School Board gives Supt. Kudlak ‘effective’ rating

At the end of Monday’s meeting, the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education went into closed-door session again on the subject of the superintendent’s evaluation.
Then the board came back into regular session and passed a motion giving School Supt. Pete Kudlak an evaluation of “effective” in his job for the period of July-December 2017.
This was the culmination of the Superintendent Evaluation Process that has been ongoing in steps since July. Moving forward, the superintendent’s performance period will be January through December of each year.
After a special 6 p.m. meeting before the regular 7 p.m. meeting Monday, the board went into another closed-door session to consider student discipline.
Then the board came out of the closed-door session to pass a motion to reinstate Student A with conditions, which were not spelled out publicly.
The parent had requested a closed session to discuss potential reinstatement of the student for the 2017-18 school year. The student was expelled during the 2016-17 school year and came before the Reinstatement Committee for consideration after expiration of the expulsion period. The parent met with that committee on Dec. 4 and the committee’s recommendation was before the board on Monday.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the board:
• Set the annual board organizational meeting for 7 p.m., Jan. 8, as part of the regular meeting;
• Approved hiring Benson Kellum of Ann Arbor as a new counselor at Belleville High School as of Nov. 30 and Nick A. James of Saline as a teacher at BHS as of Dec. 11;
• Approved hiring Bradley Pipok as custodian in the Building and Grounds Department as of Nov. 29;
• Heard Financial Director Shareen Barker give an update on the law suit under way concerning unlawful 3% deductions mistakenly made by Michigan school districts. The law suit is expected to have a decision in the spring and would probably impact next year’s budget. The deductions may have to be returned to the employees and $124,503.35 in FICA paid by the district;
• Heard Human Resources Director Abdul Madyun tell of meetings he has attended concerning getting a group of districts under one insurance umbrella to start controlling costs;
• Heard Supt. Kudlak say the old ECDC building at the Edgemont School campus is almost all the way down. He said those demolishing the building are clearing the debris as they go. Demolition started last Friday;
• Heard Board President Keith Johnston say the contract for the superintendent will be worked on in January and the board members said they want the whole board to work on it, not just a committee; and
• Heard a report on the Dec. 2 Jingle Bell Run put on by the Van Buren Education Foundation. It was the largest ever with 460 runners and more participation from all the school buildings.