LIBERTY-BENTON LOCAL SCHOOLS

TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2006

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

REGULAR BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING  6:00 PM

STRATEGIC PLANNING WORK SESSION 7:30 PM

 

I.          Call to Order

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

II.          Recognition of Visitors

Approval of minutes from the Monday, June 19, 2006 regular and special board of education meetings. and June 27, 2006 special board of education meeting

III.        Communications and Discussion

Third Reading – NEOLA Policies

Use of medications

            Wellness

IV.       Principals’ Reports

Brian Burkett, Bruce Otley, Brenda Frankart

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

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

VII.      New Business

A.    Approve Consent Agenda, to include:

1.       Listing of Bills, Expenditures and Investments through 6/30/06, and monthly financial report of the Treasurer.

2.       Approve appropriation modifications for  August 2006

3.       Approve the following grant amounts for FY 2007:  Title 1, $98,715.36; Title IIA, $28,149.86; Title IID, $1022.59; Title IV SDFSC, $3605.88; Title V, $1636.28; IDEA, $229,788.66; ECSE, $5620.63

4.       Approve the listing of obsolete/disposed inventory items

5.       Approve the following ticket prices for the 2006-07 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

6.       Accept donation of milk machine from PTO valued at $4000

7.       Approve elementary and middle school fees

8.       Approve Neola policies:  5330 Use of Medications, 8510 Wellness

9.       Approve the annual cross country trip to Camp Friedenswald, July 31st through August 4th 2006

10.   Approve Celeste Eirich, contract correction  1 year to 3 year teaching contract

11.   Approve Jill Harmon, step increase to 15M

12.   Approve the following resignations:

Pat Wagner, MS Girls Basketball Coach, effective June 27, 2006

Kimberly Machi, HS Intervention Teacher, effective July 7, 2006

13.   Approve Susan Stennett, Aide for the 2006-07 school year

14.   Approve the following teachers for summer intervention: Heidi Irwin, Nate Irwin, Melissa Ruhe

15.   Approve the following aide for summer intervention:  Barb Foltz

16.   Approve the following certified personnel:

Tyson McGlaughlin, HS Teacher, one year contract, effective 2006-07 school year

Jeff Lease, HS Intervention Teacher, one year contract, effective 2006-07 school year

17.   Approve the following extra-curricular personnel for the 2006-07 school year:

Christine Steinman, MS Boys Cross Country Coach

Susan Haseley, Speech Team Coach

Michelle Couch, 7th grade Volleyball Coach

Cristy Gray, 8th grade Volleyball Coach

Lisa Lammers, Assistant Volleyball Coach

Nathan Bland, Assistant Volleyball Coach

Jeff Todd, Volunteer Assistant Volleyball Coach

Jeff Lease, MS Assistant Football Coach

Carrie Arnold, MS Art Show Coordinator

B.    Approve the tuition rate for the 2006-07 school year in the amount of $4130.62

C.    Approve trade-in of 1990 Ward Bus #14 to Cardinal Bus Sales

D.    Approve accepting the bus bid from Cardinal Bus Sales, $72,181. (includes $200 discount and $1800 trade in).

E.     Approve the following school lunch prices for the 2006-07 school year: 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

DISTRICT BOARD REPORT

AUGUST 2006

 

  1. I found this article on Bill and Melinda Gates well intentioned and initiative at improving public education.  This is similar to what legislatures are attempting to do in their quest for school improvement.  I would hope this makes an impact on our legislative leaders before they ruin some excellent schools.  At the same time, L-B is evolving as a higher performing school, and we’ve had the attention of higher education regarding our levels of student performance and preparedness.  (Item A)
  2. Susan Haseley has agreed to be our speech team coach again for the 2006-07 school year.  (Item B)
  3. Pat Wagner resigned his middle school girl’s basketball coach position.  (Item C)
  4. Sometimes we take for granted how hard our staff and students work.  We are closing in on another school report card, which will give us our Performance Index Score, and a label to wear, ranging from emergency to excellent.  Our “end of career” data shows us amongst the highest performance in the state, but when we see the benchmarks on a building by building level and on a yearly basis, we can only be amazed at the trends we are seeing here at Liberty-Benton.

Note the trends:

School Year      Elementary       Middle School         High School      District         Status

2000-01                 82.9                  82.5                       93.7             N/A                N/A

2002-03                 89.1                  89.9                        ---               89.6              Cont Imp

2003-04                 90.5                  90.4                         ---               90.2             Effective

2004-05                 91.2                  92.9                       107.3           95.4               Effective

2005-06 (Prelim)   94.8                   99.4                       108.5           100.6             Excellent

      5.  Congratulations are due to Lisa, the building principals, and Dawn for their oversight of our

various grants.  The management letter stated there were “no unresolved issues with respect to federal financial assistance program” for FY2005.

  1. I’m passing around a book entitled, Setting the Record Straight, by Gerald Bracy.  It is a fairly “quick read” and provides a perspective of what has occurred to public education since 1983.
  2. Hancock County has two school resource officers specifically assigned to serve the schools.  As an FYI only, I received a monthly log so you can see their activity level.  The officers are sited adjoining the ED unit, and we are within 2 miles of their duty station.  Over vacation, I visited with a Los Angeles school resource officer, and we talked for over two hours comparing our routine day and his.  “Things” really are different at Liberty-Benton, in a very positive way.  (Item D)
  3. Enclosed is a Millstream Newsletter highlighting their school year.  I highlighted our four students who have excelled in their programs of study.  (Item E)
  4. With the inception of Jarrod’s Law, schools face huge safety compliance costs.  I believe we are in “good shape” but we’re hosting a statewide training session 8-25-06.  We’ll be hosting for Northwest Ohio, and will actually conduct a safety “walk-through”.
  5. Enclosed are copies of “The Board”.  (Item F)
  6. I was updating some records and as you see from earlier in this report our building by building and district wide improvement on state testing.  To further exemplify this trend, when looking at the Ohio Board of Regents report, we moved from a 26% remediation level in 2000 (versus a 38% statewide remediation rate), to a 13% remediation rate in 2003 (versus a 41% statewide remediation rate).  This indicates not only solid performance, but continued improvement over time by our students, staff, and district.  Personally, the state rate of remediation is greater because more students are attempting to go to college, but may not be preparing themselves adequately.
  7. Jeff just completed our transportation cost for the 2005-06 school year.  Transportation costs exceeded $450,000 and averaged $420 per pupil for regular education students and $2833 per pupil for our special needs students.
  8. We have some routine items on the agenda which include setting prices for lunchroom and formally accepting different federal grants.
  9. We also have to accept a milk machine donation from PTO.
  10. Our new tuition rate is $4130.62 per year, up from $3844.58 last year, a 7.4% increase.
  11. We have some obsolete items we need to take off our inventory.
  12. We need to implement policies on Use of Medications 5330, and Wellness 8510 prior to the start of the school year.  (Item G)
  13. As I sit here on July 7, I got some “bad news”.  July 10 is the last day that staff can resign without board approval.  One of our new hires informed me of her resignation to take a similar position pay over 10% more than what we could provide.  This was our second experience with this.  We’d offered another position but that person kept us “at bay” until they were able to officially be hired at another school at a higher rate of pay.  This is becoming a conundrum of sorts for us because we have a glut of applicants in some areas, i.e. elementary, but a shortage in other areas, i.e. special education, some subject specific areas, and administrative positions.  Kim Machi reluctantly resigned her high school special education position.  We’ve found Jeff Lease, who is fully licensed and highly qualified to assume this position.  Also Mr. McGlaughlin passed Praxis in flying colors.  (Item H)
  14. We should formally approve the annual cross county trip to Camp Friedenswald since it extends into the school year.
  15. With the discovery of a state law technicality defining “length of day”, we need to correct contract status for Celeste Eirich from a 1 to 3 year contract.
  16. Jill Harmon now has her master’s degree, so we need to reflect that in a salary change.
  17. In talking to Jeff, we’ll need to see how our student enrollments develop before we set our final bus routes.

 

ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Liberty-Benton Board of Education
August 1, 2006


1.      Our Summer AR Library Reading Program has truly gone “Hog Wild” this year with almost 200 students participating at some point to date.  Mrs. Hause shared with me that the number of books circulated in June and July is double that of last year.  I have to commend the parents, kids, and Mrs. Hause and Mrs. Cramer for such as successful summer library program.  I can’t wait to share the final details with you at the next board meeting as the last day of the summer program is August 17th.

 

2.      Our “Meet the Teacher” Night has been set for Tuesday, August 29th from 6:00-8:00 p.m.  We are looking forward to having even more than the average 80-85% attendance that evening as we prepare to begin the school year.

 

3.      Our summer intervention program is running August 14th through August 25th for the elementary this year.  Our numbers are down (which should be thought of as a good thing), and we expect to have around 30 students total which is made up of students going into grades 2-5 and special education.  We have five teachers (3 regular education and 2 special education) working with these students on reading, writing, and math intervention in full inclusion classes for the two-week program.  Our program will run from 8:30-12:00 noon each day, with transportation provided if needed.

 

4.      New student orientation for the elementary will be Thursday, Aug. 24th at 6:30 p.m. in the elementary cafeteria.  Mr. Horstman and I meet with the parents and students to review procedures and policies for the elementary and give them a tour of the facilities at the end of the session.

 

5.      We have our new student registration set for this Thursday, August 3rd from 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. We have already registered 24 new students coming into the district over the summer up to this point.  Of which, 6-7 of these students will require special education services. This may impact our inclusion unit in the fourth grade.  If these numbers climb to 10 or higher in this one grade and coupled with kindergarten students receiving pull out services in the resource room, there is a good chance we will need an additional special education teacher to cover these necessary services.  We will know more by the end of this week.

 

6.      I will be getting the elementary handbook ready for board approval in the next couple weeks.  I traditionally have this ready for the August board meeting each year (the 3rd Monday of the month).  I will be getting this to you for your review, and you may contact me if you happen to have any questions. This needs to be approved before school starts and more importantly before we run 600 copies off. I am not sure when the next board meeting will be for sure.

 

Liberty-Benton Middle School

“Where Eagles Learn to Soar”

BOE Principal’s Report

August 1, 2006

6:00 p.m.

 

1.  August 3, 2006 New Student Registration:  The main office will be open and set up to receive students    that have not already registered for the 2006-2007 school year from 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.  This day has been specifically set aside for this purpose.   

 

2.  Projected Enrollment for 2006-2007:  The following is our projected enrollment for the 2006-2007 school year.  These numbers may (and most likely will) change slightly as we get closer to the first day of school.

 

Grade                       Male              Female                Total

    06                           54                       48                       102

    07                           47                       48                        95

    08                           45                       47                        92

 

Total Students:         146                     143                     289

 

3.  Summer Intervention August 14-18 and 21-25 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.:  Students that need summer intervention will be attending on these dates. 

 

4.  August 22, 2006 Sixth Grade Orientation/New Student Orientation:   An orientation program for all incoming sixth grade students or any new student will be held at the Middle School from 6:00-8:00 p.m. The program will begin with a short presentation from the administration regarding expectations for students and parents for the upcoming school year as well as an introduction to the sixth grade teaching staff.  A representative from Camp Storer will also be in house for an informational presentation and to answer questions.  Students will then be able to pick up their schedules and tour the Middle School to find their classes.  At this time, parents will be able to pay school fees, pay the remainder of their balance for the Camp Storer field trip. 

 

5.   August 28, 2006 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. and 6:00-8:00 p.m. One Stop Shop Pre-order Pickup:  Parents can pick up school supplies for their children at the middle school cafeteria on this day.

 

6.  August 29, 2006 6:00-8:00 p.m. Meet the Teacher Night: 7th and 8th grade Students and parents are encouraged to attend this open-house format and can come and go anytime between 6:00-8:00 p.m.  The following will take place during this event:

·         Student can find their classrooms    

·         Meet teachers

·         Meet our new principal, Mr. Otley

·         See friends

·         Pay school fees/put money in  lunch account (all fees and lunch accounts will be taken in the cafeteria)

·         Learn about ways parents can help through PTO

·         New volunteers can get fingerprinted for a background check at no cost

 

7.   Picture Day September 13, 2006:  Students should be prepared to smile and say “cheese” on this day.  Re-takes are scheduled for October 26, 2006.

 

8.  Sixth Grade Camp Storer Field Trip October 9-13, 2006:  Students in the sixth grade will again  be traveling to south-eastern Michigan this fall.  This is a valuable bonding experience for both students and teachers and starts the middle school experience out on a positive and memorable note.

 

HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Liberty-Benton Board of Education Meeting

August 1, 2006

6:00 P.M.

  

1.)                Summer Intervention -  I am eagerly awaiting our summer results for the students who completed the summer intervention and testing.  Our intervention went very well so I am again hoping for some successful scores.

2.)                High School Staff Changes:  We have a few changes around the high school for this school year, and we welcome one new teacher in our special education department.

-         Mr. Jeff Lease – joins our special education department

-         Mrs. Susan Bowers – picks up some history classes

-         Mrs. Amy Schroeder – comes to the high school to pick up French I and reading classes

-         Mr. Nate Irwin – moves to the high school math department full-time

-         Mrs. Kelley Foltz – adds a new Oberlin College history course

-         Mrs. Julie Todd – becomes part-time, including teaching a new Oberlin College statistics course

-         Mrs. Dawn Blankenship – adds a new Oberlin College writing course

-         Mr. Mark Badertscher – gives up his attendance officer duties to pick up a full load of classes, including some classes at the middle school

-         Mrs. Lennie Walters – becomes a special education aide for part of the day at the high school

3.)                New Student Registration – Our new student registration day is scheduled for this Thursday, August 3, 2006.

4.)                New Student & Freshmen Orientation – This will be held on August 23, at 7:00 p.m. starting off in the high school auditorium.

5.)                Fall Schedule Pick-Up -  High school students may begin picking up their schedules August 23rd-25th.  All freshmen and new students will receive their schedules during the Orientation Night.