Mary Ban chastises School Board for being against charter schools

At the Dec. 10 meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education, the board voted 5-2 to demolish the closed Elwell Elementary School, with School Supt. Michael Van Tassel, Trustee Toni Hunt, and Board President Martha Toth all speaking of the district’s fear of Elwell being turned into a charter school.
They referred to pending legislation at the state level on a requirement to lease vacant education facilities.
Mary Ban of Sumpter Township was at the Dec. 10 meeting in hopes of heading off the demolition of Elwell School, which was built in 1958 and is 43,877 square feet at present. It was Sumpter’s neighborhood school, she said.
She said it would cost $18 million to build such a building today and the board is willing to spend $200,000 to knock it down. She spoke about how other countries preserve old buildings and how, locally, old buildings are torn down.
Ban told of how in 1978 another Sumpter school was given to the township for $1. Now that building is a community center, senior center, Head Start classroom, and police department, and used to have dispatch, as well.
At the end of the meeting, after the vote to tear down Elwell School, Ban gave the board a tongue-lashing.
She asked about their hatred of charter schools, which she said are in the forefront of education.
“I cannot believe you are so against charters,” Ban said, adding that charter schools teach morals, patriotism, and citizenship.
In the past, she said, board members have asked what is attracting parents to charters.
She said board president Toth runs her meetings as “a dictatorship” and she has a problem with that.
“Why did you not come to Sumpter Township?” Ban asked, noting Sumpter would have talked with them. “You had your minds made up.”
She invited them to reexamine their attitudes on college educations and no longer teaching vocational studies locally.
Ban also said board members should examine their consciences on charter schools.
It is estimated that Keystone Charter Academy in Sumpter Township has taken more than 200 students from the Van Buren Public Schools since it opened in 2003. Keystone was started by two former Van Buren Public School board members who said they were frustrated at being unable to work within that system to cut costs for taxpayers and upgrade education for students.
In other business at the two-hour-and-35-minute meeting, the board:
• Set the next meeting of the board, the organizational meeting, for 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 14, in the new Student Commons (the updated cafeteria), or if that wasn’t ready, the mini-auditorium at Belleville High School. Enter at the main entrance;
• Approved the 2013 projects for the Sinking Fund, as recommended by Plante Moran CRESA;
• Heard an update on the BHS bond project from Plante Moran CRESA;
• Approved door and hardware changes to correspond to the increased sizes of classrooms in the BHS classroom towers;
• Approved summer tax collections;
• Approved offering Schools of Choice programs for the second semester, since there are openings in many schools;
• Heard the first reading of policy updates recommended by NEOLA, to be in accordance with new state laws;
• Approved the requested terminations of Mary Ivan of McBride after 25.5 years of service for retirement as of Nov. 30; and Tamara Mida of McBride for other employment after 2 years of service as of Dec. 14;
• Approved requested termination of bus driver Tammy Huziak for other employment as of Nov. 30;
• Approved minutes of a Nov. 26 closed-door disciplinary hearing that went into open session to permanently expel a McBride Middle School student for assaulting a school employee;
• Heard complaints about bus drivers by two mothers. Van Tassel was directed to look into the situations;
• Heard a proposal to use Haggerty School as a Warming Center for low income residents in Belleville, Van Buren and Sumpter. The speaker said the proposal has to go to Van Buren Township officials first before more information could be given;
• Heard former board member Brenda McClanahan give a fond farewell to Toni Hunt, who was attending her last meeting as a board member. Board President Toth also spelled out Hunt’s courage as a board member. Hunt named those who had inspired her over the eight years she had been on the board. She urged the board to support Supt. Van Tassel and to keep the district going; and
• Went into a brief executive session to discuss pending litigation.
When the Independent asked if the next meeting in the new Student Commons would be shown on cable TV, the way meetings used to be shown before the BHS construction began, Toth said it wouldn’t. School Supt. Van Tassel said he would present a recommendation on cable coverage of meetings at the Jan. 14 meeting.