January 2023 Board of Education Regular Meeting

Superintendent Nickoli explained to new Board Members that the consent agenda will include normal business that occurs throughout the year.  Any new business will be voted on in the regular agenda.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

Treasurer Schumacher reported as follows:

What have had an extremely busy week since Winter Break.   We got the County Budget finalized, our SAM registration updated for the year, the FSA EZ audit submitted and the Standard & Poor’s submission complete.  Thursday we will be opening new checking accounts at Park National.  We have already closed the Money Market, Gorman Hardship Fund and the Pioneer Educational Development Corp checking accounts at Civista.  We will wait to close the regular checking and payroll checking accounts at Civista until we are sure everything is clear and all ACH deposits are going to the new Park National accounts. We have just not been happy with Civista for quite some time.  The people in Distribution have been asking for the past year if we could change banks.  The convenience of Civista will be missed, but they don’t mind going out to Park National to make the deposits. We are also waiting for a fraud occurrence with Civista to be resolve.  On November 4, 2022, we discovered that one of our checks had been intercepted in the mail and changed.  The name and amount were changed and cashed by a bank in the State of Delaware.  We signed an affidavit on November 7, 2022, and that is pretty much all Civista has done.  We can’t get a contact name at Civista and the Branch Manager in Shelby has not been helpful to say the least.  On Monday, I finally got a name for a contact at Civista and she has proised to get to the bottom of this problem this week.   I have contacted SORSA.  We can always file a claim, but it is a $1,000 deductible and I would rather recover the monies from the Banks. I have also contacted our legal counsel at Bricker & Eckler.  Their only response was to contact our insurance company or local law enforcement. So, this is another reason, the final closures have not been made at Civista.

Our fund balances have nothing that we have not seen lately.  All business besides the banking changes are normal for this time of year.  The General Fund is looking healthy and on track.  We made our COPS principal and interest payment in December and the final interest payment for the fiscal year for the COPS will be made in June.  We have only a couple Journal entries for the month still trying to get the ECF monies in the right place.

Questions on the monthly business.

January is the month to submit our County Budget.  First, I will share with you some graphs of how our valuations and levy monies affect our Revenues.  These graphs are based on full valuation (including Rover Pipeline and full collection of taxes).  The %’s will still reflect the same as they would on the County Budget amount.  We do not show the entire amount on the County Budget because they like to show a 92% collection rate even though ours is usually about 97% and we take out the Rover Pipeline.  We actually show on the County Budget the same amount we use on the five-year forecast.  The first few graphs show this year’s effective tax rates by levy, valuation by class, estimated revenue by class and estimated revenue by levy.  The last few graphs show comparisons of those numbers to last year.  Please take some time and review the comparisons.  I am anxious to get this Rover Pipeline resolved so we know exactly how much we can expect in future years.

The county budget is our annual submission to Richland County for their approval at their Budget Commission meeting.  The first page shows the lesser tax revenues I have been speaking of.  This is the number from our five-year forecast which is a reduced collection amount and reduced valuation for Rover Pipeline. This will be submitted to the County Auditor after your approval.  The deadline is January 13.

Director Frye reported as follows:

Pioneer will host Sophomore Visitation for all of our partner schools on January 25th and 26th.  After the visits, Pioneer will host a Sophomore Open House on Thursday, January 26th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm.  Sophomores and their parents can visit labs, meet with instructors and tour Pioneer to assist in making their choice of lab.  Approximately 1400 sophomores will visit Pioneer over the 2 day event. 

Students from Pioneer’s Criminal Justice and Homeland Security programs volunteered to work the JC Gorman Invitational at Mansfield Senior High School on January 6th and 7th.  Staff at the JC Gorman commented that the students were helpful, dependable and very efficient.  The students are great ambassadors for Pioneer and their programs.  

All Pioneer staff will participate in a staff in-service day on January 27th.  Professional development trainings will take place in the morning, followed by individual department meetings and business/industry visits in the afternoon.  

None

Supertinedent Nickoli reported as follows:

I would like to congratulate our new Board Members. Mrs. Erin Stine and Mr. Spencer Shipman who have been appointed by the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center Board of Governors. We welcome you for your respective two and three-year terms and 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.

I am asking you to approve a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ontario Local Schools that will allow them to teach a Satellite Program using their teacher but submitted via the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) by Pioneer. We will support the program just as we do all of our other satellite programs but then reimburse Ontario for funding diverted to Pioneer since we are using their teacher.

As was mentioned at our December Board Meeting, the Ohio ACTE Legislative Seminar is scheduled for February 8. 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. Additionally, 2023 is a budget year so it is also an opportunity to share the many great things going on in public education.

Prospective students will tour our labs on January 25th and 26th. Thursday night, January 26th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm will be the Open House for new students and their parents. This is a very important time and the beginning of the recruitment cycle for next year.

As in the past, we have scheduled an additional “Second-Look” Open House on Parent Teacher Conference Night on February 23rd from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm.

As we have in past years, we’ll follow up our Sophomore Visitation with a Professional Development Day. Mr. Frye and the High School Administrative Staff is working on an agenda of department specific items followed by time for our staff to conduct business and industry visits.

We have posted a number of positions that will open up next year due to retirements. Given anticipated shortages in all areas of the workforce, teachers included, we want to get an early start on our hiring process. Current openings include:

1. Math Instructor

2. School Counselor

3. Hospitality Instructor

4. Collision Repair Instructor

5. Cosmetology Instructor

I am also asking that you approve a Paternity Leave for Colton Penwell. Mother and child are home and doing well.

All other personnel items are common for this time yea

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.

No questions or discussion.  Sent to vote.