The Ann Arbor Board of Education will meet Wednesday at the downtown library for a regular meeting at which it is expected to ratify a contract with the new superintendent, Jeanice Kerr Swift, and discuss a sinking fund millage renewal for the November ballot.
AnnArbor.com file photo
The school board is expected to approve a contract for superintendent-elect Jeanice Kerr Swift, as well as to decide whether it will place a sinking fund millage renewal on the ballot for the November election.
The board voted 4-3 on July 31 to offer the superintendency to Swift, an assistant superintendent of instruction, curriculum and student services from Colorado Springs. Swift accepted the position within a few hours, and formal contract negotiations began between her and board President Deb Mexicotte.
Although as of Tuesday afternoon the superintendent contract was not yet listed on the board's agenda for Wednesday's regular meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. at the downtown Ann Arbor District Library, Mexicotte said she plans to bring forward a draft contract for the full board to review. Both she and Swift have preliminarily agreed to its stipulations, Mexicotte said, adding she could not discuss the details at this time.
"No one has signed it. We do believe she is on board with it," the board president said.
She said if there is any discussion on the contract that she brings forward, it will take place in open session. Questions on specific details, if there are any, also will be fleshed out in open session.
If there are major changes that trustees want made, they could move to go into executive session, Mexicotte said. However, then the contract likely would not be ratified Wednesday evening, but would instead go back into negotiations.
Mexicotte said she will be asking the board to authorize her to make any adjustments to form or language and to execute the contract, including both offering the parameters to Swift as a formal contract and signing the contract.
If the board approves the contract Wednesday, it will act in open session.
The board will have to act Wednesday on a sinking fund millage renewal proposal, if it wants to place the renewal on November's ballot.
The deadline for submitting certified proposal language to the county clerks office is Aug. 27 for the Nov. 5 election. The Board of Education certifies the proposal language by adopting it through a vote, said Washtenaw County Director of Elections Ed Golembiewski.
Mexicotte said the board could call another meeting prior to Aug. 27, but she expects the board likely will move forward Wednesday with putting the proposal on the ballot this fall.
"The board is well aware that this millage expires next year. It is not atypical for the board to put a renewal on the ballot well ahead of the actual expiration in case anything goes awry (and the millage is not approved) and we have to take another shot," she said. "We've been so busy with other things ... that this kind of snuck up on us. It's my personal expectation we'll approve (the language) Wednesday, but I really haven't talked to the board about it."
The district's sinking fund was last renewed by voters in the Ann Arbor Public Schools in 2008. Ann Arbor's sinking fund levies 1 mill and allows the district to spend taxpayers' money as it is collected, unlike a bond millage, which involves the district borrowing the full amount of the bond upfront from a third-party lender.
Per state law, sinking fund dollars can be used for the purchase of real estate, construction projects or building repairs. Sinking fund money cannot be used for operational, transportation or technology costs.
AAPS school officials say the sinking fund is necessary for maintaining the district's physical properties in budget-crunched times. Most of the district's repairs and upgrades are completed with sinking fund money, as opposed to general fund money, as AAPS and districts across Michigan have faced budget shortfalls and deficits that have required them to slim down program offerings for students and reduce staff at their schools.
Former AAPS Executive Director of Physical Properties Randy Trent said in March, the district may want to consider a combination bond/sinking fund when it goes out for its next millage renewal. Trent said then that one reason to have a dual proposal would be because of the restrictions the state places on both types of funding.
Trent left AAPS in July to accept a position with the Washtenaw Intermediate School District. He had been in the district for 28 years.
Trent said in March, if school officials asked voters to approve a bond/sinking fund combination for the same taxable value of 1 mill, the district would have the flexibility to address classroom furniture and equipment issues that currently it cannot. Trent said the district has a need to replace some classroom desks, tables and chairs; office and lunchroom furniture to the tune of $5 million that it could not replace using sinking fund money.
Mexicotte said Tuesday she expects there will be some discussion among school board members at Wednesday's meeting about whether to go out for a combination sinking fund/bond in November.
Local State Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, also proposed a series of bills this spring that loosen restrictions on sinking fund dollars for schools and would permit districts to spending sinking fund money on transportation and busing repairs, technology purchases and upgrades and school safety measures and security equipment.
The bills currently are sitting in either the Michigan House of Representatives Committee on Education or Tax Policy Committee. It is not known whether this legislation will be discussed Wednesday or will factor at all into the Ann Arbor board's decision on whether to push forward with a sinking fund millage renewal this fall.
Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.