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November 8, 2024
GLPS Families,
While the weather outside feels more like early October than early November, we are quickly approaching the end of the first trimester already! November also marks Native American Heritage Month, when we celebrate the traditions, heritage, and stories of Native American and Alaskan Native communities. Next Friday is the end of the trimester, and also one of only three half days for the year (we have one at the end of each trimester to allow teachers to wrap up one trimester and prepare for the next). As we look ahead to the second trimester, which begin on Monday 11/18, I have a couple of district updates for you:
- Grand Ledge Public Schools will be joined by a new Chief Financial Officer on Monday. Our previous CFO, Julie Waterbury, retired as of last Thursday, and she will be replaced by new CFO Adrienne Barna. Julie did a tremendous job leading the district’s finances, and she is leaving us in a strong financial position. Adrienne will bring well over a decade of financial leadership experience with her into the role, and she will continue our recent trend of financial stewardship and fiscally responsible programming. This is also a good opportunity to remind you that school districts are required to post financial information to our web page on our transparency page, which can be viewed here. Budget updates, audited financial statements, and a myriad of other items are all publicly available on the page.
- Speaking of finances, on Tuesday, GLPS voters approved both our operating millage and our sinking fund. The operating millage will allow us to collect our full per pupil allocation from the state to operate our district programs, while the sinking fund will allow us to maintain district facilities in accordance with our facilities management plan. These dollars will make a tremendous difference in our ability to live up to our mission, vision, and beliefs as we work to achieve the goals in our strategic plan. We are thankful to have the opportunity to leverage these resources to serve our students, families, staff, and community.
- Tuesday’s election also seated three new members of the board of education. Kali Stevens, Matt Oppenheim, and Coban Holmes will be sworn into their board positions at the January organizational meeting. Jon Shifflet, Ben Cwayna, and Tim Marsh will be leaving the board at the end of December (Jarrod Smith stepped down in August, and Mr. Marsh filled his seat). We appreciate all of our board members’ (incoming, outgoing, or remaining on the board) service to the district and the community.
- As a reminder, many of our schools are located within neighborhoods in our community. This means that every day during drop off and pick up times, cars are lining the streets in front of our neighbors’ homes and businesses. Please be respectful of the property owners around our schools during these times by not blocking driveways or impeding services from reaching our neighbors, please follow the directions provided by the schools for drop off and pick up procedures, and please follow all applicable traffic laws on public streets surrounding our schools. This helps everyone, including neighbors, families, staff, and local law enforcement, have a safe and efficient experience around our schools during these busy windows. Please contact local law enforcement if you have questions or concerns about public streets, and your child’s school if you have questions about school procedures.
That is all I have for this week. While this update was a little more about the nuts and bolts of our work than some of my other ones, I always believe that it is important to be transparent and communicate with you about the things happening in the district. I appreciate your support; thank you for giving us the opportunity to work with you and your students every day.
As always, I am #proudtobeacomet!
Dr. Bill Barnes
Superintendent of Schools
