Lowell Area Schools Board of Education kicks off the New Year
By Justin Tiemeyer || contributing writer
During the first meeting of the Lowell Area Schools Board of Education, which was held on Monday, January 8, 2024 at 7:00 pm, the board turned first to traditional, beginning of the year activities, including the election of officers. Unlike Lowell’s City Council, where positions are nominated and voted on individually, the school board elects by slate, meaning that a grouping of four candidates, for the positions of president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, are elected on one ticket. The only slate nomination included Brian Krajewski for president, Laurie Kuna for vice president, Pat Nugent for secretary, and Tom Kaywood for treasurer, and they were approved unanimously, save for the two absent trustees, Jared Blough and Jessica Curtis.
Following the election of officers, the Student Council President, Antonio Casarez, shared a brief series of announcements. On Tuesday, January 9, Casarez looked forward to a gathering of Student Council, National Honors Society, and Interact Club members at Lowell’s City Hall for Leadership Day, where the bright young stewards of the future have an opportunity to exercise team building and learn what it means to be a leader at Lowell High School. He also announced some important upcoming events, such as a Blood Drive on Tuesday, January 23, and the high school’s Snowball Winter Dance on Saturday, February 3.
January is School Board Recognition Month in the state of Michigan. To celebrate, Superintendent, Nate Fowler, read the following statement:
“A strong public education is a key element for the future of our community, our state, and our country. Our students and their families count on our public schools to prepare them for a successful future. Whether students understand it or not, they count on adults in their community to ensure that they have the resources they need to help learn, keep their buildings safe, and have qualified teachers to guide them. It takes a tremendous commitment to make all of this possible. At the end of the day, the members of our school board are ordinary citizens who demonstrate extraordinary dedication to student success in our school system. Tonight, we take the time to say thank you to the members of our school board for their commitment to Lowell Area Schools. Their job is to establish a vision for educational programs, design a structure to achieve that vision, ensure schools are accountable to the community and a strong advocate for continuous improvement in student learning. The job of a school board member is tough. The hours are long, and the thank yous can be few and far between. Too often, we see that it is easy to criticize school board members without really understanding the complex nature of the jobs and the decisions that you have to make. The month of January marks the observance of school board recognition month. This is an opportunity to show our year-round appreciation for these servant leaders and to begin to better understand how local trustees work together to prepare today’s learners to be tomorrow’s leaders. Please join in a round of applause to recognize the members of Lowell Area Schools Board of Education.”
Perhaps the biggest item on the school board’s docket was a budget amendment. The budget for the 2023-2024 school year was prepared prior to commencement using the best available data to estimate revenue and expenditures. With half of the school year already in the books, district CFO, Sonia Hodge, was able to update some of those figures with real numbers and better estimates that only time can bring. With over 2700 line items in the budget, Hodge could have spent much of the day discussing the details, but instead, she focused on two main areas, the general fund and the food service budget.
There were a number of sources of change, when it came to the general fund, from property tax adjustments to updated enrollment figures and changes to state aid. In reference to the latter, Hodge noted that the State Legislature offered about 75 percent of the money promised to Lowell Area Schools, effectively underfunding education in the area. The school district was offered about $100,000 to offset retirement costs and $500,000 for transportation funding. The transportation funding was based on a percentage of the 2021-2022 transportation costs, Hodge noted. The state is working on a comprehensive study of school transportation costs to include multiple facets of district composition, including size of district, whether it is rural, suburban, or urban, and other factors, as well. One of the problems Lowell Area Schools faces is that its buses have to cover a large geographical area in order to meet bussing needs, and that means, more buses, more drivers, and more money in the transportation pool.
As for food, the introduction of universal free school meals has complicated the food service budget. On the one hand, the school has seen an increased reimbursement rate from the state, but on the other hand, the announcement of this opportunity has led to increased costs, as more and more families are leaning on the schools for their children’s nutrition. The state pays into the schools on a per meal basis, and that does not account for the cost to the school for that meal. Furthermore, the school faces capacity issues, the need for more storage, cold storage, and the like. In 2023, the board approved the purchase of eight double ovens for the school’s various buildings, and Hodge was happy to announce that the invoice for these ovens included a $7,600 rebate, passed down from Consumers Energy.
Following Hodge’s analysis of the budget changes, the board passed the amended budget.
During public comment, parent, Stefanie Boone added a handful of additional books and authors she would like removed from school libraries, mentioning a prior conversation with Superintendent, Fowler, about how some of these books had already been removed. During his superintendent report, Fowler acknowledged the removal of the aforementioned books but explained that they had been removed as part of the traditional pruning process that a library catalogue requires from time-to-time. In other words, it was not the content that led to their removal but the small numbers of people checking out the books over time. Fowler went on to criticize disrespectful, malicious, and at times threatening social media comments that he has read from Boone’s group. Boone interjected several times during the superintendent’s report and was called out of order for her comments. Trustee, Jennifer Dougherty, expressed later, during board communications, her gratitude toward library media services director, Christine Beachler, and her staff for establishing clear procedures for library correction and clear guidance for how books can be challenged.
The Lowell Area Schools Board of Education will reconvene on Monday, January 22, 2024 at 6:00 pm, at the administrative building, 300 High Street, for a work session, and many of the line items discussed and voted upon at the January 8 meeting will be discussed in-depth, at that time. Those interested in watching the January 8 board meeting can find it on the Lowell Area Schools Board of Education YouTube page, @LASBoE-ns3lu. Meeting agendas, minutes, and announcements can be found at the Lowell Area Schools Board of Education home page, lowellschools.com/our-district/board-of-education/.
