Chippewa Valley officials turn eye toward 2020-21 year
Board hears update on committees in place for educational designs
Like other Macomb County school districts, Chippewa Valley Schools officials are preparing for a potentially new way of delivering education in September due to COVID-19 and related restrictions.
District officials recently outlined measures that involve three different educational models.
On June 15 during a virtual school board meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Don Brosky gave a presentation on progress for planning the 2020-2021 school year. A key focus will be the area of operations, and an operations committee has been formed consisting of 48 participants from district departments, Brosky said.
“We have established subcommittees that will look at face-to-face, which is our traditional in school education, remote or hybrid methods of instruction, which would be a combination of face-to-face and remote, optional online instruction for students who choose not to return to the traditional school educational model that we currently have, and full online instruction,” Brosky said.
“We are seeking input from all of these particular stakeholders on the committees and the subcommittees because we know the things within the school buildings will be different even if we return back to normal.”
Superintendent Ron Roberts also mentioned the plans in a letter to parents on June 16.
“As this year ends, we look forward to the possibilities of a new beginning in September. I wish I could report that we know exactly what the opening of school will look like,” Roberts wrote. “However, due to the ongoing health crisis, I cannot. Let me make this clear, our goal is to open school in September like we have for the past 60 years.”
Parents were sent a survey allowing them to express their thoughts and concerns regarding school reopenings. Roberts added the district will provide periodic updates in the coming months.
Brosky told board members he anticipates receiving updated guidance from the state, the governor, the state Department of Education, state licensing and regulatory affairs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies.
“Today the operations full committee met in the morning and the face-toface committee met in the afternoon for an overview of the goals and our plan for the future. So the presentations that we had included a reopening to do school list,” Brosky said.
He outlined subjects for discussion that the committee meeting included as:
• Digital equity projections for high risk students and operations during an emergency.
• Nutritional support and remote instruction
• Hygiene, assessments, compliance through special services and viral mitigation
• Social and emotional support, identifying highest level needs students, and a screening protocol.
“Of course things may change when it comes to a decision that the governor has made or the department, but we want to have a plan ready to roll out so that we can begin the professional learning for parents and for teachers and to take a look at our logistics within our buildings,” he said.
He added the district’s transportation department will be consulted regarding bus sanitization and the number of students per bus.
“We have to talk with our operations department and business department to look at how do we social distance within the classroom if you have 30 students. There are a lot of things,” Brosky said.
The board have approved the 2020-2021 appropriation act for general and special revenue funds. Officials adopted a resolution approving the general fund, food service fund, community services childcare fund, Macomb International Academy fund and student/school activity fund.
Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Scott Sederlund said the Uniform Budgeting and Accounting Act required school districts to adopt a budget prior to the start of the fiscal year.
“The revenue budget for the general fund has been developed using major factors including: Assumes revenues and expenditures associated with a traditional school day setting, meaning we open up in a normal setting. A decreased enrollment projection of 276 pupil FTEs,” Sederlund said. “The anticipated School Aid reduction of $650 per pupil, which is a continuation of the assumption utilized for the 2019 – 20 second amended budget. So we are projecting $7,461 per pupil as a foundation allowance.”
Sederlund added the revenue budget for the general fund was developed using the additional major factors of the Macomb Intermediate School District enhancement millage revenue estimate of $440 per pupil, CARES Act funding of about $1 million and review and adjustment of other revenue sources as necessary.
“The expenditure budget for the general fund has been developed using major factors including: The expenditures assume no cost increases for labor groups beyond the ‘19 – ‘20 school year, meaning because we don’t have any settlements as of now with any of the labor groups. We have not projected any cost for step increases or anything like that. We will project those once those are approved,” Sederlund said.
Sederlund added the district’s retirement rate has increased from 27.50 percent to 28.21 percent. He listed that the expenditure budget for the general fund had been developed using the additional major factors of the impact of the increased health insurance rates, the increased hard cap limit under PA 152 for health insurance benefits, and cash in lieu of health.
“As an FYI that is, 3.3 percent is what we have projected and that is what the hard cap rate is going up. And then review and adjustments of other expenditure of line items as appropriate. In summary we have projected revenues of $162,820,412 and projected expenditures of $166,103,838 for a budgeted operating deficit of $3,283,426 and a decrease to the fund balance,” Sederlund said.
Also on June 15, school board heard:
• Concerns from Clinton Township parent Dawn Dameron, who said a large community of parents were concerned about a recent reduction in teaching resources in the Creative Learning Program at Wyandot Middle School. She said the loss of a reading mastery certified ELA teacher. Roberts said each year the district does staffing, and considers the numbers in all programs and classrooms districtwide. Staffing determinations are made based on numbers in programs, he said. The board set a special meeting for June 22 at 6 p.m. to discuss this and related matters in detail, with meeting specifics scheduled to be on the district’s website at chippewavalleyschools.org.
• Approved a resolution allowing the district to participate in the Macomb Oakland Aggregate Bus Fuel Purchasing Program and award a bid to Spencer Oil. The newest bid covers 2020-21, is estimated to annually cost about $350,000 and allows for two annual contract extensions. When the district moved to online learning due to COVID-19 and related restrictions, bus fuel costs were reduced by about $195,000.
“The expenditure budget for the general fund has been developed using major factors including: The expenditures assume no cost increases for labor groups beyond the ‘19 – ‘20 school year, meaning because we don’t have any settlements as of now with any of the labor groups. We have not projected any cost for step increases or anything like that. We will project those once those are approved.”
— Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Scott Sederlund