LIBERTY-BENTON LOCAL SCHOOLS

MONDAY, JULY 16, 2007

REGULAR BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING

BOARD OF EDUCATION OFFICE 9190 CO. RD. 9, FINDLAY OHIO

REGULAR BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING 7:00 P.M.

 

I.                    Call to Order

Pledge of Allegiance ……………………………………………Jeff Shadle, Board President

II.                  Recognition of Visitors

III.               Approval of minutes from the Monday, June 25, 2007 regular board of education meeting and special board of education meeting

IV.                Communications and Discussion

NEOLA – Second reading

V.                  Treasurer’s Report ………………………………………………………………Lisa Dobbins

VI.                Superintendent’s Report ……………………………………………………….Dennis Recker

VII.             New Business

A.      Approve Consent Agenda, to include:

1.       Listing of bills, expenditures, and investments through 6/30/07, and monthly financial report of the Treasurer.

2.       Approve appropriation modifications for July 2007

3.       Approve listing of obsolete/disposed of/sale/trade ins

4.       Approve accepting the following grant amounts:

Title I $110,735.07, Title IIA $29,021.92, Title IID $1143.27, Title IV SDFSC $3667.06, Title V $1684.65, IDEA $238,597.89, ECSE $5616.96

5.       Accept a donation of $782.00 from Laser Tech

6.       Accept a donation of $14,000 from Best Buy

7.       Approve the following ticket prices for the 2007-08 school year:  All Sports pass $275.00; Boys Basketball season pass, adult $55.00, student $30.00; Football season pass, adult $27.50, student $20.00

8.       Approve the following resignations:

Mike Scoles, Sophomore Class Advisor for the 2007-08 school year

Tyson McGlaughlin, HS English Teacher

9.       Approve Judy Shivers, Food Service Supervisor, effective 2007-08 school year

10.    Approve Amy Teders, English Teacher, effective 2007-08 school year

11.    Approve Deserae Patterson, part-time Title I/part-time Special Education Teacher

12.    Approve the following classified staff:

Susan Stennett, part-time Elementary Secretary

John Smith, Mail Carrier, two year contract

Judy Doby, Lunchroom Aide, two year contract

13.    Approve the following extra-curricular staff:

Approve Carrie McMillan, Cheerleading Advisor

Approve Dawn Blankenship, 7th Grade Volleyball Coach

14.    Approve the following long term substitutes:

Cheryl Conkle, long term substitute for Heidi Irwin

Claudia Benjamin, long term substitute for Lindsey Pester

B.      Approve three year agreement with Northwest Ohio Orthopedics and Sports Medicine for Athletic Training Services

C.      Approve the elementary fees.

D.      Approve the cross country trip to St. Louis, Missouri September 21-23, 2007

E.       Approve purchase of 84 passenger bus in the amount of $78,216 plus $2500 camera and purchase of 84 passenger bus in the amount of $76,916 plus $2500 camera (includes trade-in of $1300) from Cardinal Bus Sales.

F.       Approve resolution to accept bid for Proposal 1-New Telephone System from Reynolds Electric in the amount of $36,000.

G.      Approve resolution to reject bids for Proposal 2-New Intercom System and Proposal 3-Combined Bid for the Telephone/Intercom System.

H.      Approve resolution to approve lunch prices for the 2007-08 school year as follows:

Elementary K-5 $1.80, Middle School 6-8 $2.00, High School 9-12 $2.00, Adult $2.75, Milk $.40

VIII.           Other Business

IX.                Executive Session

X.                  Adjournment

LIBERTY-BENTON LOCAL SCHOOLS

DENNIS L. RECKER, SUPERINTENDENT

JULY 2007 DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION REPORT

 

  1. Claudia Benjamin will be serving as a long term substitute from mid October through January 3 for Mrs. Pester.
  2. Judy Shivers has agreed to work as our Cafeteria Supervisor for 2007-08.  She has a degree in dietetics from Purdue University, and has great potential in this role.  We’ll now pay this from our cafeteria account in the amount of $6000.  Since 1997, we’ve simply given this a $5000 value and claimed the cost as part of whatever administrator was charged to supervise this area.
  3. Mr. McGlaughlin has resigned as 9th grade English teacher to accept a middle school position at Ottawa-Glandorf.  We’ve found a great replacement in Mrs. Amy Teders, who has five years experience at Mohawk Schools, and is considered to be one of their best teachers.  Mrs. Teders resides in the Liberty-Benton district and her children will be attending school here in the future.  Mrs. Teders has been named as a National Honor Roll Outstanding Teacher and is also a Jennings Scholar, one of the highest state awards that can be received.  For example, our last two Jennings recipients were Patti Spiegel and Denise Matson, so this gives you an idea of the caliber of teacher Mrs. Teder is.
  4. We don’t sometimes appreciate how well our students are prepared, and sometimes feel embarrassed or embarrassed by others, when we provide some of our actual levels of performance.  The Air Force Academy, as an example, only considers students in the 85th percentile of college bound for admission.  For the class of 2011, they admitted 17% of the top 15% students.  Based on the ACT, the average score for English was 27.9 and Math was a 28.7.  Nearly one third of our graduating seniors would have met this academy’s standard, which is the top 2.5% of the national population.
  5. I’m enclosing a letter from the Ohio School Facilities Commission which now codifies the tobacco securization dollars for Classroom Facilities Assist6ance Program (CFAP-a new acronym we need to learn).  Please remember that I filed on our behalf for Emergency Needs funding twice and was turned down both times.  This appears to be a once in a lifetime opportunity for the L-B community.

We will have a hectic year ahead of us to see if this is what we want to do.  However, the board’s final approval will determine if we participate in this.  (Item A)

Since we were ranked 304 in Calendar Year 07, we qualify for this opportunity.  With the changes in district valuation due to both growth and reduction of tangible personal property values, one of my “sources” believes we’ll be ranked at about 315-320 in calendar year 08, which would put us back in the top half of district wealth on a per pupil basis.

At least we will get a professional analysis with associated costs conducted, along with options for board consideration.  Pending board approval of a final project, this will also provide the community the chance to deal with the small space, portable classrooms, and any other items that have been considered as “issues” we should address.

Frankly, this was five years away due to our indebtedness and wealth.  This statutory change now moved this timetable to the present.  What an opportunity for a board of education to work with this, as well as a possible opportunity for the community.  I’m sure we’ll do the right thing, whatever that may be.

  1. With the upcoming cross country season, the student athletes have generated enough funding to participate in a national meet, this one being in St. Louis over September 21-23.  This will require board approval.
  2. Jeff had a playground inspection conducted by Kent Karhoff, a certified inspector, with some items needing immediate attention.  This will call for a replacement of some items, and repairs to others before the start of the school year.  This is, in part, due to Jarrod’s Law, but in truth, helps us be compliant with safety issues, as it relates to the children.  The unknown at this time is what the financial cost will be, since this was unanticipated.
  3. The state budget was finally passed and signed by Governor Strickland.  There will be little, if any, financial gain for L-B, in my preliminary analysis.  We were scheduled to be “flat-lined” for these consecutive years, and that looks to be accurate.  One item that we need to keep alert to is that parity aid (extra dollars beyond basic aid) will now be created as part of the “state’s share”, which was 3.739 million dollars.  Since parity aid to L-B was $421,000 last year, we’ll need to see if we are held harmless of experience a reduction of $421,000 instate revenue.

With the last biennium budget, we were “locked in” to four years of flat funding.  FY06 @+0.8%, FY07 @+0.4%, and projected at FY08 @ -0.6% and FY09 @ +0.1%.  This is even with the publicized “increase” of 2.2%.

  1. With the upcoming school year and the additional restroom (concession area and potential grounds keeping responsibilities, we will need to add a part-time, as needed person in this area.  I’m also asking that we use this person to take more precautionary steps in our health and hygiene areas, especially to lessen the incidence of staph infection, which seems to be more prevalent.  Note the accompanying job description.  (Item B)
  2. We are able to approve bids for upgrading our telephone and high school public address systems.  Lisa Dobbins did a great job in spear-heading this endeavor.
  3. We will be employing Deserae Patterson as a part time Title I Reading teacher and part time Special Education Teacher to serve the elementary school.  This is a position equivalent to a full time position.  Desaerae has four years experience at Elmwood and was highly regarded for the service she provided the district.
  4. The enclosed article, “Fulfilling the Promise of Dual Enrollment for All Ohio Students” is an excellent article.  The reason I consider it excellent is because when you see what the author sees as points missing, are actually points that L-B is addressing, especially providing opportunities for more students via our Oberlin project, and opportunities for students who typically would not participate in such a program, which is through Owens Community College.  (Item C)
  5. We need to renew our service agreement with Northwest Ohio Orthopedics and Sports Medicine (NWO).  They’ve agreed to held at a flat rate of $2100 per year for three years, which is a very good rate for us.  (Item D)
  6. With all the extra duties being required by No Child Left Behind, and some of the needs expressed by current staff and administration, I’ve spent the summer re-organizing the work of administrators, plus addressing some areas we have little or no support currently.  The attached job description, which is currently part-time, appears to meet these needs, and will allow us to be more adept at presenting the “L-B story”.  The mastery of these tasks will ensure that L-B has a leadership role as an educational institution, even if the data might be contradictory to federal “standards”.  The financial cost will be a supplemental salary of 28% of base salary, plus the replacement cost for a teacher.  While this might in most cases be considered “central office” work, it is a number of duties that I believe are needed, given the results we are experiencing with our children.  The duration of this contract would be two years.

This should “shore up” any of our overlooked areas.  We now have a part-time BWC person we share with Findlay City through the ESC, a part time food service supervisor with a dietetic background, and a partial solution for meeting building and district wide needs.  (Item E)

  1. At our last board meeting, the question was asked if we had anything in policy to address off-site security of confidential information.  We’ve conferred with NEOLA and the enclosed policy 7541 is believed to be our current policy which addresses this concern.  (Item F)
  2. We’ll be able to share more information regarding the potential costs for outdoor athletic areas at the high school.
  3. We’ll approve bus bids, as indicated in Lisa’s report.
  4. We need to accept donations from Laser Tech and Best Buy.
  5. With upcoming sport seasons, ticket and pass prices need to be set.  No change from last year.
  6. Susan Stennet will be providing additional secretarial support for the elementary on a part-time basis to allow Susan Wright the needed time to enter our EMIS data.
  7. We need to renew Carrie McMillan’s contract as cheerleading advisor and approve Dawn Blankenship for 7th volleyball.
  8. Mr. Burkett is able to present his elementary fee list for approval.  Middle and high school will be later, once we’re able to finalize costs.  (Item G)
  9. Cafeteria prices will need to be approved.  No change from last year.