Following community opposition, the director for Fowlerville’s Alverson Center for Performing Arts (ACPA) will remain in her position, despite being told in August that she would be laid off.

Kim Sergent, who has worked for the ACPA for the last five years and is a Tech Club mentor, says she was “blindsided” when Superintendent Wayne Roedel informed her during a short phone call that her duties were being absorbed and that she was being laid off. The layoff resulted from a resolution that the Board of Education approved on August 7th that would combine the duties of the theater manager and the district’s Technology Director.

But the district’s Board of Education was met with opposition from community members who attended the meeting when the resolution to combine duties was approved to voice their support for Sergent. That prompted the board to table the proposal for the layoff. At a meeting August 21st, Board President Mike Brown informed attendees that the issue would not be discussed at the meeting as board members hoped to continue conversation about other potential routes.

At the board’s meeting Tuesday night, Brown told WHMI Sergent is here to stay as the theater’s director stating, "She is staying in her position as is and the administration is working on some alternative approaches to the technology management. That includes taking someone that is already here working and promoting them so they can be working with the technology department and their position would be more or less back-filled, But like I said, her position is going to continue as it always has."

The proposal for reorganization of job duties that could have resulted with the layoff is said to be in part an effort to “create a more efficient system for the district”. Sergent previously told WHMI while the decision may look good on paper, the actual execution may not work out so well. (DK)