School Board gets Labor Day Waiver from Dept. of Ed.

After the March 10 brief hearing where the Van Buren Public Schools presented the reasons it might want to start school in the fall before Labor Day, a representative from the Michigan Department of Education, who was present by phone, remotely approved a three-year waiver.
Director of Instruction Jeff Moore said that 125 students are in the early college program, which will be the first year with Washtenaw Community College, and there are 130 students who attend the Ford Career Center. Both those programs start before Labor Day and Belleville High School students would miss out on some of the learning if they couldn’t start before Labor Day.
Board president Amy Pearce asked if the district has to use the Labor Day Waiver if it is granted and School Supt. Pete Kudlak said it didn’t. He said it’s a three-year waiver and if the district wants to use it, it can.
Supt. Kudlak said the district had the waiver for three years and used it a couple of years. He said the school year will be determined by negotiation.
There were no questions from the audience and the state representative announced the waiver was approved for the next three years.
In other business at the one-hour-36-minute March 10 meeting, the board:
• Recognized the students who had 2024-25 Music Awards and the BHS boys and girls bowling teams, which both ended up second in state competition;
• Received information on a proposed year’s contract with Plante Moran Realpoint for services. Supt. Kudlak said the firm will help the district with its 2025 bond issue and work as the owner’s representative. It does the day-to-day grind behind the scenes on use of the bond money. Cost is $40,000 flat, reimbursable expenses up to $35,000, and 2.25% of the total voter-approved bond amount. The vote on approval of the Realpoint contract will come at the next school board meeting on April 14;
• Approved a Virtual Instruction Learning Plan to accommodate student testing at the high school for this year. The state sets that the district can have 15 days where students can have virtual education at home for several reasons, but VBPS plans for seniors to use only two days at home. Director Moore said the SAT and PSAT tests are now digital which cause staff issues when they are administered. On April 8, all students will be in the building, with some taking tests. On April 9, 10th and 11th graders will be taking tests and 9th and 12th graders will be at home. On April 10, 9th and 11th graders will be taking tests at school and 10th and 12th graders will be at home doing work online. This will not affect the elementary grades;
• Approved a new BHS course proposal of “True Crime and Detective Literature” for one semester, half credit of English, for seniors that starts in the 2025-26 school year;
• Approved the Non-Affiliated Salary Schedule as now required by the state. Supt. Kulak said there are from 40-60 employees who are not affiliated with bargaining units whose salaries must be on this schedule, including everyone in the administration building, the IT team, Transportation administrator, GSRP, tuition teachers, pool manager, and others. He said the schedule requirements are still being battled in court;
• Approved the March 12 resignation of McBride Middle School teacher Karen LaFave after less than a year of service;
• Approved the Feb. 28 termination of Brenda Morgan from Transportation after less than a year of service; the Feb. 28 resignation of Samantha Wilson from Buildings and Grounds after less than a year of service; and the March 13 resignation of Tony Shauan Loucks from the Transportation Department after four years of service;
• Approved the employment of Dawn Floyd as a bus aide as of Feb. 25; Bonnie Becker in food service at McBride Middle School as of Feb. 27; Leonard Edwards Jr. as a bus driver trainee as of Feb. 26; and Michael Brief as a custodian in Buildings and Grounds as of March 12;
• Heard director of plant operations James Williams note the district had been awarded a grant for two EV buses and infrastructure and they need charging stations for the two buses so the district is going out for bids. He said they decided they needed something for the buses to plug into before getting the buses;
• Heard Finance Director Priya Nayak say they have completed the application for a third EV bus and they may get eight additional buses by the time they are through. Board president Pearce said as long as they can get the expensive EV buses free, they should get them and use them. When they no longer work, the district can buy regular buses again;
• Heard director Nayak also report the district received a $100,000 grant for fresh fruits and vegetables at Owen and the elementary schools;
• Heard Kudlak report the girls basketball team won its game that evening, 79-40, and will play again Wednesday. The state semi-finals are March 21 and the championship on March 22, if they get that far; and
• Heard Pearce report BHS will host the MMEA music festival for Southeastern Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday in the auditorium and then the Robotics regional competition is Thursday through Saturday at BHS.