January 7 will mark a changing of the guard for the Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) Board of Education. Newly elected board members Matt Anderson, Pamela Forton, and Erica Moon Mohr will be officially sworn in, while current board Vice President Sue Kelly will begin a new term. The other new board member, Jeff Leonhardt, is already serving on the board, as voters selected him to complete a term vacated by former Trustee Jan Geht earlier this year.

With four new members – not to mention the departures of current board President Erik Falconer and Treasurer Scott Hardy – 2019 will usher in a fresh start for the TCAPS board. What issues will the new board be facing? The Ticker takes a look.

Integrating new board members: “When I think back to when I started on the board, what I realized a month or two in is that there is a lot to learn,” Falconer says. “The learning curve is steep.” According to TCAPS Superintendent Paul Soma, the district is taking steps to ensure that new board members can hit the ground running. The district has implemented a more rigorous orientation process, and new board members are already attending board meetings and participating in discussions with the current board, even though they can’t vote yet.

Appointing board leadership: The January 7 board meeting will begin with Soma asking for a nomination for board president. The person elected will then take nominations for vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Expect Sue Kelly, the current vice president, to take the helm.

A new strategic plan: Falconer believes the current TCAPS strategic plan is outdated, saying the district has accomplished all the goals it set three-and-a-half years ago. As a result, it will fall to the new board to endorse a new strategic plan. It is likely the board will formally embrace a system called “The Blueprint,” which promotes equitable allocation of district and building-level resources based on student need. The Blueprint is a system promoted by MI Excel, an organization that works with school districts throughout the state to foster “systemic reconfiguration.” It is designed to improve student and teacher performance significantly in a short period of time. Falconer says TCAPS has been implementing Blueprint concepts for two or three years, with strong results. The next step is formalizing those concepts as a central part of a strategic plan.

Glenn Loomis reconstruction: There are two timeline options for the reconstruction of Glenn Loomis Elementary. The first timeline has the school opening in the fall of 2021, while the other would put the opening a year later. The first would require the board to make crucial decisions in January, including the location of the new school and the grade span (Glenn Loomis serves grades K-6, but there are talks of expanding the school to K-8). Expect the board – including newly elected members – to hear from parents and teachers throughout December to get a sense of what the community wants.

Settling the $700,000 dispute with the state: It’s possible that a funding dispute with the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) could bleed over into the new year. The dispute concerns the Northern Michigan Partnership, the TCAPS program that offers elective courses to homeschooled students throughout the region. The program allows TCAPS to claim full-time equivalents (FTEs) for those students, which in turn leads to more state funding. The MDE is disputing 102 FTEs that TCAPS claimed through the program, putting $700,000 of state funding at stake. TCAPS has appealed the MDE decision; both Soma and Falconer say they’re confident the appeal will ultimately be upheld.

It's also possible there could be residual tension in the room when the new TCAPS board convenes in January. Mohr was the only board candidate elected from “Team5 TCAPS,” the group of five local parents who ran a joint campaign. Team5 was vocally critical of the current board and Soma’s leadership. Other candidates, meanwhile, accused Team5 of running as a referendum against Soma, and of approaching the election with a dangerous “groupthink-type” strategy.
 
“We were painted to be this voting bloc and told that we weren’t individual thinkers,” Mohr says. “For me personally, that was a very hard thing to swallow, because I am incredibly independent.” She adds she is hopeful the tension of the election won’t breed animosity on the board.

“I hope that we as a board can come together to think outside of the box,” she says. “I think we each need to be able to hear other people’s perspectives and to work together collaboratively. I do believe we can do that if people can be professional and polite and open…we’re all grown adults, so I think we can all get there, especially if we keep kids the number one priority.”