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NILES — The Brandywine Board of Education has new leadership after Monday’s organizational meeting for the 2025 year. Board members also voted on other items including ending the district’s adult education program after next year.

      Board members elected Jessica Crouch as the new board president, succeeding Elaine McKee who had served in that post for the last year. John Jarpe will remain as board vice-president and Holly Pomranka as board secretary. Michelanne McCombs is the new board treasurer, succeeding Brian Burge who did not run for re-election.

      The officers will serve for one year until January, 2026.

      The change in leadership means that only one of the four board members elected in November, 2022 is a board officer. The four elected then, McCombs, McKee, Thomas Payne and Angela Seastrom were all elected as board officers in January, 2023. Payne and Seastrom have resigned from the board since then.

      Board members discussed but did not act on changing the length of board terms. Board terms are currently four years and board members could decide to change them to six year terms.

      Superintendent Travis Walker noted that about 60 percent of school boards in Michigan have six year terms. He said districts like Brandywine decided on four year terms because it was thought that it is difficult to get people to run for six year terms.

      While that might be true, Walker said that having four year terms means that there are potentially three or four new board members every two years. He said that if the length of the board term is changed, there would be two and at the most three board seats up for election every two years.

      Board members also discussed adding student body representation to the school board. Walker said that some districts already have that in place which gives students the opportunity to speak directly to the school board and gives school boards the perspective and input of students.

      He said he would develop an application process for students to apply for these posts. Ultimately, the goal would be to have two student representatives to the board every year, he said.

      In other board organization action, board members approved the meeting schedule for 2025. The new schedule has board meetings start at 6 p.m. rather than 6:30 p.m. and be held at more locations around the district. Most board meetings have been held recently in the Middle/High School media center.

      There will also be more meetings this year. The board had eight months in 2024 where there was just one meeting scheduled, while the number of months with just one meeting will go down to five months in 2025.  He said more meetings are necessary at some points during the year to handle district business timely and it will cost an extra $630.

      Board members voted to close the adult education program at the end of the 2026-27 school year. Walker noted last month that there are only eight students in the program right now and four of them are likely to graduate this year. He said he’s already talked to Niles school officials and they are able to take any students displaced by the Brandywine move.

      He pointed out both last month and Monday that the move will free up Special Education Director Elise Sorenson and Assistant Superintendent Ray Wilburn to have more time for their other duties. He said the program can be reinstated if the situation changes and more people need adult education services.

      Discussion items addressed Monday included what the cycle should be for superintendent evaluations and how to handle background checks for district volunteers. A new state law allows school boards to not evaluate superintendents annually but every two or three years if they have received the highest evaluation rating.

While no action was taken on the last item, board members did vote to allow a long time local resident to continue to volunteer as a youth basketball coach. A recent background check on the man showed he had had a felony conviction more than two decades ago. The board will now develop a policy to handle such situations in the future.