This past Monday, the Lowell Area Schools Board of Education met on a sunny summer evening for their only meeting in July. All board members were present for the meeting with the exception of Jared Blough.
Action Items
The meeting commenced with two action items before the board. The first was a request for the board to approve a donation to LAS of artwork valued at $350. The artwork was donated by Board Vice President Laurie Kuna, and the plan is for the art to hang in the LAS central office. Superintendent Nate Fowler said the artwork currently in the central office had been in need of updating, and expressed appreciation to Kuna for her generous gift.
The second action item on the docket was a request for the board to approve a quote from JA Ryan Construction to perform maintenance on several LAS parking lots before the start of school on August 22, 2023.
The maintenance takes place annually and consists of a seal, coating and crack-filling of school lots to extend their life and to keep them in good shape. The lots included in the maintenance will be the four elementary schools (Alto, Bushnell, Cherry Creek and Murray Lake) as well as the high school, bus garage, central office, Yeiter Learning Center and the Wittenbach Center. The project will total roughly $110,000. Fowler said that LAS has used JA Ryan Construction, a local company, in the past and were pleased with their work. The board approved the bid unanimously.
Consent Grouping
Additional items before the board on Monday were approval of minutes for previous meetings, payment of various bills and approval of some new LAS hires.
Fowler said the new employees include two new teachers who were hired on to replace positions “vacated after some internal shuffling.” The other new hire is the district psychologist, an intern position lasting one year. The position is funded by a mental health grant through the State of Michigan. The board approved all consent grouping items unanimously.
Human Resources Update
Director of Human Resources Dustin Cichocki reported that negotiations with the Bus Driver Association had reached a conclusion and a three year contract had been signed. Cichocki added that it had been “…awesome working with the Drivers Association, they did a great job and we were able to work well together.” The contract will not need to be renewed until June 2026.
Cichocki also informed the board that as of July 28, Director of Technology Eric Stanek would be leaving the district. Stanek, who had served as the technology director for the past 25 years, is leaving LAS for another position elsewhere. The HR department is currently working on a job posting for the position. Cichocki said that, “…it’s been great having Eric and we wish him well in his next steps…”.
Budget Update
LAS Chief Financial Officer Sonia Hodge had a handout for the board illustrating some of the budget estimates based on information gathered following the State of Michigan’s recent budget approval. The approved budget gives LAS a foundation allowance of $9,608 per pupil, which is an increase of $458 from last year’s amount.
A change to the way the state calculates predicted enrollment numbers means an increase in budget revenue for LAS of 15 students. While 15 students doesn’t sound like a lot, that equates to an additional $144,000 in revenue for the district. Hodge said the estimated figure will change once she knows what the actual enrollment numbers are.
At-risk funding for all districts statewide will be going up, but the exact amount is unknown at this time. Hodge added there would also be some transportation aid funding although the state hasn’t yet announced which districts will receive this money or how much districts could get. Based on the size of the Lowell school district, she said she would expect that LAS could expect to receive some funding for transportation.
Hodge remarked that, overall, the figures presented by the state will result in a projected deficit in the district’s budget of $300,000. Hodge said that although that is a big number, it is much better than what the district had been preparing for.
Some additional grants the state has announced in its budget are for professional development and early literacy, educator compensation payments and mental health and security funds. Though, the exact amounts LAS may receive are still unknown.
Hodge reported that the state also approved universal school meals for all Michigan schools for the 2023-24 school year. This will provide free breakfast and lunch for all Lowell Area Schools students.
More definitive budget numbers from the state should be available in October at the earliest, Hodge said.
Curriculum Update
Director of Curriculum Dan VanderMeulen announced there will be an upcoming professional learning conference on July 30. The three-day conference will take place just north of Chicago and 28 staff from Cherry Creek Elementary and Lowell High School will be attending. The conference will focus on learning, collaboration and the concept of highly effective interdependent teams within a school setting.
Public Comment
Thomas Nemcek distributed a handout to the board prior to his public comment. He said that the packet contained statistical data concerning LAS that he gathered from mischooldata.com. A resident of the Forest Hills school district, Nemcek has no children in either the Forest Hills district or at Lowell Area Schools but serves as treasurer for the Forest Hills for JUST Education political action committee.
Nemcek presented data from the packet without any comment or explanation, starting with stats that he said demonstrated student enrollment at LAS has declined by 10% since 2016. He also read off figures which he said reflected the number of nonresidents enrolled in the district and the number of Lowell residents who were enrolled elsewhere, alleging that both number counts had increased during the last decade by 250-350%.
He said that comparisons of expenditures for the district also showed an increase from 2018 to 2022; $38 million in 2018 to $44 million in 2022. The last stats he presented he claimed reflected a decrease in the mean SAT scores at LAS over the last eight years. He concluded by addressing the board and saying, “…I just wanted to provide that as information to you.”
Stefanie Boone, a resident of the Forest Hills school district who has children enrolled in LAS through the schools of choice program, said she wanted to discuss “a few housekeeping items” with the board. She said she remembered that years ago, people making public comment who didn’t use all of their allotted time to speak could give their remaining minutes to another person wishing to give public comment if they needed more time. (Currently, each person making public comment at Board of Education meetings has three minutes to do so).
She stated that she also remembered that people used to be able to comment twice in one meeting, once on specific agenda items and then again as a general comment to the board. She remarked that she has “…great concern with that, and I have consulted some attorneys related to that, related to violation of the Open Meetings Act, violation of our First Amendment rights…”.
She went on to say that she appreciated that board meetings were live-streamed but requested that they be recorded and that any materials like handouts distributed to the board during meetings be published as well. Boone said that within her Facebook group, “Lowell Kids 1st,” she has “…shared many, many of my own personal videos, and it’s just for transparency…”.
Jeff Larsen, a resident of Lowell Township and father of three children currently attending LAS, said that as a veteran teacher at Lowell High School, he was compelled to give public comment because he felt that sometimes students’ accomplishments “…are lost in the cacophony of the controversies du jour.”
He said that for the past 30 years, LAS has offered Advanced Placement (AP) classes to its students who want to take on the challenge of a college-level course.
Larsen said he’s taught AP Literature for 24 years, and that at the end of the classes, his students take a 3-hour exam to test their knowledge of information presented in the course. He said that in the past two years, globally, 77% of students taking the AP Literature exam scored a 3 or higher, which is a score high enough to earn them college credit. In Michigan overall, that percentage was 81.4%, and at Lowell High School specifically, the number of students scoring a 3 or better jumps to a whopping 95% last year and a 96.3% this year.
Larsen concluded by saying, “My goal is that we continue to improve, and that’s the same goal for all of the AP teachers that I know who are so dedicated to their craft at Lowell High School.”
Wendi Vogel, a longtime Lowell resident and parent to two children attending Lowell High School said she was there because “…we know that public education is definitely a people endeavor, and I want to lift up a few people tonight.”
Vogel said her 17-year-old child recently went to Costa Rica with other students for an 8-day study abroad trip led by LHS teachers Sarah Ellis and Chaye Klomparens. She said that, “…as a former teacher, I want to tell you that just to take kids a bus ride away somewhere for a day is an event, and so to take them out of the country and give them an experience is something that I am very appreciative of.”
Vogel said that when attempting to return home to Lowell, the group got stranded at the Newark airport due to weather conditions. She described how Ellis and Klomparens stood in line at the airline help desk for 12 to 14 hours to try to work out how to get the students home quickly and safely. While half of the group were able to board a plane and return home after many hours of waiting, the other half had to wait more than 48 hours before they were able to return home.
Vogel thanked Ellis and Klomparens for their dedication in making sure that they were able to get the students home safely. She also wanted to express her gratitude to Fowler, Cichocki and VanderMeulen, who she said were on the other end, at central office, also doing everything they could to get the students home safely. She said that Fowler and Cichocki were in a school van, ready to make a 24-hour drive to Newark and back to pick up the students if another way home wasn’t forthcoming. Vogel said it meant so much to her just to know that the superintendent, the HR and Curriculum Directors and others in the central office were so committed to ensuring students got home safe and sound.
Retired LAS teacher Kim Lum said that at the last board of education meeting, there was talk of school maintenance, and it had led to her reflecting on just how much work must go into maintaining the many properties owned by LAS. She was thankful for how the board worked to ensure the upkeep of Lowell Schools and said, “…these people (the Board) really have to hone in on how our dollars get used.”
Lum also mentioned that she was excited for the new math program for grades K-5, set to begin next year, and emphasized how important she felt it was for all elementary teachers to have the same curriculum, the same materials and tools to teach math.
Superintendent’s Report
Fowler addressed some of the evening’s public comments, saying that pertaining to the LAS enrollment numbers stats, the decreasing numbers aren’t just a phenomenon happening in the Lowell district: “The decrease in enrollment we do see across the county. It’s something that we talk about; it’s something that we are aware of and want to continue to find strategies to stabilize that enrollment and continue to celebrate the great things we have going on here.”
Responding to the statistics connected with Lowell school district residents enrolling elsewhere, he observed that, “…with the proliferation of choices that students have in online options, we have lost some of our secondary students to some of that online programming. And so it is something that we talk about; it’s something that we continue to address..”. Fowler expressed that he planned to review the additional statistics brought up in public comments and would address them in a future meeting.
Of Boone’s comments, Fowler said that many of the recent meetings have been recorded and that the board would continue to look at the best ways to do so. He said that, according to board policy, members of the public are allowed to speak only once per meeting.
Fowler thanked Eric Stanek for his 25 years of service to LAS as Director of Technology, remarking that it’s a challenging position which involves making sure LAS staff and students have access to high-functioning technology while also making sure all Lowell schools are safe and secure for online learning. He wished Stanek well in his future endeavors.
Fowler added that he wanted to echo the sentiments of Vogel pertaining to the perseverance of LAS staff in keeping students safe on the recent Costa Rica trip. Fowler read aloud an additional comment sent in by a parent whose child also participated in the study abroad experience, thanking Ellis and Klomparens for getting “…the students home safely despite the significant challenges.”
Construction Update
Fowler announced that the new stadium lighting at the high school has been installed and that the parking lot lighting for the high school is currently being installed and should be completed this week.
He said the middle school construction was on budget and on schedule with one exception; there’s a delay in the construction of the gym lockers because of additional structural and plumbing repairs found during demolition. The gym lockers should be completed within the first few weeks of school.
Fowler added that he and other administrative staff are looking to set a date at the beginning of the school year for a formal dedication of the building and for an opportunity for parents and community members to take a tour of the completed building.
Board Comments
Kuna spoke up to say that she wanted to highlight the endeavors of LHS teacher Sarah Ellis, who was recently awarded the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classroom Award. Kuna said that she felt honored that LAS has “that kind of quality teacher” and concluded that “…(Ellis) is not the exception, she is the rule to the kinds of teachers we have in our classrooms.”
The meeting was adjourned at 7:46 pm. There is no work session meeting scheduled for July so the next LAS Board of Education meeting will be held on Monday, August 14, at 7 pm.
Leave a Reply