May 2026 Regular Board of Education Meeting

No discussion - moved to vote.

Treasurer Bazley reported as follows:

Interest continues to pay well. What we receive this fiscal year will probably eclipsed what we forecasted most recently (with the popular thinking at that time that we’d see some rate cuts). Currently the Fed Funds futures are pricing in a Fed-on-hold scenario for the rest of 2026. Even at their March meeting showed a .25% cut this year, but there was a wide range of opinions from the Federal Open Market Committee members on the path for 2026 rates. Kevin Warsh, Trump’s pick to replace Jerome Powell was confirmed, and has not publicly committed to cutting rates, although he’s been in favor of faster rate cuts and a desire to cut rates, that could be constrained due to higher inflation.

Our Park National Money Market has a higher balance as we’ve received all of our real estate settlements. That money will stay in there and I typically pull funds to transfer to operating from there before Star Ohio because the Star Ohio rate is typically a little better. I’d rather keep the Star Ohio balance that earns more interest higher.

Nothing crazy with our fund balances. You’ll notice a difference in our general fund and our 070 fund as we executed the transfer we forecasted and Board Approved with a resolution at last month’s meeting.

Our general fund continues to track pretty closely with what we’ve forecasted. Our Real estate settlements were a little higher than anticipated and our PUPP was very close. All other revenue categories are pretty much on target with estimates. Our expenses also are tracking in line with estimates with two more months remaining in the fiscal year. Our other objects are running higher primarily due to Auditor/Treasurer fees associated with our real estate settlements. Our charts look a little wonky expenditure wise due to the transfer from the general fund to the capital projects fund as mentioned previously.

We received a letter from the Central Ohio Industrial Park requesting us to pay for our proportionate cost of a paving project for Curtis Dr. based on our “frontage”. This was a new one for me, and I reached out to our auditor from Julian & Grube just to make sure there wouldn’t be any issues during audit. While an expense like this doesn’t normally require Board Approval we wanted to bring it to your attention so you were aware and to show auditors we had Board Approval. McB paving, who we also approved last month for our Bullpen paving/resurfacing is also doing this work, and Mr. Hope shared that McB stated that is also why they were able to bid so low for our project, since they’d already be in the neighborhood.

We talked last month about the initial insurance renewal from JHP. Based on our claim experience and multiplying that by the assumed trend it called for a 27.12% and after combining that with the JHP Consortium block rate 7.98% it came to an initial renewal of 17.85% recommended increase. I met with Grady Benefits and we discussed further and looked at some data of high claimants and other history. After some discussion we have for your approval an increase of 10% which is still higher than the JHP Consortium Renewal Rate, but not as high at the initial 17.85%. While our self-insurance fund balance has decreased this fiscal year, it is still fairly strong as we have met our minimum Reserve requirement. The top three claimants are not ongoing issues at this point that should not continue to have a negative impact on our claims experience. We’ve also discussed adjusting the LCRP deductible from the current $50K threshold to $75K. We’ve looked at this every year and historically it hasn’t made much sense to make a change. They’ve increased the cost per member for this coverage by 15% meaning the cost of the coverage at the $50K deductible has made it worth changing to the $75K deductible threshold. There are not a lot of members still at the $50K deductible level and I think they’re increasing the fee to try and get members to move.

We talked about where the state budget cycle landed last month, but an even further update shows that with just two months remaining in FY26, the state GRF shows a bottom line of $1.293 billion due to a combination of revenue over estimates of $1.049 billion and expenditures below estimates by $245 million.

Superintendent Nickoli recognized Kris Kowalski, Grant Brocwell, Matt Parr, Tessa Martin, Mike Hoffman, Crystal Jennings, 

Grant Brocwell was present as EAP representative. 

None

None. 

Superintendent Nickoli reported to the Board on the following:

Senior Celebration ceremonies took place on 5/8/2026 at Pioneer. Guest speakers Doug Theaker, Pioneer Board President and Kinsley Van Dine, Senior in Homeland Security from Shelby addressed both ceremonies. Outstanding attendance from both students and their families made for excellent ceremonies.

Seniors received yard signs which have been posted in many yards in our communities already.

Data/information for the Class of 2025

All seniors have a pathway to graduation. We are working with a couple of students who are maintaining their grades in academic classes to ensure they reach the finish line.

Complete data for the class of 2026 will be ready for the June Board Meeting/Report.

Community Service Day- weather was beautiful and the day was a huge success in our communities.

Student Appreciation Field Day is scheduled for this Friday, 5/22. 

Students Last Day (cookout) 5/29

End of the year Staff Recognition Breakfast 6/1.

Supervisor Matt Parr introduced Wynford Ag instructors Tessa Martin and Mike Hoffman, as well as Wynford Family Consumer Science teacher Crystal Jennings. He also introduced Wynford Ag students Brennen Westrick, Tessa Spore, Clay Lusk, and Josh Rindfuss. The students discussed their recent trip to Oklahoma for the National Soils competition and what they did while out on that trip. They discussed the success they had and where they placed as a team as well as individually. They answered questions from Board members about their program, competitions, and future plans. 

At the end of the presentation, they honored their instructor Mike Hoffman who is retiring from teaching at the end of this school year. Many in attendance recognized the great job he has done throughout his career and how well respected he is in the state among Agriculture instructors. Mr. Nickoli stated he will be missed and a loss for Pioneer and Wynford. 

Board Member Mike Grady reported as follows:

Recently, both houses of the General Assembly  passed a number of non-consequential bills by unanimous votes covering such issues as secure lock boxes on the exterior of schools and allowing students to possess and use a nasal epinephrine delivery device. A number of committee hearings have occurred but notably, HB 715 that I reported on last month that requires some accountability for voucher funds, has not had a committee hearing scheduled. As you know we are now in the post-primary, second year of the assembly, so many bills introduced at this point are for show.  The house is now numbering bills in the 900s.

The Ontario Local Schools bond issue, the Madison Local Schools income tax issue and the Lexington Local Schools income tax issue were all defeated by large margins in the May primary election. Statewide, 24 of the 66 (36.4%) school levies on the May 2026 primary ballot passed. This passage rate is just over half the 66.7% passage rate of the May 2025 primary election when 66 of 99 school levies passed. Statewide, 12 of the 30 term-limited operating levies (40.0%) passed. 7 of the 23 continuing operating levies passed (30.4%).

Earlier this month, a 3.2 million dollar Career Technical Education Access Grant was announced through a partnership between the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and the Ohio Manufacturers' Association  to help schools develop programs that teach students the skills needed for modern manufacturing careers.

Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

May is a very busy time of the year with all the end-of-year responsibilities including partner school award assemblies and graduations. The Pioneer Awards Assembly, Senior Celebration, Crawford County BEST Awards, and Staff Retirement Party were held since our last meeting. It is so rewarding to see our students and staff recognized for their excellent work!!

Our year-end administrator work session is scheduled for June 4th. At that time, we will review our current school year progress and share relevant data and begin to plan for the 2026-2027 school year. we will be scheduling our Board Goal Setting Meeting for August where we will update you on our Strategic Planning initiatives and set our goals for the coming school year. You will receive an invitation including the time, date, and location of the meeting and an Agenda of the activities for the day later this Summer.

The office of Congressman Bob Latta reached out to me on Friday, May 1 and asked to arrange a visit the following week. We started in the Community Room with a 30-minute Q&A between Congressman Latta and our students. This was followed by a walking tour of Pioneer where he was able to speak with several of our instructors. Our staff and students were outstanding representatives of the tremendous work we are doing at Pioneer.

As a part of the HB 96, the Ohio Budget Bill, school districts are required to develop cybersecurity programs aligned with generally accepted best practices to safeguard sensitive student and staff data. We have elected to work with our ITC, NEONET to implement best practices that align with the NIST standards (National Institute of Standards and Technology). This is an ongoing process but this allows us to have our plan in place by the July 1, 2026 deadline.

CALENDAR ITEMS

05/21/26 - Adult Education Graduation

05/22/26 - Student Appreciation Day

05/27/26 - Strategic Plan Core Team

05/29/26 - Last Day for Students

06/01/26 - Staff Recognition Breakfast/Teacher Work Day

06/01/26 - Summer Hours Begin (Continues for 9 weeks)

06/08-11/26 - Pioneer Summer Camp

It is with regret that I am recommending that you accept the retirement resignation of Mrs. Rita Wiening, our CollegeNOW Business Instructor. Mrs. Wiening has been with the program since its inception and has built it into one of the premier Dual Enrollment programs in Ohio. Her retirement date is effective October 14 so we are filling this position now to allow for some training in what is a very unusual program with very unusual responsibilities.

I am also asking that you approve a change of retirement date for Mrs. Marianne Ritchie. This allows her, at no expense to Pioneer, to receive a slightly increased monthly STRS pension payment.

Finally, I have granted the voluntary transfer of Jordan Kiess, FCS Instructor at Bucyrus Secondary School to the same position at Colonel Crawford High School. After conferring with both Mr. Britton at Bucyrus and Mr. Voll at Colonel Crawford, it was determined that this request was reasonable and acceptable. This has created an FCS instructor opening at Bucyrus which we have posted and are accepting applications.

All other personnel items are common for this time year.

No discussion - moved to vote. 

No discussion - moved to vote. 

No discussion - moved to vote. 

No discussion - moved to vote.