Keystone Academy board defends school discipline practices

At the end of the Jan. 9 meeting of the Keystone Academy Board of Directors, president Steve Harsant asked for another item to be added to the agenda.
At the Dec. 12 board meeting, grandparent Tom Griffin and his granddaughter, Keystone eighth grader Chloe, came to the meeting to talk about discipline Chloe had received.
He said she was suspended for three school days and removed from the cheer group. Griffin said he felt the discipline was rough for the offense, which was not specified.
He said he met with principal Jorvonna Drain and agreed with the suspension. Drain told the board it was the student’s second Level 5 offense.
Griffin said his granddaughter is an A/B student and it would be great for her to be back on the cheer team.
Griffin asked the board to look into the school’s discipline and board president Harsant that the board will review the school’s discipline policy, as requested.
“We’ll take a look at it and get back,” Harsant said.
The new item on the agenda was Harsant’s response.
He passed out copies of a typed statement, titled “Keystone review of Student Discipline Policy,” which read:
“The Board has recently completed a thorough review of all Board policies, including the Student Discipline Policy. The newly updated policies are designed to both support the school’s moral focus and contribute to the school culture of excellence. Both the Board and School leadership are committed to implementing all policies fairly and consistently.”
Harsant said he had an ad hoc meeting on looking at the discipline and found it important to put his thoughts on paper.
Andrew Roth, the National Heritage Academy representative at Keystone for the past six years, said he found out the grandfather wasn’t the legal guardian and they shouldn’t have listened to him talk at that meeting.
At the beginning of the Jan. 9 meeting, Roth asked to remove from the minutes of the Dec. 12 meeting the student’s identification number, which was used by Roth in the minutes to refer to both the student and the grandfather.
After reading Harsant’s comment, board vice-chairman Christine Mihaly said when her students were at Keystone she signed the student policy handbook agreement every year. The handbook is on the Keystone website for public review.
Keystone principal Drain said, “I appreciate the board for their trust in my implementation of board policy.”
Harsant said if there is no opposition from the board, he would take it the board approved with his comments. There was no opposition voiced.
Harsant said, “The greatest gift to that girl is to learn what accountability is.”
In other business at the 50-minute meeting, the board:
• Unanimously reappointed Christine Mihaly and Kimberly Kowalski to three-year terms on the board;
• Was advised about the 30th anniversary symposium of NHA July 14-16 in Grand Rapids at a board cost of about $200 each. Several members showed interest in attending, but no action was taken;
• Took no action on an agenda item to approve funds for board members to attend the 2025 National Charter Schools Conference in Orlando, June 29-July 2;
• Heard Drain explain that for the past two years Keystone had received an “A” in all three categories of growth, proficiency and performance amongst peers and was named a MI Reward School. Now the Michigan Department of Education has changed to an accountability system with scores from 0 to 100 based on proficiency, growth, graduation rate (when applicable), English Learner Progress, School Quality and Student Success. Keystone’s overall index score was 93.3, up a half point from last year. She said they are only 6.7 points from a perfect score. As part of the overall score, Keystone’s Growth Index was 100%, Proficiency Index, 85.53%, and School Quality and Student Success Index was 91.69%. She said due to an increase in student absences last school year, this final score decreased by four points;
• Learned nine students placed first, second, and third in the grade-level categories for the Bay Mills Holiday Card Contest. All the winning students received a gift card. Four students placed first and their pictures were featured on one of the holiday cards Bay Mills sent out;
• Learned at the Feb. 13 board meeting there will be a legislative update from a NHA representative or speaker from the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. Harsant said the school administration is doing an exceptional job and so this gives the board an opportunity to look outside the school and educate themselves into what’s going on;
• Heard Roth say the legislation he warned them about at the last meeting, died on the vine during the Lame Duck session of the legislature. He said charter schools worry over bills is pretty much gone. Roth also said a celebration for Vesta Losen is “still around the corner.” Losen resigned as board president last May after 20 years on the board;
• Heard Roth say he will send out the new video in the NHA Board Member Video Series to them at the end of January. It will feature the NHA Information and Analytics Team. These videos are shared every other month during the year and present information from different NHA departments or initiatives. The videos are supposed to be shown at the school board meetings and Roth did show the first one last year, but he didn’t have the proper equipment to show it and since then he has sent the videos to the board members at home instead; and
• Reviewed the final report on COVID/ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds and how the money was spent. The three years worth of funds totaled $1,746,965. He said all the money has been spent with just $193.62 left over. He said there will be potential audits on use of the funds.