Watervliet Public Schools’ Preliminary Count Data shows drop in enrollment from anticipated numbers

Bond proposal information on district website

The monthly meeting of the Watervliet Public Schools Board of Education on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023 was short but packed with lots of information regarding; Senior Class Trip, County Comparisons, Preliminary Count Data, Personnel Updates and Bond Election Discussion.

Personnel updates

The board was informed of one resignation, that of Jessica Caldwell, a paraprofessional in Special Education.

New hires – Lindsey Hug, Victoria Smith, and Cierra Leete joined the North School team. Connie Schroeder is the new North School 5th Grade teacher.

Maghan Webster joined the High School as a paraprofessional. Autumn Kendzior joined the W.A.Y program as an Assistant/Paraprofessional. Holly Musick has joined the food service.

Senior Class Trip request

A proposed Senior Class Trip was made by the senior class leaders; Julie Rudell, Tia Caldwell, Marleigh Schultz, Anslie Saylor and Mrs. Angie Laws. They are requesting to go to Six Flags in Illinois, on May 18, 2024. This will be a lock-in from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. There are 150 schools that are going to one of the three nights available at Six Flags.

The cost of this trip includes rides, movie, food, etc., for the price of $80 per person. They will be asking the participants to contribute $40 toward the trip. The Board approved the Senior Class Trip.

Curriculum update

A report was presented to the board to show county comparisons between economic disadvantaged students verses the Michigan Step Performance.

Berrien is 60% economic disadvantaged but, Watervliet Public Schools students are still above the 40% performance regression line by the Michigan Step testing. The last five years Watervliet has been trending upwards. School by school data will be coming out next in November.

Ric Seager, Watervliet Superintendent of Schools stated during the meeting that, even though the district is 60% economically disadvantaged it is able to stay above the performance line due to expectations, and opportunity of having dual enrollment, Vo Tec, and a stellar curriculum. He also stated that for the first time the county RESA (Regional Education Service Agency) has set county level goals.

Preliminary Count Data

School administration was expecting a count at the beginning of the year at 1,498 students. At this time, Watervliet Public Schools have 1,442 students. One factor is they had less than anticipated Kindergarten students enroll.

Superintendent Ric Seager explained that when they did phone calls to parents of 10th through 12th Grade missing students, out of 50 missing students 35 had left the area or state. Some losses were of children due to transportation for previous “school of choice” participants, and a few to virtual learning.

Bond Election

Tuesday, Nov. 7 is Election Day, and the school bond is on the ballot again. A postcard is going out to explain the need for the bond and the Yes committee has brochures available. Voters in the Watervliet school district can also access and read information on the bond proposal at the school website.

One of the things that needs to be replaced and is included in the proposal is the W.A.Y. building. They have replaced the roof once and it needs replacement again.

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program is also being addressed as an issue. The district feels they are behind in not providing a full STEM program because they do not have the space to house the material. They do offer parts of the program, but to be competitive they need a room dedicated to the activity of this program.

Finances

The board approved General Fund expenses for September in the amount of $960,916.95; of that, $492,570.96 is for payroll-related expenses.