Count Day for Public Schools This Week and 4 More Things to Know

Five local stories to keep an eye on Sept. 30-Oct. 6:

1. "Count Day" is Wednesday in Michigan public schools, one in which students are asked to be in attendance and receive full instruction all day. Averages between the two count days in the calendar year are used to guide payments from the State School Aid Act.

Fall count numbers are especially critical it equates to 90 percent of funds on a scale. Schools are asked to vigorously identify and report absent students.

2. The West Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees meets at 7:30 p.m. Monday to consider a recommendation for approval of a charter to guide the information technology steering committee, formed earlier this year. The steering committee is designed to provide guidance on information technology investment priorities.

The board will also consider a recommendation that speakers at public meetings be required to state their names and whether or not they live in West Bloomfield. The board meeting is the first since the Sept. 9 police incident in which Ofc. Patrick O'Rourke was killed in the line of duty while part of a team responding to a report of shots fired in the home of resident Ricky Coley. O'Rourke will be formally honored by the board.

3. The West Bloomfield Township Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) will meet Thursday night at 5:30 p.m. to hold a public hearing for residents effected by plans of the Islamic Cultural Association's request for variances from local ordinances on a site plan for a mosque/community center at the former site of Eagle Elementary School. 

The public hearing was originally scheduled as part of the ZBA's regularly-scheduled meeting on Tuesday night.

4. The UPS Store on Orchard Lake Road at Maple Road celebrates its 25th anniversary in West Bloomfield on Wednesday. Plans for the anniversary celebration include 25 percent off everything, excluding postage stamps and shipping. The store is open 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

5. The weather forecast calls for partly cloudy skies in the early half of the week, with high temperatures hovering around 68 degrees. The National Weather Service said that we may see rain on Tuesday night into Wednesday, but that skies should clear up by Thursday.