Onekama school administrators receive contract extension

ONEKAMA — Administrators at the Onekama Consolidated Schools were given a contract renewal this week by the board of education.

Both superintendent Kevin Hughes and principal Gina Hagen received positive evaluations that prompted the  contract renewals. Both administrators have two-year contracts with the district. There also was some language changes in their contracts.

Board members were also given a presentation on the new security system that have been installed at all the public school buildings in the county. The system was paid for with funds the Manistee Intermediate School District acquired with a Manistee County Local Revenue Sharing Grant.

"We still haven't gone live on the security system, but we wanted to the board to see how it worked," he said.

Members of the board were shown the two cameras and buzzer systems that are located on the doors leading to the entrance of the high school office and the superintendent's office. The board also viewed the special phones for those offices which show who is requesting entrance the building.

"Next week we plan to talk about it at our superintendent's meeting when to go live with it," said Hughes. "The clarity of those cameras is crisp and it is amazing how that video technology has progressed."

Hughes said they hope to add on to the building's security system. On May 2 they will be be bringing a zero bond increase request and a sinking fund request funds from that have been earmarked for security purposes.

"We have these 10 to 15 year old cameras in our building and the technology has come a long way since that time, and we would like to upgrade them," said Hughes.

Board members were also informed by Hughes and board president Sally Koon that the MCOE 2020 meeting will be taking place on Tuesday at Crystal Mountain Resort.

"The reason we are holding it at Crystal Mountain is because we are trying to get out of the ISD building and out into community businesses to get a better idea of what their future needs are for the students," said Hughes. "We met at the Little River Casino and at Packaging Corporation of America, and this is our third outreach meeting to the community."

Hughes said Crystal Mountain Resort is one of the larger employers in the county, so they are trying learn more about those businesses.

Board members were given an update on the progress of the bond  and sinking fund proposals that will be brought before the voters May 2.

The first proposal is a zero mill increase on the existing bonds that the district recently refinanced at a lower rate. This request is identical to one that the Bear Lake School District passed earlier this year. Instead of sending the savings on to the voters, those funds would go to the school district for some much-needed repairs.

Superintendent Kevin Hughes said the zero mill increase request would be used for a roof and boiler replacement on the school campus.

“What we would receive on the zero mill increase will depend upon how the bond sales to refinance go as the range is from $1.5 million to $1.8 million,” said Hughes.

Hughes said the May ballot will also include a 1 mill sinking fund. He added that in the Onekama School district, that would generate approximately $288,000 in funds.

“The high priority items like the roof and boiler, the heating system is going to be used up out of the zero mill increase pretty quickly,” he said. “All of those things come to about $1.4 million. The sinking fund would allow us to hit the other projects, as those funds now can be used for technology upgrades for the next two or three purchases.”

Hughes said that would allow them the opportunity to keep the campus maintained without constantly coming back to the voters.

The superintendent reported that a committee has been formed that is separate from the board that has been working on getting out the information to the voters of the district.

Board members were also given an update as mandated under board policy 1240 on students' attendance.

"Student attendance for the first half of the year is right in the low to mid 90 percent range which is very average," said Hughes.