July 2025 Regular Board of Education Meeting

No Discussion - moved to vote. 

Treasurer Bazley reported as follows:

Interest continues to pay well and Star Ohio is hovering around 4.4% After the fiscal year I closed the Park National state share bank account, we were required to keep the OSFC funds separate until the project was complete and closed out which it is and therefore we no longer have to have those funds separated and can stop allocating interest to that specific fund. We ended the fiscal year with $1,472,357 in interest earnings in the general fund. Nothing out of the ordinary as far as the bank reconciliation is concerned for this month.

I’ve included the Cash Balances by Fund report in this monthly report and will probably continue going forward. This report is generated from our state software and is the report I use to update my report every month, but thought it would be good practice to bring to you every month as well as part of the financial report. Nothing too out of the ordinary with the general fund for the final month of the fiscal year either, you’ll notice an amount in the Advances Out line item under General Fund expenses.

I’ve not historically done advances to grant accounts beside my early years as a treasurer because those accounts are allowed to be negative at Fiscal Year End as long as you are actively trying to collect on that fund, which is done with a PCR to the state. Typically, we put a PCR in right before we close and that shows our attempt to collect. The State this year had what they stated was an “appropriation issue” where our PCRs that we put in place in early June were not paid out (which they typically are by middle of the month). Since those were not approved and paid out it prevented us from entering a new PCR at fiscal year end to attempt to collect on those funds. We advanced to make those accounts zero at Fiscal Year End and will pay that back to the general fund once the PCR’s from the state are paid out. We transferred $102,734.71 from the general fund to the Adult Ed 012 account to zero out their negative fund balance and remaining Purchase Orders. ($139,039.86 last year)

Please look at the year-end financials and let me know if you have any questions or concerns and we can discuss them further if needed! My office is always open to have those conversations and answer any questions you may have. We’ll now shift to compiling the information necessary for GAAP conversion and prepare for the financial audit this fall.

HB96 was out of conference committee and submitted to the governor for his signature. The Governor line item vetoed a lot of the proposed property tax provisions that survived through conference committee as well as the prohibition of Boards paying the retirement portion of the Supt, Treasurer, and Principals. Left in place were the changes to the Five Year Forecast which we will now bring to you for approval at our September meeting (this year, and August beyond) as well as the 15% cap of administrative expenses. The new forecast approval dates for FY26 are October 15, 2025 and February 28, 2026. Going forward starting FY27 the deadlines are by August 31st and February 28th (29th for leap year). It is now a four year forecast, current year and the next three years.

The House met today to consider three line item vetoes to override, with a vote of 61-28 they voted to veto the Governor’s veto of Item No. 66 which restricted political subdivisions (including school districts) from pursuing replacement property tax levies as well as fixed sum emergency, substitute emergency, and combined school district income tax and fixed-sum property tax levies. The veto will now advance to the Senate where they will need 20 votes in the Senate for a successful override. The House previously had identified two other items for possible vetoes – Item 55 which would’ve expanded the authority of county budget commissions and Item 65 which would have revised the 20 mill floor calculation but those were not considered today.

No Guests.

No EAP Representative present. 

No Public Input.

No Correspondence.

Mr. Grady reported as follows:

Article II, Section 15 of the Ohio Constitution states, “No bill shall contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title.” 

Amended substitute House Bill 96, the state two year budget,  as passed by both houses of the general assembly and signed by the governor is 3156 pages. Among the policy rather than budget items contained in the bill is a provision eliminating the 11 elected members of the State Board of Education.  State School Board members serve without pay.   Also the bill contains a policy reducing the number of elected educators on the State Teachers Retirement Board from seven to three. STRS board members serve without pay.

As you know, Governor DeWine made 67 line-item vetoes in the state budget.  Though the house convened today to consider over-riding three of those vetoes, the General Assembly has until December 31, 2026 to attempt to over-ride any of the vetoes. 

Also of note, not-with-standing the last General Assembly’s bipartisan Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform which made 21 recommendations for property tax changes last January, the governor intends to create another working group to look at property tax policy in the state.

Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

RESOLUTION OF APPRECIATION FOR DONATION
Pioneer was the recipient of a donation from First Federal Community Bank of Bucyrus. Near the
end of June, I received a call from Jared Butler, Vice-President/Chief Information Officer inquiring
about our interest in receiving a donation of a high-end printer that they were in possession of but
had no use for. After conferring with our Graphic Arts Instructor, we determined that it would be a
very beneficial tool for our students in our Graphic Arts Lab. We will have to invest $4,000 to
$5,000 dollars to make it operational but the equipment alone is valued at over $40,000 and
would likely cost well over $50,000 to purchase new. As is the practice of this Board, I am
proposing that you approve a resolution of appreciation for this generous donation.

NOMINATION OF OSBA DELEGATE TO THE CAPITAL CONFERENCE
President Theaker has asked me to place this on the agenda. He is asking that you nominate a
delegate and alternate for the OSBA Conference November 16–18 at the Greater Columbus
Convention Center. Last Fall, Mr. Grady served as the Delegate and Mr. Blubaugh was our
alternate. Also, we will be passing around a sign-up sheet for hotel reservations at the August
Board meeting. Reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis so it will be very important
that we know if you want us to make hotel reservations. Any cancellations result in a $100
cancellation fee.

UPDATE ON SUMMER WORK & CTE EXPANSION PROJECT
Our staff has been working diligently getting the building ready for the upcoming school year. Mr.
Kowalski has been especially pleased with the summer custodial staff. They have all been
working very hard and are right on schedule. Additionally, we are doing some floor repair in our
restrooms and they turned out beautifully at a very reasonable cost. I anticipate that we will do
more next summer.

At our most recent monthly progress update meeting, it was reinforced that we will not meet our
August 1 deadline for our Expansion Project. This is a result of the continued delay of the
delivery of the bus bars and electrical switchboard. They are scheduled to be delivered on
August 28 and will take several weeks to install. Other work has progressed smoothly and we
are very pleased with the work of Fanning-Howey and Studer-Obringer.

CAFETERIAL EXPANSION STUDY
I previously mentioned that one of our largest concerns was the seating capacity of our cafeteria
and we commissioned a cost-study for an expansion as well as a cover to the walkway leading to
the student entrance. We also included the renovation of an existing classroom into a Science
Lab. Mr. Bazley and I agree that we have the funding available to proceed cautiously with the
cafeteria expansion. Our next step is to advertise a Request for Qualifications which Mr.
Kowalski will do. This will be similar to the process we used to select an architect for our
expansion project.

POLICY UPDATE
I have made available to you at your places the NEOLA Cell Phone Policy that was released this
morning. Mr. Frye and I reviewed it this afternoon and will bring it to the Board for your approval
at the August Meeting. This will keep us in compliance with HB96 that was recently passed and
signed into law. It should be noted that there is some flexibility in the NEOLA language.

BOARD OF EDUCATION GOAL SETTING FOR THE 2025-2026 SCHOOL YEAR
I’d like to invite you to our Annual Board Goal Setting session for the 2025-2026 academic year.
It will be conducted the morning of August 2nd from 8:00am until Noon in the Community Room
here at Pioneer. This year’s format will include a report by our Action Teams for this most recent
year’s work as well as an introduction and goal writing for our new Strategic Objectives that are a
part of 5-year Strategic Plan. We look forward to Board Members joining the Administrative
Team as we set the direction for Pioneer for the coming school year.

CALENDAR ITEMS

o August 1 - Board Goal Setting Session 8:00am
o August 6-8 - Welcome Week
o August 14 - New Staff Orientation Day
o August 15 - New Staff Professional Development Day
o August 18 - Returning Teacher Day
o August 19 - First Day of School for Juniors
o August 20 - First Day of School for Seniors

PERSONNEL
I am pleased to recommend the re-employment of Mr. Kris Kowalski in the position of Director of
Business Affairs and Mr. Dan Burtscher as our Student Services/EMIS Coordinator. Both
submitted their retirement notices last month and will resume their work on August 1 st . As I
mentioned last month, we are very fortunate to have both of them in their current positions as
they bring a wealth of outstanding experience and knowledge to Pioneer.
I am also pleased to recommend the employment to several new instructors to Pioneer’s teaching
staff.
Josh Barnett comes to us from MyFloors of Galion where is worked for over 20 years doing
renovations, specializing in kitchens and bathrooms. He will fill our vacant Home Remodeling
Instructor position.
Mike Thompson will full our new First Responder Instructor position and comes to us after serving
as the Chief of the City of Shelby Fire Department for many years. We are very fortunate to have
someone with his vast experience instructing our students in this new program.
Carlos Smith will be joining our Satellite Staff as a Construction Technology Instructor at Lucas.
He also comes with over 20 years of experience in the field and will do a great job for our Lucas
Middle and High School students.
You will also note that we have Levi Myers on our staff as a Shelby Satellite Instructor for 1/8 pay.
As we have done in the past with Randy Eisenhauer, who is retiring, we will pay Levi to teach 1
period of ag per day to our students. Levi is the new Ag Instructor at Shelby High School.
Finally, I bring to your attention a correction to the salary schedule placement of a previously
employed instructor. Upon receiving the official transcripts of Heidi Rietschlin, whom we
employed at the April Board Meeting, we discovered that she should have been placed on the
Master’s +30 column of our salary schedule.
All other personnel items are normal for this time of the year.

No discussion - moved to vote.

No discussion - moved to vote. 

Bill Hope Nominated Mike Grady as Delegate and Chris Rothhaar as Alternate for the Annual OSBA Business Meeting. Mary Jean Theaker seconded.

No discussion - moved to vote.