Britton Deerfield Schools Chosen as Name of District

At the first meeting of the Britton Deerfield Schools Board of Education meeting Supt. Charles Pelham called the meeting to order Monday night, as no officers of the board had been elected at that point.

The special meeting had been convened to form the body that would govern the newly consolidated Britton Deerfield Schools, which had come into existence through the overwhelming consent of voters in the Aug. 3 ballot initiative, whereby the independent Britton-Macon Area Schools and the Deerfield Public Schools were consolidated.

At the beginning of the organizational meeting, the new district did not even have an official name.

Pelham opened the meeting with recognition of the historical significance of the night’s proceedings.

“Welcome to the first meeting of the Britton Deerfield Board of Education,” he said. “This is an historic event and we want to thank everyone who contributed to making it happen, including the members of both boards.”

Seated for the newly formed board were four former Britton-Macon Area Schools trustees and three Deerfield Public Schools trustees: Deerfield members were Greg Cannon, Todd Ost, and Lucy Pirolli. Britton-Macon Area Schools trustees included Ben Allshouse, Doug Armstrong, Kevin Barrett, Sr., and Elisabeth Roe.

The first order of business was to elect a board president. Roe, former Britton-Macon Board President, and Cannon, former Deerfield Board President, were both nominated. Subsequent voting was 5-2 for Roe. Pelham handed the gavel to Roe, and the meeting proceeded under President Roe, who will hold the office only for the 2010-2011 school year.

The current board’s terms are for the 2010-2011 school year. Elections next year, most likely at the regular May school election, will seat a permanent board: four trustees for six-year terms, two trustees for four-year terms, and one trustee for a two-year term. The terms are staggered so that there will be a core of experienced trustees, and so that an entirely new board is not elected in the same cycle.

The election of officers proceeded with the election of a vice president. Cannon and Doug Armstrong were nominated and Armstrong was elected by a 4-3 vote.

For secretary, Todd Ost was nominated without opposition and was elected, 7-0.

Nominations for treasurer were Barrett and Cannon. Barrett was elected, 4-3.

After the election of officers routine but critical issues were addressed:

• Board meeting dates were set for the second Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. with the exception of the next meeting, which was set for the third Thursday of next month, Sept. 16.

• The new name that the board agreed upon is Britton Deerfield Schools by a unanimous vote.

• Pelham told the new board that state representatives had passed a bill accepting $312 million and the measure awaited approval by the state senate. If the bill is passed by both houses, the new district stands to receive $154-per-student in restored funding that was cut last school year.

• Pelham also advised the board that the district expected at least 32 third graders in the system and asked the board for guidance on how to address the size of that class. During the discussion, the board was inclined to reduce class size by either hiring a new teacher or teacher aide. “One of our strongest points as a district is small class size,” Pelham said. “We need to resolve this before schools starts. The board voted 7-0 to study the matter and direct Pelham to either hire a new teacher at $70,000 annually or a teacher’s aide to bring class size to 16 for third graders.

• Pelham told the board that new buses are awaiting inspection by the Michigan State Police before joining the fleet and that transportation plans for the new school year were ready to go, pending release of the new vehicles by the MSP.