February 2022 Regular Board of Education Meeting

Mr. Hope asked to verify the date for the All Board dinner.  Mr. Nickoli verified the correct date is March 31, 2022.

No more questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Treasurer Schumacher reported as follows:

We received notification from the Auditor of State’s office that we have received the Auditor of State Award for our FY21 audit.  And to put the icing on the cake – we received word last Wednesday that we are being put back out to bid for a private IPA for our FY22.

Our Jefferson Health Plan Reserve remains stable and is right where we need it to be in order to cover 3 month’s premiums and the $684,000 reserve required by the plan.

Once again, our Park National Bank portfolio is our saving grace in investment income.  We had a couple CD’s pay interest – one at 2.55% and one at 2.15%.  Three of our Federal Home Loan Bank Gov’t agencies paid interest at .55%, 1.125% and 1%.

I would like to talk a little bit about the new funding formula. 

The amount of state funding a district receives is based on a new school funding formula. There are four significant changes in how Ohio calculates and distributes state aid. The new formula:

   Funds students where they are educated rather than where they live. Generally, this eliminates the deduction and transfer of dollars from resident districts to other schools or districts for students who attend community schools, STEM schools, scholarship programs and open enrollment.  Pioneer is most affected by the Open enrollment piece.

   Establishes an input-based funding model informed by professional judgment. The formula establishes a base cost methodology using student/teacher ratios, minimum staffing levels and actual costs. This will result in a unique base cost per pupil for each school and district in the state.  We have yet to see the report of how the Base cost was calculated.

   Acknowledges that school funding has always been a partnership between the state of Ohio and the local school district. The state formula works to equalize funding and provide additional money to schools and districts that do not have capacity and wealth to raise revenues locally. The new state and local cost methodology uses both assessed property values and income to determine the state share.

   Provides supplemental money based on student need and demographics. This includes funding for students with disabilities, English learners, gifted students, economically disadvantaged students and those participating in career-technical education. Generally, these supplemental dollars are restricted to support these student subgroups.  We will now be required to report our spending on each one of these categories.

This spreadsheet shows the differences in calculations of state foundation payments from FY21 to January and February, 2022.  So far, their calculation shows Pioneer receiving over this biennial budget, $137,000 more in state funding than in FY21. The DPIA has not been calculated yet.  You can see they are still funding that piece at last year’s amount.  I have provided for a little over $135,000 to be deducted yet for Catastrophic Costs.  In the past, JVSD’s have not applied for catastrophic costs and probably will not in the future.  Aaron Rausch says there are winners and losers throughout the new funding formula and JVSD’s are the losers in this category.  These are expenses above the normal Special Education allotment that schools spend for Special Education children. I have made it a line item on this spreadsheet because, I am not sure if they are going to use this as an adjustment or whether they have already calculated this into the Base Cost. They have stated the deduction would be a negative in the “Other Adjustments”, but we are still waiting on the detail calculation of the Base Cost.  They have promised about 30 new reports, but we have not seen any yet. So, with the information they have given us thus far, it looks like we will receive a small increase over FY21 funding.

We have a few Journal Entries including a transfer of funds to cover the EMIS coordinator hours for PEBT(the lunch program).  We also have an entry to correct the COPS payment from the Debt Retirement account and finally the entry to record the adjustments per the “Fair Funding Formula” new account codes.

Item 21 is a resolution to begin the process of moving the remaining unused portion of Fund 002 back to it's original fund 001 (General Fund).

Mr. Nickoli introduced Mr. Kowalski, Mr. Slaughter, Mr. Frey and the EAP rep, Mrs. Myers.  He then asked Mr.  Slaughter to introduce his guests.  The student was Selene Miller from Industrial Electricity, and she was accompanied by three members of her family. 

Mrs. Myers shared that everyone is getting ready for Sophomore visitations this week.

Director Frye reported as follows:

Students have competed in CTSO contests recently.  Pioneer will be represented at BPA and HOSA State Contests.  The Northwest Ohio SkillsUSA Contest will take place Tuesday, February 22^nd at Sentinel Career Center in Tiffin.  Students from Early Childhood Education recently put on “Traffic-Land”, a life-size board game similar to the “Game of Life”.  Staff and students signed up to participate in the board game in the Arena.  The game was also available during Parent-Teacher Conferences on February 17^th.

Leadership Unlimited of Richland County met at Pioneer on February 10^th.  Pioneer’s Student Ambassadors provided tours of Pioneer, leadership participants visited sessions of hands-on activities in labs and Culinary Arts provided a luncheon.

Exercise Science students offered fitness assessments to staff after school on Tuesday, February 15^th.  Students recruited, assessed and provided feedback to staff who participated. 

Associate School counselors met at Pioneer on Wednesday, February 16^th.  Badges were ready for Sophomore Visits, graduation pathways and Pioneer’s new Cybersecurity program were all discussed.

Parent-Teacher Conferences were held on Thursday, February 17^th at Pioneer.  Parents who were unable to attend in-person were able to schedule a phone conference with their student’s teachers.  Another round of conferences are scheduled for March 3^rd.

Other events at Pioneer this month- Blood Drive was held on February 11^th, brainstorming meeting with Ohio Health to look at partnering with high school medical programs, Soup-R-Bowl staff team building luncheon/soup contest, and this week we will host Sophomore Visitation on Wednesday, 2/23 and Thursday 2/24 followed by Sophomore Open House Thursday evening from 6:00 – 8:00pm. 

Mr. Grady led discussions on the backpack bill and ed choice vouchers.

Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

This year because of the spike in Covid-19 cases following our Winter Break, we opted to reschedule our Sophomore Visitation and enrollment process to this last full week of February.  We will have Sophomores from all 14 of our Partner Districts in on Wednesday and Thursday of this week followed by our Open House on Thursday evening.  We have a smaller Sophomore class this year with just over 1,400 students as opposed to the nearly 1,500 that we have had in the past.  That being said, we are still expecting our typical enrollment numbers and have 112 applications as of this afternoon.

Mother nature reared its ugly head this year.  So far this school year, we have used all five (5) weather-related calamity days and 3 2-hour delays.  That accounts for 34.75 total hours leaving us with 1,011.75 hours for the high school year.  Please be reminded that we have to be in session for a minimum of 1,001 hours for the year.  Per our school calendar, our next 3 full calamity days will be “Blizzard Bag Days” which aren’t subtracted from our total.  Any days beyond that will be Remote Learning Days.  The 10.75 hours above the minimum allows for 5 more 2-hour delays should they be needed.

The Ohio Association for Career-Technical and Adult Education (ACTE) hosted the annual legislative seminar this year.  Royden Smith, Linda Schumacher, Kris Kowalski and I met with Richland County Representative Marilyn John, Crawford

County Representative Riordan McClain, and Sentator Mark Romanchuk.  I also had a conversation with Bill Reineke and will be arranging another visit with him. They are all very supportive of Career Technical Education and our district and are very understanding of the impact that Career and Technical Education has on the economy. 

A reminder that, as we discussed at the January Board Meeting, I am asking you to amend the 2021-2022 school calendar to reflect the changes made to accommodate the Covid-19 case surge immediately after our Winter Break. 

I am providing you with a draft copy of the proposed 2022-2023 calendar for the high school.  This proposal is in compliance with both the Ohio Department of Education requirements and our current Negotiated Agreement.  We have met the requirement to provide public input into the calendar and I will bring it back to you at the March Board Meeting for your approval.

CALENDAR ITEMS

February is Career-Technical Education Month

OSBA Central Region “Virtual” Spring Conference – March 9

Pioneer All-Board Dinner – March 31

It is with deep regret that I ask you to approve the retirement resignations of Mr. Mike Smith, Mr. Jim Sorenson, and Ms. Joanne Humphrey

Mr. Smith joined the Pioneer staff in January of 2001 as our Building and Maintenance Trades Instructor. Most recently he has served as our Construction Level 1 Instructor where he is like a second father to his students.  He has been a tremendous asset and his work ethic and caring attitude will be greatly missed. 

Mr. Sorenson joined the Pioneer staff in December of 1997.  For many years he taught Business electives while also coordinating services in our Partner High Schools and Middle Schools as a part of our Career Development Department.  A few years ago, Mr. Sorenson transitioned to serving our Partner Schools full-time where he has become a valued expert in the Ohio Means Jobs website and other school specific activities.

Ms. Humphrey is retiring as our Marketing Coordinator.  She has done a tremendous job of working behind the scenes to design and produce our many marketing pieces ranging from our Pioneer Pride and Insights Newsletter, our annual billboard campaign, and our social media presence. Additionally, she has been a friendly face most mornings as students and parents stop in to the high school office where she serves as a receptionist alongside Linda Bellomy each morning.

We wish them all the best as they move on to the next phases of their lives.

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.

Entered into Executive Session at 8:40 pm. Returned to Regular Session at 8:56 pm.