News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Elementary Principal Robin Benson and Secondary Principal Bryan Pyle discuss North West Evaluation Association testing data on Tuesday at the Onaway Community Schools board meeting.

ONAWAY — The Onaway Area Community School District Board of Education held its first regular meeting with new interim superintendent Jake Huffman and new board member John Kaszonyi on Tuesday night.

The superintendent brought forward new ideas and suggestions to the board.

Huffman suggested forming new committees, including an extracurricular committee, a personnel committee, and a finance committee.

The extracurricular committee would meet a couple of times a year, as needed, to discuss and oversee extracurriculars, like sports.

The personnel committee would discuss any personnel issues that come up and would meet as needed.

The finance committee would meet before every board meeting to go over finances and explain them to the rest of the board during the meeting.

The board voted to approve all three committees.

Lain Veihl, John Kaszonyi, and Stacey Porter volunteered for the extracurricular committee.

Annette Porter, Mike Hart, and Tom Moran volunteered for the personnel committee.

Stacey Porter, Kaszonyi, and Moran volunteered for the finance committee.

Huffman suggested that the policy committee review board policies to see if any policies need to be changed or discussed by the board.

Additionally, Huffman reported that the district has had 10 snow days. They are allowed six snow days per school year by the state and can appeal three snow days over that number. Since they have canceled a tenth day, they will have to extend the school year by at least one day. Huffman said he wants to try using two-hour delays to avoid cancellations.

He also brought to the board information about their fleet of seven buses. Two of them are down right now. He suggested that they take a look at buying a used or new bus soon since their buses are older. Four of the buses are from 2015, and three are from 2019.

Huffman also reported that two Onaway students on a robotics tournament trip were threatened by a person who brandished a weapon at them outside their hotel. The situation was resolved and all the students were safe. The suspect was arrested by police.

The superintendent suggested paying the special education coordinator a higher wage on the days she does her special education duties, as she also teaches at the school. He suggested that on the days when she works as a coordinator, she gets $50 more per day. The board passed the motion for the salary change.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

* Secondary Principal Bryan Pyle gave an update that the high school officially has the most dual enrollment students ever and that their Early Middle College application went through. He also reported on the success of the robotics team at their recent tournament, where they took eighth place.

He told the board and audience that they are in need of a junior high track coach.

* Elementary Principal Robin Benson updated the board on reading month. Their reading month motto this year is Onaway as the greatest school on earth. The month is circus-themed. On Wednesday, March 19, the school is hosting a book bingo night for kids.

* Fourth and fifth-grade students and middle school students will be attending a conference at Posen about cyberbullying and online safety by local law enforcement.

* Benson and Pyle presented on Northwest Evaluation Association testing scores. This year, they will be testing students in the fall, winter, and spring. With this test, each student gets a personalized test and unique questions. If they get questions wrong, they will get easier questions. The test shows individual growth for each student. Benson and Pyle expressed that it is better than the state-required M-STEP test because they can get live data and track student progress throughout the school year.

* The board made changes to the names on their bank accounts. They removed the names of the former superintendent, Miranda Horn, former secondary principal Marty Mix, and former board treasurer Annette Porter, and added Huffman, Pyle, and Stacey Porter respectively.

* The board voted to change the substitute teacher and substitute paraprofessional pay rate since the minimum wage has gone up. They voted to change their pay to $15 per hour.

* The board voted to extend the contracts for Benson and Pyle for three years.

* The board approved the new interim superintendent contract.

* The board voted to post a salary of $120,000 to $140,000 on their job posting for a new superintendent.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.