Harrison BOE decides to add second monthly meeting
With an agenda light on action items and heavier on information, Harrison’s Board of Education met Monday night with mostly district employees in attendance. Two Board members – Denise Haskin and Doug Cobb — were also absent.
Several Board members have requested a meeting format that would include a second monthly meeting for purposes of information and discussion (commonly referred to as a Committee of the Whole meeting). The Board agreed to add Committee of the Whole meetings on the fourth Monday of a month, with the first one scheduled to be on March 22, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. Superintendent Tom House said that the new meeting schedule would be posted in the newspapers and would be available on the district’s website. Neither Superintendent House nor the Board members indicated whether Committee of the Whole meetings would be held every month, or periodically throughout the year.
Superintendent House reported that a team of six people from Lansing came to the district three weeks ago to do an onsite review of Title I. House commented that it was “three days of a pretty intense audit,” and that an official report should be sent to the district by the end of next month. Hillside Elementary Principal Barb Elliott remarked, “The suggestions they gave us are going to move our school forward. We appreciated those, and they think we were on the right track.” “They were very complimentary of our people and the warmth and the way they were welcomed and the look of the place and the feel of the place when they were here,” Superintendent House added.
House also reported to the Board that the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System “had lost ten billion dollars over the last two years” and that Michigan’s legislature had not acted to find a solution. House commented that the district’s rate of contribution to the system would undoubtedly be going up, and that employees may also be asked to contribute more.
In another update, House announced that Michigan was not awarded Race to the Top funding in the first go-round, despite the Michigan legislature’s last-minute attempts to change laws and regulations in order to qualify for the federal grant. Michigan has a much better chance of being funded for the second round of Race to the Top grants, House said, but cautioned that, regardless, all districts in the State have to implement the changes the legislature passed in that effort.
Also at Monday night’s meeting, the Board took action to continue the following probationary teachers in their third year of successful teaching: Becky Cavanagh and Donna Venglar — and to continue recognition tenure for four year successful teachers Kelly Piepzryk, Janet Singleton, Tori Blystone, Kelly Karcher and Amy Gauthier.
The Board also took action to grant a one-year auditing contract to Weinlander Fitzhugh from Clare. Of the six requests for proposals (RFP) that were sent out, three auditing firms replied, and Weinlander Fitzhugh’s was the low bid.
Following the recommendation of Athletic Director Jim Cooper, the Board voted to hire Brian Clennan as the new Boys JV Baseball Coach.
In an agenda item added at the last minute by Superintendent House, the Board voted to reinstate a male student who had been expelled from the district since April 13, 2009. Reinstatement would be effective April 5th, 2010, with “specific conditions” that were not detailed during the meeting.
