Keystone Academy swears in Mihaly, Kowalski as directors

Christine Mihaly and Kimberly Kowalski were sworn in for three-year terms to the Keystone Academy Board of Directors at the board’s regular meeting Aug. 11.
The two had been recommended for the positions by the board at its April 14 meeting after public interviews. Then the recommendation was sent on to Bay Mills Community College, which granted the Keystone charter and must approve the choices.
Bay Mills recently approved the candidates and they joined the board Aug. 11.
The two candidates have two daughters each that attended Keystone Academy through eighth grade. Only one parent is allowed on the board at a time and Charlene Derrick currently holds that position.
Kowalski’s daughters are both in college now and Mihaly had one daughter at Belleville High School and one in college.
During her interview, Kowalksi of New Boston said she works for Huntington Bank in Ann Arbor from home at the time but was moving soon to a new position as a bank officer in downtown Detroit. She earned a master’s degree in business administration from Wayne State University in 2007 and before that earned a bachelor’s degree from Liberty University.
She said her 22-year-old daughter is graduating from WSU and hopes to be in medical school this fall. Her 21-year-old daughter is a student at Central Michigan University.
Kowalski spent eight years as a volleyball coach when her daughters were at Keystone.
Mihaly, who lives on Elwell Road in Van Buren Township, is Associate Vice President of Human Relations at Washtenaw Community College. She said she had worked in the corporate side of retail before coming to WCC, where she has been for 19 years, progressing upward with her work.
She also has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. Her daughter Chelsea is in college and Meagan was a junior at BHS. They live close enough that her daughters could walk to school at BHS, where they attended after Keystone.
Mihaly stressed that you have to use the foundation for students in elementary school and her daughters got that foundation at Keystone. She especially liked the moral focus.
The two board members replace Patricia Kirkpatrick, who resigned, and Darren Hickonbottom who did not wish to be reappointed.
During the Aug. 11 meeting, Principal Jorvonna Drain announced the five Eagle awards presented to Keystone by National Heritage Academies at its July 18 21st-annual awards ceremony. She said of the 100 NHA schools, Keystone received the highest number of awards.
Principal Drain said this is the second year in a row that Keystone won an Eagle award for Safety.
“We had over 90% of our families respond they are highly satisfied/satisfied that ‘I am confident that the protocols and practices my school has implemented keep my child safe,’” she said.
“And, 99% of our staff marked highly satisfied that ‘I feel physically safe at my location,’” she said.
Keystone also won Eagle awards for Parent Satisfaction, Employee Engagement, Student Attendance, and Student Enrollment.
In other business at the Aug. 11 meeting, the board:
• Discussed the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, with ESSER I used to purchase equipment to transition to online learning. These funds have been expended and expire in September. ESSER II and III are to catch kids up after the COVID upheaval and can be spent on air conditioning, holding on to teachers and hiring supplemental people, as well as recurring costs for Chromebooks, among other things. ESSER II runs out in 2023 and ESSER III in 2024. “If we don’t use it, it goes away,” said Mihaly. Board vice president Steve Harsant wanted to see a more detailed report on what’s being done with the money and NHA representative Andrew Roth said he can get that information to Harsant immediately;
• Heard Drain say, “I’m super-proud of our scores,” referring to the NWEA spring test scores compared to last fall’s scores. All were above the national average of 50% of the students proficient and growing. Roth said all of the NHA schools took math hits the most;
• Approved the 2023 Children’s Internet Protection Act form;
• Tabled the request to approve the Teacher Evaluation and Employee Certification Warranty resolution to wait until next month until the final two teachers are hired so they can make sure they all are certified. Roth said NHA doesn’t hire unless a person is already certified or on track to be certified;
• Adopted the Continuous School Improvement Plan with three-year goals. It was noted that studies show if Keystone can educate a student for three or more years, that student will show high academic results for the rest of the student’s education;
• Approved setting aside $500 in the budget so all board members can attend the 2022 NHA Board Symposium on Oct. 24 and 25 at The Henry in Dearborn. Cost is $100 each and formal reservations will be taken later. They also discussed Bay Mills’ events Oct. 4 and 19;
• Informally discussed the new 5 p.m. meeting schedule and agreed it was a good time. Drain said this allows teachers to attend the meetings without having a big gap between the end of school and the beginning of the meeting. She said it also gives her time to get home in time to read to and tuck her daughters into bed;
• Heard Principal Drain report that the summer learning checkpoint #1 was a huge success and it was great to see students celebrate their hard work in a fun way at Sky Zone. She thanked the board for sponsoring this. She said final checkpoint #2 was that evening at Zap Zone;
• Heard Drain report there were 63 at the recent Kindergarten event, Barnyard Bash. All Young 5s and Kinder families were invited to spend an evening meeting their child’s teacher while enjoying a petting zoo and pony rides; and
• Was advised Keystone has 694 students registered and re-enrolled for the 2022-23 school year, with 37 more students in acceptance status. Drain said the 37 have yet to turn in paperwork. She said they want to have at least 700 students.