HAS Board elects officers, discusses board goals

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Sue Julian will continue to se...

HOLLY, Michigan - Holly Area Schools’ board of education has elected its officers for the next year, this time, with some competition for vice president. The officers will help lead the school district in the upcoming year, with stabilizing or increasing student enrollment as one of their goals.

Kevin Diviney nominated David Rath for the vice president’s seat, seconded by Michael Newcomb, while Robin Carne nominated the incumbent, Sue Julian, for another term as vice president. Linda Blair seconded Carne’s nomination.

The vote was 4-3, with Julian receiving another year as vice president. She supported herself, with Tony Mayhew, Blair and Carne also voting for her. Diviney, Newcomb and Rath voted for Rath.

In a vote of 7-0, Mayhew will serve another year as president.

“Thank you for everyone’s support. I appreciate that,” he said.

Additionally, Diviney will continue to serve as treasurer, while Carne will serve another term as board secretary. Both decisions were made unanimously by the board.

A big goal the board is working on is stabilizing/increasing student enrollment. Enrollment projections were off by more than 5 percent for the current school year, causing the board to use fund equity to absorb the costs. Newcomb said he did not wish to make mid-year cuts, as it would have interrupted district programs that are already in play.

Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services, Steve Lenar  said the budget shortfall was close to $500,000, and added that it occurred because the drop in student enrollment was greater than what school officials had projected.

Enrollment is tied to state funding for Michigan school districts.

While the board opted to borrow the needed funds from its fund balance, Newcomb said he would like to avoid this scenario in the future. Additionally, Newcomb questioned  why enrollment projections were so far off the mark. “I’d like to see the information from neighboring school districts on their enrollment numbers to see if these districts are close to Holly’s numbers,” he said. “If we are trending down, they should be trending down also.”

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Tony Mayhew

Mayhew said information should be included from the Flint Metro school districts, which are comparable in size to Holly and in the same area, and would like to see trending data for the districts over the last 3-5 years.

Superintendent Kent Barnes said he is gathering enrollment information from the 28 districts in Oakland County intermediate schools. Barnes believes this data will date back more than five years. Some Oakland districts have increased numbers of students, while others have less, since students have moved between districts in the same county, he said.

Barnes said population increases in townships such as Rose, Groveland and Springfield might not mean more students for Holly Area Schools and depends on where the population increased in these townships. A portion of Rose Township is in the Fenton Area Public Schools district, while some Groveland residents attend Brandon schools, and some of Springfield Township residents attend the Clarkston school district.

Of the 300 surveys sent to families that have left the Holly Area School district, many were returned with messages saying the forwarding addresses for these families had expired, Barnes said. Other school districts have not provided addresses for families that moved to their schools from HAS, he added.

Newcomb said the district has no control over some of the reasons HAS families have moved from the districts like tax rates and water bills in the village of Holly. Newcomb said some manufactured housing residents left the Holly area due to increases in their lease rates.

Newcomb said Holly Area Schools should not “just accept” the enrollment projections that say it will lose 80 to 100 students. “The district needs to figure out what competing school districts are offering, and what is important to students,” he said. “If something is important to families, Holly Area Schools might need to invest in it –it’s something HAS can control – whether the district has what its competitors offer.”

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Mike Newcomb

Regarding the possibly of leasing the now-vacant Sherman Middle School, Newcomb said the board must look at the issue in the long-term. “Ten years is a long time to lease out the middle school as space for municipal offices,” he said, adding that HAS should tie a student population cap to the lease so the school district doesn’t end up with portable classrooms “all over the district” if its enrollment stabilizes or increases during the time in which the building is leased.

Mayhew asked Barnes to provide board members with as much relevant information as possible for the next school board meeting. Once the board has the information, it can analyze it, see what it can infer and try to address issues through plans.

Barnes also presented information on advertising rates for HAS, via local media. The board received information for online and print advertising options from Barnes and Director of Technology, Matt Mello.

With other local districts investing as much as $60,000 per year in advertising, Barnes said Holly Area Schools simply doesn’t have that much money to spend in that way. Barnes said the district will realistically spend $10,000 to $12,000 in advertising, and is in the process of securing billboard space along Fish Lake Road.

Newcomb discussed how Facebook can be used to market school achievements, free of charge.

Barnes asked the board for more input on advertising and marketing in the weeks ahead.