Wayland Union Board of Education
Regular Meeting
Monday, November 13, 2023
The Wayland Union School Board met on Monday, November 13th, at Pine Street Elementary for their regular meeting.
Consent Agenda
All consent agenda items were approved.
Presentations/Reports
- Principal Robyn Robinson began her report by allowing students to present pieces of their essay that were shared during the Veterans Day Assembly. Afterwards, a presentation was shown that discussed behavior procedures, CKH, student empowerment, and all the fun events happening around Pine Street.
Governance Team Good News
- Becky Hohnke shared that she is finalizing hosting an exchange student for next school year, a cousin of a student she previously hosted. Pete Zondervan shared that he enjoyed the conference they attended last week.
Student Board Member Report
- Ava Makowski and Matthew Chubb shared that 2nd trimester has officially begun. Student Council just wrapped up Harvest Hop and they are now splitting into different committees for future events. SADD just finished Hallowed Halls, and NHS is volunteering around the community. LOC club is working on their the art gallery that will be displayed in Downtown Wayland. Debate just had another outstanding competition. Boys Football had a great season by making it to districts for the first time is 13 years. Girls Volleyball also had an impressive season. Band, Orchestra, and Choir are all preparing for a holiday concert. Lastly, tryouts are in full swing for winter sports.
Committee Meeting Report - Policy
- Janel Hott shared that a policy committee meeting was held in October. The updates include updating contact information and requirements for students with special dietary needs.
Committee Meeting Report - Joint
- Dan Cassini mentioned that topics discussed were field trip schedules, Capturing Kids Hearts, Technology and Interventions.
Public Comment
None
Administration Reports
Assistant Superintendent of Finance & Operations
- Leslie Wagner shared that budget numbers are aligned with where the district was last year. She also mentioned that John Huyck would like to go to bid for turf for the soccer field soon. Those funds would come from the Public Improvement Funds because turf wasn't included in the bond proposal.
Assistant Superintend of Instructional Services
- Teresa Fulk began by sharing an exciting opportunity to work with a representative from Apple. The district is excited to expose students to different computer science career opportunities throughout their time at Wayland. This week is the Blue Ribbon Ceremony in DC that will honor Dorr Elementary, along with all the other schools that earned this award this year, a few members of the district will have the honor of attending. Course proposals for the new HS ELA classes are working their way through committee and will be ready to be presented to the board in the coming months.
Superintendent
- Tim Reeves shared that he is excited for Robin Seniura and Teresa Fulk to attend the Blue Ribbon Ceremony to represent our district. He also shared that the Gun Lake Tribe has invited him to participate in the Pokagon Band's Department of Education advisory board. He is honored to be a part of the process to represent the district. He also mentioned that the district is a part of the OK Conference and 7 districts have asked to leave the conference for next school year. Due to the way conferences work, Wayland, along with the other schools in our conference were asked to vote for whether or not we would approve of these districts leaving. The majority of the votes said no, however the 7 districts opted to leave anyway. This does mean that the conference is being realigned for next school year but that is still a work in progress.
New Business - Discussion Items
Request for use of buses for Grad Party 2024
- Grad bash is requesting the use of buses to transport students to Grad Party after Graduation on the night of Thursday, May 23, 2024. This is an annual request.
First Reading of Proposed Policy Updates and Changes
- Changes include updating name and contact information for a compliancy officer, updating special dietary needs so students don't need a 504 plan in order to qualify, adding a section on AI use, and adding a section regarding Free and Reduced meals per state guidelines.
Old Business - Action Items
Summer Tax Resolution
- Approved
- Approved
- Approved
Board Topics
Report from Board Members who Attended the MASB Conference
Jeff Koon shared that it was his first time to attend the conference. One thing that he took away is encouragement that the board works together and gets the job done. Norm Taylor shared that he attended sessions on topics such as policy, building trust, public speaking, and supporting superintendents. Pete Zondervan shared that he learned a lot from break out sessions and he enjoyed the main Saturday morning session. Becky Hohnke shared that she was able to attend 3 classes on top of her conference sessions. Her takeaways were that schools are creating opportunities to utilize the football field beyond football (reading nights, cornhole, etc.) and a school board did a round table exit interview with graduating seniors during lunch to get student perspective on their time in K-12 schooling. Dan Cassini shared that he is glad our board members were able to attend as a team, they always take away a lot of information from the conference. Theresa Dobry shared that she attended a lot of breakout sessions including collaborative solutions, modernizing schools, how to use research as a tool not a weapon, and how to process our bias.Janel Hott thanked Mrs. Robinson for hosting the board. She shared her disappointment in the lack of turn out for Hallowed Halls, especially due to the poor weather.
Norman Taylor thanked Mrs. Robinson for allowing the board to utilize Pine Street for their meetings. He also thanks all the school employees for everything the do as we head into the Thanksgiving session.
Pete Zondervan thanked Mrs. Robinson for her presentation. He would also like the board to look into having a wellness committee that teaches about food health to the district and community.
Jeff Koon thanked Pine Street and Mrs. Robinson for hosting the board. He throughly enjoyed the video that showed the smiling, happy kids.
Becky Hohnke shared that she throughly enjoyed the conference, and she is excited as we are entering the holiday season. She also thanked Mrs. Robinson for hosting.
Dan Cassini shared that he was excited to see the kids in the classroom today at Pine Street.
Theresa Dobry shared that she loved the video because they are unable to be present within the schools all the time due to their jobs.
The meeting adjourned at 7:05pm.
*Please note: This is a summary of the meeting. Official board minutes will be approved at the next regular board meeting on Monday, December 11, 2023 at 6pm. The meeting will be held at Wayland Union High School.