During the Aug. 10 meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education, board members heard the first reading of policy updates for the district provided by Thrun Law Firm.
Policies reviewed during the meeting included topics such as entering into contracts, outlining school board member duties, complying with the Open Meetings Act, handling requests for service animals, tobacco and alcohol use, ensuring non-discrimination and anti-harassment procedures are followed, cell phone use, communication between teaching staff and students, and more.
The policy updates help school boards stay compliant with state law and district policies. A subcommittee of the board of education had already gone over the policies to update them before presenting a “first reading” of the changes at the meeting. The public will be allowed to comment on the changes at a second reading of the policy changes at a future school board meeting.
While giving a summary of some of the major policy changes, board president Amy Pearce noted that some of the policy changes they were looking at were directly relevant to that night’s meeting.
For instance, the policy on board officers’ duties “establishes a clear chain of command when a board officer is absent or unable to perform his or her duties.”
That came into effect since both the secretary and treasurer of the board were absent. Pearce appointed trustee David Shall as the secretary of record for the evening in accordance with the board’s bylaws.
In other educational news, the board accepted a human resources report that included the resignation of five teachers or administrators and the retirement of one teacher, along with the recommended hiring of a school psychologist and four elementary school teachers. It also included the resignation or retirement of five non-teaching staff and the hiring of one paraprofessional and one school secretary.
Trustee Victor DeLibera suggested that the HR report not be passed as part of the consent agenda but that it can be separated so the board can look at the reasons why teachers and non-teaching staff leave the district, whether it was a resignation or retirement or something else.
Pearce noted that this is exactly what their HR director was looking into.
During the July 13 meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education, the board heard a presentation from Director of Human Resources John Leroy about employee retention.
Leroy’s presentation showed that VBPS retention rates of around 88% are higher than the state average but still lower than the national average.
During his time for comments, Superintendent Pet Kudlak made note of several long-serving staff mentioned in the HR report.
“We have three non-instructional staff with double digit years of service all retiring: Jeanne Riley, Diana Reinhard, and Dianna Reinhard. All three are great,” Kudlak said.
“We also have two instructional staff who have been here a long time that not going to be working with us anymore. Brent Held, after 28 years, is retiring. He’s been a great teacher for a long time for us, and I know he’s looking forward to retiring. We also have Kristine Miloser, who is resigning after 24 years because her husband got transferred to Seattle. She was a great teacher as well, and she’s done that teacher negotiating.”
In other news from the Aug. 10 meeting, the school board members:
- Discussed the Michigan Association of School Board annual meeting and whether VBPS would send a delegate to the MASB assembly.
- Heard a suggestion from trustee Wade Fields that school board meetings rotate through different school locations throughout the district to allow trustees to see how their bond money has been spent on various building projects. Pearce said she liked the idea and suggested an optional trustee tour of the building before the official session started.
- Went into a closed session to discuss pending litigation related to Moorehead and Jenkins vs. Van Buren Public Schools. When the board returned from closed session, the board approved a motion 4-0 that the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education accept the attorney’s recommendation in regard to case No. 23-005269-CD consolidated with No. 25-006858-CD as presented. The meeting ended at 8:11 p.m.