January 2021 Board of Education Regular Meeting

Superintendent Nickoli explained that this is just for our virtual meetings due to COVID.

No further questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

TreasurerSchumacher explained that the CRA for Niss Aviation had just been received earlier in the day and the City of Mansfield Economic Development Director wants this passed as soon as possible.  This is why we added the addendum to the meeting.  She explained this is new construction at the Mansfield Airport and Crestview Schools have also approved this CRA.

No further questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Superintendent Nickoli pointed out that we have the consent agenda includes recognition of a large steel donation from Mark Wigginton, Sky Climber, LLC.

No further questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Treasurer Schumacher reported as follows:

On January 5, it was published that Pioneer has received the Ohio auditor of State’s award for our clean audit. We also received notice that the State will be taking back our audit for FY21.  Not very welcoming news.  I tried to ask to be put back out for bid, but they did not grant the request.  My reasoning was that we always have our audit completed and submitted by November 1.  Her reply was that she would make note of this and schedule our audit so we can have it done by November 1.   We will see.

The new software is going well.  Reports are still challenging, but getting better.  NCOCC had some issues with printing W-2s and 1099s, but I believe they have everything worked out.

Moving to the Monthly Financials, there are no changes in Investments.  You can see the interest rates for the bank accounts on the investment schedule. Luckily, we still have some long-term investments that yielded some decent interest in the Portfolio account this month.

The remainder of the financials have nothing that stands out.  If you look at expenses on the General Fund, you will see they are in line with our appropriations for the year.

This month we must submit the County Budget to Richland County for the FY22.  First, I would like to take a look at the valuations for Pioneer and the effective tax rates for Pioneer.  First are the effective rates, they are down a little because valuations are up as you can see in the next graph.  Total revenue is up slightly mainly due to a slight increase in PUPP valuation.  This budget is still based on the assumption of not collecting any additional PUPP taxes from Rover pipeline. When you get a chance, please take a look at the comparison graphs for FY20 and FY21.  These will give you a better picture of where we might be headed.

Finally, the County Budget itself.  Nothing new.  The first page shows the estimated tax revenues that we discussed in the graphs.  The remainder is the normal budgeting we submit to the County.

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Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

I would like to congratulate our reappointed Board Members.  Mr. John Kime has been reappointed by the Bucyrus City Schools Board of Education and Ms. Mary Jean Theaker has been reappointed by the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center Board of Governors.  We welcome you back for another three years and we greatly appreciate your service to Pioneer.

January is Board of Education Appreciation Month, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of our students and staff. You are to be commended for the progress that Pioneer has made toward increasing student learning and improving student achievement.  Also, in recognition of that service is a certificate presented by the Ohio School Boards Association signed by Randy Smith, OSBA President and Rick Lewis, OSBA Executive Director.  

Our staff and teachers welcomed our students back to face-to-face instruction on Monday, January 4^th.  It was quite heartwarming to see the reactions of our students as they walked through the doors on the first day back.  Mr. Bill Dichtl, our Graphic Arts Instructor came up with the idea to put a sticker with a welcoming comment (we missed you, welcome back, etc.) on the outside of every students’ locker.  As you might recall from the December Board Meeting, we were in Remote Learning from December 1 through December 18 on the advice of the City of Shelby Health Department since Richland County was designated Level 4 – Purple on the Ohio Public Health Advisory System during that time.

 We have started the process for scheduling a vaccination clinic here at Pioneer for our staff.  As you may recall, school staff are a part of Phase 1B of Ohio’s Covid-19 vaccination rollout plan.  It is my understanding that we will have the Moderna vaccine available to our staff sometime during February.  This is a voluntary process and, to assist the City of Shelby Health Department in determining how many doses to bring to Pioneer, we are surveying our employees to gauge the number of folks interested in participating.

As was mentioned at our December Board Meeting, the Ohio ACTE Legislative Seminar is scheduled for February 9-11.  The event will be conducted virtually this year and visits to our legislators will be arranged by the conference organizers and conducted as a group.  This is a very important opportunity to connect with those legislators who are returning to office but more importantly to educate new Senators and Representatives as to the value of CTE to Ohio’s workforce development efforts.

Prospective students will tour our labs virtually on January 20^th through February 25^th.  Pioneer will send a small team to each of our Partner High Schools to share all of the great opportunities available at Pioneer.    We still intend to offer Open House opportunities but in order to do so safely, we will conduct multiple Open Houses scheduled throughout the month so that students and their families can visit Pioneer just after they take our virtual tours.

All personnel items are common for this time year.

No further questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

No further questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.