November 2024 Regular Board of Education Meeting

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Treasurer Bazley reported as follows:

It has officially been a year of my employment with Pioneer as of the first of this month. How fast the time goes. I want to again thank each of you for selecting me for this position and I look forward to continuing to work with you all!

Nothing groundbreaking with our financials for the month of October. We are mostly in line with our revenue when comparing them to this point last year, Real Estate and PUPP are up a little bit and the rest of the difference is due to the expected increased state funding and higher interest earnings so far this year. No surprising differences in comparing expenses to this point last year either, Salaries and benefits are a little up as expected, the biggest difference is in purchased services which correlates to the one time drawback of CCP funds that occurred in September due to the issue with NC State last winter.

Interest continues to pay well, although the Fed did follow up their September rate cut with a 25 basis points rate cut this month. This now has the Federal Funds rate in a range of 4.50% to 4.75%. We will watch to see what the Fed does as they monitor the economy and of course what effect the election results has on any future rate cuts.

We held the Records Commission annual meeting and the Finance Committee meeting prior to our Board Meeting. The Records commission approved the records retention schedule and disposal of records. The Finance Committee heard a short narrative on the five-year forecast that I will go over shortly.

We have implemented a new way to Onboard new staff that went live this month. We will utilize SCView for new employee paperwork. We will get an email from new employees and then through SCView we can send a link they can click on and fill out employment paperwork that way. It is a neat feature, the first page is general employee information and after they enter that (name, DOB, etc.) it’ll automatically populate those fields on all of the other forms. I know Crestview and Shelby are utilizing this feature and have given positive feedback, I have been impressed with it so far.

We should start to hear the first rumblings regarding the next biennial budget here soon, the Governor has to present an initial budget by the end of January and then it will go to committee in the House, then to the Senate, and then conference committee to reconcile the differences. The thought is that the last two years of the FSFP phase in will be included (from Aaron Rasuch), the question is whether the base cost inputs will be updated to more recent data. What might work in the favor of that happening is that the voucher/charter school funding amounts are tied to the K-12 funding base costs. If our funding increases due to those updates so will the vouchers. But with OBM adjusting their revenue estimates downward and the increased expenses due to vouchers it will make for an interesting budget preparation cycle.

Five Year Forecast:

• Projecting some growth with real estate taxes due to valuations increasing. This of course could be affected depending on what the legislature decides to do with Property Tax Relief. The hope is that it will be targeted and potentially a “circuit breaker” proposal targeted to help those truly struggling with paying their property tax bill. Will cost the state some money in the budget, but is better than the discussion that relates to adjusting the 20 mill floor. The question also would be if they decide to adjust the 20 mill floor, do they adjust the Career Center’s 2 mill floor proportionately?
• PUPP – The biggest question surrounding PUPP continues to be Rover. Attempts to resolve the appeal through mediation between the Department of Taxation and all impacted County Auditors at the request of Rover were unsuccessful and the case proceeds to the Ohio Supreme Court, the soonest a decision on this matter isn’t expected until 2026 at the earliest. A saga that begun in 2019 continues..
• State funding has been forecasted to remain essentially the same, the only difference being a bump in FY2027 due to factoring in some growth in enrollment due to the expansion project being projected to be completed and in operation. This will of course be affected by the next two biennial budgets and what the legislature decides on state funding. The hope is they implement the last two phase in years of the FSFP formula and update the inputs. I have heard from Aaron Rausch and someone from DEW in school funding that the expectation and hope is that at least the last two years of the phase in will be included. What works in our favor regarding updating the inputs is that the voucher amounts are tied to the formula, so if the inputs are updated and it increases our per pupil funding, it will also increase the funding per pupil for the universal vouchers. That could appeal to the faction of voucher supporters in the state legislature.
• All other revenues consist of interest earnings, class fees, MH tax, abatements, etc. I am projecting a slight decline in interest earnings compared to the previous year as the Fed has done two slight rate cuts already.
• Salaries and benefits increase with the negotiated agreement we have in place and increase with some additional staff in FY27 again related to the expectation of the two new labs being operational and functioning. FY25 factors in the 4.65% that we saw this year and projects 10% throughout the rest of the forecast. That could be too high, that could be too low, that is of course dependent on our claims compared to our premiums remitted.
• Purchased Services contain CCP, Legal services, contracted educational service, utility costs, mileage/meeting expenses, repairs and maintenance, liability insurance, etc. We have adjusted it upwards with an expectation of things continuing to get more expensive, the curveball is in FY26 there will be a new electric capacity charge that will be assessed on all electric bills to help expand Ohio’s electric generating ability and will begin June 2025 and end June 2026, we are projecting a 20% increase to our electric costs for FY26. CCP is projected at an increase in FY25 due to the one time clawback from DEW due to the issue with NC State and them not reporting their classes in time for our CCP deduction to occur. Increase 5% in FY25 and 4% throughout rest of the forecast
• Our Other expenses include county auditor/treasurer fees for collecting property tax, our annual financial audit, other expenses (liability insurance, dues/fees) and are projected to increase 1% annually
• Transfer Outs – P.I. transfer (increased to $800k in FY25, $500k in FY26, and then normal $400k through rest of forecast. Maintenance transfer, and transfer to Adult Ed, Food service if necessary

Mr. Nickoli recognized Mr. Frye, Mrs. Young, Mr. Kowalski, Molly Belcik, Matt Parr, Wynford Ag instructors Tessa Martin and Mike Hoffman, as well as four Wynford Ag Students: Clay Lusk, Seth Pope, Marty Schuster, and Nate Schiefer.

Molly Belcik was in attendance as the EAP Representative

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Pioneer’s Veterans Day Assemblies took place on November 11th- assemblies were held in the morning and afternoon to allow all Pioneer students to attend. Keynote speaker for both assemblies was Mr. Doug Theaker, Pioneer Board of Education President. Pioneer’s National Technical Honor Society students assisted with the planning of the assembly under the guidance of Social Studies instructor Robin Hager and Career Development staff member Vickie Hunt. Students from Pioneer’s NTHS leadership team were the emcee’s of the assembly, Homeland Security and Criminal Justice students led the Presentation of Colors, our Media Communications students created a video thanking veterans, and Performing Arts students sang the National Anthem.

Pioneer recently hosted 8 staff members from our Partner Schools at our Live and Learn Day. Teachers from Ontario, Northmor, Buckeye Central and Lexington participated in numerous activities that helped connect our students and staff with our community.

Pioneer’s Student Service Department is out visiting sophomores in all 14 partner schools to begin the recruitment process. This will continue into December and sophomores will choose the programs they wish to visit when touring Pioneer during Sophomore Visitation Days in January.  Shortly after completing recruitment visits, Student Services will proctor over 800 OST tests in December for our students. 

Pioneer’s Thanksgiving Feast will take place on Tuesday, November 26th for all of our students. A traditional thanksgiving meal will be prepared and served to students. Meat and Animal Science, Culinary Arts and our Cafeteria Staff work hard to make this meal possible, and Pioneer administrators and office staff serve dessert to students as well.

Mr. Parr introduced Mike Hoffman and Tessa Martin, the Wynford Ag instructors. Mrs. Martin and Mr. Hoffman introduced the four students that won state competition for soil judging as a team. Clay Lusk, Seth Pope, Marty Schuster, and Nate Schiefer introduced themselves as well as talked about what their competition event was and where they placed individually. These four students will also get to go to National Convention and compete there. 

A Records Commission Meeting was held prior to the Board of Education
Meeting Monday evening starting at 5:30 pm. The persons scheduled to
attend were Doug Theaker, Board President; Greg Nickoli, Superintendent;
Gavyn Bazley, Treasurer and Kara Rowlinson Assistant Treasurer. We
reviewed the records that are outdated and can be destroyed.

A Finance Committee Meeting was held at 5:45 pm prior to the Board of
Education Meeting. At this meeting we reviewed the five (5) year forecast.
The persons scheduled to attend were: Doug Theaker, Board President;
Dennis Long, Board Vice-President, Board Member; Bill Hope, Board
Member, Greg Nickoli, Superintendent; and Gavyn Bazley, Treasurer.

On October 31, we had a follow-up Zoom meeting with representatives from
Fanning-Howey to assess ideas related to the Cafeteria Expansion Cost
Study I’ve mentioned previously. They came back with some preliminary
renderings that are creative and much more suitable as well as likely to be
much more cost-effective. At this point, Mr. Bazley and I believe we may
be able to move forward with the project, however, we are still awaiting cost
estimates.

Our Social Studies Department, led by Social Studies Teacher Robin Hager,
and several programs did an excellent job remembering our veterans the
week of Veterans Day. I am proud to report that our students were not only
well-behaved but also showed great reverence for the service of our
Veterans. Thank you to Mr. Theaker for attending and severing as our
keynote speaker for the event.

Tuesday, November 26 th , we will be holding our annual Thanksgiving Lunch
complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, a vegetable and pumpkin
pie for dessert. Please feel free to join us as we celebrate the holiday with
our students.

Items 16-22 of tonight’s agenda are agreements with area health care
providers for clinical settings for our LPN program, set to begin it’s first
class in January. Given that we expect to have approximately 25 students in
the first class we have reached out several area providers to ensure the
appropriate number and variety of experiences for students.

As in past years, I am suggesting that we move our January Organizational
and the regular January meeting to a date later in the month. I’d tentatively
suggest we move this year’s January meeting to Wednesday, January 22 nd .
This accommodates our Partner Board’s meetings at which they appoint
members to our Board since they are required to have their Organizational
Meetings by January 15 th .

11/20 – Ralph Phillips Business Partner of the Year Dinner
11/26 – Thanksgiving Luncheon for Students
12/6 – Board Holiday Dinner provided by Culinary Arts Students
o We will have the dinner immediately following the December
Board Meeting which will be held in the Pioneer Room.

12/20 – Holiday Open House

I have asked our English Department to develop our English curriculum for
the next five years. They used some of our October Professional
Development Day for this work but it is an extensive project and will require
more time outside of their normal working hours. I am recommending
supplemental contracts at their per diem rate for up to 14 hours. This time
and work will documented on timesheets by our Academic Supervisor,
Shannon Sprang.
All other personnel recommendations are common for this time of year.

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