WHITEHALL — The Whitehall school board approved a $58,200 contribution from the Community Foundation for Muskegon County at its regular meeting Monday, Nov. 17 for distribution to Hilt's Landing to help with operating costs. The district first took over operations at the site in 2019, and the foundation contributes to help offset the costs.
The district has utilized the site for outdoor instruction, notably with recent visits from Shoreline Elementary first-grade classes. Sarah Smith and Amanda Webb have brought their classes for "Wednesdays in the Woods," which feature a large variety of themed activities to take advantage of the setting. Superintendent CJ Van Wieren reported that he'd been a part of one such outing where the classes roasted s'mores. Additional uses of the space have included the high school's FFA team and other elementary school students.
The board also unanimously approved new policies from Miller Johnson, which included health class policies, after a second reading. Van Wieren noted that this is the first time those policies have been updated since 2007, and much has changed since then, specifically citing widespread social media use and vaping as items that were being addressed far differently 18 years ago than they are now. While sex-education guidelines have been a source of occasional controversy in the district, Van Wieren said the guidelines are not state-mandated, and the local districts still have control over what is taught in the classroom on that topic. He added that the district is always reviewing the curriculum to ensure "it's what we want it to be" and is age-appropriate.
Also during the meeting, secretary Paula Martin shared a positive report of her first trip to the high school to gain feedback from students about the district.
"I brought a huge bag of candy, and that helped," Martin noted.
She said the positives she heard from students about the district consistently revolved around district teachers and staff, and that freshmen approved of shorter 55-minute classes. Many of the concerns she shared from the students involved items soon to be addressed by the recent millage approval - temperatures and uncomfortable furniture - as well as broken bathroom equipment and "more food!"
Van Wieren noted during the superintendent report that upon taking a closer look at the state budget, it was not as favorable to schools as he originally thought. Due to issues with categorical grants (those that fund programs for at-risk students) and "things being moved around," the state budget actually expands the district budget by 1.5% over what was originally approved over the summer.
"It is what it is... We'll continue to be aware of that," Van Wieren said, adding that the district will pursue grant money to fill in the gaps and that the budget is helped by the district not having to purchase new school buses or vans this year.
The district also shared some of its standardized testing data, as Montague did the week prior. Overall, Whitehall elementary and middle school students were outperforming county and state averages in both language arts and math, while high school students hovered around the average in both on the PSAT and SAT. Whitehall students who took Advanced Placement tests were largely (82% of them) scoring a 3 or above out of 5.
