State gives Keystone three A’s to earn three ‘Reward School’ awards

The Michigan Department of Education has released its list of Reward Schools and Keystone Academy in Sumpter Township has been named a Reward School.
This was announced by Keystone principal Jorvonna Drain at the regular meeting of the Keystone board of directors on March 9.
Principal Drain explained that Reward Schools are schools identified annually as being high-achieving public schools as defined by the state of Michigan’s A-F accountability stytem.
Reward schools receive the highest grade (an “A”) in either student proficiency, student growth, or performance among peers, she said.
“Although we only needed to meet one of the indicators to be identified as a Reward School, I am extremely proud to announce that Keystone earned an A on all three indicators,” she said, adding it was the only school in Belleville that got all three A’s.
In other business at the one-hour-and-35-minute meeting, the board:
• Unanimously accepted the 2021-22 audit presented by Jay Wilde of Alan C. Young & Associates. He said the school got an unmodified opinion, which is the gold standard. The only problem was that National Heritage Academies was late with the audit report, submitting it after the Nov. 1 deadline because of an unexpected change of staff in that department at NHA headquarters;
• Unanimously appointed Alan C. Young & Associates as the firm to do the 2022-23 audit;
• Unanimously approved the 2023 school calendar, which is similar to last year, with Wayne County RESA choosing the dates for winter and spring breaks. The first day of school is Aug. 28 and the last day June 7;
• Approved setting aside $2,000 for purchase of six Apple iPad 9th Generation, 10.2 inch Silver 64GB Wifi-enabled devices for adding a video production unit into the elementary and middle school art classes, including an elective focusing on digital art as a medium. Art teacher Emma Karpinski said she plans to use the computers in classes from Young Fives through 8th grade. Karpinski also has an after-school art club every Thursday;
• Approved $1,200 for a food truck for May 10 of Teachers and Staff Appreciation Week. The truck is expected to be the Egg Roll Diva;
• Noted that board member Christine Mihaly had volunteered to help the PTO read and judge applications for the two Perseverence Scholarships being offered by the board and the PTO;
• Heard principal Drain report she is focusing on enrollment and the school had 30 preschoolers from Open Arms Daycare spend the morning of Feb. 21 at Keystone Kinder Camp and preschoolers from O2B a Kid are coming March 22. Also, mailers were sent to neighborhoods around Martz Road and another mailer will be sent out in April. She also explained procedures to keep attention on all those who have applied, been accepted and registered, as well as schoolwide projects; and
• Reviewed testing results from K-2 Numeracy and aimswebPlus with Drain noting the overall proficiency scores have increased on both assessment from fall to winter.