School Board Tackles Administrative Decisions, Repairs

A number of administrative actions were approved by the Dearborn Board of Education Monday night, including several that involve donations to its nonprofit group and facility improvements.

The decisions, all of which were voted for unanimously by the board, range from supplying new playground equipment to the all-important task of hiring a financial auditing firm to perform its required annual audit for 2011.

Annual Audit

As expected, the board rehired Southfield-based Plante & Moran to perform its audit with no discussion on the matter.

“(Plante & Moran) has done our audit for the past several years,” explained Director of Business Services Bob Cipriano. “They will come in here in September to perform the audit, and it will be filed in October."

All of the district’s accounts will be subject to examination, and the results will be made public, Cipriano said. The audit will then be submitted to the state of Michigan.

The audit will cost the district $135,700, $56,000 of which will be paid by the school district and $79,700 of which will be paid for by the District, which is also being audited under the agreement approved Monday.

Wayne County RESA

Additionally, the board gave its blessing to two countywide agreements that will be put into place by the Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency.

The first is a plan for providing education services paid for by property tax collections to govern participation in special education services and programming. The RESA programs provide funding for the Center Program Agreement, which allows special education coordinators to transport students to facilities outside the district that can better support their needs.

“We do send students out to other facilities; for example, we send students that are on the far spectrum of autism to Berger (School) in Garden City,” said Michael Shelton, the district’s director of special education. “There are also schools that send students here.”

The board also voted to support the 2011-2012 RESA general operating fund budget. Each school district in Michigan votes to support the budget of its local intermediate school district–or disapprove with a reason–as part of the intermediate district’s budget process.

School Improvements

Physical improvements were also approved by the board to the tune of $391,556.

A sealed bid was awarded to Great Lakes Hotel Supply to replace aged food service equipment at . Great Lakes was the lowest bidder, at $27,901, of two bids received by the district.

The exterior doors will be replaced at . IDN Door and Hardware was awarded the contract after submitting a bid of $21,815 for the work. The board selected the lowest of three bids.

Parking lots at five buildings will be re-paved this summer. Nagel Paving submitted the lowest bid of $341, 840 to resurface lots at the , , , and elementary schools. The district received nine bids for the work.

Donations

Several donations to the Dearborn Education Foundation, which provides funding for educational programs that are not funded by general fund dollars, were accepted by the board.

Donations of $14,562 will be used for many specified purposes, including funding aspects of the Vehicle Design Project at Michael Berry Career Center, a nonfiction writing contest at Whitmore-Bolles School and the annual district-wide art show.