Boyne City Board of Education Meeting March 2010
Board Bits for March 2010�
The Boyne City Public Schools’ Board of Education held their regular monthly meeting on Monday, March 8th at 7:00 p.m. in the cafeteria of the Early Childhood Education Center.
Board President, Ken Schrader, opened the meeting with a presentation from District Media Center Specialist, Cindi Place about the various activities that take place throughout the year in the middle school. From the One Book One Read program where everyone in the middle school all reads the same book to the summer reading program, all of the monthly programs are designed to engage the reader in an effort to enhance the student’s interest in reading.
The building administration presented on the progress being made in each building towards a district wide instructional goal to improve student’s engagement in each lesson being taught. The building principals reported they have been extremely pleased with the progress based on their daily visits to the classrooms.
The Middle School Student Council representatives reported on their activities over the last month.
Business Manager, Irene Byrnes, provided the Board with an overview of the proposed amendments to the district’s budget. Due to recent unforeseen revenue coming to the district, combined with other budget adjustment, the budget shortfall anticipated last July shrunk by approximately $87,000.
On the Consent Agenda
A. Approval of the Minutes
The regular board meeting minutes from the February 8, 2010 and the special board meeting minutes of February 15 and February 25, 2010 both discipline hearings were approved; as well as the Finance Committee meeting minutes of February 26, 2010.
B. Business and Finance Items
The Board took action to approve Gross Payroll and Liabilities as paid in the amount of $790,656.35; General Fund bills as paid in the amount of $124,585.52; Athletic Fund bills as paid in the amount of 1,710.95; and Food Service bills as paid in the amount of $22,087.83, for a total of $939,040.65 for all funds during the month.
The Board publicly recognized from the consent agenda, two donations made to the middle school and/or it’s after school programs. Mr. Tom Mannusa donated an air hockey table to be used in the after school 21st Century Program and Victor and Wilhelmine Miller donated $250. Both donations were graciously accepted.
C. Personnel Items
The Board recognized high school Art Teacher, Nancy Belford and middle school Paraprofessional, Lauri Hardy as recipients of the Michigan Education Association’s 2010 Outstanding Persons In Education Award. Both employees will be honored by the organization at a regional awards banquet later this spring.
D. Curriculum & Program Items
The Board approved the administration’s request to allow the DECA Club to travel to Dearborn, Michigan from March 12 -14, 2010, to attend and compete at the DECA state conference.�
VIII. Agenda Action Items
The Board approved the budget amendments discussed earlier during Business Manager Irene Byrne’s presentation. An amendment by nature is a revision to the original budget approved in July which allows for a mid-year comparison of the yearly financial position at a specific point in time.
IX. Discussion Items
Superintendent Alger reported that a resolution was reached with the teacher’s union on a grievance that had been filed earlier in the year. He reported that both sides worked well to solve the problem of compensating a teacher for extra time worked while minimizing the impact of the decision on future staff scheduling scenarios.
Superintendent Alger also noted that while a Special Board Meeting for the purpose of conducting a student discipline hearing had been publicly advertised for Sunday, February 28th, the meeting had been cancelled. Procedurally, the student discipline hearing was nullified after a building level review team met to modify the student’s program based on the student behaviors and educational needs.
Superintendent Alger provided the Board and those in attendance, a snippet of the upcoming Financial Vision Series scheduled to start Thursday, March 11th at 7:00 p.m. The first of the two part series is designed to educate those in attendance about the district’s budgetary process and the goal for the second session is to create a priority list of essential program offerings for use by the administration in preparation for budget decisions later this spring.
The next meeting of the board will take place on Monday evening, April 19th at 7:00 p.m. in the cafeteria of the Early Childhood Education Center.
