The Wayland Board of Education Monday night in a workshop rated the importance of each of the 20 programs or services funded by revenue sharing from the Gun Lake Casino.
The Wayland Union School District receives about $1.5 million from the casino annually as part of a compact agreement when the facility was opened in February 2011.
The board used a point system in which each of the seven members assigned a number from one to 20 to each, with 20 being the highest value. The cumulative points were added up to present the total board’s opinions about casino spending.
Awarded the most points with 120 of 140 possible was the continued public improvement projects, including payment of $292,000 annually to United Bank for financing the new science wing addition and its five classrooms.
Runner-up in the balloting with 108 points was the hiring of a public safety officer. The position currently is staffed by Harry Werkema, but he plans to retire and his replacement after this spring is likely to be a designated officer from the City of Wayland. A contract agreement is being worked on by city and school officials.
The school board rated the iPad program third on the list with 97 points. The newest recommendation is for $250,000 for more of the hand-held computer tablets and expanding their use to elementary students. The program right now is limited to students in grades 7-12.
The following is the rest of the ranking list, and each service or program’s total points:
- Preschool discounted fees to school district residents and employees (93).
- Eliminate pay-to-play for requirement for athletics (88).
- Continue school nurse contract with Spectrum Hospital, at a cost of $63,000-83,000 annually (85).
- K-6 classroom supplies budgets for teachers (84).
- Science materials aide, materials plus wages, (77).
- The subsidy for academic field trips (55).
- Two-way busing for athletics rather than “stop and drop” (54).
- Eliminate door-to-door fund-raising, reimburse clubs, organizations, PTO and other groups (46).
- Continue elementary schools physical education swim program (45).
- Drama department budget (for play production expenses for sets, scripts and other materials (42).
- Athletic uniforms and tournament entry fees (42).
- Pool and Fitness Center management fees paid to Northern Physical Therapy in Wayland (38).
- Science Olympiad/Odyssey of the Mind/Lego Engineering after-school middle school clubs (37).
- Drivers education discount rate for district residents (29).
- Funding to reduce fees for Community Education enrichment courses (22).
- Student accident insurance for families without health insurance (15).
- Eliminate entry fees for students and adults attending athletic, drama and musical events (6).
