February 2024 Regular Board of Education Meeting

Treasurer Bazley reported as follows:

The Audit was finally approved by the Auditor of State and released for certification, I was able to certify it last week. When the Auditor releases the names of those who receive the Auditor of State Award I would expect Pioneer to receive one as we should qualify. Our only Management Letter comment had to do with not certifying the 034 transfer with the Auditor of State.

I attended my first Legislative Conference earlier this month. It was nice to be able to get in front of our state legislators and advocate for some policies that will positively affect our Career Center as well as our students in being able to get a little more flexibility in licensing career tech teachers. The visits went well and were easy, probably because it isn’t a budget year and we weren’t asking for more money.

We had a slight issue with the Shelby City tax. They called us after our January payrolls and let us know their income tax increased from 1.5% to 1.75%. With our first pay in February we updated the tax rate, but then had to do an adjustment for the additional amount that should’ve been withheld in the first two January pays. I explained it at our staff meeting and am thankful our staff was understanding and made the uncomfortable situation easier.

We plan to do the maintenance transfer ($425,360) from the general fund to the maintenance fund this month and will ask you to approve that as part of next month’s financial report.

Interest continues to pay well. From what I have read, the odds favor a quarter point rate cut at their May meeting. Then another quarter point rate cut at their July and November (right after the election) meetings as well. I could see them holding off on a rate cut again at their May meeting depending on what transpires the next couple of months. The Fed is wanting to see wage growth slowing before acting. They also are weary of doing too much as they don’t want to influence the election.

Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform met last week and heard testimony. It seems that they want to take some kind of action to give Ohio Residents relief, but what kind of action that would be remains to be seen. Biggest concern is messing with the millage floor. The state is also considering eliminating the income tax, the concern with that is where do they make up for that revenue in the budget? State currently sits on a record $3.1 Billion Rainy Day Fund.

Nexus Pipeline heard oral arguments in Supreme Court in October 2023, and the case is still open in Supreme Court. Rover Pipeline case is ongoing and likely to be resolved when Nexus is resolved, whenever that would be. Our Forecast is projecting PUPP revenue based on what Rover is actually paying on rather than their total certified valuation.

As far as a report on our monthly activities.  Nothing truly out of the ordinary for January. January and February are fairly slow months revenue wise until we start to receive our property tax settlement payments. Our revenue and expenses are trending on track for the year as we are now 7 months through the year. The only Journal Entry we have for your approval this month is recoding some Adult Ed Salary Charges to the Adult Ed Perkins Grant.

Sophomore Visitation is complete and applications for the 2024 – 2025 school year are being accepted. Inclement weather impacted visitation, and all Pioneer staff stepped up in a huge way to host 4 schools for a make-up day of visits. Student Services Coordinator, Dan Burtscher, was invaluable in the planning, scheduling and communication with Pioneer’s associate schools.   

Pioneer hosted Sophomore Open House and Second Look Open House for prospective students and their parents/guardians. Both events were very well attended and the number of applications being submitted is evidence of the hard work put in by an amazing staff.

Pioneer students have competed at the regional contests for SkillsUSA, HOSA and BPA.  A number of students have moved on to the State Contests in their student organizations.  Congratulations to these students!

Pioneer staff have recently attended professional development opportunities, conferences and training seminars.

• • Ohio ACTE Legislative Seminar and legislator visits
  • Special Education Legal Seminar
  • Ohio Educational Technology Conference
  • Stop-the-Bleed, AED, CPR training

Board Member Mike Grady reported as follows:

HB 344 which would eliminate replacement tax levies was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee on December 6 and has had no further action since then.

At the beginning of this month, the House passed HB 2 which among other capital budget items contains $600 million for the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission to use for school building improvement efforts.  The Senate is not expected to act on the bill until late April or May. Senate President Matt Huffman has indicated that the Senate will likely try to remove at least some of the House’s spending proposals.

The Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform heard invitation-only testimony from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Ohio Business Roundtable and the Ohio Farm Bureau.  The committee is tasked with reviewing Ohio’s current property tax structure and making recommendations on how to proceed with bills related to property tax reform that are pending in the General Assembly.  The committee must issue a report and recommendation by the end of the year.

After several high profile school bus accidents early in the school year a School Bus Safety Working Group was formed to make recommendations.  The group came up with 17 recommendations none of which supported seat belts in school buses.

HB 411 was introduced which would increase the base teacher salary in the state to $50,000.

Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

The Ohio Association for Career-Technical and Adult Education (ACTE) hosted the annual legislative seminar this year.  Royden Smith, Gavyn Bazley, Clay Frye, Don Paullin and I met with Richland County Representative Marilyn John, Crawford County Representative Riordan McClain and Senator Mark Romanchuk.  Our initial point of conversation was to express our gratitude for the Career-Tech Expansion Funds but we also asked them to consider some legislative changes that would address some Career-Tech teacher licensure issues as well as make it easier for businesses to take advantage of incentives available for hiring Career-Tech students under the age of 18.  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. 

I am providing you with a draft copy of the proposed 2024-2025 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.

In order to fully comply with our Negotiated Agreement as well as the contractual obligations of our administrative and classified staff I will be recommending that you approve April 8, 2024 as a paid day off for those job classifications.  It is the recommendation of the Richland County EMA that we not have staff on-site on that date because of anticipated concerns related to the upcoming solar eclipse.  We scheduled that day off for students and teachers as a part of this year’s calendar but we need to take additional action for the other job classifications.  Mr. Bazley and I are working to compile a statement to that effect and will bring it to you at the March regular meeting.

The current members of the Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP) Work Group, of which I am a member, have established a not-for-profit Corporation to continue the effort that led to our current funding mechanism as well work to ensure that the plan is fully implemented during the FY26 and FY27 biennial budget. You might remember that we are currently funded at 50% of the plan’s total full implementation amount.

CALENDAR ITEMS

• • OSBA Central Region Spring Conference – March 6

• • Pioneer All-Board Dinner – March 21

• • Spring Break – March 25 - 29

I am requesting that you grant Wynford Ag Instructor Tessa Martin 1 day of Leave Without Pay on March 27, 2024 for a family vacation.  She has consulted with the Wynford Administration and they are agreeable to this request.

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

No discussion - moved to vote

No discussion - Moved to vote

No discussion - moved to vote