School Board hears presentation on pre-school tuition program

During the regular meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education on March 21, Becky Ross, director of the recently constructed Early Childhood Development Center, gave a presentation on preliminary plans to open the pre-school tuition program in the fall.
She said she had 72 respondents to a family survey and she went over the results with the board members, saying 40% don’t need care outside of the school year.
She said they plan a year-round tuition program from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, with full day and half-day options.
There will be four tuition classrooms: infants, toddlers, three-year-old preschool, and four-year-old preschool. The GSRP, ECP and ASD classes will continue.
Ross explained the Infant Room cares for those six weeks through 18 months; Toddler and Twos Room is for those 18 months to 36 months. Ratio is four children to one caregiver. Tuition will have daily and weekly rates.
The Three-Year-Old Preschool classroom is for those who are age three by Sept. 1 and the ratio is 10 children to one caregiver. The Four-Year-Old Preschool classroom requires children to be four by Sept. 1. The ratio is 12 children to one caregiver. Tuition is for a semester or yearly program, billed in 10 monthly installments.
Ross said this is a work in progress and she will return with an update after other details have been decided.
In other business at the one-hour meeting, the board:
• Honored coaches and members of the winter athletic programs: wrestling, bowling, and swimming. The basketball team was not present because members were practicing for their quarterfinal contest the next day. The swim coach said there are 16 members of the swim team and all 16 have grade point averages of 3.0 or higher and of those 10 had GPAs of 4.0 or higher;
• Approved the purchase of 35 laptops and peripherals from Inacomp TSG for a total amount of $35,331.15 from the Enhancement Millage Funds. These will be for the administrative staff whose current laptops are in need of replacement;
• Approved the purchase of 12 HP desktops and monitors from Sehi Computer Products for $20,616 from the Enhancement Millage Funds. This is so BHS can start an Esports team and it is in need of PCs capable of running the games that are used in competitions. The IT Department wants the desktops with monitors to be installed in BHS Lab 84 for use by the Esports team after school. During the day they will be utilized for the new Robotic Arm programming class that will start next year;
• Approved the purchase of 35 HP desktops and monitors from Sehi Computer Products for the total amount of $60,130 from the IT Equipment budget. The current Dell workstations being used in the BHS media productions computer lab will not be able to run the next version of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. Adobe licensing requires that they run the most current version in school labs due to the subscription model they utilize, explained Sean Garland. BHS maintains a full load of classes in this lab daily and uses them to produce the student yearbook each year. The new computers will replace the 35 HP desktops with monitors to refresh the lab;
• Reviewed the calendar for next school year and heard Human Resources Director Abdul Madyun and Director of instruction Jeff Moore explain the four early release days added to calendar. Early release days are days that students would get released two hours earlier than their normal school day. This provides greater flexibility to provide professional development and staff collaboration and is being tried in other districts;
• Voted 4-0 to officially approve the contracts for those not affiliated with a union, with Susan Featheringill abstaining because she is related to an employee on the list. Also, Simone Pinter and Calvin Hawkins were absent. The new pay begins July 1;
• Approved hiring Steven Thorn as custodian in the Building and Grounds department as of March 14; and
• Heard parent Amber Crawford ask about the possibility of metal detectors at the school. School Supt. Pete Kudlak explained he sent out a survey to parents and would bring the results back to the board when they are available.