April 2021 Board of Education Regular Meeting

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Treasurer Schumacher reported as follows:

We are preparing for negotiations on April 29 & 30.  We met with the Insurance committee and introduced some changes in our health insurance plan.  Neither of the changes are subject to negotiation.  First of all, our initial rate increase was 9.37%.  We have chosen to update our prescription coverage to a true pharmacy plan which will give us a rate increase of only 4.7%.  The true pharmacy plan will make only a slight change to the plan.  Employees now may have to have pre-authorization for certain medications and the pharmacy may request that the doctor try a different medication than the higher priced one originally prescribed.  A few, but not many may have to take a couple more steps in order to obtain their prescription, but Doctor’s offices are used to this and know exactly what to do.  Employees’ reimbursements for prescriptions will see no change at all.

      We are also now offering an HSA.  I believe we will begin to offer it on our deductible renewal date on January 1.  It will be a $3,000/$6,000 deductible plan and Pioneer will contribute $1,500 for Single and $4,000 for family to an HSA.  This is totally optional.  Any employee may choose to stay on the current plan.  I believe we will probably have a handful of takers this year and keep adding on each year.  The original increase of 9.37% would cost us $293,000 more per year.  Just adopting the True Pharmacy plan will save us $146,000 of the $293,000.  If everyone would change to an HSA, we would save an additional $240,000.

The House Finance Committee has accepted a substitute version of the biennial budget bill, House Bill (HB) 110. The largest change in the substitute House Bill is the inclusion of the Fair School Funding Plan (HB 1), with modifications.

The substitute House Bill also provides that the Student Wellness and Success Funds be used to fund the base cost and disadvantaged pupil impact aid in the new funding formula.  They actually repeal the Student Wellness Funds provided for by the Governor.

The substitute bill also includes creating a 19-member School Funding Oversight Commission to oversee the implementation of the new K-12 formula funding provisions in the bill, analyze and make recommendations regarding appropriate adjustments to the formula, and review and analyze the findings of any of the education studies that are prepared under current law.

We have been working on the 5-year forecast for presentation in May.  We have received real estate tax settlements from Crawford, Wyandot, Morrow and Huron counties. All expenses are in line for this time of year.  Questions

None.

Superintendent Nickoli shared various thank you notes and the school scrapbook.

Director Kowalski reported as follows:

Plan created for Senior Moments/Awards that is safe and accessible for all to view.  Continue monitor PPE supplies for students and staff – additional spray disinfectant was ordered to finish out the year for classrooms.  Meeting with Richland Newhope Industries (RNI) to policies for job coaches at Ohio Health and Project Search.

  Set up summer school programming that was shared with partner school counselors and administrators. Several special education teachers attended the Emotional Behavioral Support Framework at MOESC. Several students competing at the Skills USA state competitions around the state (virtual and in-person).State Virtual Awards Friday April 30^th.  

Attend all of the Richland County Safety Council Meetings  

Planning to hire 4-6 student workers for summer custodial help.  Several employers and unions in the building – looking to hire students – Adena (Brad Geissman, Spencer Shipman), Bricklayers Union (Matt McClester) and Laborers Union (Cordell Brooks).

Wynford/Pioneer FFA students and the Wynford Alumni held a pie auction -raised over $11,000 (1-pie went for $3,000) proceeds go to student scholarships.

Mr. Grady discussed Superintendent DeMaria's testimony to the Senate finance Committee concerning the Governor's proposal for career credentialing which wowould be very beneficial to Career Technical schools.

Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

The projected enrollment for next year is still coming in. We have currently placed 1,233 students and have approximately 24 late applications to be reviewed for the 2021 – 2022 school-year.  That number slightly exceeds last year’s number.  These continue to be exceptional numbers. We hope to be welcoming our new students and parents at the Pioneer New Student/Parent Orientation on April 22^nd.  Students and parents will have the opportunity to visit the Career Technical Labs and learn more about Pioneer and their programs.

At the end of the month, I will be checking enrollment very closely to determine if I need to send out Reduction-In-Force (RIF) letters.  Although things are looking very good, if needed, RIF letters will be delivered by me to the union and teachers by April 30^th.

RIF’s are not acted on until a later board meeting, so I will keep you posted on any reductions that might be necessary.  Until that time, Student Services and instructors will continue recruitment efforts.

This year we have just Career-Technical textbook requests to be approved for a total of $13,536.43.  The request has been reviewed by Kris Kowalski, Director of Operations.  It is his recommendation that the textbooks presented be approved at the May meeting by the Board of Education. 

Our legal action against Vaughn Industries is moving along, albeit very slowly.   After an unsuccessful attempt at Mediation in January, a second Attorney for Vaughn Industries has requested a second attempt to resolve our renovation issues through mediation.  I have worked with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) and our Construction Attorney, Desmond Cullimore, to schedule the meeting for May 18.  As we did for the January meeting, this one will also be conducted virtually. 

We will be seeking bids to seal the split-faced block exterior as a part of the recommended maintenance of the building.  We expect to open the bids on May 10 and will bring the successful bidder to the Board at the May meeting.  We anticipate that the project will take between 4 and 6 weeks so it should be easily completed over the summer months. 

As I mentioned in an earlier email, the Employees Association of Pioneer (EAP) has submitted a request to open negotiations.  We have agreed to continue the long-standing tradition of using Interest-Based Bargaining (IBB) and conducted a training session on March 31 for both negotiating teams.  We have an Issues Exchange Meeting scheduled for April 21 and two days of bargaining scheduled for April 29 and 30.  Assuming we are able to reach a tentative agreement at that time the EAP will seek ratification the following week and we will bring the agreement to the Board at the May meeting for your approval. 

The Board Policy at your places is a required update on the care of students with Diabetes.  We will adopt these updates at the May meeting.

I am pleased to recommend Terry Stuart as our new Home Remodeling Instructor.  Mr. Stuart comes to us with an extensive background specifically in home remodeling.  During the 2020-2021 school year he served as a long-term substitute in the Construction Program at Madison High School.  He did such an outstanding job that they kept him on when the regular Construction Instructor returned.  As always, we utilized a comprehensive hiring team to review applications and conduct the first round of interviews. Mrs. Young, Mr. Kowalski and I conducted the final interviews before deciding on Mr. Stuart.

The remainder of the personnel items are common for the month of April.

No questions or discussion. Sent to vote.