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Part of the bond proposal that the Manistee Area Public Schools Board of Education is looking to bring back before the voters in May 2021 is to provide funding to tear down the old high school building located behind Kennedy Elementary School. (File photo)
lessPart of the bond proposal that the Manistee Area Public Schools Board of Education is looking to bring back before the voters in May 2021 is to provide funding to tear down the old high school building located
... more
Part of the bond proposal that the Manistee Area Public Schools Board of Education is looking to bring back before the voters in May 2021 is to provide funding to tear down the old high school building located behind Kennedy Elementary School. (File photo)
lessPart of the bond proposal that the Manistee Area Public Schools Board of Education is looking to bring back before the voters in May 2021 is to provide funding to tear down the old high school building located
... moreMANISTEE — After postponing its bond request earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Manistee Area Public Schools administration is ready to move forward once again.
The board of education heard an update on the bond proposal when it met in virtual session on Wednesday evening.
Under the proposal the district was looking at a variety of things such as tearing down the former high school building on Maple Street and Jefferson Elementary School on Bryant Avenue. It would also include constructing a new elementary building alongside the current Kennedy Elementary building as well as improvements to the Manistee Middle/High School on 12th Street and Madison Community Learning Center on Madison Road.
"I just wanted wanted to communicate we are shooting toward May, and I haven't heard anything that takes us in a different direction," said superintendent Ron Stoneman. "We have to kind of start this process over and get that proposal to the state treasury for approval, so we are getting that set up. We might be able to get that in a conference call as nothing has really changed. That is set to happen in December."
Stoneman said he feels they are in a good position moving forward with the proposal.
"I hope the board is excited about getting engaged and moving forward on this project," he said.
WORKING ON MGLVA ENROLLMENT INCREASE
Board members were also given an update Wednesday on the request from the Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy's request to MAPS for an increase in its enrollment numbers. MAPS is the chartering agent for MGLVA and must approve that request.
"Currently they are just under 3,100 and they have requested an enrollment increase to 5,000," said Stoneman. "Our attorney and their attorney are speaking with the charter association and we hope to get it worked out."
Stoneman said they are trying to measures in place to make sure an increase allows for the student to teacher ratio to remain manageable and a sufficient number of teachers are hired. He said they are also working with K12, which provides the curriculum to MGLVA to make sure everything is properly in place for the expansion.
"We totally trust and understand K12 as the management company, and I think understanding the optics of such a rapid growth with be very important for us," said Stoneman.
He said they might want to work up to the 5,000 level at incremental stages using caution instead of all at once. That would ensure everything can be done correctly in a way that is best for students.
Antal agreed and said K12 has been good about working with MAPS in the past to make sure they have everything ready before taking that step to increase enrollment.
Stoneman said they hope to have everything in place to move forward by the end of June. He said the MAPS board would be updated at its June 24 budget meeting on the status of that agreement.
"The Michigan Department of Education is watching cyber schools carefully as they grow and right now MGLVA is one of the two largest cyber schools in the state," said Stoneman. "We want to make sure we are doing everything in good faith. I have the ability to approve this as I represent the authorizer (MAPS) and the ability to amend the contract. I will keep you abreast of what happens and will keep our board informed before taking any action."
DISTANCE LEARNING RECAP
Stoneman, along with some help from curriculum director Amber Kowatch, updated the board on how the end of the school year has gone with distance learning.
"We wrapped up our school year this week with our students," said Stoneman. "I just want to reiterate that under the conditions and circumstances, we really rallied together to do the best we could and feel it was really successful."
Stoneman praised the teaching staff for working really hard to engage the students during this time, but pointed out the road ahead will be a busy one.
Kowatch said the distance learning this spring was a good practice for what may or may not come in the next school year.
"We were tasked with a tall order in a short time," said Kowatch. "Our teachers were given a lot, and we were grateful for what we were able to accomplish. But we are really using this as a learning opportunity to craft the plan for next year."
She said they sent surveys to staff, students and parents to find out how they felt the distance learning program went.
"We have some things to be excited about as all were grateful to have devices at home," said Kowatch. "The staff was pleased to have platforms like Moodle and Seesaw in place that they were comfortable using. The staff really felt the phone calls to the students was a great way to keep in touch."
However, she said challenges that arose were the student and parent engagement in working on the lessons, distractions that took away from learning at home, disconnections form friends, parents balancing work and teaching, and consistency in learning platforms.
The survey also asked who was satisfied with the distance learning program; 63 percent of the staff approved, while 69 percent of the students did and 71 percent of the families approved.
"This was our first run with it, so we didn't think it was perfect," said Kowatch. "We have a lot room to grow in that area."
Stoneman said right now for the fall they are looking at three different scenarios.
"The first is to come back as a full district next year, which will require lots of changes related to that," said Stoneman. "Then there is the possibility of coming in as a modified or blend of face-to-face and virtual. The last would be completely virtual and at anytime during the year we could be facing any of these scenarios. But what we are doing is creating the framework, developing the outline and creating some work groups to fill in the details of those scenarios."
Board members inquired from business manager Howard Vaas if there were any significant savings from the schools being closed. Vaas said the savings were not that significant for a number of reasons.
"It is a small percentage as there are a few big ticket capital items when we do budget amendments later this month (during work/meeting session on June) where we had some savings, but generally overall we are continuing our benefits and savings for our employees, which is the largest piece of our budget, " said Vaas. "Utilities have not gone away, really transportation the department that will see a little savings as we are not buying fuel and we are not paying our third party provider for contracting transportation."
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