Van Buren Public Schools to sell three vacant land parcels

The Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education, on a 5-1 vote at Monday’s regular meeting, agreed to sell three of the vacant properties it owns.
The district Facilities Committee met to assess the vacant land and buildings owned by the school district and made the recommendation to list three of them. The committee is made up of Trustees Darlene Gerick and Simone Pinter and Board President Keith Johnston.
The board majority accepted the recommendation and voted to approve selling:
• 19.52 acres of vacant land on Denton Road in Canton Township, with the asking price of $450,000. It is zoned R-1, single-family residential;
• 10.71 acres of vacant land on Morton Taylor Road, south of Charter Club Estates, Van Buren Township, with the asking price of $130,000. It is zoned R-1B, single-family residential; and
• 8.58 acres of vacant land at 2060 Mary Catherine Street (West Willow), Ypsilanti Township, with the asking price of $60,000. It is zoned R-5, one-family residential.
Realtor Paul Armstrong, owner of Mi Choice Realty at 10663 Belleville Road, Van Buren Township, and a Belleville High School graduate, was hired to assist the school district in the sale of the properties. He suggested the prices.
School Supt. Peter Kudlak said the parcels are not priced to sell quickly and if they don’t sell they can lower the prices at a future time.
“We don’t want to give them away,” he said.
Board Secretary Kevin English voted against the motion to sell the parcels because he said two of the parcels are north of I-94 and there is only one school in that area, referring to Tyler Elementary. Since the population in the north end of the district is the most-dense, he said if the district needed to build another elementary school in that area the land would be gone.
He asked how much it would cost if the district held onto those parcels instead of selling them and Supt. Kudlak said the only one that has a cost is the Mary Catherine parcel which the district mows a couple of times a month.
Trustee Pinter was absent from the meeting.
Supt. Kudlak said the committee decided to keep the Elwell Road property in Sumpter Township and the parcel on Sumpter Road is not ready for sale but would be ready in about 20 days. That would be brought back to the board for a decision when it is ready.
In other business at the July 23 meeting, the board:
• Unanimously approved security upgrades district-wide from The Lockout, LLC, at a cost of $137,296.50. Facilities Director James Williams said the District Safety Committee, in accordance with the Active Intruder Policy as it relates to the district’s Alert Lockdown Inform Counter Evacuate (ALICE) procedures looked for viable ways to barricade the 507 classroom and office doors in the district in an emergency situation. It was found that The Lockout’s product, The Boot, was the best solution for this district. Supt. Kudlak said the same facilities committee that recommended selling the property looked at a lot of different items and this one was by far the best. He said a place is prepared in the floor and a metal object is dropped into place blocking the door. All the doors swing outward from the classrooms. It withstands force of 18,000 pounds, Kudlak said. Trustee Gerick said a Kindergartner could activate it and Johnston said it is 100% effective. “They’re not getting in,” Supt. Kudlak said. “It’s a lot of money, but it’s worth it,” Johnston agreed, noting it is not from the general fund, but the enhancement money. A retired teacher in the audience asked if the students could lock the teacher out of the room and Kudlak said they could, but there will be something to unlock it in the school office and first responders would have the key, too;
• Approved the recommendation from Plante Moran CRESA to replace the single Savage Elementary School boiler with two smaller, high-efficiency boilers and award the contract to Professional Thermal Systems, Inc., for mechanical services in the amount of $240,000, Allied Building Service for the electrical services in the amount of $8,848, and a construction contingency budget of $25,000 for a total amount of $273,848. There had been an estimated budget of $200,000 and so it is over budget. The mechanical services scope of work includes $15,000 for roofing work (since the boilers are having to be installed through the roof instead of from the inside as planned) and $7,500 to upsize the supply line to the kitchen that did not meet code. This work was not anticipated when the original project budget was developed. The manufacturer is holding the boilers for the district and the work is expected to be done by the end of September. Identical work will have to be done at Tyler School next summer;
• Heard Director of Instruction Jeff Moore and Haggerty School Building Coordinator Becky Ross give an update on the District’s Improvement Plan and its alignment with the Strategic Plan;
• Approved hiring Kimberly Rhodes as an Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) teacher at Owen Intermediate School as of Aug. 28; approved hiring Matthew Murphy as an IT Tech Specialist as of June 9; and hiring Sheila Udeozor as a part-time secretary at Rawsonville Elementary School as of Aug. 21;
• Heard Moore say he was invited to Lansing to help with the evaluation of state M-Step scores in math. His team gave input to the Michigan Department of Education and recommended where to cut the scores indicating proficient, not proficient, or advanced placement;
• Heard Human Resources Director Abdul Madyun say he is seeking bus drivers and those interested should call him. He said he had a job fair earlier that day for support staff and nine people came. He said he has been negotiating with the secretaries’ union and they voted and the contract will be on the agenda of the next board meeting. He said he also has been talking with teachers about their contract and health care. “We want to make sure whatever we do we do it correctly,” he said about health care;
• Heard Supt. Kudlak say a group went to St. Louis to observe New Tech for K-12 and consider more student-centered instruction. He said in the fall the four high school student representatives will begin attending board meetings, with two students participating in each meeting. They will get board packets and share their input on issues before the board. He said his new administrative assistant Debbie McWilliams is on vacation, but she came in to take of this meeting; and
• Heard Secretary English say he missed the last board meeting because he was in Traverse City at a conference. He said he ran into educators from Van Buren Public Schools at that conference and they discussed the district.