the individual coming to every meeting and reporting. “I’d like that to be addressed by the superintendent, preferably,” Frazier said and the board was silent on her request.
The next meeting of the board will be at work/study session at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, at the Administration Building.