School Board urges lame duck legislators to leave education alone

The Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education joined with other school boards in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties in urging the lame duck legislature in Lansing to leave education alone.
At Monday’s meeting, the board voted unanimously to approve the position of the Tri-County Alliance for Public Education and similarly encouraged legislators to leave any legislative action on education policies for the next legislature and governor “when there is time for thoughtful review.”
When board president Keith Johnston asked what kind of weight this resolution would have in Lansing, School Supt. Pete Kudlak said they are trying to get all the superintendents in the tri-county area to do this. Then, it would have weight, he said.
“I’m going to Lansing on Wednesday to ask them to leave education alone in the lame duck session,” Supt. Kudlak said. “In lame duck things get bundled … just for politics … We don’t want any rash decisions. We don’t want any decisions.”
He said the lame duck legislators, whose terms will expire in January and who are no longer responsible to voters, have 12 meeting days.
Supt. Kudlak said it’s not as easy as putting an A to F grade on schools, as has been proposed. “There’s a lot more to it than that,” he said, adding they could reduce the school aid fund.
“They should stop and discuss whenever” they consider issues, said board treasurer Susan Featheringill. “There may be something we want them to do.”
Kudlak said the group talked about that, but, he said, in lame duck it’s all trading and not discussing.
“During any regular session they do have discussions and call in people… We don’t want them to do anything on education in lame duck,” he said.
The vote in support of the resolution was 6-0, with Trustee Simone Pinter absent.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the board:
• Approved naming parent April Turnbull to represent the school district on the Parent Advisory Committee at Wayne RESA. Each PAC member must be a parent of a student with a disability. The district’s previous representative’s appointment has expired;
• Honored student Karlee Owen for being the winner in the Jingle Bell Run logo competition for 2018;
• Heard Featheringill give a first reading of proposed board policy updates as recommended by NEOLA. The second reading and adoption is expected to be held at an upcoming meeting;
• After a closed-door session on student discipline at the end of the meeting, went back into regular session to reinstate the student without conditions. The student had been expelled during the 2017-18 school year and the expulsion period had expired; and
• Went into closed-door session again, this time for a periodic personnel evaluation of the superintendent. No action was taken in the following regular session except to adjourn.