“It would be quite a race to get it done by back-to-school,” said Brian Damman of School Fusion, the firm that was approved as a third-party website host for the Van Buren Public School District.
At Monday’s School Board meeting, Damman gave a presentation on what the new website will offer, dazzling the school board and impressing the audience. He said most of it can be complete in time for the new school year, but it will be a work in progress.
Since federal funds are available for internet services, the web design will cost the district just $6,171 of the $18,700 total price for the first year.
School Supt. Thomas Riutta said the district has been looking at getting a new website host, and had thought it could be done next year.
The district website now goes through the Wayne RESA (Regional Education Services Agency), but because of budget problems RESA is no longer supporting the platform the district has been using. Supt. Riutta said the district has done extensive research on the topic and came up with four hosts that were contacted and compared.
“School Fusion seemed to be the best fit for our district,” Supt. Riutta said.
Riutta asked for a one-year trial period to see if this is the direction they want to pursue for the district.
To get the new website up and running by the first of August, the board had to act quickly, Riutta said.
Pam Smart of the business office explained the funds that are determined by the percentage of free and reduced lunches, making the district eligible for 67% reimbursement of the $18,700 contract.
Smart said the $6,171 remainder will be taken from the phone account at Elwell which has extra funds because of switching from T-1 to fiber optic.
“We’re granted X amount of dollars,” Smart said. “If we don’t spend it, it goes back. If it saysinternet connections, it better be internet connections or someone’s going to jail.”
Smart said this year the district has requested $300,000 in federal ERATE funds and she doesn’t know how much will be coming.
Damman, who traveled from Denver to give the presentation on the School Fusion services, outlined the custom design that would be put together for the Van Buren Schools.
Damman said School Fusion serves 500 school districts which includes 5,000 school buildings. He said most of the districts train personnel by webinars from Denver offered by School Fusion.
Local districts using School Fusion include Holly Area Schools, Lake Fenton, Mt. Morris, Birmingham, Lindon Area Schools, and Clinton County RESA.
The web site will be able to replace the Honeywell alert system when its contract lapses in two years, noted Paul Henning, district information officer.
“The reason we stuck with RESA all these years is we didn’t foresee having the staff to keep it [a website] secure … which this does,” said Trustee Martha Toth about School Fusion.
Damman described a long list of ways administrators, teachers, students, and parents could use the site, with individualized services such as classroom web pages and personal space and file management.
School Fusion will manage content, so local school employees don’t have to take time to make sure everything put on the sites is appropriate.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the school board:
* Approved school bus use for six Boys & Girls Club field trips and Van Buren Township Recreation Department’s Safety Town program on July 8;
* Held the first reading of Board Policy #4890: Supervision of Construction that amends change orders for the 2008 Bond Project to take out the terms “emergency” and “significant” because they are vague. Change orders under $20,998 could now be approved by the superintendent, but presented to the school board at its next regular or special meeting for consideration and ratification. The change is expected to save time and money;
* Held the second (final) reading and adoption of the new District Grading Policy;
* Approved acceptance of the Wayne RESA budget after a report by Trustee Brenda McClanahan, who had attended a RESA meeting to get more information;
* Decided to set the long-discussed board retreat for four-hour sessions on possible dates of June 24 and July 15, starting at 5 p.m. The off-site meetings will be held at either Wayne County Community College or Washtenaw Community College, Riutta said, adding the board has a lot to discuss. Director of Instruction Peggy Voigt said the reports are back from the Genesee ISD on the community visioning session and those will be discussed at the first session;
* Approved the requested retirements of Robert Seefeld of Career Tech after 35 years; Catherine Alter of Elwell Elementary after 37 years; Marylynn Buckosky of South Middle School, after 39 years; and Martha Gregg of North Middle School after 24 years. The board also approved the resignation of Debra Cooper of BHS after 20 years for other employment;
* Honored student winners in recent Drag Racing and 4AAA competitions, who brought their trophies to show;
* Heard a report from Deb Rowsey and Pam Bradley on Savage Elementary School’s Positive Behavior Support program, run through a RESA grant, that works at behavior modification to decrease the number of office referrals;
* Was informed that Transportation Department employees won first place in a recent bus rodeo (won by Wayne Westland for the last four years in a row) and drivers Karen Blevin and Dawn Ackron will continue in state competition;
* Heard resident Greg Powell, a youth sports coach, discuss the construction project behind the high school that destroyed the baseball field when there were two BHS home games remaining and then ceased further work. Powell said the players had to play their last two games in high school at a Little League diamond. He suggested the district build an extra diamond at North Middle School to allow BHS players to have home games while construction is under way. He also said if the board decides not to put artificial turf on the football field and use sod instead, there would be no home football games next season, which includes band reviews and other annual events. He said the students are giving up things because of the mud, dust, parking disruptions, and other problems and the district should give up something, too; and
* Went into executive session to discuss negotiations.