December 2021 Regular Board of Education Meeting

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Treasurer Schumacher reported as follows:

November and December have been very hectic months.  The State is still working on our Audit and we have come to find out that they have not been well-trained on the new state software and we have been doing alot of work for them. We had four of them in our office on December 1.  The State says they will have our audit complete sometime in January.  On top of that, the financial audit for NCOCC has begun.  This is a new auditor for NCOCC also, so we are having to familiarize them with the operations and financials for NCOCC.  I have no idea of a timeline for the NCOCC audit.

November financials are pretty straight forward.  In the Huntington Bank (Bond Fund), you will see the December 1 COPS payments sitting to be made.  Those were made and as you can see, we have also used up most of the Huntington Bank Debt Service account.  This is the account that held the 2008 COPS escrow monies and we have been able to use those to payoff the 2008 issue.  I will now have to get permission from the State to move the remaining amount in that fund to the General Fund.

You can see that the Food Service fund is in better shape this year.  Still, running a deficit, but not as much.  Reimbursements have been larger this year due to an increase of reimbursement from $3.51 to $4.32 per student for lunches and an approximately $.20 increase in breakfast and to larger participation numbers.  Last year in November we were $80,525.00 in the red.  This year on November 30 we are $8,912 in the red.

In the General Fund, we have finally received the Homestead and rollbacks from Richland County which amounts to a little over $109,000.00.  The implementation of the new funding formula was supposed to be December, but has been postponed again.  I am not even going to give it a date this time.  Salaries and benefits are running a little higher than normal, but we had a lot of stipends paid in the last few months, so that amount should even out.  Come the end of the year, we will take another look at the appropriation as retirements have been creeping in and we might have more that expected.

The only journal entries we have this month is some mapping of benefits to the SWSF funds and some makeup hours due to COVID in Adult Ed.

Director Frye reported as follows:

PCTC Board Report- December Board of Education Meeting

December 20, 2021

Students in Pioneer’s Masonry program competed in a Northern Ohio Holiday Skills Contest. Senior Graham Geissman earned 1st Place in the Senior Division. Max Aichholz also competed and placed 3rd in the Junior Division.

During Pioneer’s Holiday Spirit Week, students donated to the United Fund of Shelby to participate in a “dress down day”. Through the amazing generosity of Pioneer’s students and staff, over $1,100.00 was collected and donated. During the 3 day spirit week, students also participated in an ugly sweater contest, a door decorating contest and other events in the building.

Pioneer Cosmetology students visited Auburn Elementary in Shelby and spent 2 days giving haircuts to students. Students were able to provide 90 students with haircuts.

Pioneer hosted a Purple Star Breakfast for students who have members of their family in the military. Culinary Arts students prepared breakfast for 14 students, staff and other guests.

Pioneer held our Alternate Career Exploration day for middle school students interested in careers that are considered non-traditional. 15 students from our partner schools were able to visit labs and participate in hands-on activities.

Pioneer manufacturing programs received a generous donation from Tractor Supply Company in Willard. Welding helmets, gloves and other useful items were received in the donation.

Pioneer students who completed the ASVAB military assessment received their results on Monday, December 13th.

The remaining home school visits to speak with sophomores and prepare for Sophomore Visits in January have been completed. Over the past 6 weeks, Pioneer counselors spoke to over 1400 sophomores at our home schools in preparation for our January 26th and 27th Sophomore Visitation recruitment days.

Mr. Grady led discussions on various happenings at the Ohio Legislature.

Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

At this very special time of the year, we always to take a moment and thank you for your support and dedication to Pioneer!  The Holidays are always such a special time of year!!  We hope you have time to relax and enjoy your family and friends!! 

We have started a support effort for our students known as the Sharing Closet.  It is a discreet room within Pioneer where students in need can go to get donated clothing and/or personnel grooming (shampoo, soaps, etc.) supplies.  It was started with a generous donation from the Avenue Church in Ontario and our staff has started bringing in gently-used clothing in various sizes.  We’d like to offer the opportunity for any Board Members who are able to donate as well.

It has been customary, in past years, to have the past Board of Education President serve as the President Pro-Temp at the Organizational Meeting in January. That being said, I would like to recommend that you elect Mr. Theaker to serve in that capacity.  Our previous discussion indicated that we planned to conduct the Organizational Meeting on Wednesday, January 11, 2022, prior to our Regular Board Meeting. 

I am asking the Board to approve a resolution approving the employment of substitute teachers who meet requirements that are different that our traditional substitutes.  For the remainder of this school year I would ask that you allow us to employ those individuals who:

1. Have a Bachelors’ Degree
2. Have an Associate’s Degree or have completed 48 Semester/72 Quarter Hours of Coursework at an accredited institution of higher education
3. Have a High School Diploma and has five years of successful work experience 

This third condition is similar to those that would qualify an individual to serve as a Career-Technical substitute.

When students are hospitalized at OhioHealth Mansfield for an extended period of time it becomes necessary for them to receive tutoring.  Ohio Health contracts with the Mansfield City Schools to provide that service.  The Mansfield City Schools then bills back to the District of attendance for those services.  I am asking you to approve a contract for those services for the 2021-2022 school year.

In conjunction with the transition of the 179^th air guard to its new Cyber-Defense mission and after consulting with local post-secondary institutions we would like to offer a Cyber-Security Program beginning with the 2022-2023 school year.  It fits well with current IT Support Pathway and we believe will lead to many job opportunities for graduates as well as significant interest from potential students.

We are soliciting bids for our building sealant project.  We have a pre-bid meeting scheduled for December 29th and will open bids on January 5th.

• 01/03                    - Students and staff return from Winter Break
• 01/03                     - Start of Second Semester
• 01/26 & 01/27       - Sophomore Visits

We have one import personnel items this month.  I am asking you to accept the retirement resignation of Karen Davis.  Ms. Davis has been an Intervention Specialist for Pioneer for 16 years and was instrumental is starting our Project SEARCH program.  I would like to extend my appreciation to Ms. Davis for her work on behalf of our students and wish her the best in retirement.

All other personnel items are common for this time of year.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Mike Grady moved the nomination of Douglas Theaker for the office of President Pro-Tem.  Royden Smith moved that nominations be closed.  Douglas Theaker was elected President Pro-Tem of the Pioneer Career and Technology Center Board of Education for the January 2022 Organizational Meeting.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

All members expressed their gratitude and appreciation to Mr. Kime and Mrs. Dixon.  They will be missed.