The Lowell Area Schools Board of Education met Monday evening for both a special meeting and their regular work session. All board members were present for both.
Special Meeting/Action Items
The board held a brief special meeting before the start of their work session to take action on a couple of items: a vote on whether to approve the purchase of new security camera software and also a bond resolution.
Security Camera Software Update
The current security camera software for the district is out of date and on aging infrastructure so the technology operations department researched extensively to find a new software package that would be cloud-based and could suit the district’s needs. After reviewing several different vendors, a package was settled on that could meet the requirements at LAS.
The total amount for the package is roughly $95,000 and will include a one-year subscription for all of the cameras the district already has, two servers to run the system, and the professional service fees to get the new system up and running. The subscription portion will be a recurring annual fee of about $20,000, and the majority of the new system will be paid for with a security grant from the State of Michigan.
The board unanimously voted to approve the purchase of the new software.
Bond Resolution
A large contingency fund remained following the recent renovation of Lowell Middle School. Some of those funds have been used to help pay for updated food service equipment, but there is still about $1,800,000 remaining.
The bond resolution before the board on Monday allowed the district to use those remaining funds for upcoming projects like the renovation of Cherry Creek Elementary and the high school track. The board passed this resolution unanimously.
Work Session
Public Comments
Retired LAS elementary teacher Kim Lum said that she wanted to thank the board “…for all the ways that our community gets to shine through Lowell Area Schools.” Lum said that she appreciates the way the board “…listens to a lot of different people share what they think is…important for you to hear, and you find your way through it.”
Lum mentioned a recent post she read about students at Cherry Creek Elementary having the opportunity to grow their own tomatoes and learn where their food comes from and emphasized that this was an important lesson that she was glad they were teaching at Cherry Creek.
Schools of Choice parent Stefanie Boone said that she has a freshman at Lowell High School whose English language arts (ELA) teacher sent out a permission slip for parents to sign if they wished for their children to be able to access books in her classroom library. Otherwise, they would not be granted access.
Boone said she has attempted to reach out to the teacher to find out what books are included in the teacher’s library. While she stated at the meeting that she hasn’t heard back from the teacher, in April, she posted on social media the first paragraph of an email she received from the LHS principal in response to her request. Boone was previously served a cease-and-desist letter from LHS Principal Steve Gough in 2024 asking her to not have contact with any staff without prior permission from the building principal or superintendent. Boone is currently suing the district, in part, because of that letter.
Boone went on to say that she received a photo of the books in the classroom from an unnamed source and disagreed with the mature content in some of the books. While she did not mention book titles at Monday’s meeting, in a social media post, she listed about a dozen including “The Hate U Give,” “Long Way Down” and a “Collection of Barack and Michelle Obama books.”
In concluding her comments, Boone shared concern that the district’s DEI team had been disbanded. “If you care so much about diversity, equity and inclusion like you say you do, you shouldn’t be ok with the team being disbanded,” she said.
Report by District Nurses
District nurses Delynn Wright and Kelli Boudro, along with Lowell Fire Chief Cory Velzen, were at the meeting to present to the board and the audience a glimpse into what sort of work goes into medical intervention at LAS.
Part of that work includes working with the community, including the fire department and EMS, to form and train MERT teams (medical emergency response teams) for each building in the district. The MERT teams perform timed drills every year in each building to practice for various medical emergencies.
Velzen said he appreciated the collaboration between the fire department and LAS, saying, “…it’s a pleasure to come in here, it’s a pleasure to work with the teachers, the nurses…we learn just as much from everyone else as they may learn from us.”
This year, nurses were able to get four additional buildings in the district certified as MI HEARTSafe Schools, ensuring they met the six different criteria to do so.
They’ll also be busy training about 90 LAS coaches in CPR and AED use, as a recent house bill and changes in MHSAA guidelines mandate that coaches be CPR and AED certified. Additional staff needing to be CPR certified includes all new LAS staff members and all bus drivers, who were trained over the summer.
On top of all of that, district nurses estimate that since November of 2024, they have seen an average of 311 LAS students per month for medical care, including for illness, injury, medication administration, etc. They have educated about 41 staff members a month on topics including CPR and AED training, diabetes care, epi-pen training and other medical training. Nurses have also coordinated care about 15 times each month, collaborating with doctor’s offices, teachers, school administrators, sitting in for 504 plans and IEPs and creating individualized health care plans for students.
Academic Achievement
Summer school for elementary students will be called “Summer Boost” this year and will begin the week after school is out for summer and continue for three weeks. “Summer Boost” will focus on literacy/reading and math, and students will attend at Cherry Creek Elementary three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) from 9 am-12 pm.
High school students will again have the chance to gain credits over the summer at LHS due to the success of the program last year. Previously, students would have to drive out to the East Beltline for credit recovery and the courses were not well-attended.
Personnel
Director of Curriculum Dan VanderMeulen will be retiring after this year so screening interviews of 54 candidates will happen this week to attempt to fill that position, which will now be called “Director of Teaching and Learning.” The hope is that a suitable candidate can be found in a timely manner so that some training can occur before VanderMeulen’s last day.
Prior to the May board meeting, LAS retirees will join the board for a dinner and then attend the BOE meeting for recognition and appreciation of their hard work for the district.
Finance
Preliminary audits will be happening next week, and auditors will take a close look at the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) federal grant. The finance team has been preparing for that visit and ensuring that everything is in order.
Auditors choose a different federal grant each year to review to ensure school districts are utilizing grant money as intended. Districts don’t know which grant they’ll be scrutinizing until just before the audit.
Board Leadership: Policy Clarification
Medications
At the last meeting, a first reading of some board policy changes included updates to the way the district handles student medications, but the edits presented were not the changes the board needs to make.
For clarification, the board policy will be that for prescribed medications, a doctor’s signature, prescription and also parent authorization is required before medication can be dispensed by school staff. For non-prescription medication, parental consent must be given before medication is dispensed by staff.
At the high school, students may self-carry and self-administer nonprescription medication so long as the school has been given notification of parental consent. K-8 students may also be granted permission to self-carry and self-administer prescribed medications (such as an inhaler, epi-pen, etc.) if agreed upon by building principals, the student’s doctor, the student and their parents.
Public Participation at Board Meetings
At the previous meeting, there was a brief discussion about the introduction of a visible timer displayed on a TV screen for those making public comments so that they may be able to see their time remaining and adjust their comments accordingly to fit in the allotted time. Boone made comments at the last meeting that she felt this restricted her ability to make public comments, and in response, Superintendent Nate Fowler said that the intention of the visible timer was not to restrict anyone’s comments but to provide order and consistency.
Marsha Wilcox Award
The board has been deciding between two worthy candidates for the Marsha Wilcox Award, which is an award given annually to someone who goes above and beyond to support LAS and also the greater Lowell community. The board narrowed it down to one candidate to receive the award, and though the name of the recipient has not yet been released, the recipient will be contacted and awarded and recognized at an upcoming board meeting.
Superintendent Goals
Part of the board’s annual evaluation of the superintendent includes setting goals going forward. Fowler said that the MICIP (Michigan Integrated Continuous Improvement Process) district goals of improved literacy, improved math comprehension and increased sense of belonging for all LAS students will have a specific goal of an increase by 2% in student scores each year.
An additional goal is to increase communication with the board as a whole, and the board discussed possibly having a discussion with Fowler at about the halfway point through the school year for increased communication opportunities.
The board went into closed session for negotiations at 6:53 pm. The next meeting will be Monday, May 12, at 7 pm in the administration building. The public is always welcome to attend.
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