EL School Board Moves Forward to Re-Open Red Cedar

The East Lansing School Board took a major step toward reopening the shuttered Red Cedar Elementary School on Monday Night, adopting a resolution to appoint a committee charged with “initiating innovative educational programming in fall 2016 for pre-k through grade 5 at Red Cedar, as mandated by the 2012 resolution, and on or after the Fall of 2016, but no later than the Fall of 2017, at Donley.”

The resolution, proposed by Board member Kath Edsall and discussed extensively at an earlier Board  work session, leaves the programming to be housed at each of the two schools to be determined by the committee, which will be composed of Superintendent Robyne Thompson, Director of Curriculum Dori Leyko, Finance Director Rich Pugh, Donley Elementary Principal Tracey Barton, and members to be named including one or more teachers and at least one member of the School Board. Board members suggested that the committee include expertise in English-language learning and early childhood education as well. Programming possibilities discussed earlier included pre-Kindergarten programming, public Montessori, and STEM education, among others. Committee meetings will be open to the public and posted on the District website. The resolution was adopted unanimously by the Board.

During the Public Comment section of the meeting, Red Cedar Community Association President Ruth Stump expressed support and gratitude to the Board for their action, emphasizing the planned construction of new MSU Family Housing on the former State Police Headquarters site to replace the Spartan Village Apartments. The Committee is scheduled to report to the full Board of Education at the December 14, 2015 meeting.

Red Cedar Elementary, formerly the neighborhood kindergarten through fourth grade school serving the Flowerpot neighborhood, the to-be-demolished Spartan Village, and nearby areas, was closed before the 2014-2015 academic year as part of a districtwide reconfiguration from four lower elementary schools (K-4) and two upper elementary schools (5-6) to five integrated elementary schools (K-5) with sixth graders shifted to a newly-constructed wing at MacDonald Middle School. The decision to reduce the district from six to five elementary schools was made in November 2012 after an extensive and sometimes bitter debate.

In other actions, the Board:

• Approved a modification to the ELPS Hiring Policy to clarify that no more than three Board of Education members will sit on the interview committee for any administrator;
• Approved a new policy to codify that, although only the Board President may make public statements on the Board’s behalf, any Board members are free to make public or media comments school matters so long as they make clear that they are not speaking on behalf of the Board;
• Approved a motion in opposition to Michigan HB (House Bill) 4822, currently under consideration, which would impose standardized-test based mandatory criteria for promotion of third graders, along with early interventions. Board members expressed concerns including a lack of full funding for the intervention portion of the Bill and the possibility that current second graders would fall under the mandatory retention provision without having the benefit of the intervention provisions. Several board members expressed opposition to grade level retention as a matter of philosophy, but consensus was not reached on this point, with member Yasmina Bouraoui arguing that retention was an important tool in some cases. A provision of the resolution referring to research on the negative results of retention was ultimately struck, with the resulting resolution passing unanimously.
• Discussed a request from the newly reconstituted Sex Education Advisory Board for clarification on the Board’s earlier action to suspend the use of outside vendors to provide sex education materials in East Lansing classrooms. The board agreed that the intent of the earlier resolution was to apply to unpaid as well as paid third-party providers, but declined to evaluate an apparently lengthy list of potential vendors provided by the Advisory Board, instead advising that recommending individual providers was within the proper purview of the Advisory Board, and that the Board of Education would evaluate those recommendations as they were put forward.
• Discussed possible topics for future Board of Education Work sessions. The October 19 Work session will include a discussion of Restorative Justice, led by Greta Trice. Other potential future topics include bonding, the permeable boundary process, social media policies, the process for determining the available Schools of Choice slots (to be scheduled after the Holidays), minority student achievement, and lower-grade foreign language instruction, among others. Superintendent Thompson put forward a suggestion that the Board hold a broader priority-setting discussion among the large number of what she termed “spinning plates” on the ELPS Administration’s agenda in the near to medium term.
• Discussed Senate Bill SB442 relating to the presence of guns in schools. According to that Bill’s sponsor, current law allows holders of concealed-carry permits to carry guns openly, but not in concealed fashion, on school property. A court challenge to the Ann Arbor Public Schools policy banning guns completely from school grounds has been dismissed, but a similar challenge in Clio has been upheld, leaving the current state of the law in flux. SB442 would explicitly ban open-carry in Michigan public schools while simultaneously codifying in law the ability of concealed-carry permit holders to carry concealed guns on school property, an activity that is currently banned. The ELPS board passed a resolution expressing consensus opposition to the presence of any guns on school property, whether open or concealed, except for those carried by public safety officials, as well as opposition to SB442 in its current form. Board President Nell Kuhnmuench was authorized to convey this sentiment at a public hearing on the Bill to be held on Tuesday October 13^th.
• Heard Public Comment from Daniel Bollman (Bailey Street), a local architect, complimenting the Board on the emphasis on remodeling and reworking existing elementary schools in the recently-issued Request For Proposals, but commenting that the inclusion of a local design or construction professional on the committee to review RFP responses would have strengthened the process, and encouraging the Board to incorporate public input into the conceptual design process for remodeled or rebuilt schools at as early a stage as possible. (Public Comment on the Red Cedar School matter is described in the corresponding section above).
• Heard reports from Student Board Representative Reid Burton on a recent successful Student Council fundraising and athletic results; from Superintendent Thompson on upcoming scheduled events, student attendance at the recent MSAM conference, her own attendance at the recent AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program conference in Minneapolis, and a new office for the East Lansing Educational Foundation located within the High School; and from Board President Kuhnmuench on the recent meeting of the Ingham School Officers Association, where the discussion included current proposals to lift the requirement that the school year start after Labor Day and available grants through the Intermediate School District for early-intervention programs.
• Recognized the East Lansing High School Symphonic Orchestra for being featured on the “Forte” program, recently aired on WKAR TV.

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