Keystone Academy board agrees to spend $4,650 on staff members

After discussing the proposal at length at its regular meeting on March 13, the Keystone Academy Board of Directors agreed to recognize its 62 staff members with gift cards and food.
The $50 per person gift cards, for a total of $3,100, will be to Amazon, with Meijer as a second choice if Amazon doesn’t work out. Food will be provided up to $25 each, totalling $1,550, for a grand total of $4,650.
May 5-9 will be celebrated in all 100 of the National Heritage Academy charter schools as Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week.
“This week is an opportunity for NHA and partner boards to celebrate all staff members and the very important impact they have on the lives of children,” said the NHA.
Office Staff Appreciation Week is April 21-25. Keystone has two such employees and $75 each is being spent on them.
Keystone principal Jorvanna Drain announced that in the past the school was not allowed to give gift cards to the employees, but now it can.
NHA representative Andrew Roth said this is for all Michigan schools it is not to be more than $170 each and it can’t be VISA because that is cash. He said they have a legal opinion the school can do this.
Principal Drain said the staff members like the personal gifts at Christmas and they would love a gift card.
Last year the board paid $2,000 for teacher appreciation.
When Drain found board resistance to the $4,650 total, she said she has $2,900 left over from her budget for Family Fun Night and that could be used to help. Family Fun Night could be closed out and put back in the budget for use by the board for this.
Board president Steve Harsant didn’t like that much money being spent in this way.
“I don’t understand the hesitation,” Drain said. “You have $60,000 [left in the board budget]. What are you going to spend it on?”
“We started to put things on the playground and then stopped,” president Harsant said.
“You said no,” Drain responded. “I did investigation and presented it and it was denied.” She said it took a lot of her time to put the proposal together and so she stopped.
“If you want to do something, let me know how much you want to spend,” she said.
The voting on the staff recognition item was placed at the very end of the meeting agenda and then approved as presented by Drain.
“You drive a hard bargain,” Harsant said and Drain replied, “That’s my job.”
In other business at the March 13 meeting, the board:
• Approved matching the PTO’s $1,000 for alumni scholarships as requested. Two, $1,000 scholarships are presented to students graduating from high school who had graduated from eighth grade at Keystone and spent four years at Keystone. There was some discussion and confusion about a proposal by the PTO to change the qualification for the scholarships. But the board wants it to stay at least four years at Keystone and graduated from eighth grade at Keystone;
• Approved the school calendar for the 2025-26 school year, with Aug. 25 as the first day of school for students and June 5, 2026 as the last day of school. This is for 180 school days and 1,174.92 instructional hours. Full school day hours are 8 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. and half-day hours are 8 to 11:20 a.m.;
• Approved the 2025-26 Keystone board meeting calendar, with meetings scheduled on the second Thursday of each month at 5 p.m.;
• Heard Roth say the 83-page Annual Education Report for 2024-25 which is required of all schools in Michigan, is included in the packet, is on the school website, and is being made public to all. He said it is from the Michigan Department of Education. It meets the federal requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA);
• Heard Roth encourage board members to take the Board Satisfaction Survey which will be available April 1 and is due by April 30. He said NHA values the feedback from board members;
• Was informed the agenda item on the 2026-27 open-enrollment period is moot and the board doesn’t need to talk about it. He said open enrollment is supposed to end the Friday after Thanksgiving, but that date will probably be revised;
• Heard Roth explain the NHA partnering with Basis Policy Research for a study that analyzes student test score data. It shows that if NHA’s Michigan schools were their own state they would have more than 70% of their students falling below the poverty line, rank above the national average for student proficiency in three of the four NAEP-tested subjects, rank above the state of Michigan as a whole in all four NAEP tested grade/subject combinations, and rank fourth in the nation in eighth-grade reading and 10th in math. Roth said the study results justify for charter schools in general;
• Discussed the July 14-16 NHA Board Symposium in Grand Rapids which will celebrate 30 years of NHA. Roth said this month’s board video will feature NHA founder J.C. Huizenga talking about the celebration of 30 years of service;
• Was invited to the Bay Mills Community College Appreciation Dinner on April 24 by Bay Mills representative Brittany Cook;
• Heard Drain report that there is now a vacancy in the 7th grade ELA position because a teacher had an accident and went on medical leave. Also, a second grade teacher has left for medical reasons;
• Heard Keystone had a non-academic goal on attendance and getting the kids to school. Drain said the new attendance liaison started in November and the board passed a new attendance policy. There were 600 less absences this year from last year. She said Keystone met their non-academic goal on attendance;
• Learned 71 students and staff dressed like Drain in gray and black on Twin Day. At the last minute, Drain decided to reach out to those who hadn’t teamed up with a twin for the special day and she was so surprised. Those who hadn’t arranged for a twin were so happy to twin with the principal; and
• Was informed three authors will be present to talk to students in three different grade sections on March 18, 19, and 20 and each student will get a free book from their author. Authors visiting will be Ruth Barshaw, Aaron Zens, and Jon Rand. Also announced was the Free Spring Book Fair April 21-23, where students will get two to four books each. The big PTO school carnival is April 12.
The minutes of the Feb. 11 meeting gave more information than was given at the meeting. The student who was expelled for 180 school days was a seventh-grade boy. The reason given was possession of tobacco on school grounds and persistent disobedience.