The regular/organizational meeting was held starting at 6:00 p.m.
The board recognized employees Kathryn Faley for life saving measure performed for a middle school student, and Patti Henry for 25 years in the school food service industry.
Organizational items, such as approving the legal name of the school district, bank resolutions, school district legal counsel, district media contact, and scheduling of school board meetings for the next year were completed. The board meeting for June 2025 will be changed to the third Monday of the month, June 16th, instead of the second Monday, to allow time for the amended and proposed budgets to be completed.
The June 2024 meeting minutes and treasurer’s report were approved with no changes.
There were no public comments.
Mr. Tim Evans was appointed the special liaison to the Michigan Association of School Boards, with Mrs. Kristin Flick appointed as the alternate.
Mr. Tim Evans was appointed as delegate to the Jackson County School Board Association, and Mr. Chris Blackledge was also appointed as the alternate.
Mrs. Elizabeth Scott was appointed the school board representative on the Hanover-Horton Education Foundation Committee. The board would also like to appoint a new community member to the committee.
Mrs. Tonya Sears was appointed the school board representative on the Lucile McGee Scholarship Committee.
Mrs. Kristin Flick was appointed as the school board representative on the Ruth Creps Scholarship Committee.
The board approved a list of recommended workshops and in-service training sessions throughout the year for board members.
The board approved the length of school term for the 2024-25 school year, as required by the school code. School districts must provide 180 days and a minimum of 1098 hours of pupil instruction, which has not changed from previous years.
In order to meet the requirement for pupil accounting auditing, the board approved a list of courses offered by the district.
The updates in the student handbooks for the elementary, middle school, high school, and athletics for 2024-25 were approved.
Superintendent Bergstrom updated the board on the status of the operating millage election on August 6th. Postcards were mailed last week, and emails and phone calls will be going out soon to remind everyone to vote. Supt. Bergstrom would also like to hold a “Comet Coffee Klatch” to invite the public to an informal session in the library at the end of July. Election issues and other information could be discussed at that time.
The board discussed reestablishing certain committees for Operations, Curriculum, and Personnel/Finance and would like members to be appointed to those committees during the August meeting.
The hiring of Ms. Angel Berry for an open first grade teaching position was approved.
Superintendent Bergstrom reported to the board members on the following:
- Maintenance Supervisor Mark Hubbard met with Supt. Bergstrom to update her on the many maintenance projects being done this summer, such as the middle school picnic area, plumbing in the elementary building, carpeting of five classrooms, cement work in front of the middle school, repainting of parking lot lines, painting of trim/doors in the high school, pruning, moving of the fence along Moscow Road, superintendent office updates, etc. The custodians are doing a tremendous job of cleaning and touch-up painting. Also, use of the Maintenance Dept. electronic ticketing system will help prioritize projects.
- Supt. Bergstrom will be meeting with area superintendents on updates from the state regarding school budgets.
- Administration will be meeting with all district coaches on July 31st.
- Summer school at the elementary is going strong. There are 63 students attending, as well as eight teachers and several other aides to complete the staff.
- The annual aide bid meeting will take place on July 31st.
- Rater Reliability Training will need to be completed.
- The On-Site Review by the Michigan Dept. of Education was completed for the elementary. There were no areas identified in the “change required” category of the Study Guides as a result. A huge thank you to Mrs. Melissa Duffrin for the work she puts into the state and federal programs for the district.
The board members commented on the following:
- It was nice to recognize employees and to see their family here to support them.
- The board is looking forward to the upcoming “coffee klatch” meetings.
- Bergstrom has been very busy and doing a wonderful job in her first couple weeks; her excitement is evident. They appreciate the first two weekly updates that were communicated to the board.
The regular meeting was adjourned at 7:25 p.m.
