Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Bridgeport Spaulding School Board Meeting December 12th, 2016

On the agenda:
- Consent Agenda - payment of bills etc... begins at 1:33
- Organizational Meeting Date Discussion begins at 5:10
- Board And Superintendent Comments begin at 5:41
© 2016 Carla Citizen All Rights Reserved



The meeting was short and there were no speakers during the public comment period.  There were only a handful of members in the audience like usual.  They were either staff members, myself, a reporter for the Herald.  I am always disappointed when I don't see members of the community show up at these meetings.

The longest part of the meeting was the comment period by the board members and Superintendent.  Dempsey Allen talked about his disappointment with the performance of the dance team at the seasons first basketball games.  He felt there was too much gyrating going on.  I wasn't able to attend those games so I don't have any first hand knowledge of what went on but I do sympathize with Mr. Allen's feelings on the matter.   For years I have read about others complaining countrywide or watched videos of other high school age performances like this one and was slightly shocked at some of the performances myself.  I was like WOW, things are sure different than back in my day!!  I won't tell you how long ago that was.  I think there are things that are acceptable based on age level or the forum it is performed in.  I agree with Mr. Allen that there are things that are acceptable at a Beyonce performance but should not be acceptable at a high school performance.  Does anyone out there have any thoughts on this?  Feel free to share them in the comment section.

Two of Bridgeport's football players have been honored by being nominated to the Michigan High School All Star Game. They are Javaris Jackson and Kody Burton. Congratulations to these two young men!!

They discussed repairs that will be made to the playground at Thomas White School.  Sounds like this project will be done by this coming spring.

There was some discussion about taxes for the school district.  There had been talk that Bridgeport would get some of the non-homestead taxes from Buena Vista but it sounds like that will not be happening.  So the Saginaw school district and Bridgeport are looking at having a 18 mil non-homestead tax put on the ballot in May 2017.  They will be meeting with the Saginaw ISD and working on this plan more.  Not much information available now, but they will be sharing more in the future.


Monday night was the last meeting for board member Larry Long.  He chose not to run for re-election.  I am sorry to see him go.  He did talk about some of the reasons he chose not to run again.  I understand his feeling that it was a waste of time but I am sorry he feels that way.  I don't feel his time spent on the board was a waste of time.  I know he is someone that truly cares about the Bridgeport community and tried to do what he could to help. I hope that the Bridgeport community understands that his leaving the school board is a loss for this community and that they appreciate the time he spent on this board and the work he tried to do.  Mr. Long was the Treasurer and also the Chairman of the Buildings & Grounds/Finance Committee.  Melissa Cabine shared her thoughts during the comment period about how she felt working with him on the Finance Committee and that she will miss him.  Mr. Long brought years and years of business experience to his roles as Treasurer and Chairman of the Finance Committee and his expertise and dedication will be hard to replace.

 Monday night would have also been the last meeting for Marti Sageman.  She was not at the meeting.  Superintendent Selby talked about how many years Mrs. Sageman has served on the school board.  She said that Mrs. Sageman started in 1997 but I believe it was actually 1987.  I first became familiar with Mrs. Sageman when she was a member of the committee that worked to save the Little Red Schoolhouse.  That was back in 1986/1987. I believe that she had been involved in other community activities and organizations for years already before that.  I think it was in 1987 when she first started on the school board.   Mrs. Selby also talked about how Mrs. Sageman had over 1,000 hours of credits earned through the Michigan Association Of School Boards.  The MASB offers the Certified Board Member Awards Program which offers training on everything that a board member could possibly ever need to know to be an effective board member.  Mrs. Sageman is probably the longest tenured board member to ever serve here in Bridgeport.  She is also probably the most qualified of any of the current board members.  She was the person that did the outreach to parents, organized the phone calls to voters for things like school millage's, worked towards getting new softball diamonds.  Her love for the students and her involvement with them has touched many lives.  Her love for and her dedication to the students is maybe her greatest legacy.  I don't know everything that she has done for the Bridgeport schools and the community and I suspect that if I did, the list would be too long to list it all here.  Her dedication to this school district and to this community can never be denied by anyone.  The loss of Mrs. Sageman with her knowledge and her dedication, is a loss that will be felt in many ways and probably for many years to come.  I don't believe that Mrs. Sageman can ever truly be replaced or her shoes ever filled.


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