SN 3-23-2024

Page 2/The Sun and News, Saturday, March 23, 2024

Cal school board approves

Weeldreyer contract

Greg Chandler

Staff Writer

The Caledonia Community

Schools Board of Education

Monday night approved a con-

tract for Superintendent Dirk

Weeldreyer that will run

through the end of the 2027-

school year.

The contract, which was

approved unanimously, is ret-

roactive to Jan. 1 and will be in

effect through June 30, 2028.

The school board in late

December voted to offer the

superintendent’s position to

Weeldreyer, who had served

CCS as its interim superinten-

dent since July 1, 2023.

“We are pleased to have

reached this point of working

this (contract) out,” Board

President Marcy White said.

“It’s certainly been busy for our

Finance Committee that had

started working on this, and

certainly difficult to coordinate

all parties involved with manag-

ing the district every day in get-

ting this done. We are pleased to

move forward with this.”

The school board had

reviewed Weeldreyer’s con-

tract at a committee of the

whole meeting on March 13.

“It’s a wonderful privilege

to be able to serve here at

Caledonia,” Weeldreyer said

after Monday’s meeting. “I’m

looking forward to working

with the board. They have

been great. I’ve been (enjoy-

ing) working with our wonder-

ful staff. It’s always a nice

thing to get that (contract) set-

tled and behind us, and I’m

looking forward to many years

of productive relationships.”

Weeldreyer’s contract will

be extended for one additional

year with each successful job

performance evaluation from

the school board, White wrote

in an e-mail to the Sun and

News.

Weeldreyer will be paid a

pro-rated salary of $125,

for the first six months of this

year, and then receive a base

salary of $250,000 for the

2024-25 school year. He

would receive a 3 percent

salary increase for the 2025-

26 school year, a 2.91 percent

raise in 2026-27 and a 2.

percent pay hike in 2027-28,

White wrote.

“The district took care to

explore comparative salaries

and benefits statewide and

throughout the greater Grand

Rapids area when negotiating

the superintendent’s contract,”

White wrote.

in the process, discovered an
opportunity to serve his com-
munity much like he had in
Grand Rapids.
“I discovered there was a
coffee group that was meet-
ing over at Sandy’s (Country
Kitchen) down by the lake,
so I started going to that,” he
said.
It was through this group
that Beukema met a member
of the township board, who
suggested he apply for an
opening on the township
planning commission.
“I had just spent 28 years
in the police department, and
I thought this is a way I can
continue to serve the com-
munity. So I went in and
talked to the (township)
supervisor, who was George
London at the time, and put
an application in,” Beukema
said.
Beukema was appointed
to fill that opening. He
plunged headlong into
learning everything he
could about planning, tak-
ing a citizen planner course
through Michigan State
University.
Five years later, Beukema
was appointed chairman of
the planning commission.
“They kind of stuck me (with
that role) for about 10 years,”
he said with a chuckle.
Beukema also served as
the planning commission’s
liaison to the zoning board of
appeals. Twenty-seven years
after his appointment, at age
82, Beukema still serves as a
commissioner, helping the

township set its zoning rules

and addressing development

proposals. He was honored at

a recent township board

meeting for his 55 years of

public service, combining his

police experience with his

service as a commissioner.

“I can’t imagine a tougher

guy than Rich,” Township

Supervisor Rob Heethuis

said at the March 14 board

meeting. “The other day, he

happened to fall, and when

he fell, he broke a couple of

ribs ... The thought that he

was not going to the plan-

ning commission meeting

that night never entered his

head.”

Beukema says for the most

part, not a lot has changed in

Yankee Springs since he first

began serving as a commis-

sioner.

“People come in and want

building permits, and of

course, you have the people

who try to skirt around the

(zoning) laws,” Beukema

said.

Recently, Beukema and

his fellow commissioners

took on the issue of short-

term rentals in the township,

eventually recommending a

measure to ban commercial

short-term rentals in residen-

tial-zoned areas near the

lake. The township board

adopted the change earlier

this month. He says it hadn’t

been an issue in his neigh-

borhood.

“It’s probably because

we’re on the channel rather

than on the lake,” Beukema

said.

“I can see where that

would be very problematic. I

would hate to think of a lake

house next to us here – it’s

about 4,000 square feet –

(having the owners) starting

to rent that out to 30 college

kids on a weekend. That

would be a real problem for

me because of the noise and

the music and the cussing

and the (drunkenness).”

Beukema has added to his

service to the township in

recent years, joining the

Water Advisory Board in

2018 and the Fire Committee

in 2021. He says serving the

township in his various roles

helps keep his mind active.

“There’s lots of things

you have to remember and

get involved and study.

That’s a blessing for me, for

sure. It beats sitting in a

rocking chair all day,”

Beukema said.

Beukema has been mar-

ried to Maxine for 62 years.

The couple has four children,

13 grandchildren, and eight

great-grandchildren, with

most of the family living

within a 45-minute drive of

Gun Lake. When he’s not

serving the township, he

does landscaping work

around his house.

“We always have a vegeta-

ble garden every year, we

raise a lot of flowers,” he

said.

Beukema shows no signs

of stepping down anytime

soon and says he’ll spend the

rest of his life at Gun Lake.

not cheap,” Smith said.
“When you have 7,000 loca-
tions and you (pay) $300 (for
signage) every four weeks
for each location, you’re
talking about a big expense
line that has to pay for itself
... I think it’s important for a
township like this to provide
businesses with whatever
tools they need to make their
business successful.”
Smith noted that in the city
of Kentwood, where
AutoZone has two locations,
the company is not allowed to
have window signage under
the city’s sign ordinance. He

says it has hurt their business.

Harrison called the win-

dow signage rules “a good

first step” and said it gives

businesses “a lot more flexi-

bility” than the earlier-pro-

posed measure.

Harrison added that one of

the most important additions

to the sign ordinance was a

“purpose and intent” section

that explains the reasons for

having the regulations.

“Previously, that was not

included, even though it’s

implied,” he said. “It lists a

number of things – conserve

and enhance community

character by reducing visual

clutter, to promote uniformi-

ty in the size and number and

placement of signs in each

zoning district.”

Another significant

change in the ordinance

allows a commercial or

industrial building with mul-

tiple tenants to allow up to 30

square feet of signage for

each tenant. Previously, the

ordinance limited the square

footage of wall signs, no

matter how many tenants

were in a building, Wells said

at March 4 Planning

Commission meeting.

SIGN ORDINANCE, continued from page 1

BEUKEMA, continued from page 1

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Cal schools project $4.

million deficit in 24-

preliminary draft budget

Greg Chandler

Staff Writer

With several federal and

state grants being phased out

later this year, Caledonia

Community Schools are pro-

jecting a budget deficit of

more than $4.7 million for

the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Sara DeVries, the district’s

chief financial officer, pre-

sented a draft preliminary

budget for the next fiscal

year at Monday’s Board of

Education meeting. The

board is expected to under-

take a number of measures to

whittle down the projected

shortfall before passing a

new budget in June.

“We do have some work

to do, to right-size the bud-

get,” DeVries told the board.

DeVries is projecting rev-

enues of $69,853,246 for the

2024-25 fiscal year and

expenditures of $74,604,822,

resulting in a deficit of

$4,751,576. The current dis-

trict budget estimates a

shortfall of $424,727 for the

fiscal year ending June 30,

she said.

CCS began the 2023-

fiscal year with general fund

reserves of $10,377,347, rep-

resenting a little less than 15

percent of district spending.

Assuming the current esti-

mated shortfall holds, that

fund balance would be

reduced to $9,952,620, or

13.8 percent of expenditures,

by the end of the current fis-

cal year, DeVries said.

One of the major issues

that’s expected to impact

next year’s budget is the

elimination of about $3.

million in federal grants, pri-

marily the Elementary and

Secondary School

Emergency Relief Fund

(ESSER), which is part of

the American Rescue Plan

Act that was signed into law

by President Biden three

years ago.

CCS used ESSER funding

to add 21 new teaching posi-

tions for the 2022-23 school

year, but eliminated 11.5 of

those positions in the 2023-

24 budget, as teachers who

were hired under the grants

were able to move into other

general fund positions left

vacant by retirement or res-

ignation. It’s expected that

more positions will be

slashed as part of the effort to

reduce the projected deficit

for 2024-25.

“Those will be difficult

conversations. We’re going

to have to figure out how

we’re going to manage this,”

Superintendent Dirk

Weeldreyer said.

All ESSER funding must

be spent by Sept. 30, DeVries

said.

The budget projection

assumes no change in

Caledonia’s enrollment for

next year. The district’s

enrollment in the fall was

4,991, a slight increase from

the year before but still not

on the same level as what

enrollment was prior to the

COVID-19 pandemic when

CCS’ enrollment was more

than 5,000.

“The two years of COVID,

we lost 200 students ... and

we have not (fully) regained

that back yet,” DeVries said.

The project also assumes an

increase in the district’s

per-pupil allocation from the

state of $241 per student, a

figure that hasn’t been final-

ized yet by Gov. Gretchen

Whitmer and state lawmakers.

“The state budget process

is far from done,” Weeldreyer

said. “All we have to go on

so far at this point is the gov-

ernor’s recommendation,

and while that provides a

starting point, that’s certainly

not the end. We will see

where things go from here.”

Caledonia Community

Schools Superintendent

Dirk Weeldreyer will serve

in his role through the

end of the 2027-28 school

year after the school

board approved his con-

tract on Monday.