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Taxpayers in the Suttons Bay school district will receive reduced tax rates on their July tax bills following action this week by the Board of Education.
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S-B school chief can carry over 16 days not utilized.
A request to roll over unused vacation time from one budget year to the next for Superintendent Mike Murray was approved this week by the Suttons Bay Board of Education.
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Jan Ostrowski's violin students will give a recital on Sunday at Suttons Bay Congregational Church.
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Drain commissioner says that sediment eroding into basins.
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Suttons Bay Township will help pay for improvements to a one-mile segment of Stony Point Road as the road approaches South Shore Drive leading into the Village of Suttons Bay.
At its regular monthly meeting last week, the township board authorized supervisor Rich Bahle to enter into an agreement with the Leelanau County Road Commission to repave a portion of the road at an estimated cost of $60,000, half of which will be paid by the township over two years.
A motion to authorize the agreement and the $30,000 expenditure carried in a 4-0 vote at the May 14 meeting, with treasurer Cathy Herman absent.
The board also voted 4-0 to authorize a $1,195 expenditure for landscaping at Steimel Park off Nanagosa Trail on the Stony Point peninsula.
The board stopped short of authorizing an additional expenditure as part of its search for a new municipal planner to replace Rochelle Rollenhagen, who resigned earlier this year.
Township trustee Bill Drozdalski, who serves on a search committee looking for a new planner, said eight people applied for the position. Two of the top four candidates reside outside of the area – one in Kalamazoo and one in Chicago.
Drozdalski moved that the township offer candidates 50 cents per mile and $100 per diem to travel to Suttons Bay to interview for the job.
Bahle supported the motion that subsequently failed in a 2-2 vote, with trustee Ron Send and clerk Sandra VanHuystee opposed.
The planner’s position pays $22 per hour with benefits. Whether the position will be full-time or part-time has not been determined, however. Suttons Bay Township contracts to provide zoning and planning services to the Village of Suttons Bay and neighboring Bingham Township. Bahle noted that if both of the municipalities renew the contract, the planner’s position will be fulltime. The township hopes to have a new planner in place by this summer to work with Steve Patmore who serves as zoning administrator for all three municipalities under the contract.
In other business at last week’s meeting, the Suttons Bay Township Board:
• Learned that a vacancy remains on the Suttons Bay-Bingham Fire and Rescue Authority board. Township treasurer Herman had served as treasurer of the fire authority since its inception two years ago but is stepping down now that millage funding for the department is in place and an audit has been completed. Bahle said the board is still eager to hear from a Suttons Bay Township resident willing to step forward to serve on the fire authority board.
• Appointed John Krug to a four-year term on a Building Authority board that oversees annual bond payments on the new Suttons Bay-Bingham Fire and Rescue Hall. Krug will replace Pat Yoder who served as the Building Authority Board president when it was set up four years ago. Krug’s term will expire in 2012.
• Endorsed a request from the Friendship Community Center in Suttons Bay for $5,915 in “two-percent” casino revenue payments from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. According to an application submitted to the tribe, the money will help support an outdoor education program for local youth.
Officials of the Village of Suttons Bay will be seeking public input on what they should do with a piece of prime waterfront property on Front Street that recently became available for public use.
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Suttons Bay band teacher Annie Morey is on unpaid medical leave for the remainder of the school year.
Morey, who teaches middle school and high school band, was last at the school for a May 12 concert.
Superintendent Mike Murray said last week he and Morey agreed that time was needed to determine a diagnosis for her ill health. The popular music teacher has been ill at various times since November 2005.
Murray estimated the district has called in a substitute for the band instructor 50 times this school year — nearly one-third the 170 instruction days in the Suttons Bay calendar.
“This will free her up to go wherever she needs to get a diagnosis and determine the underlying cause of her symptoms,” the superintendent said. “It’s a baffling case medically … but we need to know what’s going on.”
Murray said the district has made every attempt to secure music teachers to serve as substitutes in Morey’s absence, but added it’s difficult for students to adjust to different teachers.
“Each teacher has a different musical background and different teaching style and it’s sometimes hard to make the adjustment,” Murray said.
Former Suttons Bay band director Hal Fisher will serve out the remainder of the school year in Morey’s seat.
Consistency in personnel and teaching styles is the long-term goal, he said.
“It’s frustrating because we know what Annie’s capable of when she’s here consistently,” Murray said. “You need to have someone in that seat consistently — every single day.”
Murray said it is hoped that Morey will know more about the cause of her illness by June 15.
Volunteers are being sought to help the Suttons Bay Township Parks and Recreation Committee raise funds to acquire and develop a new 126-acre park at the corner of Center Highway (County Road 633) and Herman Road just south of Suttons Bay Public Schools.
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What may have started as a "prank" has resulted in charges being sought against two eighth graders, and the Suttons Bay Board of Education scheduling a special meeting for last night to discuss handling of the incident.
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The word "interim" has been removed from Suttons Bay Middle School principal Ben Lance's job title.
Suttons Bay's Board of Education voted 6-0 Monday night to offer the former secondary English teacher a 220-day contract, which will expire June 30, 2009.
“It takes quite a lot for us to change our plans,” board President Susan Corbin said. “But we decided not to open the position up for candidates and have them be disappointed when they aren’t selected.”
Lance was appointed interim middle school principal in February after the resignation of athletic director and middle school administrator Cody Inglis. Since that time, Inglis’ athletic director duties have been taken over by high school principal Raph Rittenhouse and Cheryl Knudsen.
Lance will serve as the administrator for grades 5-8, a post assigned to Inglis after former Principal Kathy Maisonville retired and — as a cost-cutting measure— was not refilled. The board’s willingness to provide an administrator at this grade level was not lost on middle school teacher Cindy Crandall, who was sitting in the audience.
“I’d like to thank the board for recognizing our need to have a full-time administrator at the middle school level,” Crandall said. “It feels like a school again.”
No adjustments in Lance’s $65,000 annual salary were discussed at Monday’s meeting.
Any change will take place after the board reaches a labor agreement with the district’s unionized teachers and support staff, Superintendent Michael Murray said.
In other business during the 2-hour meeting, the board:
• Approved a second probationary year for teachers Pamela Guidi, Marni LaPaugh and Scott Munn.
• Accepted the resignations of Linda Wrobel and Dale Martin, who was retiring from the food service department.
• Approved an overnight trip request for middle school students scheduled to travel to Washington, D.C. May 20-23, 2009.
• Approved a list of 74 seniors who will graduate on June 1.
• Approved a resolution of support for the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District’s 2008-09 general fund.
