Keystone Academy board approves policy on finances

At its regular meeting on Dec. 6, the Keystone Academy school board voted unanimously to approve a fiscal management policy that would keep its operator, National Heritage Academy, from shifting funds of more than 10% from the line item to line item in the budget.
The board’s attorney Candace Sorenson was present with a financial analysis for 2018 that showed the proposed amended budget shows $122 average less per pupil spent on instruction under the proposed amended budget.
The analysis shows per pupil funding of $7,856 in the initial 2018/19 budget, up $40 to $7,896 for 780 students in the amended budget.
The percent of revenue from all sources spent on instruction was reduced from 42.5% in the initial 2018/19 budget to 40.9% in the proposed amended budget.
In the 2014/15 audit the percent spent on instruction was 44.9% and in 2015/16 it was 43.6%, down to 41.1% in the 2016/17 audit.
Sorenson said the question is why is Keystone paying almost double for Central Services, Keystone’s share of the 86 NHA schools. She said it went from $300,000 to $350,000 to $600,000 now.
She said they can tighten up the policy so money can’t be diverted.
Sorenson said the agreement is that if there is a savings, NHA gets it, but Keystone wants integrity in its budget, “instead of taking it out of the budget for instructional services and moving it to support services.”
And, she said, principals didn’t have the ability to spend all the money budgeted for instruction.
“There has been a $122 decrease per student budgeted for basic instruction,” Sorenson said.
“We made a motion at the end of last summer that the budget would not differ by 10%,” said Keystone board president Vesta Losen, noting the board has been concerned about the budget.
“NHA believes this is not a necessary policy,” said Jeff Henders, the NHA representative who attends Keystone board meetings. “Your budget is always built on the needs of the school.” He said Central Services pays for technology and marketing and training. “We agree they need to be less than 10%. We encourage you to reach out to Bay Mills (the charter authorizer) or to the auditor to see if anything concerns them. Are you getting the support you need? That’s a great question.”
Claudia Williamson, who had been the interim principal between the resignation of former principal Keturah Godfrey and the newly hired principal Jorvanna Drain, was present for her last meeting at Keystone.
“In 12 years with NHA, did I have what I needed? Always,” Williamson said.
“I don’t see anything that would be wrong [in the new policy], anything you would disagree with,” Losen said to Henders.
Attorney Sorenson, whose office is in Grand Rapids, said Keystone is not the only school that at the end of the year saw a $100,000 jump in Central Services in the last six weeks. She said each school has a pro-rated share of Central Services.
“For you to have a sudden jump … this is for the fidelity of your financial statement,” she said.
Henders said NHA talked to the Treasury Department and they said there was no problem.
“Every NHA school got a letter that said they had violated the law — criminal or civil — and this policy is to protect you as an entity,” Sorenson said.
She said she sent this policy, that Keystone was about to approve, to NHA five months ago and NHA said they “would let me know what they think” in January.
Sorenson said one other charter academy tabled the policy and another approved it.
“It protects you and the academy,” Sorenson said.
“You can accept, reject, or table,” Losen said to board members.
Board treasurer Charlene Derrick made the motion to accept the attorney’s advice which was seconded by board vice-president Darren Hickonbottom and passed unanimously by the board.
“I’ll let you know what their request is and you will make your decision as a board,” Sorenson said of her expected reply from NHA.
“It’s a complicated legal question,” she said.
Sorenson also announced that Keystone’s charter authorizer Bay Mills Community College has scheduled a Jan. 7 conference call concerning a proposed eight-year renewal of the charter, which was good news. Losen agreed board members would be a part of the call. Sorenson said NHA also will want to be in on that conference call.
In other business at the one-hour-and-36-minute meeting, the board:
• Welcomed Principal Jorvanna Drain, who was supported for hire in a Nov. 26 special meeting of the Keystone board. Drain said she was from Ypsilanti and had been with NHA for seven of her 15 years in education. She said she was a classroom teacher in Georgia and Detroit and had been serving at South Arbor Academy in Ypsilanti;
• Heard Losen say, “I’m not happy” with the color-coded report of scores from NWEA MAP (Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress). “Most of the time we had all green in the past,” she said, noting some areas of red. “The numbers are slipping,” said board secretary Connie Shull. Losen said Keystone is taking steps to remedy the situation. Outgoing interim principal Williamson said they have added “Math Stories” which explains why two plus two equals four. “Kids seem to understand more. And, in reading, teachers come out with reading certificates and not a good grasp of how students learn to read.” Williamson said NHA bought the program “Balanced Literacy” on skills kids have to have to be good readers and the teachers will be held responsible. Losen said three years ago Common Core came in. Keystone had a phonics component and Common Core didn’t, she said. Williamson said a strong intervention team is going into the classrooms. Principal Drain said a “Balanced Literacy” program has begun in grades K-2 and next year it will be in grades 3-5, as well;
• Interviewed and then recommended Pat Kirkpatrick of Romulus for a seat on the Keystone board. Kirkpatrick retired after 37 years of teaching. She said while teaching she coached forensic competition. After checking her references her nomination will go to Bay Mills for approval;
• Approved the amended 2019-20 Prior
Approval Checklist, required by Bay Mills, which had been delayed since the board wanted to check “yes” on a changing the curriculum question instead of “no.” Henders said NHA agreed the correct response would be “yes” to that question, since they plan a change in the science program;
• Approved the amended 2018-19 budget of $6,916,645;
• Heard Principal Drain report more security is now in place at the school. She said people had been able to just walk into the building, but now they are gently reminding parents to sign in. She said parents can scan their driver’s licenses and get red lanyards that hang around their necks. Also, she said, they have replaced the lock on the back door to the office as a safety feature. She said if, for example, an active shooter came into the office and shot the staff, that person could enter the school hallway through an unlocked back door. Now a person has to be buzzed through that door, she said. She said they also are working hard on the parking lot to clear up the congestion. Williamson said a new system called Drive Line is going into place after the winter break. It has been tested in several other NHA schools, she said; and
• Heard Williamson report that Keystone has started a new club, Bricks 4 Kidz, a Lego-based STEM club for grades 1-5. Also, because of communication with parents they are seeing some improvement in the number of tardy students. She also reported that the PTO held a movie night for students, “Polar Express,” and 100 people attended.