At Monday’s School Board meeting, Trustee Sherry Frazier questioned how the board could hire one administrator, with a salary and benefits package of over $100,000, and yet lay off five special services staff at the same meeting.
Frazier was the only board member voting against the one-year contract of Diane Kullis as Supervisor of Special Education Services. The contract took effect the next day.
Shonta Langford-Green, Director of Human Resources, explained that instead of hiring two interim, part-time employees to serve as Special Services Director and as Curriculum Director, as had been the plan, they have decided to recommend hiring Kullis for both jobs.
She will be a Special Services Supervisor, who will also assist with curriculum. Green said Kullis has two master’s degrees and a wealth of knowledge in both fields and by combining the two positions, the district will save money.
Kullis comes to Van Buren Schools from the Mt. Morris Consolidated Schools where she has been Director of Student Services since 2006. She has served as principal for the Michigan School for the Deaf and the Kentucky School for the Deaf, among many other assignments. She lives in Holly.
The approved salary was $98,234, plus fringe benefits offered to all administrators.
Frazier has been a constant critic of the board cutting benefits and jobs of employees in other areas, yet putting off any cuts to administrators.
School Supt. Thomas Riutta said Frazier has been told about the recent administrative reassignments that saved money, the consolidation of administrative positions over the past few years, and of the interim positions in place that save benefit costs, but, “You do not accept them.”
School Board President Martha Toth said the administrators’ cuts are still coming, but they were put off until last because it will be easier for higher-paid employees to absorb the retroactive cuts in lump sums than those who make less.
Frazier insisted the administrators should lead the way with cuts.
She demanded a list of administrators and salaries and Supt. Riutta said he would get them to her.
The five named in the Resolution for Notice of Economic Layoff, all after one year of service and all layoffs effective Aug. 23, were:
• Doris Birchmeier, special services at Belleville High School;
• Patricia Jenkins, special services at BHS;
• Jennifer Porcaro, special services/ itinerant, psychologist;
• Katrina DeKleine, special services/ itinerant, speech pathologist; and
• Dorte Junker, special services / itinerant, speech pathologist.
Junker spoke on behalf of speech therapy and warned the district may be in non-compliance with state law with the cuts.
Green said she has made sure the district was in compliance with state law, but will speak with Junker about her statement. The special education staff went from 11 to nine at BHS and the district is looking at the special education staff for future cuts because there may still be too many.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the board:
• Approved Plante Moran CRESA’s recommendation to rebuild the existing 1965 Unit E air handler unit at the auditorium at a cost not to exceed $83,688, which includes 5% insurance, bond and fee. The body is solid, with only the “guts” of the machine needing to be replaced;
• Approved 13 field change orders that were signed off on by the superintendent, which included moving an electrical line and conduit installed in 1965, which was under cement, at a cost of $20,300; adding additional hardware at athletic field gates for card swiping entry at a cost of $5,346; and reduction of 25 auditorium seats (there are 859 now) to make way for handicapped changes, savings of $1,752;
• Heard a lengthy report from Transportation Director Rhonda Lyons-Manning on the transportation department and showed a video made of a burning school bus, set on fire in the bus compound, to show how fast a fire spreads. It will be used in training across the state, especially for bus aides to impress upon them the necessity of knowing who is on the bus so they can be rescued although smoke is everywhere;
• Approved bids for bread and milk for this year’s food service. Great Lakes Baking Company and Country Pride Dairy were recommended by the Southeast Wayne County Buying Cooperative after comparing bids;
• Approved formation and support of a Cooperative Ice Hockey Program between Lincoln Consolidated High School and Belleville High School for the 2011-12 school year. BHS had a cooperative program with Willow Run High School in the past, but only one of Willow Run’s students wants to participate this year, so BHS is changing to Lincoln. The program is self-funded and the players pay for their own time at the Arctic Edge in Canton;
• Heard Athletic Director Rod Fisher explain how his department is providing for medical care to be on hand at home games for BHS football, with coaches being trained for basic taping, CPR, and sports safety. This is in response to the cut of athletic trainers from the budget. Seventh grade sports also were cut, but the students can participate in the eighth grade teams, he said;
• Approved a one-year exception to the bus stop policy for a family that lives near Haggerty School. Toth said the district is looking into a federal grant for the installation of sidewalks in that area;
• Approved the recall from layoff of four elementary school teachers as of Aug. 30: Sara Cook, Rawsonville; Yvonne Mallon, Edgemont; Stephanie Nota, Elwell; and Jami Wiese, Haggerty;
• Approved the retirement of Geraldine Murphy after 26 years as a bus driver, as of July 1; and the request for termination for personal reasons of Deborah Nickell as a special services paraprofessional after 16 years of service, as of Aug. 12;
• Heard Paul Wills of Plante Moran CRESA give an update on construction of the high school. He said the driveway to the administration building will be closed in late September, possibly Sept. 25, after a paved drive is in place around the new construction from Davis Street. Then the administration building parking lot will be paved. It is expected that entry to the administration building will be from only Davis Street until spring, when the new paved drive from W. Columbia Ave. will be complete. The drive on the east side of the high school from Columbia will continue to be exit only, until it is closed for construction next summer; and
• Went into executive session to consider purchase of property.