By Crystal Hayduk
Youth/teen librarians Edith Donnell and Jessica Schmidt presented information about library services to the Chelsea School District Board of Education at their meeting on March 23. The presentation focused on the coordination of services with the school district to better meet the educational needs of students.
The Chelsea District Library sponsors Authors in Chelsea, with additional funding from the Chelsea Educational Foundation, which brought three major, award-winning authors to the district this year to visit students in first through sixth grades. Nancy Shaw visited North Creek Elementary, Johnathan Rand visited South Meadows Elementary, and Gary Schmidt visited Beach Middle School.
The summer reading program allows students to participate in an eight-week reading challenge, complete with incentives and grand prizes. According to Schmidt, reading during the summer helps to prevent “summer slide,” a one to two month loss of learning over the summer. Ideally, children who read will maintain or improve their skills from June until September.
The program will be revamped for this summer, with elementary registration beginning in May and customized programs for older students. All reading will be counted by time increments, instead of by number of books.
Brainfuse Homework Helpnow runs from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. “almost seven days a week – every day with very few exceptions,” said Donnell. The program provides live tutoring online for all grade levels, including the more complex classes at the high school, such as physics and calculus. The program has been well-received since it began, with 493 interactions in addition to 211 writing lab submissions through the end of February.
“Students who use it once tend to return to use it again,” she said.
At the first opportunity for public input, Brian Merlos, State Representative Gretchen Driskell’s constituent relations director, presented some facts about Proposal 1, which will be on the May 5 ballot.
According to Merlos, currently roads, schools, and local governments are funded through a flat tax of 19 cents per gallon of gasoline, in addition to the 6 percent sales tax added at the end of the purchase. If Proposal 1 passes, the flat per gallon tax of 19 cents will be eliminated, but replaced with a wholesale distributor tax initially paid by the gas station. The exact amount is unknown, but is expected to be indexed to the price of oil per barrel, and consumers are expected to pay about the same amount of money for a gallon of gas as they do now, or possibly another one to two cents higher per gallon in the long-term.
All of this tax would go to fund roads – 30 percent for state roads, 30 percent for city roads, 30 percent for county roads, and 10 percent for public transportation.
Additionally, Proposal 1 would increase the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent. Merlos said that the 1 percent increase would then be used to fund schools and local government.
Admitting that it is a “complicated proposal,” Merlos said that the nonpartisan organization, League of Women Voters, will host a public meeting to answer questions (April 8 at 7 p.m.) at the Dancey House of the Chelsea Retirement Community, 805 West Middle St.
He also said that voters with questions may contact Driskell’s office directly at 517-373-0828.
The board was presented with the opportunity to approve a resolution in support of Proposal 1 for safer roads. A discussion ensued, as board member Laurel McDevitt expressed her concerns regarding the proposal because the wording permits use of the School Aid Fund for community colleges. “I’m concerned that this is a way to legitimize money that they are already taking from K-12 funding,” she said.
Board President Steve Olsen recounted history over the last 20 years where funding has been promised for education but hasn’t worked out as intended. “We’ll probably never get away from broken promises,” he said. “That’s the nature of the political animal.” But he also said that roads need to be fixed and he would like to protect that School Aid Fund from universities.
The board approved the resolution in support of Proposal 1, with five in favor and two against – McDevitt and Tammy Lehman.
In other board news:
- The board approved the donation of $1,500 from the Toyota Motor Company to support the Chelsea High School robotics club.
- Olsen reminded board members and the audience about the economic development kickoff meeting of the Chelsea City Council, to be held on March 30 at 6 p.m. The city’s open house to present current plans for updating parks and recreation will be held on March 31 at 6 p.m. Both will take place in the council chambers of the new police building.
- The board is expected to vote at the next meeting on the curriculum council’s recommendation for updating third through fifth grade and high school math and elementary science, as well as South Meadows’ technology replacement.
Upcoming dates:
- There will be no school April 3 – 10 for spring break.
- The next school board meeting will be April 20 at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at the Washington Street Education Center.
