No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Questions were heard concerning the contract to be issued for the rehire of Superintendent Nickoli.  The public was informed that no decisions had been made on the contents of the contract.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Treasurer Schumacher reported as follows:

I have spoken with Julian & Grube, the new auditors, and they are scheduling field work for the week of October 24.  They will begin working online soon and state that they should be able to complete everything in November.

The Park National OFCC account has a big deposit.  We received the $1,750,000 settlement for the HVAC lawsuit.  The only caveat to that is that we keep receiving invoices for work performed for the lawsuit.

As of Friday, Star Ohio has an annualized interest rate of 2.43%.  I am going to make another attempt to change our State deposits from PNC to Star Ohio.  If some of you remember, I attempted this a few years ago and thought we had everything setup, but the State never changed their records.  So, I am going to try again.

Fund 010 – Without the $1.75M settlement monies, there is about $1.323M left in this fund at this time. That leaves Pioneer about $331,000 for our 25% share. Combining that with our portion of the settlement, which is $575,000, Pioneer should have a total of about $961,000 when everything is closed.

General Fund – All property taxes are in.  We are still waiting on Homestead & rollbacks from Richland, Seneca, Morrow, Crawford and Wyandot.  We received $75,000 in Casino monies.  This is down only about $1,500 from the January payment.

On the Journal Entries we had an outstanding advance to the Food Service Fund that we are now able to return to the General Fund.  The remaining journal entries are to finalize and close the grants.

Appropriations -  This is the month we finalize appropriations for the year.  The first two pages are those that I will send to the County Auditor to request an Amended Certificate of Resources for these appropriations.  The last two pages are more for use by the Board and management.  The General Fund Appropriations are those used to compare revenues and expenses on a monthly basis.  The Capital Improvement Appropriations are for management purposes.  We hold a meeting with Mr. Kowalski, Mr. Nickoli, Mr. Frye, Mr. Brenneman, Mr. Grimwood and myself and decide what monies to spend and where to spend them.  Everyone brings their “must-have lists” and “wish lists” and as a group decide what is to be spent.

I want to leave you with a thought I have had for quite some time.  I have a dream – I have a dream that one day, for the safety of our staff and students, Ryan Road will extend out to Route 61 with arches on both ends just tall enough for buses -  with this, our students and staff no longer have to share the road with so many semis. I have no idea of the cost, but we have a start with the $900,000 we should have from the project fund.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Colton Penwell

Sandy Grau

Jolene Young, Asst. Director, High School; gave the report on 2022-2023 Board Goals due to the absence of Clay Frye, Director of Operations.

Newly appointed Robyn Almanson presented the Student Achievement Report.

Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

I am proud to report that we have been invited to join Ashland University as a Community Partner.  As such, the University offers tuition discounts, professional development and networking opportunities for employees of our partner organizations. Additionally, they will invite us and join us on our advisory committees to provide guidance and insights into industry needs. This program is at no cost to Pioneer.

Mr. Kowalski has worked with representatives from Fanning-Howey to secure proposals for our Safety and Security Project.  R.J. Beck of Norwalk will be installing both a comprehensive video surveillance upgrade and an air quality multi-sensor detection system.  Albireo Energy will upgrade the District’s Building Access and Fire Alarm system.   

I am asking that you recognize via a formal resolution, a donation by the Johnson Brothers Rubber Company (Matt Watts) of Greenwich, Ohio.  Mr. Watts has generously donated a UR5 Robot valued at approximately $25,000 to our Precision Machining Program. 

Just a reminder that the Central Region Fall Conference is this coming up this Wednesday at 5:30pm at the Villa Milano in Columbus.  Mrs. Schumacher, Mr. Frye and I will be in attendance to help recognize the Gorman Family Foundation as a Friend of Public Education and Mr. Mike Grimwood, Pioneer’s Head of Maintenance as an Exemplary Employee. 

There are some exciting upcoming events scheduled for later this month and in October.  We would love to have you attend any of the following (please let me know so I can look for you):

• • OSBA Central Region Fall Conference – Sept 21^nd
  • Staff Inservice – Sept 24^th at Pioneer
  • Parent-Teacher Conferences – October 6^th and 20^th
  • End of First Grading Period – October 14^th
  • OSBA Capital Conference – November 13^th-15^th – Agenda to be provided in October

Kris Kowalski, Director of Operations, has reviewed requests to move across on the salary schedule as well as requests for continuing contracts.  They are in accordance with the Ohio Revised Code and Board Policy. 

Also, I am asking that you accept the resignation of Ms. Amy Lohr as Medical Technologies Instructor for personal reasons.  Ms. Lohr submitted a very heartfelt letter of resignation just before the start of the school year.

I am asking that you approve the employment of Ms. Meghan Haney as our new Medical Technologies Instructor.  Ms. Haney came in for two days after the school year started and took over the class full-time on Monday, September 12.  She is off to a great start and our students love her.  Additionally, I’d like to thank Ms. Terri Crain and Ms. Kerra Hines for their work to make the start of the school year very productive for our Med Tech students.  They shared their time and energy to ensure that everyone got off to a great start.

Finally, I am asking that you approve the retirement-resignation of Ms. Darlene Daugherty.  Ms. Daugherty is retiring after working at Pioneer for 26 years.  She has done an amazing job during that time and she will be greatly missed. We wish her the best in retirement.

All other Items are normal for this time of year.

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.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Bill McFarland moved that we move into Executive Session at 8:23 pm; seconded by Robyn Almanson.  Returned to Regular Session at 8:46 pm.