Wayland Union Board of Education

The Wayland Union Board of Education met on Monday, March 10th, at the Administration Office for their regular meeting.

All consent agenda items were approved.

District Odyssey of the Mind Teams

• Teresa Fulk shared that our district had 5 teams compete in the regional competition this school year, 2 teams are advancing to the state competition this weekend. Wayland hosted regionals for the first time at the Middle School and it went really well.

Report from February 10, 2025 Fine Arts Committee Meeting

• Norman Taylor stated that Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Sabin provided a recap of recent fine arts events. They also shared that March is Music in Schools Month. Coming up is the annual Murder Mystery Dinner and spring concerts.

• Theresa Dobry shared that they discussed course proposals for Middle School exploratory classes. The K-5 ELA proposal was also shared after researching and evaluation the curriculum over the last 2 school years. Additionally, she shared that Scott Getter and district administration are working on determining next steps for a technology device usage study.

• Matthew Chubb and Teagan Robinson shared that with the weather warming up, the hope for a snow day is coming to an end. LOC Club is working in Downtown Wayland on a restoration project. Robotics has their first competition coming up this weekend. ECO club is hosting a bake sale the week before spring break. E-sports is preparing for their upcoming match this week. Student Council is setting a district wide goal of decorating 5,000 lunch bags for Kids Food Basket and they are planning a wellness week in April. NHS is reading to elementary students in March. Theater is beginning to prepare for their upcoming musical "Rock of Ages" with auditions and rehearsals. Boys wrestling recently had 2 members participate in a state tournament and girls wrestling had 1 member qualify for states. Boys bowling finished 1st in the conference and girls finished 2nd.

• Theresa Dobry shared that her family is planning a trip to Houghton, MI. Becky Hohnke shared that her third quarter rankings for her job recently came out and she is in the top 10. Norman Taylor shared that he just returned from Florida after visiting his granddaughter who is in the Disney College program.

Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations

• Leslie Wagner shared the year to date revenues vs expenditures report. She shared that Tim Reeves and herself have been going around the district and giving budget presentations to all the employee groups, the feedback from the presentations has been positive. The maintenance department has been holding interviews for a HVAC employee due to retirement. GSRP classrooms received a start-up grant so the district is looking to re-do carpet and plumbing in those classrooms. The transportation department has been adjusting well to the new pick-up/drop-off locations at the high school. The business office has been working on budget updates and new guidelines for ESTA which only affects Secretary and Non-Affiliated groups as of right now but as contracts open, the changes will be made effective to other groups.

• Teresa Fulk shared that she is wrapping up winter/spring curriculum meetings and our last teacher PD day is being held on Monday, March 17th. The technology department is working on cabling at the high school. She also shared that she is working with teacher teams to highlight career opportunities for our students. Lastly, our MICIP goal is progressing nicely with our Guiding Coalition reviewing that data to make sure it's specific to what we want to commit to going forward.

• Tim Reeves shared that this has been a busy month with the progression of our bond. The district has recently entered the design stages for our series 2 projects which includes the fine arts and industrial arts areas of the high school. Mr. Reeves also shared that he and Leslie Wagner have complete 11 budget meetings, the district employees have appreciated the transparency. He also shared that he went to a Career Readiness conference a couple weeks ago and learned that there are critical need areas in construction and manufacturing within the West Michigan area. Local representatives and school leaders started the discussion on how to get more students into these trades and options to get students educated regarding job opportunities in those areas. Lastly, he shared that he was impressed in the staff participation for the recent "Dancing with the Star Staff" event and he hopes others are encouraged to take advantage of future opportunities to get involved.

Change Location for April 14, 2024 Regular Board of Education Meeting

• Tim Reeves shared that they are looking into changing the location from Dorr Elementary to the high school to accommodate for the pool ground breaking event.

• Leslie Wagner shared that they are proposing the installation of advanced crosswalk devices that have strobe lights which are activated by a button in 3 critical areas around the middle school and high school. This will be funded through the Public Improvement fund and installed by our maintenance department.

• Leslie Wagner shared that this is the annual application to borrow if we are not able to make our debt payment. The last 2 years we have not had to borrow, but we like to keep our options open.

• The district initiated a budget freeze to decrease our current budget deficit by June 30th. The goal is to get staff members to reflect on what is an essential purchase and to educate the district on how the different pots of money must be utilized. The business office is continuing to look in other areas of the district for opportunities to decrease cost, they welcome any creative ideas staff members have.

2024-2025 Food Service Budget Revisions

• Leslie Wagner shared that the budget will remain the same.

• Leslie Wagner shared that this is an update, not a revision. Student boards dictate how the dollars are spent along with their advisor.

• Teresa Fulk shared that the goal is to offer a larger variety of exploratory classes to our students. This proposal introduces four new courses; Leadership Launch Pad, Creative Writing, Future Foundations, and Computer Science.

• Teresa Fulk shared that with a close vote, The Superkids Reading Program was selected for K-1 and Bookworms was selected for grades 2-5. With the new dyslexia legislation from the State of Michigan, we are waiting to see if this curriculum is listed on their recommended materials list which is being released in June 2025 along with some grant funding. If the programs listed above are not on the recommended list, the district pilot committee will reconvene to consider whether to proceed with one or both of these programs or consider the Into Reading program, which was proposed as an alternate in the event an alternate is needed.

Revised Board Operating Procedures

• Approved

• Approved

Becky Hohnke shared that she enjoyed the 'Dancing with the Star Staff' event. It was fun to see the event bring out our staff and community members.

Pete Zondervan agreed with the success of the 'Dancing with the Star Staff' event. His daughter and wife are encouraging him to get involved as a dancer in the future.

Norman Taylor shared that Elizabeth O'Dell won the seat as the one year representative on the MASB Board of Directors. He attended the resolution and bylaw committee recently, it doesn't look like there will be many changes coming up.

Theresa Dobry reminded the board that Rod Green will be coming to the next work session.

Jeff Koon was absent from the meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 8:03pm.

*Please note: This is a summary of the meeting. Official board minutes will be approved at the next regular board meeting being held on April 14th, 2025 at 6pm. The meeting will be held at the Wayland Union High School.