VBPS School Board approves Jason Salhaney as Owen principal

Jason Salhaney, who up until this week was the principal of Romulus Middle School, was named the new principal of Owen Intermediate School at Monday’s regular meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education.
He was due to begin work at Owen the next day. He replaces Melissa Lloyd who resigned in July to take another job.
Salhaney has been principal at Romulus Middle School since 2010 and was principal at Halecreek Elementary School in Romulus from 2008 to 2010. Before that, he taught at Halecreek from 1998 to 2008.
His bachelor of science in Elementary Education, Science and History is from Eastern Michigan University in 1998 and his master of science in the Art of Teaching is from Marygrove College in 2002.
School Supt. Pete Kudlak said that Salhaney stood out above everyone else who applied for the position. There were 101 resumes submitted, followed by a procedure that Salhaney called “a little gruelling.”
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the board:
• Approved the recommendation of Athletic Director Joe Brodie to form a cooperative, two-year agreement with Allen Park Cabrini and Dearborn Heights Annapolis to keep the boys’ ice hockey program alive for BHS student athletes. The co-op program with New Boston Huron dissolved and left BHS with no choice but to find other schools to join or not to have an ice hockey program for the six or seven students interested. Brodie said the program is self-funded and is “more of a club” than a varsity sport;
• Approved, as of Aug. 27, the hiring of teachers Jessica Justice to teach art at McBride Middle School; Danielle Bushaw to teach English at Belleville High School; and Anna Albulov to teach second grade at Rawsonville Elementary School;
• Approved the resignations of Shirley Brezzel, who taught at Owen last year (and was assigned to Edgemont Elementary this year), on Aug. 7, after 2.5 years of service; and Bridget Cole who taught at McBride Middle School for less than a year, as of Aug. 9;
• Approved the employment of Vincent Wegienka as of Aug. 5 and Michael Dotson as of Aug. 6, as custodians in the Buildings and Grounds Department; and the resignations of Bretton Blodgett from non-instructional staff at Owen after 1.5 years as of July 31 and Shane Holliday on Aug. 9 after 11 years in Maintenance;
• Heard Supt. Kudlak give a presentation on the $35 million, 30-year bond proposal that has been put on the Nov. 5 ballot. He said they will put out a table at the Taste of Belleville to get out the votes. Because of the refinancing of bonds to build the high school, this additional bond is being billed as bringing no rise in tax rates, since people can keep paying the old rate of 2.98 mills they paid before the refinancing. The old bond will be paid in 22 years and so the new, 30-year bond would continue past that. Although Kudlak told of the infrastructure and instructional updates planned, the big project the bond would fund would be the 35,000-square-foot, one-story, 18-room Early Childhood Center to be built on two to three acres on the southeast corner of the 11-acre property purchased from St. Anthony on Davis Street. He said it would cost $12 million to build the new building and would have cost $5-6 million to renovate Haggerty School, where early childhood classes are now held. Todd Mears said voters will ask why would you spend $12 million for a new building when you can renovate for $5 million? Kudlak said a new building has a longer life and the location next to the bus garage and BHS is a plus. “It will be designed as an early childhood center and will be totally different than what we can do at Haggerty,” Kudlak said;
• Heard board member Amy Pearce report that she will be one of the parent chaperones attending band camp this year. She said there are 290 students in the band this year and 175 of them are girls. She invited everyone to come to the return-from-camp band performance at 5 p.m., Aug. 23, at the BHS football field; and
• Heard Kudlak say when the old district library is demolished, they needed to find places for the two quilts on display there. He said the Centennial Quilt will be going to the new library and the History of Belleville Quilt will be hung in the lobby of the BHS Auditorium. He said, hopefully, it will be a rotating exhibit.