October 2025 Regular Board of Education Meeting

Treasurer Bazley reported as follows:

Nothing out of the ordinary as far as monthly financials for September goes. Our revenues are up over last year, the biggest differences being our real estate revenue is up, PUPP is up, and state funding is up. Our expenses are also on track with what was forecasted.

We are now being funded on our current enrollment, this month was a little lower than expected as we work with some of our partner schools to get their reporting corrected so that we can get the funding pointed to us. Once those are corrected the annual amount on our state funding will be updated accordingly from the state.

We had a “surprise” STRS and SERS audit from the Ohio Auditor’s office. I’ve been through one when I was treasurer at Plymouth. They take a look at certain reports you send them from STRS and SERS and then we have to provide documentation (salary schedule, stipend contracts, etc) so that they can see what we contributed to STRS/SERS matches what we actually paid. They’re typically quick and painless, but this one was more of a pain because it was completed by someone from a different Auditor region, I’m assuming due to staffing issues at the AOS. Plus they reached out to send their testing and let me know about the audit right before our daughter was born, so that delayed them getting their information slightly. They have everything they need and should be wrapping it up soon. I don’t expect any issues or findings from that audit.

You should have received an email from Julian & Grube with a link to a Fraud Questionnaire, please complete this if you would like to, if you do not complete it the auditors assume there are no concerns of fraud. The auditors will be here starting tomorrow and plan to be here for three days in person, then the rest of the work will be done remote. I’m hopeful that by the time they leave the office they have the audit work pretty close to complete. They do a hybrid of in office for a couple of days and then do the rest of the work remotely.

The Fiscal Year 2025 Perkins and ECE grants have all been closed out and the Final Expenditure Reports complete. We approved the Forecast and Permanent Appropriations last month so we are ahead of the game for this year.

The State continues to discuss “Property Tax Relief” but of course want it to come at the expense of the local entities. Greg and I went to a meeting with the County Commissioners to discuss the Homestead and Homeowners 2.5% credit piggyback extension that was included in HB96. The room was filled with representation from the local schools, townships, municipalities, etc. voicing concern over the provision and asking the commissioners not to act as the legislators are just passing the buck from Columbus. The commissioners took no action, they have another meeting scheduled for this Thursday at 11:00 am at the Courthouse, I suspect they’ll decide on action at this meeting. They can choose to do the Homestead exemption (those that meet certain age, disability, and income requirements) only which would result in a $72,165.88 revenue loss for us, the owner occupied 2.5% only which would result in a $20,966.95 revenue loss for Pioneer, or both which would result in $93,021.34 revenue loss. The rumor is the commissioners are going to do the lesser (owner occupied) so they can “say they did something”. The only rebuttal from Commissioner Vero at the first meeting was “the referendum to eliminate property tax” and they’ve “been getting calls to do something”.

There isn’t much talk as far as additional legislation for property tax relief, Huffman is keeping their plans close to the vest, but I would expect some additional legislation forthcoming. HB186 and HB335 are scheduled for a vote in the House Ways & Means committee tomorrow. These bills would cap revenue growth at the 20 and 2 mill floor to the rate of inflation (GDP deflator) beginning tax year 2025 and cap growth of inside millage at the rate of inflation (GPD deflator). I could also see the Governor’s Property tax working group recommendation of capping a carryover balance at 100% of prior year expenditures becoming legislation, which is why Greg and I have discussed coming up with a Facilities Plan to earmark some of the money that currently sits in our carryover for specific items and transferring them to the 070 capital projects fund.

No EAP representative

No public input

 

No correspondence

Director Frye reported on the following:

 

Parent/Teacher Conferences and Senior Parent Night

Fall Advisory Committee Meeting and Dinner this Thursday

8th Grade Tours November 3rd-10th

    Student Ambassadors

Electrical Trades program

Red Ribbon Week

5 Star Celebration

 

 

Mr. Burtscher reported to the Board the results of Pioneer's District Report Card and all the factors that go into it. Mr. Burtscher also discussed the history of the rating we have received on the Report Card compared to the current year. 

Mr. Grady reported as follows:

–Ohio Sen. Jon Husted on Friday introduced legislation aimed at helping low-income students stay enrolled in career and technical education programs without putting their families’ food assistance at risk.

The Food Eligibility for Education and Development (FEED) Act would update Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) rules so students ages 18 to 21 enrolled in approved CTE programs could work part-time without their earnings counting against their household’s benefits.

 

–Earlier in this century, Ohio had nine income tax brackets with the top rate being 7.5%.  The current biennium budget eliminated the 3.5 % tax rate beginning in 2026 resulting in a flat income tax of 2.75%.  The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates this change will result in a loss of 1.1 billion dollars to the state.  According to the Ohio Education Policy Institute, reduced state support is forcing schools and local governments to raise property taxes, leaving Ohio with the eight highest property tax rate nationally while the state's overall tax burden ranks 46th in the country.  Homeowners and farmers now carry 67.5% of school property taxes, up from 46.1% in 1975.  The challenges of funding at the local level are currently evident in at least three Richland County school districts.

Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

FIVE-STAR CELEBRATION

We recently celebrated our Five-Star designation by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce on our 2025 School Report Card. A lunch was provided to all staff members in a festively decorated Pioneer Room during our three lunch periods. It was very well received by staff members who graciously thanked us for the gesture. A special thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Theaker and Mr. Hope who were in attendance to help us celebrate.

BUSINESS ADVISORY COUNCIL

On October 15th we hosted Pioneer’s Fall Business Advisory Council. Since October is Manufacturing month, we invited approximately 30 representatives of manufacturing companies in our region. Over 20 companies and organizations were represented by. We heard from Team NEO which is the Economic Development Organization representing Northeast Ohio of which Richland County is a part. We also heard a presentation by a representative of the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation on Safety and Healthy Living supports provided by the Bureau.

 

BUSINESS ADVISORY PLAN

Our Business Advisory Plan is being submitted for your review and approval. We have submitted these documents to the Ohio Department of Education for their inclusion on the list of Approved BAC’s.

SHELBY CITY COUNCIL CRA TAX EXEMPTION REQUEST

We received notification that the Shelby City Council is considering a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) tax abatement. The request is being made in conjunction with the eventual rehabilitation of the bank building located at the intersection of West Main Street and South Gamble Street in the heart of Shelby. It is anticipated that the former bank building will become a restaurant on the first floor with hotel rooms occupying the second floor. Having conferred with Shelby Superintendent Michael Browning, who indicated that the Shelby City School Board approved this request, I am recommending that you do as well.

REDUCTION IN FORCE

As previously reported, enrollment is very strong this school year. Our only program on the RIF list this year is our Meat & Animal Science Program which will continue to be combined. This has been the case for many years due to the nature of the work done in the lab.

PROGRAM                        Meat and Animal Science

TEACHER                           Phil Johnson

TYPE OF LETTER               RIF

DESCRIPTION                    Combined with no 1/8 pay 3 - 1st year 5 - 2nd year

 

CAFETERIA EXPANSION PROJECT

I am including the agreement with Fanning-Howey to serve as our design firm on our Cafeteria Expansion Project. Mr. Kowalski solicited bids for this service and while we received several inquires for the project, we received only two bids. Fanning-Howey was selected by our selection committee and we are certain that they will do an outstanding job on this project.

FACILITIES PLAN

As we enter the 14th year since the most recent comprehensive work was done on nearly all of our labs and most of our facilities, I am convening a small group to begin to plan for a “refresh” of many of our educational spaces as well as our building infrastructure, the first phase of which is our Cafeteria Expansion to accommodate our increasing enrollment. Our maintenance and custodial staff has done an outstanding job of providing preventative maintenance and repairs when needed but we feel it’s prudent to plan for the long-term viability of our facility. Mr. Bazley and I have worked together to begin to budget for these much-needed improvements and we will come to the Board in the coming months with a more detailed plan.

CALANDAR ITEMS

 

October 23 - All-Advisory Committee Dinner Meeting

November 3-10 - 8th Grade Tours

November 11 - Veteran’s Day Celebration

November 16-18 - Ohio School Boards Association Capital Conference & Trade Show

November 20 - Ralph Phillips Business Partner of the Year

Dinner

PERSONNEL

I am asking that you accept the retirement resignation of Mr. Alan Sears, an outstanding Math Instructor who has served his entire career at Pioneer. He started his career at Pioneer in the Fall of 1994 and has continually been among our most devoted and successful academic instructors. His hard work and dedication to the students at Pioneer is greatly appreciated and we wish him the best in retirement.

All other items are common for this time of year.