School Board approves budget amendments, new budget for ’24-’25

Van Buren Public Schools Finance Director Priya Nayak spoke for 35 minutes during an announced public hearing on the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school budgets at the beginning of Monday’s school board meeting.
Board president Amy Pierce asked a few questions, but the audience was not invited to comment, and no public spoke. The public hearing was not opened or closed with board votes, as is usually the procedure, and the meeting continued.
Later in the meeting the amended budgets for 2023-24 and the original budgets for 2024-25 were approved unanimously. Board vice-president Susan Featheringill and trustee Calvin Hawkins were absent from the meeting.
General Fund total revenue for the 2023-24 school year was $75,615,034 and total expenditures were $77,307,034, with a projected fund balance of $8,764,929 on June 30, 2024.
General Fund total revenue for the 2024-25 school year is expected to be $66,522,988 and total expenditures $68,997,999. Projected fund balance for June 30, 2025 is expected to be $6,232,418.
In other business at the one-hour-37-minute meeting, the board.
• Approved employment of Julia Pitts as Rawsonville Elementary School principal as of Aug. 1; and as of Aug. 28, April King as Tyler teacher (grade to be determined); Matthew Mair, BHS physical education teacher; Logan Carver, Tyler/Owen school psychologist; Casi Shannon, McBride speech pathologist, Kyle Whitehouse, BHS English teacher; Alisha Lominac, districtwide occupational therapist; and Jennifer Medvich, GSRP lead teacher at the Early Childhood Center;
• Approved the employment of non-instructional employees; Heather Hawkes and Lori-Ann Cooper as bus drivers as of July 1; and William Cornell in the administration building as part-time tech support as of June 24;
• Approved retirement of Kathrine Foscola as bus driver after 32 years of service, as of June 30, and resignation of Hussein Alakhrass in IT after 3.5 years of service;
• Approve the Stepping Stones Group contractual agreement for special education services for the upcoming school year. Budget implications are: speech and language therapy, $87.50/hr.; occupational therapy, $87.50/hr.; psychology, $95/hr.; social work services, $79.59/hr. and paraprofessional services, $42.50/hr.;
• Discussed the final Continuity of Services Plan report. This report was necessary through the use of ESSER grant funds for the COVID pandemic, but now is over. This is the last report;
• Approved Davenport Brothers Construction as the construction manager for Savage/Tyler office renovation at a cost of $28,000;
• Approved McBride’s Food Serving Line Equipment upgrade to make it similar to BHS, but scaled down. It is hoped to be done this summer;
• Approved support of the Regional Enhancement Renewal Millage that RESA wants to put on the November ballot. It would be for 1.9812 mills for six years, 2028-2033 inclusive. This school year Van Buren was allocated $337 per student from the present millage in place;
• Approved the renewal for one year of the Chartwells Food Service Agreement;
• Agreed Director Nayak could look into Clean Bus Energy Grant information to see what is involved and bring the information back to the board. The grant is due on July 12;
• Approved an L-4029 resolution to set the summer tax rate. All the school taxes are on the summer tax bill;
• Approved Educational Assistance Program Section 127 Internal Revenue Code, which requests the IRS not tax Education Assistance money given to educators earning such grants in the district. Van Buren Education Association union president Aaron Lang spoke to the board on the issue, saying he thought the cart was before the horse since the guidelines have not been announced and, he’s being asked to sign it, but “What if the state doesn’t follow through?” The grant for educational expenses from the state has to be funneled through the employee and the district applies for the grant. Director Niyak said they want to make sure the employees will not be taxed on this. “Guidelines are coming … We understand the frustration.” Director Leroy said if the district didn’t apply, the employees would have to pay the tax;
• Approved the Cooperative Education Program agreement with Wayne-Westland at William D. Ford Career-Technical Center, without discussion. The district agrees to pay an amount equivalent to .25 full-time enrollment for the Wayne-Westland Foundation Grant for each year, plus an additional amount of $50 for administrative cost per student;
• Approved the complete refinishing of the BHS gymnasium floor by Kuhn Specialty Flooring at a cost of $55,770. Kuhn, low bidder of four bids, originally installed the flooring. This will take five weeks to complete. Director of Plant Operations James Williams said the floor is 12 years old and each year they have lightly sanded it and applied a top coat. It is recommended to completely sand off the finish and repaint the lines every 10 to 12 years. He said the new school logo will be put in place;
• Heard School Supt. Pete Kudlak say that Julia Pitts, the new principal at Rawsonville Elementary School, is the last principal that needed to be hired. He said the assistant principal position at Owen Intermediate School is still open and there were 77 applicants. He said the district has received a great pool of applicants, with some being principals in other districts; and
• Went into closed-door session “to consider material exempt from discussion or disclosure by state or federal statute.”