Tuesday, January 11, 2022
The Wayland Union School Board met on Monday, January 10, 2022 at Steeby Elementary for their regular meeting. To celebrate and honor the school board during School Board Appreciation Month, students from Mrs. Nykerk’s and Mrs. Oddy’s classrooms sang a Thank You song for the board led by music teacher, Jennifer Bailey. Books were also presented to each school’s library on behalf of each board member.
New officers were elected for the 2022 school year with Dan Cassini remaining President, Peter Zondervan remaining Vice President, and Toni Ordway remaining as Treasurer. Theresa Dobry will take the position of Secretary, which Janel Hott held last year. Jason Shane, Trustee, announced his resignation due to his family’s move out of state. The Board will appoint a replacement and will accept letters of interest no later than Thursday, January 20, 2022. This appointment will last through December of 2022. This position will appear on the November ballot for a two-year term. If you are interested in serving as a Board of Education Trustee, please submit a one-page letter of interest to Board of Education Secretary, Theresa Dobry, at dobryt@waylandunion.org no later than 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, January 20, 2022.
Steeby Principal, Christina Johnson, presented the Fall NWEA scores and how the building conducts interventions for students. They are in Phase 4/Progress Monitoring of their High Impact Leadership (HIL) program with target goals for small group instruction for student reading and writing stamina. She ended with a slideshow of pictures from this school year.
Student Representative, Summer Morrison, gave the student report from the high school. The Student Council is planning a Coaches vs. Cancer fundraiser on February 4, in conjunction with the Snowcoming basketball game. They are planning a Winter Gear drive and a Juice drive for Project Hope in Dorr. The Green Team is planning a discussion with foreign exchange students about how different countries handle waste management. The Dance team competed last weekend and placed well. The Girls Bowling Team is undefeated so far.
Dr. Hinds gave her Superintendent Report and mentioned the high number of covid cases on January 10. Our overall attendance rate for the week of January 3, 2022, was 88%. The District is looking into the Capturing Kids Hearts program as a way to support positive relationships and improve student behavior. The administration has a goal for the next Bond vote to be on the August 2, 2022 ballot. This would be a zero mill increase. The first Community Input Forum will be held next Tuesday night, January 18, 2022 from 6-7pm at the WUS administration building. They will be hiring a firm to conduct a phone survey to gather input from the community. Please see the full report for more details.
In the financial update, Pat Velie, Asst. Superintendent of Finance and Operations, gave an overview of the 21-22 General Fund Budget amendment and that we will use $2.1m ESSER III funds to maintain the current programming due to the decreased enrollment this year while maintaining current staffing levels to better support student achievement. Other budgets amended included the Food Service Fund and the Student Activities Fund. In new business, Ms. Velie also presented the annual bus purchase using casino funds in order to save money by purchasing the two buses earlier in the year-delivery will still occur after July 1, 2022. One of the new buses would contain an undercarriage storage, which would increase buses with this added storage to a total of 4.
Teresa Fulk, Asst. Superintendent of Instruction, reported that NWEA testing has begun this week for Math and Reading. On Monday, January 17 for a staff Professional Development Day, the committee for Opportunity Thrive will continue their training and remaining staff will attend a mini conference in the morning with individual building meetings held in the afternoon. Our district was recognized for our Professional Development programming for Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). We were one of only four districts in the state to be awarded a grant by the Michigan Department of Education for the Go Open initiative for open resources.
*Please note: This is a summary of the meeting. Official board minutes will be approved at the next regular board meeting on Monday, February 7, 2022.
About Us
Website: waylandunion.org
Location: 850 East Superior Street, Wayland, MI, USA
Phone: (269) 792-2181
