Stronger Together: Ludington School Board July 21, 2025 Meeting Recap

[XLFD]

About three dozen people attended the July 21st, 2025 meeting of the Ludington Area School District (LASD) Board, around a quarter of them wore t-shirts with a simple message inscribed thereon "Stronger Together".  This was the teacher's union message to the board, and sure enough, at the bottom of the nine action items in the agenda packet was a scheduled closed session in order to confer over the board's strategy in collective bargaining with the LEA union.  They would adjourn without making any decision on that.

Even with the union's turnout, they were noticeably quiet during the time for public comments except for their apparel.  Superintendent Kyle Corlett would echo the stronger together sentiment later in the meeting by indicating that both sides believe in and work towards that truism.  

But first off, Gavin Smith (pictured left) received state recognition by Track Coach John Lipa (right) and school recognition for breaking a 54-year-old school record multiple times in the hurdles.  Curriculum Director Mike Hart would go over improvements in reading and math evaluations over the last year, with surprisingly high results in the lower grades, especially among reading, with several grade levels reaching the 99-percentile level for improvement over the last school year.  

I would lead off the public comments

XLFD:  "The beginning of a new school year is a very important time for transparency, as district policy often changes at the beginning of the school year.  The agenda shows this, and we find three new and distinct policies being approved for the 2025/26 school year tucked inside the consent agenda.  Additionally, the agenda tells us that a summary, update or plan is included in the packet for the three and we only find one, the newest virtual learning plan, in the packet.  There is no summary of the changes in the student handbooks, there is no updated curriculum guides either, as promised.  

Intrepid parents, students and school staff can go to the district's website and access the handbooks and curriculum guides from the prior school year, but administration does not appear to show us or even tell us what the updates and summaries are for this coming year, at least until they stealthily pass both in the consent agenda without discussion and sight unseen at this meeting.  This is not transparency.  If there is a controversial change to policy or process, these should be discussed before they are made the active policy of the school district, not after, and definitely not as an unpleasant surprise for those who may be negatively affected by the unheralded policy change you may pass today.

We are in a unique time in our nation's history when a new federal administration reverses course of the past administration over a variety of educational topics, changing the focus, and even the power of the federal government in education, by aiming to eliminate the Education Department.  This district's constituents deserve to know whether this change in federal focus and objectives translates into changes made in the curricula or student handbooks by having such changes, at the least, honestly summarized."  [END comment]

This message, honestly detailing the issue, was well-received and responded to in a positive proactive way by the board and administrators.  Corlett would later apologize for the oversight and went over a summary of changes in the handbook, assisted by Trustees Mike Nagel and Alan Neushwander.  These would primarily amount to a change in rules regarding backpacks and cell phones, where backpacks will remain in lockers over the school day, and cell phones will be placed in a classroom corral during instruction time and only available during passing times.  The curriculum has no major updates reportedly.

Other citizen comments dealt with ADA compliance in parking (and this was later addressed for the tennis courts and the community pool areas), offering Q&A formats at future meetings, and one even recognized the supportive words of the superintendent acknowledging how a teacher truly cared for their students and how great it would be if this was universal.  

The best statement of the night, however, came from Trustee Neushwander, who spoke meaningfully about accountability, transparency, and accessibility-- effectively addressing the concerns of the audience by laying down his initiatives to get all the board meetings moved to the more spacious and accessible auditorium, to record and share the meetings with the general public, and recognize what citizen participants bring to the table of the board with their comments.  This will not come without resistance, with Chairman Bret Autrey indirectly throwing a little cold water on such initiatives by indicating that if such recordings were made available and were only viewed by one person that the policy might be reconsidered.  

Getting standing room only situations at the Ludington board room during the summer months should indicate that there would be quite a few people looking in on these meetings if broadcast.  The auditorium already has equipment that can record what's happening and has proved to be a suitable venue for controversial topics during the COVID years, so all they have to do is make sure they have enough microphones hooked up and working.  It was noted at the beginning of this meeting, that the board room only had one mike operating, so that they would be talking loudly so all could hear.

The superintendent would note that 106 elementary students were taking summer school classes, announce an upcoming walk sponsored by the Friends of Ludington Police, and finish with a recap of his trip to Washington DC where he discussed the changes in educational funding with his peers and congressional staffers.  He would also recognize that Governor Whitmer seems more focused on fixing the damn roads rather than education, in observing that there will be challenges ahead for funding public education.  Admittedly, there may be some challenges figuring out where funding is coming in the future, but it almost seemed as if it may have been part of a collective bargaining message he wanted to convey in order to lower expectations of the union.

The other eight action items (not counting the closed session) were quickly discussed and passed unanimously without debate, these would include:

- approving $208K for bond project work

- approving a four year agreement with the Ludington Educational Support Professionals Assn. (LESPA)

- approving $40K for Heineman Math curricula materials

- approving a district approval plan for 2025/26

- approving West Shore Bank and UMB Bank as depositories, assigned administrators as signatories

- assigning those administrators (Corlett & Jacobs) as signatories for electronic fund transfers

- approving the 2025/26 school calendar

- approving two new policies regarding field trips and medical plans (see packet for changes)

Board members would additionally note that the sidewalks on school grounds and Bryant Road were under construction (as we have) and Trustee Mike Winczewski would briefly comment on the legal issue the union had with an earlier publication of the 2025/26 calendar was not due to any other intent other than getting it out for the public.  Secretary Laura Kassanos would provide this reporter with a hard copy of the high school's student handbook and the curriculum guide for 2025/26 before the closed session, showing that the district is improving in transparency and in listening to the people.  We are indeed stronger together.