001I'd like to call the Harper Creek Board of Education regular meeting for Monday, February 9th, 2026 to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> Madam Secretary, please call the role. >> Mr. Mrs. >> Mrs. Ms. Mrs. Wallace here, >> Mr. Smith >> here, >> present. >> All right. Thank you for that. Uh, it's my understanding we have two modifications to the agenda. Um, under information, discussion, and action. Uh, Madam Secretary, would you please call that or read that motion? Chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education add to the February
0029th, 2026 meeting agenda superintendent contract information and discussion item H and action item E as well as bus purchase information and discussion item I and action item F. >> So move. >> It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion hearing? Seeing none. Uh, please call the role. >> Mr. Hverson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ward, I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> And Mr. Bess, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you for that. Move on to communications and we'll start with president's remarks. Good evening to all those online and in our audience. Um, thank you for attending tonight. Um, just want to uh share that we celebrated Mrs. Laura Williams uh retirement um this evening and all the great contributions she
003made to Harper Creek in her roughly nine years and um just we're very grateful to have your talents uh for that time. So, thank you. We appreciate you. And with that, I will turn it over to administration and Mr. Ridgeway. >> Okay, I got quite a few announcements. So, um we are in the middle of parent teacher conferences these uh last week in this uh spring count is Wednesday if you didn't know that we have spring count. Um the joint board of education is also Wednesday. Dinner at 5:15 meeting at 6. Uh high school band concert Thursday. We do have a half day of school on Friday. It is the end of the second trimester for elementary. And there is a professional development for middle school high school. Um there is no school on February
00416th for fall break next Monday. Um seventh and eighth grade band concert the 17th. I believe that will be Tuesday. The CASB CSB board of directors meeting. Um it looks like she will be the one that will represent us. We'll let her know that. On February 24th, seventh and eighth grade choir concert February 26th as along with a high school choir concert also on the same dates. Um just a point of reference, the retirement notice in the teachers contract is on March 1st. So that's when we would know um if some of our teachers are going to retire or not this year. Countdown to kindergarten is starting, which is our our kickoff to get to kindergarten. And that will be on March 3rd at 6 PM for each elementary. I do would I would like
005to call an extracurricular and achievement committee meeting. Ashley, Brad, and Sarah. Um Jame would like to have a conversation um about direction um about some some of the plans he has moving forward and we thought that would be a good committee to go through that process with a little bit of schedule on there. We won't set it today. We'll we'll we'll figure it out through Carla and we'll get that figured out for everybody. Um I am I received a request for a field trip and it's an annual field trip and we had decided that if it's an annual regular field trip that I could approve that so I have the high school student council is going to Grand Rapids 14 kids two chaperones um oh and it's going to be on February 21st through the
00623rd and like I said I had already approved that um and then I want to take just a a minute or two to talk about um we had a middle school fifth and sixth grade dance that occurred last week Um unfortunately we ended up having you know some misconduct that occurred at that meeting and we went through an investigative process and actually still investigating some but for the most part have that wrapped up but I want people to understand um that when things get to social media sometimes it it blows up a little bit. I'm not saying that misconduct didn't happen. I'm not saying that at all. But I am saying that some of the things that uh reported on social media may not be factual. So we've got to be really careful in those
007situations and we will try as a district to get information out as quickly as we can in those situations. Um I want people to be, you know, feel good about the fact that we want to make sure we know what happened if there was misconduct so that we can apply the proper discipline um if necessary. and just really kind of giving us a little bit of I say grace isn't the right word but time because it does take time to do the investigation. So it was really two full started started after the dance that night and then the entire next day of getting all the information we needed to get with the number of people that were at that dance. So just want to make it make you aware of that uh as an audience
008as well as our board um that we are in process of taking care of that. I want to make sure everybody knows your kids are safe at our and I think that's all the communications I had. I was going to ask uh Miss Howard to talk a little bit about the schedule and the student voice for a minute or two. >> Good evening. Um, as far as the high school goes, >> can you use the microphone just so I can hear you? Home. >> Can you guys hear me? >> Perfect. Okay. Um, so as far as the high school schedule goes, you guys know that we updated our schedule this year going from a traditional or a kind of non-traditional eight period block schedule to now a period schedule. So, um, we have formed I've
009been asking students getting feedback um, informally throughout the year. We also have a newly formed student advisory committee that meets once a month. I bribed them with pizza, so they were really excited to join that committee. Um, and just get their feedback on how they feel about the changes. Um, it is more going from having four classes to six classes is more academic rigor for our students. So, there's been that growth area with it. Um, but they really are falling into it, I would say, more this semester. They're now starting to see kind of the why and the rhythm for why the year-long class is beneficial to them. We are going to be making some small tweaks for next year. Um, but we're hopeful that this is going to help improve scores and improve their
010overall student experience. So, yeah. Any questions that you have? >> How many how many students are on the advisory board? >> I've got about 20 >> From all four grades. Yeah. So, I am looking for a couple more freshmen to fill it out. Um, and then we'll be doing that every year. So, we'll get a few different ones and and cycle them through. So, >> I'd be curious to know how the uh the students maybe that aren't doing as well, what their perspective is if if there's something that we can learn from them. >> I don't know if it's the kids that are achieving well academically that are all on it or if it's a a mix or not. >> It's a mix. So, they were I will say it was an application process, but
011they were also handpicked to get a variety of student experiences. So I do feel really confident that this group really exemplifies our district and shows students from kind of all walks of life and they do bring those experiences with them when they talk. So >> yeah, >> good deal. Any other questions for Miss Howard? >> Are are the students pleased with the with the schedule adjustment and schedule change? >> I don't know if pleased is the right word. I mean it was it was an adjustment at the beginning, right? So it is a lot easier when you're looking at doing block scheduling with four classes that is a lot more easy is easier to manage than doing it all year. Right? So but that was the point of changing it was because we are here
012to support students in their academic growth and make sure we're doing the absolute best that we can to push them for the future. Right? So this is doing that. This is giving them that rigor and that experience that they need to be successful at the next stage. Nice. >> So classes went from what an hour and 25 minutes to like 55 minutes something like that. >> Yeah. Is Yeah, we have three I we have three different schedules. So we have days with seminar and days without seminar. So it goes between like 60 and like 50ish minutes. So >> Okay. >> Depending on the day. >> Awesome. >> All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> And that's all the communications that I had uh to start. >> All right. Thank you for that. Madam Secretary, do
013we have any >> nothing to pass on? >> All right. Thank you for that. Waddles Park Men's Club presentation. Mr. Tony Zel. Welcome. >> The man, the myth, the legend. Sorry. >> Thank you for letting me move my entire office to the podium here. >> Well, thank you very much for having me out. Um, as was just said, my name is Tony Zel. with Wattles Park Men's Club. Um we are a 501c3 nonprofit. We operate on the land behind Waddles Park Elementary. Um it's all the all the school land that's behind there, the soccer fields, the baseball fields, and then the parcel that's off of Michigan Avenue there where our gym is. Um and we have had the same mission that we've had for many, many years, as long as I've been alive. Um that's
014really we we believe that kids should have a place to play sports whether they want without any barriers. If a kid wants to play sports, team sports specifically, we believe they should have a spot to play that. We believe that that makes our community stronger and we're here to provide that. Um we do that by removing as many barriers as we can. So, if a kid wants to play in our basketball program and they can't immediately afford the signup fee, they don't have a ball, they can't get gym shoes, fine. If you can get here, we'll figure it out and we'll everybody plays. Um, we are very much trying to build that sense of community with all of our programs. Um, we have our core uh six programs that we have, we've been running them
015forever, again, for as long as I've been around. Um, we run basketball, volleyball. We run three soccer sessions, a spring soccer session, a fall soccer session, an indoor soccer session, and then a baseball, softball, te-ball session. Um, it kind of spans the whole calendar. We run year round with those programs. Um, and then we supplement them with little things here and there. Um, we just want kids to be able to play sports full stop. We don't want them to have to worry about making a team if they just want to come play. A lot of our kids start with us and move on to more competitive things. A lot of folks start with us and they would like to uh they just like having the team experience, right? Um but they might not want to
016for whatever reason or be able to travel all across the state, pay lots of money for expensive equipment and uniforms and stuff. They just want to come out. They want to play soccer. They want to come out. They want to play baseball. And we're here for that. We're here for all of those kids. Um, all of our programs have uh a few things in common. One of them is that everyone gets to play, right? Uh, nobody wants to sign up and come to practice and then not ever get in the game. We keep all of our teams at a manageable size so that every single kid gets to play at least half the game. Um, that's a big selling point for us. Um, we provide them with everything they need. You're obviously welcome to bring
017your own stuff, but if you're playing baseball, all you've got to do is show up. We have um we've done a lot of uh programs with uh we kind of model it after a take a penny, leave a penny jar when you go to like a 7-Eleven or something where if you're roll uh your kid is grown out of their soccer cleat, come do it. We have a whole exchange. We sanitize them and all that stuff. So, that's good. Uh we do the same thing with baseball, right? We have a whole bin of baseball gloves, used baseball bats, all kinds of stuff like that. Um it's been pretty successful. Um not everybody uses it, but the folks that do use it really uh really appreciate it and that's the kind of thing that we're about.
018Um I'd like to update you uh give you our annual update for how uh how everything is going at Wattles Park. Uh the first thing I'm talking we're going to talk about are our actual programs themselves. I did rip off a number of copies of these in case anybody is interested in them and you don't want to memorize a bunch of numbers that I'm throwing at you. If anyone's interested, I'm happy to give you these afterwards. Um, our calendar rolls, like I said, we run year round. So, our first sport of the year is basketball. That's what we're currently in now. Um, basketball, we typically start practices, it straddles two years, so we start practices in December and then it runs through February. That's about a three-month thing. Um, our we had 364 participants last
019year, um, which was flat year-over-year. Um, we're currently in our 2026 season. Uh, that's going to be down slightly this year. Um, we had and then we roll into volleyball and indoor soccer. They run consecutively. That runs in from February through middle of April, which we're pushing longer this year because those programs are growing, uh, which is a good problem for us to have. Typically, we've been wrapping those programs up by spring break. This year we're going past because we have enough so many kids that are playing specifically volleyball and we simply don't have the space to get them in and out by spring break. So we get a nice little spring break and they're back for more uh which is a good problem to have again. That number for volleyball we had 264 participants
020last year. Uh we are passing that this year. That is still growing. The 264 number was bigger than 2024 and our 2026 number will be bigger than that. Um then we have indoor soccer that's smaller. So that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 to 200 every year. Last year it was 180. This year we expect about the same. Um once we get that through that, we move outdoors and we're into spring soccer. Spring soccer is our biggest sport by far. Um that's that's kind of our our bread and butter. Um we had 511 kids that signed up. Um or not signed up, we had 700 kids that signed up. We had 511 kids that actually played. Um, and we were able to expand both our spring soccer and our fall soccer this year, um, in
0212025 to include a high school wreck league, which is pretty cool. Um, because we just had a lot of people that wanted to do it. People emailing, calling like why say, "Hey, we've got these kids that want to play." Um, they just want to come out and like twice a week and play soccer. Great. And we found a way to make it happen. Um, so um, we were able to expand into that. Our other leagues are holding steady there, too. Um, and we are expecting pretty similar numbers there. That runs from April to June. Uh, we have summer ball, which is baseball, softball, and te-ball. That runs from May through July. That's uh we had 302 kids that did that last year. Um, that's that one was down a hair. That's been a historical, if
022anyone's around the baseball community, you know that, you know, 20 years ago, the number of kids playing baseball was a lot more than it is today. That's just kind of a natural a natural progression. Um, so we're around 300 there. We have fall soccer. Last year we had 305 kids that played. That was the same age group as spring from prek to high school. Um, and that's pretty flat year-over-year. Um, a big uh question that a lot of people have um are where are the kids coming from, right? Because we're not having 511 kids all coming from Harper Creek. Um, traditionally we have always had Harper Creek pluralities. So meaning that the more kids if you divide all of our kids with some of the data that we collect is where you go to school.
023Um we always have more Harper Creek kids than any from any other specific school district. Um not a majority of the kids in the program, right? A plurality. So we'll have typically our numbers across programs are Harper Creek kids are somewhere between 30 and 35%. Some programs are higher, some programs are hovering around the 30. We haven't dipped below 30 on any program yet. Um, and then you have the other three major school districts around here. You've got Penfield, you got Lake, you got Battle Creek Central. They're somewhere in the neighborhood of 15% sometimes is pushing 20. Um, and then we have uh everywhere else. Homeschool has been a rising demographic for us. Um, we've seen a lot of homeschool kids uh that identify there, but we get kids from Marshall, we get kids from
024Gailsburg, we get kids from Athens, we have a couple of kids that come in from Kazoo. Um, so we do get a number of kids from from outside areas that travel in for our programs. Um, a side note, I know I've had somebody here and then I've had a number of folks I've been talking to have been asking how um we've been going with uh specifically basketball and baseball. Harper Creek has the Harper Junior Beavers uh basketball and baseball programs. Um and not like an adversarial thing at all. More of just like, hey, how's that going with you? Um the only effect that we've really noticed is that in basketball and baseball specifically, our Harper Creek pluralities are slightly lower. So instead of being closer to 35 36% Harper Creek kids, it might be closer
025to 30. Um we've noticed this drop by a couple of percentage points. in terms of our overall participants. I don't see that as have that hasn't had a major effect on us. Um, and I my own uh this is I'm speaking for myself here and not our Wles Park board, but I I think that's a good thing. I think more opportunities for kids is is always a good thing, right? We'll work together. Well, my oldest played in the Junior Beavers baseball and Waddles Park baseball last year, and he had a blast with both. It's great. Um, so I I I don't I don't think that's any type of an issue. We're we're excited for those programs. Um, we haven't seen any negative effects. They've all been positive to us. We've been positive to them. There's
026there's no issue there. We think that's a that's a sign of a strong community having more programs for your kids. Um, so we're we're fully on board with that. Um, so to summarize what I was saying there, the um, our BA basketball program was trending down slightly, volleyball is trending up, indoor soccer was holding steady, and now is trending slightly up. Spring soccer is steady, summer ball is down slightly, fall soccer is steady. Our overall numbers are averaging that out. We're we're about the same as we've been the last couple of years. Um, so that was our program update. In terms of our finances, last year we brought in a little over $174,000 in revenue, um, across all of our all of our operations. That broke down roughly into 60% player fees, uh, 30% uh,
027facility rentals, um, and then 10%ish uh, in donations. Um, one thing that we have really been trying to do, um, as I I kind of alluded to in my my opening remarks is we're very sensitive to making sure that we are able to get kids playing, right? And that part of that is keeping costs down. As you all know, everything's expensive all the time. That's one of the things I wrote down in challenges, right? one of our challenges like everybody else like you as you're making a budget for the school district things are more expensive right um one of the things that we've been really trying to do to help our participants with that keep the cost down as much as we can are we're trying to get um more revenue from rentals we've been
028doing graduate parties and birthday parties and all that stuff big one's been sponsorships um we've been a put a we've made a focused effort uh as a an organizational to find and procure sponsors to help us defay the cost the operations cost um so we don't have to keep raising the price of our our programs. Um we've been pretty successful with that this year. Uh we've had title sponsors for a number of our programs that we've just started. So fall soccer um we had honor credit union come in. They gave us a larger than standard donation and then we gave all of our participants a water bottle that had the Waddles Park Soccer logo on one side and honor on the other. Um, and we gave, you know, banner recognition and newsletter recognition and all
029that stuff. Uh, basketball, we've got the Ford Blue Oval plant that was very, uh, generous with a donation to us. Um, we did the same thing. We did, uh, gym bags this time with the Bottles Park basketball logo and the Ford Blue Oval, uh, logo. Um, and I think that we're we're kind of getting the ball rolling there. I'm very hopeful that that is going to keep us from having to raise prices um, you know, barring any unforeseen circumstances. I I think we can we can keep that ball rolling um and keep the costs down for our participants, which again is a big uh a big deal for us. Um in terms of uh kind of operational notes um because I know folks are generally interested in this um that was a positive our our
030like we have a few big challenges that we're facing. Rising cost is a big one. I don't have to explain that to everybody. Everybody knows kind of you pay your electric bill and you see what it is and all that stuff. um more aggressively. Um we are I wouldn't say that we're we're struggling, but we we do have a bigger need for volunteers because as we grow, as we try to do more things, even more things just as as pay attention to uh with with respect to our trying to rent the building out and procure sponsors, right? That's taking time away. other things. Um, we have had issues um, finding enough volunteer help. Um, I know that's the same across the board. I was talking with, you know, folks that like beat a lake and
031they're having trouble finding volunteers. I not just beat a lake. I My kid goes to Sonoma. Um, it's hard to find volunteers. Um, we have always operated on that. Um, and then that becomes where we our challenge where we have opportunities to do more cool things, but we have to if we have to pay somebody to help us do that, then all of a sudden we we've got to figure out how that's going to happen before we can grow, right? Um, so we're we're looking at that. Our board has our board of directors has been very good. Um, they're they're they're working as much as they can and we're trying to get more help. Um, one of the things they're doing is, um, they've taken over the organization that we have a community day every
032spring, so the snow melts and we get people out. We bring a rake, help us get our, uh, baseball and soccer fields ready to go. We bring donuts and coffee and have some fun and that type of stuff. Um, we're trying to get more uh, people out to those events. We're trying to duplicate that in the fall um, with the idea that we can roll more people into feeling a sense of ownership in the program. Um and then we might be able to they might be able to you know be interested in helping in other ways there. Um but that that that is also a big uh a big challenge. Um and then rolling that into we a goal of ours is to have a much more uh a much more robust presence on social
033media which we have very little of now. Um we've gone through a number of folks um who we were looking to kind of take over and help like would run you know our Facebook account, our Instagram account, etc., etc. And for various reasons, we've gone through three of those in the last year. So if anyone is interested in running a social media account and hanging out with me for a little bit, you let me know. Um but th those are the biggest challenges that we've had. Um, one thing I did, uh, I'll wrap this up here real quickly, but I did notice I forgot to mention what our programs actually cost. That's probably something that people would be interested in. Um, we run our indoor sports, basketball, we charge $90. Volleyball and indoor soccer is
03485 a priest. Spring soccer is 75. Baseball is 90 because that costs much more to run with the equipment and the umpires and the field prep, etc. And fall soccer is also $75. Um we feel those are I mean obviously that's you know kind of what we need to operate but we still feel like those are very competitive based on both uh what other folks are charging and the fact that we don't get subsidies or we don't get you know any we're not a we're not getting tax money from a government entity or anything like that. Um we kind of have to self-fund um so we feel we feel like we're doing as good a job as we can um with those prices and we haven't raised in a year which I feel pretty proud
035of. Um, and that is uh that is my Waddles Park 2026 update. I am happy to answer any questions anyone has and all of that. Yes. >> So, you mentioned um your revenue. What are your expenses? >> That's a great question. They're uh almost identical. Um we did not uh we made about $1,000 last year, which is kind of what we're aiming for, right? Um but yeah, we're we're breaking even with that at that pace. Um, I think with when we're doing our our board budgeting um this year, I think if we keep expanding our sponsor drive because we we kind of picked that up in the middle of the year where we really kind of hit the ground running with that and getting title sponsors and all that, I think that if we can
036kind of keep pace everywhere else and have that go for a full year and keep that ball rolling, I think we're going to be in real good shape. Uh, but that that's where we are right now. >> How do you track who who's paying and who's not? Who has that financial need? And is there behind the scenes? Is there a way that you're kind of keeping track of of the families that are in that in that category of needing? >> That's a great question. So, you're you're asking specifically how we keep track of like the scholarships, right? >> Type of thing. Okay. Um, so we do, um, I don't have a running list of folks because I kind of feel weird about that. Um, what we do, um, is as we go through and as
037you know, stuff's coming in, we have folks that will that approach us, right? Sure. >> Um, we >> we make clear, right, that >> come come see, we'll we'll we'll figure it out. Um, so for example, for basketball, we're tracking somewhere in the neighborhood of 9% of our participants that are on some type of uh reduced fee or completely covered. Um, and then uh we so I keep track religiously of the percentages of how we're like what sports like how many we're scholarshipping. I can go back and look at those um like for individual um but each one of those is on an individual basis. the 95% of those conversations are me. Um, and we'll have those privately, right, on a on a phone call or something like that and and we get it figured
038out. Um, and uh, but yeah, we don't we don't pressure anybody to that. It's um, the most that we've ever that I ever push is um, if someone says, you know, we're having trouble. I'm I'm out of work or we have a medical bills or a shock, like that's a that's a big one, too. um I was just in the hospital and we don't have the money, etc., etc. Um I I will I'll kind of leave, well, what what can you afford, right? And we go from there. A lot of times it's half price, sometimes it's more, and a lot of times we just cover them completely. Um that that's as far as we go. Um we don't have a formal application process. Um we haven't needed one. We've talked about it as an organization.
039Um we haven't needed one thus far. Um, it's something that I would say was is loosely on our radar, but not not a high priority currently. >> Fair enough. Thank you. >> Okay. Yeah. >> I had a couple quick questions. Any connection to lacrosse anymore? I know you you used to >> That's a great question. And if you So, we haven't had lacrosse on our fields for upwards of I'd say at least 10 years. Whoever was running lacrosse out there has left a large amount of lacrosse equipment in our storage room. So, if you know any of the good old boys who used to do that years ago and they want their lacrosse sticks back, give them my contact info because I have I probably have 80 lacrosse sticks that we found. >> So, uh
040that program just kind of die out on its own or what? >> Correct. That was um now that was before I was involved in any type of leadership role here. So, it's it's been a minute. Um, that program to my understanding was never wasn't a Waddles Park exclusive program that was run in conjunction with like I I don't know if it was I don't know if it was a a school club or another organization. It reminded me I think it was similar to again about the same time period we ran uh both a golf and a hiphop dance program that was we didn't it wasn't a Wattles Park exclusive program. We ran it in conjunction with another entity. And you're going to have to forgive my vagueness on this because I wasn't involved in any
041of it, but I was around as a kid mowing grass out there many years ago. Um, so I don't remember the finer details of that, but that's that I'm confident that that was a program that was run in conjunction with someone else. We don't have that anymore. Um, we don't have uh Wattles Park lacrosse program. And quite frankly, unless they're going to play in the heat of July and August, we don't have the field space to really cover a program of any size for that. I would like to um but our our soccer program kind of eats up most of the field space there. >> And floor hockey is dead forever. >> Not forever. I have all of that stuff still stored in a barn out back behind Wattles Park. Um it's we have been
042told that the floor hockey in the gym voids our floor warranties. It's wood floors. Um and I've got I would have to go back and look specifically, but I the it I want to say it was somewhere in the neighborhood of like 2028 or 29 or somewhere along those lines where we might be able to get back uh get back into it. So the dream is not dead. Floor hockey, the equipment, we still have all the stuff. We could snap our fingers and bring it back to tomorrow. Um, but we haven't specifically for the the floor and it I mean we used to run that program when we would million years ago we rented gym space out of the Y and that was where our our indoor programs home was and they had the old
043green like multi- you know use sports and it tore that up. So I can I can only imagine what it would do to the wood floors. I Yeah. Um so the the dream is not completely dead but it's it's dead for the foreseeable future I guess would be the way I would phrase it. Last question. Um, for years it was always this paper signup form. Are you guys past that or does that still go into all of our schools? >> We don't use a paper signup form in any in any of our programs anymore. Everything is done online. There are occasionally I will run into someone who has uh like their grandma is trying to sign them up and they're not particularly and I get on the phone with them and I chat and I
044fill the form out on my computer as I'm talking to them. And so how are you advertising to the uh to the respective buildings? >> That's a great question. Um we aren't putting anything specifically in the buildings and in anywhere. We're not bringing flyers or anything like that. All of our uh advertising is done online. Um it's the vast majority of it is through our email newsletter. Um so we have a we have a email client uh that we send out. Um that's we use we're currently using Constant Contact. We have a email list that's rolls between six and 7,000. Um it's can it's growing as we get new people that you know come in and but you know you you lose some as people it the content is not relevant to them anymore. Um
045but that that's where we procure the majority of our signups is online uh sharing both posts and sharing the newsletter online and then the newsletter going out to all the families that have have played with us. So, new people coming in are getting from word of mouth or >> word of mouth or uh word of mouth socials or we I mean we do advertise on our so like right now you can if you're going into our gym there's the flyer with a QR code you can scan in the spring summer fall not now obviously but we'll have uh posted on our outdoor facilities right by the concession stand and the uh like the equipment room that you walk by uh as you're coming up to our fields we have flyers that have QR codes that
046go to the sign up and stuff like that. Um, and then our our website does generate some organic traffic. I mean, we're not Google or anything crazy, but we're um we we do generate some organic traffic through there. Um, and we have all the all the options to uh sign up and get information and all of that stuff on our website. >> And any major facilities concerns? >> Not uh not pressing. everything is still uh hanging on in one piece. Um there there are things obviously, you know, that we're going to have to look at uh at some point in the future. Um we're we're slightly overdue for a floor resurfacing, so we'll have to figure that out that one out. Um when in the calendar we want to do it, how we're going to
047finance it, etc. Um there are a lot the wish list is long. Um but it's wish list stuff um as opposed to five alarm fires if that makes sense. Um, so there's a lot of things that we as an organization would like to do, uh, to improve things. Um, uh, an example of that is last summer we had, um, uh, guy Vance Freillley who is doing his Eagle Scout project and he continued work out with us and he redid a bunch of our wooden bleachers uh, that have been put in years and years ago by Pat Dhy. Um, and you know, they were 25 years old and rotting out and so we've got some brand new fresh wood bleachers on Diamond 7. If anyone's watching T-ball this uh spring, come check them out. Um, but
048yeah, that that's the the outside of the gym floor resurfacing that we we will want to get that done in the next year. Um, I don't have any anything that's on fire um from a facilities standpoint. >> Okay. Anybody have anything further for Mr. Zebo? >> I'm very happy to talk shop or answer questions or with anybody. So if stuff things pop up, I'm happy to have a phone call or an email or a coffee or whatever you like. Um so please uh please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns or you just want to talk shop. I love uh I love doing that stuff. >> All right, maybe we'll see you at the grill. >> Can't wait. >> Thanks, Tony. appreciate the time. >> All right. Uh we're going
049to move on to district updates curriculum and Mr. Abraham. >> Yes. I uh it's been actually busy months still. Um three things I'll quickly go through. One early morning indicators. I don't know if there's anything in this. The only thing that really jumped out to me is we had a small jump in behavior in 11th. Let me point out to you. So again, I want to congratulate the teams for doing great work. >> Yeah, that is that's attendance. Our attendance is fantastic. The next one down referrals 11 to 10 which is again something very proud of that relative we're trending in a good direction I will kind of warn you and I think our principles are feeling right now the month of February is an interesting month So you next month um I did my
050best um with NWA diagnostic data. So I'm going to jump to that. So if you look at this and I don't know how many of you looked before this the green column the ELA math that is going to correlate to this score at the very bottom. So this all the way to the very bottom you will see all the way that that is a normed score for the nation. So if you looked at that kindergarten in math, um the norm is supposed to be 141 at the beginning of the year. In the middle of the year, it is one 151. And of course the end of the year for kindergarten is 158. And you can of course see what reading would be in the green chart as well. If you look directly above that in
051middle school in ELA at the beginning of the year that first number that you see is 204 209 212 216 that number correlates to the graph at the bottom. So that's what I'm trying to do with that number if that makes sense. Our students scored and and this would be 204.9 at the beginning of the year and at the middle of the year right now they're 208.9. So that that is our growth. The understanding that the national average is 206. So to give an idea what that score is um and I struggle with this back and forth how to create this um and I honestly just went back to principal and that um this is really what that means. So if we're looking at fifth grade ELA 20 the um score is a 204. That
052means the average fifth grader is going to score 50% of the questions correctly at grade level. That means they're at grade level at that, which means in that case we would be 50% proficient in ELA at the beginning of the year. We're going to be roughly 50% in the middle of the year proficient. And then if we have um ELA at 208 at the end of the year, we'll be 50% proficient in state testing. Does that make sense or am I jumping all over the board or next time I do this it should I should not be so number heavy. So if you if you look at that the yellow is where we're need to spend we need to spend attention um in a lot of different directions but when we're below that number that
053RIT score like uh what Mr. Rididgeway just went over that 212.2 2. That means right there with that average RIT score of 216, we're probably looking somewhere about 42 to 41% proficient as a grade level in math. Is that making sense? So, we really want to see that number grow quite a bit higher than that average. Because again, if I'm looking at fifth grade, that 204.9 that sounds great, but in order for us to have 70%, 60% 80% of our students proficient, we need to be scoring somewhere probably around a 215 at the beginning of the year to a 220, right? We really need to be doing really well because again, our kids will be well, remember, we're all being judged on one single day and one single test as well. But that's kind of
054what that means. So you can go through all of that and on this I pulled this from a grade level report. So if you're picturing that report it gives an average of the entire grade and if you scroll up you'll see where we are with beetle um waddles and soma um and honestly they look pretty similar right um some might change a different grade level that that maybe needs a little bit more attention but they look overall pretty similar um and historically the trend level looks pretty similar as well. I don't think that's any new information for us. But in this grade level report, um, as a building principal, it would say yes, like in this case, 50 kids of our or 50 students and their average is in kindergarten is 138.2, but it would
055give a list of every single student and what their score is. And then we would, of course, target those students that need more work and more attention in our tier 2 intervention. So that's what that report is telling you right now. That report is telling us that we're probably right around 50 55% proficient or in the yellow we need to spend some more energy to make sure that we're moving those as well. Um that should go along and trend with the DCC survey result the other the last link that I will tell you on this. So um got the pleasure of leading my first DCC meeting on January 26th. Um before that before that um we surveyed the the DCC and they all kind of picked out exactly what the role is and answered questions
056that went along with that. Um and what they said was the biggest uh the work that we needed to do and where we needed to pinpoint our um our efforts moving forward was interventions and MTSS systems and then also with team PLC um professional learning communities effectiveness. Um this should dovtail pretty well with the beginning of this meeting Mr. Ridgeway saying that I would like to have a meeting with with some of you to kind of talk about the direction of uh potentially where we go and how we're spending our energy and and we are spending a lot of energy but maybe focusing some of our energy to make sure that we're hitting all of our students. Any questions? >> All right. Thank that. >> Thank you. >> Move on to facilities and Mr. Robinson.
057>> Thank you. Um I submitted the my report as well. Couple things I I just wanted to talk about on the report. Um we survived the cold weather >> which was huge. Um you've heard of lots of other know areas around you know Battle Creek area that that were shut down because of you know equipment breakage and stuff like this. I'm really hoping to not shoot myself in the foot here, but um we've been lucky thus far. Um and we've got a team that's been watching things like 247. Um especially what three weeks ago when we had a really cold snap. Um we had a we had actually lost power that Friday night at Wall Park when it was what minus 12 or whatever it was >> a little bit. >> And we myself and
058another guy were out there till about 12:30 that night just making sure up and running and uh I don't I say that not for the accolades but just to say that the dedication of those guys that my team have for that. So we have been running things 247 right now. So we'll probably see a little bit of an increase. Sorry Ginger on uh numbers for utilities is coming up but I think everybody in the world is seeing those right now anyway. So we'll get back to normal. We're probably back this week a little bit. I'm watching the staying out of the single digits at night. Once we start doing that, we'll ramp things back like they normally are. Um, but no, we've had great luck with that. Um, another big item that we're dealing with,
059and you've heard this throughout the news, um, is, uh, salt. We really are struggling. We're basically out of salt for like our parking lots and stuff like that. Um, we're working to do the best we can as far as keeping snow moved the best we can. But it's not just us with that problem. Everybody's heard about it. the counties are even trying to barter with each other in the state and all the governmental entities are doing the same thing along with uh I did finally uh was able to purchase two t two pallets of uh sidewalk salt which we really struggling all the vendors around here are out um I was able to secure two of those unfortunately up about 75% per bag from what it was back in November but we have to do
060it because that's still cheaper than an accident so we're doing the I've talked to our folks to be a little more sparingly using it and we're going to go there. Um, and then we got the rest of the weight room equipment is on our order and I found out the other day looks like it's probably towards the end of March we'll receive that >> and get that. So, we're excited. >> Questions for Mr. Robinson? >> Thank you. finance. >> Mrs. Obermire, I'm gonna side note really quick. He loves when I do this, but the first time I met Mr. Lincoln um was at a board meeting and he found out I lived in Marshall. And speaking of uh volunteers, I was volunte. >> Sounds like the uh Mr. Lincoln we know and love or knew
061and loved. Oh, Marshall here and I did it. He told me to. >> Yes. Smart. >> Um, but my reports I don't have a lot because you guys just saw the revision and it's going to be pretty darn close to what the revision shows and we're right on track. Um, so I don't know if anyone had any questions. Uh, I have this and then the cash balance. We made 38,000 in interest. Um, I was going to speak a little bit to the governor's we were hoping the governor's um budget came out last week. It's coming out on Wednesday. So, um maybe Friday's he'll have some highlights for you. Um but I was hoping that's what I was going to speak about today. But >> yeah, there's the um interest. So that was the previous month
062total year to date. Now we're at 28,000 interest. >> I just think it's so impressive. It's like That's a lot of interest. >> A lot of extra money to the bottom line. >> Yeah. So, every every dime is helpful. >> So, so the budget and then the other thing I just wanted to highlight was uh there was some money for a little extra compensation for employees that was required to be negotiated, but we got an amount um and we pulled in all the unions and associations and they're going to sign it. So everyone in March um as long as the um last last group signs off will get anyone who worked over 20 hours and is a regular employee will get $750 extra in their paycheck and anyone who worked under 20 hours but is
063a regular employee will get $200. I just wanted to highlight that. >> Yeah, it just came into budget that way. We had to settled. >> All right. Doesn't look like any. Thank you. Move on to technology and Mr. Mayor. Good evening. >> Well, the wiring instant thing I want to share is I dug into ticket data for the student devices to see how how our damage going. So the chart you're looking at there is that five month period just happened to be the beginning of year until I looked and I over the last five years of how many tickets were put in our health test for student devices. We have separate category for that that our library put them in. And so it kind of tells some stuff we already knew specifically the middle school
064was where our biggest challenges are with breakage. Um but I really wanted to highlight the well you got to ignore 2023 middle school was doing something different that year. They didn't data, but otherwise it would look similar, but they've been going slightly down. And then this year, they're down more than half in the same time period, which is awesome. And we believe that's because we move the building back to classroom carts rather than having the kids carry the computers around. So, middle school being middle school, um, you know, we were getting breakage in the hallway, breakage, lockers, going home, all of that. A lot of that's been reduced now because we started two years ago fifth grade back on the cart. So you can see a slight dip. Then the next year we did the
065sixth grade and then last year we did seventh and eighth grade. Got the whole building back on. So that was really I thought that was worth noting. The elementaryaries are kind of flat. L's gone down a little bit. Soma has had about a different person working there every year. You see data high school even saw a reduction as well. So I haven't dug into a lot of that. I really want to highlight that the middle school has been doing well. questions for Mr. Maynard. All right. Thank you. Move on to comments related to agenda items. All right. Nobody's got anything. Move on to consent agenda. Madam Secretary, Chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education approve the consent agenda as follows. Approve the general fund checks, school service fund checks, school
066lunch, and student and school activity fund checks in accordance with the list discussed. Approve the following minutes as reviewed. January 12th, 2026 superintendent evaluation meeting minutes. January 12th, 2026 close session meeting minutes. January 12th, 2026, regular board of education meeting minutes. February 5th, 2026, budget committee meeting minutes. February 5th, 2026, superintendent compensation committee meeting minutes. >> Been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> Hearing seen, please call the role. >> Mr. Hverson, Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mr. Best, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries 6. >> All right. Thank you for that. Move on to information discussion. Start with school safety update. Mr. Ridgeway. >> I will keep it brief. Um, we really talked about two things.
067The January 16th PD, just how that went, things that came up. One thing to put on your radar is the committee is discussing if we want to go to a policy or procedure in which all doors in the all classroom doors are locked all the time. And you would think that most of them are and they are 80% I would say maybe a little more than that. Um but some teachers do leave uh magnets in the door so the doors are shut all the way doors lock but that's in there. So we're trying to decide if we should say they're all out as we move into our next school year. Um, no one has ever been harmed behind a locked door in a school. And so if we have the doors locked, uh, we're just
068trying to make sure we're not doing that and causing another issue that might might pop up. And then we spent the rest of time talking about the dance, which I I briefed the audience on, uh, not only what happened, but really uh, as we move forward into the future, how we can um, do a really nice job of ensuring that all of our afterchool events. So we've already delved into athletics and plays in the auditorium, but we really never talked about these these events. So we have dances, we have elementary events. We want to make sure that we are having that discussion too of what do we really need to have at these events. So u it was a really nice discussion. Um I don't pretty much that was it in terms of the safety
069committee today. It was pretty much dominated by that those two conversations. >> Questions for Mr. Rididgeway there? All right, move on to strategic plan. >> Yeah, a lot of facilities planning u marketing strategies. I had the meeting um that we talked about with all of the groups coming together to make sure we have a coordinated plan moving forward. I do feel good about that with all of our partners including ourselves. Um we did meet with the architect to look at a concept for a master plan and they uh expect to come to our March board meeting to present that master plan. Now it's just concept you know what would we do in 2034 basically. So we have this um potential project that we're looking at and then what happens in 2034. Uh we open up
070the annual perception surveys uh this week. So that'll be students, staff, and parents. It's important to us to know how are we doing. It gives us a good feedback on how the school district as a whole. It's very comprehensive so we can see in all kinds of areas um how well we're doing and where we need to improve and what we've done well with. Um and then uh looking some curriculum. We will have be bringing to you very soon our math high school math curriculum resource um ask for the board that that will be happening soon the the high school piloting all year long um a resource and then I don't know if you caught this amongst everybody who's talking but amplify which is our ELA curriculum they have a new addition that came out
071and with I believe with a new dyslexia law that um there was a grant that came out. So, we're able to get the newest edition with this grant. So, we will be implementing Amplify Edition three next year and that is that is on the approved list by the state of Michigan. Addition two isn't, but addition three is. So, we'll be up to date and more on the dyslexia law too. That's in the background humming in the background. But that will we have to be up and running. I believe it's 2728 is when the up and running date is but lots the ISD is leading that work. Um but we are getting ourselves prepared. >> I believe that's it for strategic plan this one. >> Think that process is going to get easier for kids to
072>> dyslexia. Yeah be it'll it will it will um have kids will be tested in the elementary schools at early ages. >> So it's it will cause people to get caught but also we have to be trained when I say we School staff have to be trained on what to do if you know some child is does have dyslexia. So what resources what do we have and what can we do in house because dyslexia is traditionally has always been outside of school. It's not a school diagnosis and now it's going to come into the school. >> Seems um my experience has been that of what I've heard um that getting a child diagnosed with that was quite cumbersome. Um, >> so process >> definitely cumbersome and yeah it's I think it's a good thing overall
073it's you know it's it's something new it's a lot but it's I think the training portion um for all teachers let's say all elementary teachers get trained and there's something called letters training which is very good and we've had some of our teachers go through it but having all teachers be trained in letters it will make us better just in reading in general and the states like Mississippi for example that did all of their teachers trained in letters state they increased the test scores by I don't know 20% significantly from almost last towards the top in America >> with that >> um yes >> yes >> and we're just we're just I said not beginning stage we're in the middle stages now but continue to in the background get that ready so that we're ready
074to be on board for >> and you said the D is kind of spearheading that. >> They are they have people that are on the the state board forward uh for dyslexia like for this going from amplify second to third edition that's an example of dyslexia law taking effect because there will be a list of approved vendors you can use for all of your resources. So that's a piece of it. >> Any further questions for Mr. Rididgeway there? If not, we're going to move on to schools of choice. >> Yep. Annually we do school choice and just just kind of review what we do. So kindergarten we have traditionally been open school choice. Uh in first through 12th grade we've been targeted. We traditionally use spring count numbers to set our our school choice um
075amounts of how much room we have at every grade level except for kindergarten which is open. Um what my staff has brought to me are um if we were open in kindergarten that the open enrollment window would be March 3rd to July 31st. Um and March 3rd um that coordinates with countdown to kindergarten to start time. That's why it's March 3rd. And then you could really go all the way into the first week of school and take school choice, but we we find that if we have the cut off in the middle of summer, that gives us time to plan for kindergarten teachers instead of adding people at the end. So that's never a good thing. >> Last year was July 31st as well. >> We did the same last year. And then the other
076targeted, you only get 30 days and we have used May 13th or so to June 12th every year. It gives us the end of the school year to get people and then it gives people a little bit of time if they miss the deadline to make sure that they they get to uh to that. And I have the the numbers, you know, I flip the numbers over from if I'm a fifth grader, now I'm looking a sixth grader. So, I've got these numbers here. We're pretty high. I mean, middle school 900. Next year is the starting point. Um, there's not a not a ton of extra room in the middle school. High school is increased. I think we're at about 820 to 8:30. Next year we'll start at 850. Um, and as you know, we
077do have the alternative program as well, uh, that has about anywhere between 30 and 50 kids at any given time. Excited. We'll start the staffing process soon. So, what I'm asking, I guess to the point, I'm asking that the board approves um, school choice that we will we will be participate in the fall, kindergarten, open, what first through 12th grade targeted with those open enrollment dates. What uh methods do we use to share the open enrollment dates and uh targeted number? >> So we would use so by law you have to put it into the paper. So we would use shopper uh we would use our social media um I believe we would create a flyer especially for countdown for kindergarten um to to put out and you know we could do any other thing.
078We do have the kindergarten video that we created last year um with K12 media. So we use that as a advertiser. We're not really trying to advertise. We're honestly just want to make sure that people know it's open to their interest, right? We're not trying to grow. I want to make sure everybody knows that our our idea is not growth. We want to stay stable at about 2,800 kids. That's really efficient for Harvard. We can stay there. >> All right. Looks like we'll move on to new hire. >> All right. We have one new hireer, a first grade teacher at Sonoma. She um stepped in when we started the school year and and needed an extra teacher in first grade about a month into the school year. Uh Abby Hicks, she was a student teacher
079at the time. So, we had her start as on a permit which was allowable and now she has her um her degree as well as her certification. So, I am recommending that we hire Abby at BA1 pro rated for the remain of the year. and I believe she is a Harper Creek graduate and her dad was also a longtime teacher here and coach very fine family. >> Um, move on to Willard Library Board. >> Okay, so we Harper Creek as a school district, we can assign one person to the Willard Library board. Um, and three years ago, we assigned Laura Williams. She's in the audience today. and uh Matt Willis contacted me and requested that we we reappoint Laura for another three-year term. They're three-year terms. Um I don't remember the fellow's name before you.
080Do you by chance? We did. I remember we did it like two or three different times at board meetings where we reuped the person, but I can't remember who it was. But I would recommend that we um reappoint Laura Williams as the rep for Harper Creek on the Wheeler Library Board. All right. >> And move on to Michigan Association School Board's 2020 26 election. >> Yeah, it's it when I read everything, it sounded like region six, which is we're in has an opening and there's three people that are vying for that. Charlie Fulbright from Ber Public Schools, he is actually on the board currently. Uh Tiana Harrison, Kazoo Public Schools, 12 years as a board member. And then Elizabeth Odell, she's also an incumbent. I know there's two incumbents. Kind of weird, but they do
081have atlarge people as well. So I think you are voting for one of those three. Charlie, Tiana Harrison, or Elizabeth Odell from St. Joseph County ISD. And as a Elizabeth has 28 years experience. This is the board. I don't have to make a recommendation on this one. Anybody want to say anything before I put my two cents in? >> Um, I work with Charlie um and the other two superintendents on a monthly basis. We work to set these joint board meetings up and um uh Charlie's a you know well educated guy as far as I think he's like diamond level or whatever the the one of the higher levels is at MASB. He's uh a board member now. Um and so yes, I have a little bias towards him, but um I would uh find
082it hard to choose anybody else besides somebody in our own backyard. Um so my vote would be for Charlie Fulbright. There's Charlie if you recognize him. Obviously been around and the other two Tiana Harrison public schools and then Elizabeth. >> All three uh candidates are highly accomplished when it comes to their board service. Um but um for me it be Charlie. Anybody have any any different feel? >> I mean I've got Charlie think he's our neighbor. I think he done a good >> Okay, we'll we'll uh put in the motion Charlie Fulbright. All right, move on to esports. Okay, esports has kind of came back again and I would really like the board to allow us in Jerai specifically to put esports into the budget. Um, esports is kids do play video games. I don't
083want you to get nervous about that. Almost every single school around us and in the really in Michigan is moving towards esports and it's not just kids playing video games, it's also them organizing events. Uh, they commentate during the video game. So, like a sports commentator would. Uh, typically these are done like if you if we had a competition against Lake View, our kids would be here on a computer. They'd be in Lake View on a computer and compete. But if they get to a larger event, they go to a auditorium and both teams are live and they put their their screens up on the the big screen on the on the stage and you can watch. Now, I guess it's a thing where kids watch other kids play video games on YouTube. >> Oh,
084yeah. I don't know. I haven't really No, but it's it's it's really a deal. It's a big deal. >> Um, now the biggest question we have is cost. >> You know, you see, you know, Jim is frugal. I mean, we know this, right? So, the computer stuff we're going to do is as frugal as we can to get the computing power that we need. The biggest costs are going to be I would like to have an adviser in the middle school, adviser in the high school because you have to have somebody with the kids after school. Um, and there's two seasons, fall and winter. Fall and winter. Um, so some costs with advisor and then some costs with uh computing just to make sure we have enough computers or whatever they use on that. My
085estimate is at most a $7,000 expense. When I brought it to you two years ago, I I think I had $10,000, but that was all brand new computers. So, I think we can probably do it for cheap. No action item on this. This is just permission to put it in the budget >> if we can afford it. scholarship. There's a lot of teams from like Michigan, Michigan State, um Ohio State, Penn State, all >> to me, it kind of fits in that uh like clay target type of of sport. You know, it's not on the beaten path, but it's something that's it's different. And um I like the diversity of it. >> Do any of the other local districts have it? >> Yes. >> Okay. Marshall obviously has it. Um I'm not sure about Lake
086View. I'm pretty sure Bad Creek Central has it. I don't think has it yet. >> Okay. A lot of the larger schools have it. Like it seems like it's governed by the principles association in Michigan. Um and so they they set the leagues up and they they they make all the schedules and competitions. Typically next week seasonally. A lot like a sport >> actually a lot like robotics is what it is probably more like. >> All right. Uh we will next move on to superintendent contract which I will handle. Um superintendent compensation committee uh met last Thursday. Um Mr. Smith and Mrs. Wallace and myself along with Mrs. Overme. Um, and we uh came to three or three changes really uh add one year on to uh Mr. Ridgeway's contract. Um, and by the way,
087he did get a effective rating which is the best rating that's available from the board. Um we did a um monetary longevity um bonus annually for the next as far for as many years as he stays. And um what was the change to the dental >> the dental um all union is changing to match what the teachers have in July. So I just wanted the language to >> to align otherwise no major changes to his contract. Um, and you are now the most tenured superintendent in the county. Is that correct? >> They call me the OG. >> That mean original gangster. >> Welcome to the club. >> So out of here. >> Hey, he really fits the bill, huh? >> Yeah, they they do. I mean, at the meeting, they love him. >> We need
088to get I think it's important that we compensate him appropriately. Um OG go vote on >> definitely the goat on the uh on the kids social media with all those notes. >> But I I think it's important we compensate him commensurately with that. And um anybody that knows Rob knows that he puts in a lot of time on a weekly basis, a lot more than 40 hours. And um he also is uh we think is the best superintendent in the county. So I think his contract matches. Anything you want to add, Mr. Smith or Mrs. Wallace? >> Mrs. Obermyer. Okay. All right. Thank you. We'll move on to uh bus purchase. >> Okay. So, we actually talked about this at the budget committee a touch and I at the point at that point in time,
089I was not ready. Um so, we did assign Ginger uh I say we I assigned Ginger to look into these bus bids just to make sure. We want to make sure we're getting the best best deal that we can possibly get. These things are expensive. So, uh, we have international buses here at Harbor Creek. Um, and if you outfit a brand new busy 141,000 plus camera plus the radio system, now we're talking about 150ome thousand. >> I got to have it written down here. Jinger's got the numbers for me. Um, and then we're we think we should do the fiveyear warranty additional. So, what is our out the door cost for a bus? a bus with all of that 157,632 >> 15732. >> Okay. Sorry. What's the warranty come out to be? >> Right around
0903,000 >> for a 5year warranty. >> Yes. >> That's cheap. >> That's that's the best that's the best value one, right? And then a little bit of flavor to these bids. So the state does these bids. Uh the Michigan uh school business officials, which Ginger is a part of, MSBO, they do bids for for buses. They do it throughout the year. Um they just did a bid and so this is we feel the best price we can get. This would be from Midwest Transit. It happens to be close by to us, which is nice. Um but they came in with a low bid on the buses want apparently. I don't know much about this and other people probably know more than I do, but instead of feet brake, you use a handbrake on a bus.
091Um, it's hard to when you when you do the foot brake, apparently you got to really press that thing. So, it is hard over time for bus drivers to keep up with that. So, it has a handbrake. >> It has everything everything that we want on a bus. So, what I am asking uh I think I talked maybe two or three months ago about um bus replacements. I'm asking for two right now, two new buses, not three. Uh, two because we know that is within the range we can afford with our casino money. Um, the second piece is we could get a third bus, potentially a used third bus in the summer if we think we have the money and and then we could look to see what we could get for a deal on
092on a used bus. If we put these two into place, we are going to take some buses offline, right? That's part of the fleet um reduction because We are spending a lot of money on repairs and we have a lot of extra buses that we keep for spares. We're going to reduce that sum along with continuing to add buses on an annual basis. So, I'm recommending that we move forward even though it seems very expensive in my mind, but with these buses at that bid price because that's as low as we can get. But it does stay pretty much within what we can afford. We can't afford the third new bus right now. I guess the only other thing I'll add to that is this bid ends on February 13th. I'm not a salesman, but
093if we don't do it, then we have to wait for the next bid to come out probably in March. They take a minute to build these these new buses. When I say a minute, probably five months, six months. >> Erin, do you have concerns that you want us to address? No, just the the motion um allotss for the three. So, I just want to make sure that we have the correct numbers to to do. >> You got that number for two exact number? >> Yeah, it is 315,264. >> Thank you. >> We'll be passing the plate during being here. >> Originally, we said we were going to get three buses. That's why we got we bitted out. >> All right. Um, move on to comments from the audience. Does anybody want to say anything? All
094right. Action item A. School choice. Madam Secretary, the >> chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education approve participation in the School of Choice program for the fall of 2026 2027 with kindergarten open for open enrollment from March 3rd to July 31st and 1st through 12th grades targeted for open enrollment from May 13 to June 12th, 2026 as discussed and reviewed. >> So moved. It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> Just one real quick. I will bring the numbers for each grade level at the next meeting when we get the spring. >> I pretty much have it in my know what we're going to have, but I'll know more after the spring. >> All right. Thank you for that. All right. Please call the RO. >> Mr. Hverson,
095>> yes. >> Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mr. Best. >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries 6. >> All right. Thank you for that. Move on to action item B. New hire. >> Chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education approve the following new hire. Abby Hicks first grade Soma Elementary bachelor's from Spring Arbor University BA1 prrated for 84 out of 187 days to $20,43048. It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> Please call the role. >> Mr. Hverson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mr. Best, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries 6. >> All right.
096Thank you for that. Um, action item C. Willard Library Board. >> Chair calls for a motion. The Harper Creek Board of Education approved the reappoint of Laura Williams to the Willard Libraries Board of Trustees to represent the populations within the Harper Creek Community School District effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029. So move. >> It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> Mrs. Williams, you do want to be appointed, right? All right. >> I did ask. >> I figured as much, but just as long as you're sitting there. >> All right. Please call the role. >> Mr. Hellson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Risyner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mr. Best, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries. 6. >>
097All right. Thank you for that. Um, Michigan Association of School Boards 202026 election. >> Chair calls for a motion at the Harper Creek Board of Education nominate Charlie Fulbright, Battle Creek Public School for the Michigan Association of School Boards, Region 6 Board of Directors Election. >> It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> Hearing see none, please call the RO. >> Mr. Mr. Hverson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mr. Mrs. Wallace, sorry. >> Yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> And Mr. Best, >> I I vote yes. >> Usually the one that messes up somebody's name. >> Motion carry 6. >> All right. Thank you for that. Um, action item E, superintendent uh, contract. Chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of
098Education approve the superintendent contract as discussed and reviewed. >> It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> Good job. >> Please call the RO. >> Mr. Herson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes to the >> Mr. Smith. Yes. >> And Mr. Bess. >> I vote yes to the OG goat. >> Motion carry 6. >> They tell me that's a good thing. >> It is. >> Just don't let it go to your head. >> All right. Uh, last but not least, uh, the bus purchase action item F. Chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education authorize the purchase of two 2027 International buses with an extended warranty from Midwest Transit at a total cost not to exceed $315,264. >>
099It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? Yeah, we are going to try really hard. I know that's going to be tough in the until we pay off the high school HBAC to get us to the three buses, but we thought about buying a used bus for the third one because typically we get to the end of the school year in June, we might We think we have then we could buy it at that point because it's not need doesn't need to be built. We can just buy it. >> Yes. >> I do. Oh yeah. Three a year for the next four years. >> Okay. Did we not call roll? Did we not? >> Please call the RO. >> Mr. Herson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Risner. >> Yes. Mrs. I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace,
100>> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> And Mr. Best, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries 6. >> All right. Items for the next meeting. I have a couple. Um, first I will be on vacation um for our next meeting. I will be able to meet with Mr. Smith and Mr. Rididgeway before the meeting. Um, so as long as Mr. Smith gets back from his vacation on time. He will be our acting president at that time. Um, >> who's the speaker of the house? Who's next? >> I think that goes this madam secretary, does it not? >> Okay. >> And then it would go to madam treasurer. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> So, what he's actually saying is in case somebody assassinates you, >> oh my god. She's next. >> Let's not let that
101happen. >> Um, I apologize, but did we have an update of any type on the outdoor sign? >> Yes. >> All right. So, we go to bond. When When's the vote? >> August. And so, uh, the mail and ballots start when? >> June 26. >> Just gives us a very short period of time to get something approved and on site built so we can use it for everything including making the um stakeholders aware of of where we stand with the bond proposal. So, um, and then last but not least, again, thank you, Mrs. Williams, for your service. Um, job well done. With that, I will call the meeting at 7:23 p.m. Good evening. Safe travels.