One day a kindergartner came to register with the Van Buren Public Schools and they thought the child was their student. The child was within the VBPS border, according to paperwork it had.
But, according to paperwork the Airport Community Schools had in Carleton, Airport thought the child was its student.
This is how the boundary issue with the Airport school district began, said Van Buren Public Schools Supt. Pete Kudlak, who told the story at the Nov. 13 school board meeting.
The child lived in the Martinsville Road area, south of Wear Road in Sumpter Township.
Supt. Kudlak said neither paperwork was right.
He said Sumpter Township was taxing some houses as being in the Van Buren Public Schools and their students were going to Airport.
“Both districts thought they were their students,” Kudlak said.
Officials rented microfiche to study the records. The whole thing started in 1968 when the Sumpter School District split up.
“Sumpter Township was correct,” Kudlak said. “They had the original documents.
“Our district just got a little bigger,” he said, noting everything is being corrected.
He said neither district was fighting over students, but just wanted to find out what was right.
Kudlak said very few students are involved and the correction will be coordinated with Airport. First, the people who live there will all be contacted.
He said if students are presently attending Airport and belong in Van Buren, they could continue at Airport as Schools of Choice students. That’s if they are happy at Airport, he added.
In other business at Monday’s 42-minute meeting, the board:
• Heard Financial Director Shareen Barker tell of a problem playing itself out in the courts that may impact the Van Buren Schools 2017-18 budget. In 2010-12, school employees in the state were paying 3% more to the state than they should have been. Nobody in Wayne County was paying the FICA tax on that 3%. She said the employees will have to be paid back from the state and the district may have to pay its share of the FICA. They will have to locate all the employees affected. Supt. Kudlak said probably somebody will create guidelines on how to do this, “but we have to pay the taxes”;
• Came back into open session, after a closed-door session at the end of the meeting, to reinstate a 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 the expiration of the expulsion period. The committee gave a recommendation to the school board for consideration;
• Approved the resignations of Evelyn Charles and DeShawn Walls from the Transportation Department after one year of service;
• Approved the hiring of non-instructional employees Deborah Siedlaczek as a GSRP paraprofessional at Haggerty, Sarah Klepadlo as paraprofessional at Owen; and Bretton Blodgett as student support specialist at Owen;
• Heard a presentation on instructional changes at Tyler Elementary School by Principal Aleisa Pitt and Instructional Coach Jolynn Debuysscher. They talked about the Panther Den for students and the Professional Playground collaboration of teachers;
• Was informed Chandler Bradley was the winner of a competition to design the logo for the T-shirts for this year’s Jingle Bell Run. There were eight designs submitted and the Van Buren Public Schools Education Foundation voted to select the winner;
• Learned six Belleville High School students were in Grand Rapids last week for the DECA leadership conference. Four of those were in the top 20; and
• Learned Kylie Potter and Ellie Russell wrote the top winning essays on “America’s Gift to My Generation” in the contest put on by the Veterans of Foreign Wars at McBride Middle School.
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