Volunteer tells school board of BHS problem with truancy

Barbara Miller, a retired attorney and volunteer tutor at Belleville High School, addressed the Van Buren Public School Board of Education at the end of Monday’s long meeting.
She said she was concerned that the report on low high school scores that evening didn’t tell about the attending problem with truancy.
She said BHS Principal Nicole Crockett asked for volunteers at last fall’s annual alumni meeting. Principal Crockett wanted tutors for the new Tiger Success Institute that was to be run as a pilot program to help ninth graders to succeed as they begin their high school classes.
Miller, who also had been an English teacher in her past professions, said she volunteered to help and for most of the year has taken part in the twice-weekly, after-school program.
She said the attendance of students is very important and how many students that were in attendance were successful should be tallied in the assessments created at BHS that Crockett described to the board earlier in the meeting.
Miller said she talked with current teachers and attendance was part of the conversation.
“There is a problem with attendance at the high school,” she said. She asked board members to determine how they are going to encourage attendance.
She said currently the school is waiting too many days to track the students’ absences and inform the parents. There should be new protocols for truancy, she said.
She said the current policy is after three absences the student is called in. After ten days, the school talks to the parents.
Miller said where in the past the truancies were handled in circuit court, now 34th District Court Judge Brian Oakley is working with truancy in this area. She suggested the school work with Judge Oakley.
She said she asked Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara if the township police department would work on truancy and McNamara said the school would have the help of police.
She said attendance could then we added to any analysis of achievement.
“Showing up is the first step,” agreed School Supt. Pete Kudlak.
Miller told the board she has not given up on the rowing club she has proposed.
“I’m still looking for money for that,” Miller said as she completed her comments.
Board president Amy Pearce thanked Miller for her work in the schools.
During a presentation on BHS earlier in the meeting, Principal Crockett described the Tiger Success Institute for ninth graders and said it was more preventive than anything else.
She said the after-school program works on goals with tutors for an hour, then has snacks and a walk, and then has mentoring, working, and gaming. Then the students are taken home by school bus.
Crockett said last year 156 students failed Algebra 1 in the first semester, which she said was far too many. This year, 64 failed in the first semester, but 41 showed improvement.
She showed the new program for math at the high school that puts a two-hour block for Algebra 1, among other changes. She also spoke of other intervention programs.
“These aren’t great numbers,” said president Pearce. “You tell us … and we have to be honest.”
“We have to build the structure … after years of failure,” Supt. Kudlak said.
“Our goal is fewer and fewer interventions,” she said, adding maybe some of the students can’t be taught in schools and “How do we teach them from home?”
She thanked Miller for coming to help the students with English. “She keeps coming. She’s a trooper.”
Also in Monday’s two-hour-and-42-minute meeting, the school board:
• Learned the district has hired Calvin Norman as head BHS football coach. He has been a coach with the district for four years, said Human Resources Director John Leroy. He has been coaching for 32 years;
• Heard a building presentation on school improvement initiatives at Savage Elementary School;
• Learned concrete replacement project information that will be voted on at the next meeting. The total project is estimated at $1.2 million. Most of the work is at Tyler, followed by Savage, with some at Rawsonville and Edgemont. Plante Moran Cresa representative Rob Kakoczki said they are evaluating the bids and will bring the project back to the board for consideration at a future meeting. He said Davenport is low bidder on two of the projects and Royal Cement is low bidder on the other two projects;
• Was given HVAC pre-purchase information for Savage, Tyler, and McBride, with a formal recommendation at the next meeting. Kakoczki said the majority of the cost will be paid with bond money, some general fund budget funds, and some federal funds;
• Was given Rawsonville/Edgemont Bond Technology Cameras Information to increase security with new interior and exterior cameras. A parent asked if the police are allowed to see through the cameras and Kudlak said emergency dispatch and the school’s resource officer already do. A recommendation will come for a future meeting;
• Was given bus purchase information, with Director of Plant Operations James Williams saying they will be formally recommending buying six Hoekstra buses at the next meeting. He said with the bus replacement program now in place, when they retire buses now they are in better shape. He said the amount the district traded in last year almost recouped the cost of a new bus. Because of problems with getting buses and drivers for sports teams, Kudlak said he and the athletic director are looking at getting a contract with a company that just does sports transportation;
• Approved BHS Card Access installation at a total cost of $79,213. The two bids were very close. They plan to start the project right away because there is a 12-week lead time. Williams said he hopes to have some doors operational in early August;
• Approved the Elementary Playground project with a cost not to exceed $250,000 from the bond program. Most of the new play equipment will be at Edgemont, $60,000. Owen will get about $45,000 worth and then Rawsonville, with Savage getting $17,000 and Tyler about $7,000. Whatever fluff is left in the budget may go to Owen. Installation is planned for September and October;
• Approved accepting a bid of $479,131.80 from Sentinel to replace aging network infrastructure equipment. The cost will be covered by a combination of the E-rate USF grant from the federal government for $320,088.38 and general fund dollars not to exceed $160,000;
• Approved the new 6th-8th grade Science Curriculum of STEMscopes for five years beginning with the 2024 school year in the amount of $112,435.54 as presented at the previous board meeting;
• Received Wayne RESA budget information for consideration at an upcoming meeting, The total budget, across all funds, is $649.49 million;
• Approved Chartwells as the Food Service management Company for a five-year period beginning with the 2023-24 school year, with an option of renewing each year for the next four years as presented at the last school board meeting. Three officials from Chartwells were present to thank the board for their selection;
• Changed the next regular meeting date from May 22 to May 30 because the board president and vice president were unavailable for the May 22 meeting;
• Accepted the resignation of Gloria Cook on April 26 from the Transportation Department after less than a year of service;
• Approved hiring Tracy Watson as a bus aide as of May 1 and Shawnee Lawson as a parprofessional at Savage Elementary School as of May 3;
• Approved the May 16-19 trip to the Fort Custer Training Center for 40-44 students in grades 9-12 involved in the JROTC program, as requested by USMC retired Captain Michael Bates;
• Heard Human Resources Director John Leroy say his son just got a job at Kroger and everything was done over text. He said the district is going to start doing that;
• Heard Kudlak say this is Teacher Appreciation Week and teachers should be honored. He said the district will have the 18 mill non-homestead tax on the November ballot. Details need to be worked out for the ballot. He also said the district’s Esports team went all the way to the quarter finals and lost in the semi-final round to Bloomfield Hills; and
• Applauded board member Dionne Falconer for being certified as a Level 1 and Level 2 School Board Member. It took a lot of hard work to get to this level.