Steve Harsant elected president of Keystone Academy school board

Steve Harsant, who has served as vice president of the Keystone Academy Board of Directors, was unanimously elected board president for the 2024-25 school year at the May 9 regular meeting.
Harsant, of Van Buren Township, fills the position held for many years by Vesta Losen, also of Van Buren Township, who retired as of May 1. His term on the board is through June 2026.
Christine Mihaly was elected vice president and she and Harsant suggested that he serve this year’s presidential term and next year, or any time until then, she could step up to be president. She said she has less experience and would like more time in a supporting role.
Mihaly, also of Van Buren Township, serves as human resources director for Washtenaw Community College.
The board also returned secretary Kim Kowalski and treasurer Charlene Derrick to their positions for another year.
The board currently has four members and needs one more to be complete. After much discussion, it was determined that a Keystone parent should be found to be the next final board member. Bay Mills Community College, which chartered Keystone, strongly advocates for a parent on the board.
Since Derrick had been in the parent’s slot but her youngest son is graduating from Keystone this month and her term on the board expires next month, she would no longer qualify for that parent’s position.
A Keystone PTO member, Christina Dare, had been invited to the May 9 meeting. She said she had been volunteering in the school since 2015. Her oldest son is graduating, but she has children who will be in grades 3 and 8 this coming school year.
She was asked to tell about herself and she said she is a registered nurse working at Ascension Hospital in Southfield. She has been married for 15 years as of that day and she considers herself non-judgmental, but loves jury duty.
She said she signs up for everything needing volunteers at Keystone and has been on all the field trips. She also brings her baked goods to share.
After she left, president Harsant said he would like to talk to her on the phone and the other board members said they could interview her individually on the phone.
Harsant said he’d rather talk to her privately than in the public meeting. The only public present was the Independent and Brittany Cook, representing Bay Mills Community College.
In past meetings the board was looking .for an educator to fill Losen’s seat, but now believe a parent should come first.
At the end of the meeting, Andrew Roth, representative of National Heritage Academies which administers Keystone, said that he had found a retired educator that was available. He named Paula Henry who used to be a dean at Keystone and left to go to another NHA school and now no longer is at NHA. Several board members said they knew her and remembered her from when she was at the school and liked her very much.
Harsant asked for her phone number, as well, as he wanted to talk to her, too.
Roth said the board has to have five members, so it isn’t an even number that leads to tie votes. It could increase the board to seven if it wanted to have both of these candidates, but it still would need to find one more board member.
A decision is expected to be made at the June 13 meeting.
With the charter academy, a board member is selected by the board and then recommended to Bay Mills which does its background check and then generally approves the local recommendation. Then, the approval comes back to the local board for a swearing in.
In other business at the one-hour-37-minute meeting, the board:
• Approved the revised 2024-25 school calendar on which Aug. 26 is the first day of school and June 6 is the last day of school;
• Tabled approval of the 2024-25 Parent and Student Handbook to change some of the wording on expulsion procedures;
• Held a budget hearing and then approved the 2024-25 initial budget proposal, which Roth said is a best guess because the number of students is yet to be determined and the amount coming from the state isn’t finalized yet;
• Approved the 2024-25 Alternate Agreement for the provision of food services, where the local school relinquishes authority over its food service operations to a designated organization;
• Appointed NHA representative Andrew Roth as Freedom of Information Act officer; CS3 Law as board legal counsel; NHA director of facilities Tom Brennan as AHERA (Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act) contact; Principal Jorvonna Drain as contact for Title VI, Title IX, and Section 504; and Principal Drain as the School Safety Commission liaison. These are appointments made annually for the upcoming school year;
• Heard Prinicpal Drain announce with the latest hire of an intervention paraprofessional, Keystone has no vacancies in staff of the upcoming school year. It is projected that 706 students will enroll for the 2024-25 school year; and
• Was reminded of the following upcoming events: May 31, Field Day; June 6, eighth grade promotion; and June 7 kinder promotion and eighth-grade Clap Out. June 7 is the last half-day of school this school year.