Keystone solves budget problem with agreement on invoice protocol

At one point, it was expected that the disagreement between Keystone Charter Academy and its service provider National Heritage Academies was going to have to be solved with opposing attorneys hashing it out at the Oct. 10 Keystone board meeting.
But, on Oct. 10, Keystone Board President Vesta Losen announced that Keystone and NHA had reached an agreement and the attorneys will not be attending the meeting.
President Losen said the disagreement arose when the Keystone board had to wait months for NHA to get around to reimbursing board members for funeral flowers, for not getting the check to a spring scholarship winner before she had to leave for college in the fall, four months wait for a PTO check, and other fund delays.
Losen pointed out the service contract with NHA was not being followed by NHA as far as access to funds was concerned.
“It was either fix the contract or fix this,” Losen said. “There needs to be a protocol. I’ve been on the Keystone Board for 17 years, since it began. There’s never been a good trail to follow.”
She said they had been told to give invoices for board funds to the office, but to no one in particular, or to the principal, or to no one in particular at NHA, or the NHA board representative, “if he’s here.”
She said they never said give it to the treasurer, who really has nothing to do, “So I put together a protocol.”
She said the Protocol for the Board Spending Account would be that all invoices for payment go to the treasurer. The treasurer will give a signed copy to the NHA board representative at the meeting or it would be mailed to him. The record comes back with the board representative, now Andrew Roth.
The protocol was passed unanimously.
Then, the board passed a resolution on the Board Bank Account that takes off the signatories from NHA that were on the two accounts and puts the signatures of the board treasurer and board president on both accounts, as directed by the signed service agreement.
The resolution authorizes NHA to receive revenues deposited into the academy’s primary bank account through payments made through the Automated Clearing House (ACH). ACH withdrawals are permitted immediately upon deposit.
NHA also has electronic access to open and view both accounts for account reconciliations.
The resolution authorizes NHA to use the Keystone signatures in a signers’ signature block to pay bills from the board spending account after approval by the board. Also, payments shall not contain any service fee or additional charge.
Losen said the payments should be handled more fluidly now. All invoices or receipts are to be given to the treasurer or put in a board mailbox, which will soon be set up in the Keystone office.
In other business at the one-hour-and-30-minute meeting on Oct. 10, the board:
• Approved rolling over $3,237.33 unspent board funds into the board’s available balance for future use;
• Approved the revised school safety and anti-bullying policy, with minor changes;
• Unanimously passed a resolution protesting the governor’s cut of $240 per pupil from charter school funding. Losen said she received letters from Bay Mills and several different organizations asking Keystone to pass a resolution. She said charter schools already have a funding gap of $1,800 to $2,400 per student less. “All Michigan students should get the same,” Losen said. “I put together a resolution, if you would like to adopt it, or write your own letter.” Losen said she was asked to send it to Keystone’s legislator, but, “We can’t send it to State Rep. Kristy Pagan because she’s behind it — and she lives in Canton who has the best charter schools in the state.” NHA representative Roth said he had worked in Diane Slavens’ office and if they read five letters on an issue, they started action. “Five is the magic number,” Roth said. Later, Losen said State Rep. Joe Bellino, who represents Sumpter Township and comes to visit Keystone, would be a better person to send the resolution to;
• Learned Keystone has two students who have declared themselves transgender and so these students use the teachers’ bathrooms. Losen said the founder of NHA told her that NHA always will follow the law;
• Learned some middle school students took part in the Belleville Rotary Club’s annual “Kids Against Hunger” event. The meals packaged will be sent to those impacted by Hurricane Dorian. Also, students raised $360 for Breast Cancer Awareness with Jeans Day;
• Heard Principal Jorvonna Drain report that after the fall 2019 NWEA assessments, Keystone has 70% of its students who have been at the school for three or more years at or above grade level on the reading assessment and 62% at or above grade level on the math assessment. Losen pointed out the seventh and eighth graders were 81% and 77%, respectively, at or above grade level in math and 87% and 88%, respectively, in reading. “The seventh and eighth grades SHINE,” Losen said. Later she added that the seventh and eighth graders got the basics before Common Core and so they learned real math and learned to read;
• Heard Drain report on District and Historical Reports, noting Keystone outperformed Van Buren Schools overall for at least the last five years covered in the report; and
• Went into closed-door session to discuss the 80 pages of the new School Emergency Operations Plan. Then, it went back into regular session to table action on the plan until all board members have read all 80 pages. Losen said although the staff takes care of emergency operations with the students, the board should