WHITEHALL — The Whitehall school board unanimously approved two resolutions and heard its first update of the year from student representative Tyler Van Antwerp at Monday's regular board meeting.
The board approved the extension of the district's relationship with Hackley Community Care. Based in the middle school, the program provides, according to superintendent CJ Van Wieren, behavioral and emotional support to students who need it. This will be the fourth year of the program, and Van Wieren emphasized that the program does not provide medical care and requires parental consent to provide the services it does.
The board also approved the district's participation in the 2025-26 Muskegon Area Intermediate School District's 2025-26 school of choice program, which allows students to attend other public schools in the district tuition-free if they do not choose to attend the one in which they live. Board vice-president Chris Mahoney said no substantive changes were made to the program for next year.
Van Antwerp provided a report about various extracurricular activities, including sports teams and school clubs, adding that winter is the busiest season of the school year for those activities.
Van Wieren provided a financial update and noted that expenses were up, particularly in the transportation department, due to several transactions the district made over the past year, such as purchasing new vans and needing to replace school buses due to damage taken in the June storm. Revenues are down from this point a year ago largely because the winter tax collection has not yet been completed.
A public commenter expressed frustration with an unnamed school assistant coach. The coach, in his view, has behaved inappropriately around students, but the district has not addressed his concerns. He said he previously reported similar concerns in 2022, but they were not addressed then either.
