WHITEHALL — The Whitehall school board unanimously approved a purchase of new phone equipment from MiTEL for an amount not exceeding $170,000 at Monday’s monthly meeting.
The purchase came at the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District’s recommendation; the ISD previously investigated the district’s phone system, which was powered by Cisco, and noted it was out of date - the last system update was in 2017.
Superintendent Jerry McDowell said the ISD considered the phone upgrade a “critical need” for the district, citing recent system troubles. He added the district had a planned cost of $147,000 for the upgrade, but created some wiggle room in the approval in case of other materials adding to the cost. During discussion, the system was praised for being simple to install, which should make implementation prior to the 2024-25 school year a formality.
Also in the technology area, the board unanimously approved a recommendation to continue transitioning the hosting and management of its servers to the ISD. Whitehall is presently one of only three schools in the district that does not have the ISD hosting its servers, and McDowell said having the ISD do it “is the kind of thing an ISD is designed for,” adding it would avoid redundancies, streamline maintenance and save the district money in the long term. Treasurer Jimmy TenBrink endorsed the move.
The board also approved a 2024-25 budget hearing to immediately precede the regularly scheduled June 17 board meeting.
In personnel matters, Whitehall approved tenure for several teachers and made some small modifications to the support staff agreement. The board also approved a new three-year contract for McDowell, which TenBrink said keeps the Whitehall superintendent’s compensation in line with other “similarly situated administrators” in the ISD.
The board also hosted an annual report from the White Lake Community Library, delivered by library board president Brian Hosticka and vice-president Annlyn McKenzie. Hosticka said the library had a successful year, ending up in the black financially. Capital projects helped the library cover upgrades to security cameras, carpeting and the entryway, as well as the pending purchase of new furniture for the meeting room. McKenzie added that the library averaged about 1,700 materials being checked out per week and that 42,000 people physically visited the library in 2023. Trustee Paula Martin commended the library for its work.
McDowell closed the meeting with some impressive statistics from the Whitehall Class of 2024, taken from the weekend’s senior awards ceremony. He said the class collectively earned over $2.5 million in scholarship money, and over half of the 157 graduates qualified for the Muskegon Promise scholarship that covers Muskegon Community College tuition (29 will utilize it). In all, 123 of the 157 graduates will attend college or trade school, four are enlisting in the military, and the remainder will enter the workforce.
