August 2026 Regular Board of Education Meeting

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Treasurer Bazley reported as follows:

No change interest rates as of yet, they’re staying fairly consistent. I’d guess the Fed will hold rates steady at their September meeting, the futures market is pricing in one quarter-point rate hike by year-end, compared to the expectations of 2.5 quarter-point cuts at the start of the year. We shall see. Nothing crazy with our bank reconciliation for July. Fairly a quiet month activity wise for the most part. We’ve almost expended all of our OFCC expansion grant funds at this point as that project gets closer to the finish line. Nothing out of the ordinary with our July revenue compared to last year. The main result of the variance is that we received Crawford’s tax settlement this July, and last year we had not received any tax settlements in July. We also returned an advance last July, and we did not advance this past June. Nothing crazy with the variance in expenses, just the timing of when some yearly bills got paid in comparison to last year.

We did already receive Crawford County’s real estate tax settlement. They were our biggest impact with the HB186 clawback. As we had a clawback/adjustment amount of $390,265.56. If you recall in February we had discussed that we received some of the delinquent funds from Rover from their settlement on the first half 2025 settlement, they paid their 2025 tax after the close of first half settlement, so this 2^nd half settlement had both the first and second half payment on it.

With the calendar change to July it also triggered the final year of the current Biennial Budget, which is now at 100% rather than the % phase in over time. It of course is based on old outdated inputs for the district (cost side) and updated on the state side of the formula to reflect the updated values which in turn makes districts look wealthier than they are. They added some additional funding outside of the formula in the last budget. We of course have no idea what the next biennial budget will look like, it’ll largely depend on who Governor is and whether the Republicans can maintain their supermajority.

Shortly we will discuss the Five (Four) Year Forecast as those deadlines for submission have changed with provisions also in our last Biennial Budget. We now have to approve and file the initial forecast in prior to August 31^st, and the update by the end of February. This makes an already difficult process even more difficult.

It was announced at the end of May, and we did have a representative from the AOS stop in over the summer and present Pioneer with the Auditor of State Award for our clean audit for FY2025. This award is a testament to our Board Office staff, Admin team, and entire staff for putting good procedures and protocols in place and following them to ensure operations are done the right way.

Now that the new fiscal year is under way we are in the process of adding new staff members into the payroll system, adding the new compensations for staff into payroll and balancing that out as well as preparing budgets for the next year. As mentioned last month we have begun the process of gathering what we need for the GAAP report, preparing for the audit field work to begin soon, and will complete getting the appropriations ready for final approval at next month’s Board Meeting.

As you may have already seen from news releases, we were one of 10 career centers to receive $320,000 from a $3.2 million grant that originated from the Ohio Manufacturer Alliance. We wrote the full amount of that grant to be used for equipment to run a satellite program at Lexington for MS and HS students. We will use this school year for planning with Lexington to plan to operate the program next school year.

Now let's shift to discussing the Five Year Forecast.

The biggest difference in our Forecast compared to our February filing has to do with HB186 and the claw back. When we filed in February, we weren’t sure how that would play out. We were subject to a clawback of $390,460 in value for Crawford County, $45k for Huron, and $6,800 for Wyandot. For FY27 this is a year and a half of clawback amount and then going forward it is a $442k clawback amount from current values going forward. We are reimbursed for FY27 of the $442k amount. Going forward we are only projecting real estate values at or under the projected GDP deflator to avoid inflating our real estate revenue growth. Of course the risk to this revenue is any further property tax reform legislation and the ballot initiative is still hanging out there as that group continues to pursue potentially getting on the ballot in 2027.

Our Public Utility amount remains fairly in line with what we projected previously.

Our state foundation has been updated with our July payment and data pertaining to our state funding. The levels are frozen going forward outside of modest growth in the casino tax revenue distribution per pupil amount in future years. This initial forecast involves not one, but two biennial budgets within it. We not only have a new biennial budget next year, but it’ll be done with a new governor and potentially a shift in seats between political parties between the House/Senate depending on what happens with the November elections. When we file the update in February, we’ll still likely have no idea what the next biennial budget will look like.

Our State reimbursement of property tax credits is higher this fiscal year as we will see the reimbursement of the $448k clawback amount this fiscal year, and increase going forward above historical norms as HB96 also began a phase in of the OOC credit with a phase down of the 10% rollback credit. Our other state revenue is higher than previous filing just based on the change in thinking of what the Fed will do with rates. It seems more popular that they will hold rates for a while, potentially a hike, rather than the cuts previously thought to be on the horizon.

Not too much changed with our salaries, we’re in the final year of our current Negotiated agreement which calls for the 3% for certified and 2.5% for classified. We’ll negotiate this spring and will see what happens with that for future years. We’ve received a grant for a new satellite program at Lexington MS and HS and will most likely have to add a staff member for FY28 along with that. We just experienced the 10% insurance renewal this year, I’ve projected 15% for future years, hoping that is conservative, but I thought 10% was conservative in the past. That sort of increase of course isn’t sustainable and if that comes to fruition plan change discussions will have to be at the forefront.

Purchased services contain CCP, Legal Services, contracted educational services, utility costs, mileage/meeting expense, repairs and maintenance, liability insurance, etc. Purchased Services and Supplies amounts are in line what we forecasted previously and account for inflationary increases in future years based on what we know now. Changing curriculum and programs could of course have an effect on these line items and we will watch them closely.

We’re continuing to forecast equipment expenditures out of the general fund going forward. We’re planning on $1 million per year, but will adjust as needed and going forward. We’ve approved our capital plan, but really need to take a look at our lab equipment, maintenance and operational equipment, and vehicles.

We’ve factored inflationary increases in for our other expenses which include county auditor fees, financial audit fees, other expenses (liability insurances, dues/fees).

Our transfers out consist of transfers to our 034-maintenance fund while paying our COPS bonds, transfer to Permanent Improvement fund, and potential transfers to our Adult Ed fund. These are in line with historical amounts.

Jeni Stewart was present as the EAP Representative. 

No public input. 

No Correspondence. 

Jolene Young presented to the Board regarding the new Chronic Absenteeism rules and the plan that Pioneer has put in place as required by the State. 

Director Frye reported on the 2026-2027 Board Goals that were developed during the Board Goal Setting Session with Administrators and Board Members. 

No Legislative Liaison report. 

Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

Our entire staff is very excited for the start of the new school year. The Administrative Staff put together an outstanding orientation and training for our new staff. Welcome Week was as smooth and well-organized as any I can remember. Our nine new staff members were welcomed to Pioneer Friday and today and our returning staff will be back tomorrow morning. Wednesday, we’ll have students new to Pioneer in for an exciting day and Thursday will mark the first day with all students. You should be very proud of the work everyone, including our custodial and maintenance staff has done to make the start of the 2026-2027 school year absolutely amazing.

On Wednesday, August 5th the Administrative Team was joined by Mr. and Mrs. Theaker, Mr. McFarland, and Mr. Grady for our annual Board Goalsetting Session. They heard reports on our Strategic Planning process and crafted outstanding goals for the 2026-2027 school year.

As you heard from Mrs. Young, we are instituting additional steps to combat chronic absenteeism for the 2026-2027 school year.

I am recommending that you approve a Memorandum of Understanding with the Wynford Local Schools to offer a Middle School Career Exploration Class for their 7th and 8th graders. This is a 3/8th position so we have identified a person who will teach 2 periods-a-day and also be scheduled for a Prep period.

I am asking you to approve a Change Oder for our Paving Project for three reasons.

1) During our Bullpen repaving project this summer we identified some locations to the North of the building, behind Auto Tech, that were very thin and that it would likely lead to the need for repaving much earlier than the rest of the surface. 2) Secondly, there was a catch basin that wasn’t functioning properly. 3) Thirdly, we added bollards to the new parking area to protect an electrical transformer and gas line.

I am also asking you to approve a resolution to purchase a school bus. As in the past, we are purchasing a used bus, in this case, a 2015 72-passenger Blue Bird just over 95,000 miles for $13,000. Since we don’t run daily routes, used busses are reliable for many years for us.

After consulting with legal counsel, we are preparing to re-bid our cafeteria expansion project. No additional Board action is required prior to re-bidding, of course, we will ask the Board to approve the successful bid after the process is completed and prior to taking any further action.

I am passing around a sign-up sheet for the OSBA Central Region Fall Conference to be held a Villa Milano in Columbus on Wednesday, September 16th at 5:30pm. Please let me know of your interest in attending and if you would like to car pool down.

I am also passing around a sign-up sheet for the November 15-17 OSBA Capital Conference. if you would like to stay overnight and in order to secure a hotel room, please let Mindy know by Monday, September 14th. Hotel rooms in the Convention Center go fast so Mindy will need to schedule rooms first-thing Tuesday morning.

I am pleased to recommend the hiring of David Mason as the Career Exploration Instructor at Wynford Middle School. This position is created by the MOU with the Wynford Local Schools that I spoke about earlier.

I am also recommending that you approve the contract adjustments for two of our Instructors who are moving from Academic Instructors to Career-Tech Instructors. Were they hired directly as Career-Tech Instructors they would have been given credit on our salary schedule for the professional experience. This is a first-time occurrence at Pioneer but the regular practice at other Career Centers in this situation.

I am recommending that you approve the transfer of Grant Sproule from our In-School Detention Aide to the Online Learning Aide and subsequently the employment of Julie Harless as an Educational Aide in our In-School Detention Room.

All other items are common for this time of year.

Calendar Items

August 17 - New Staff Professional Development Day

August 18 - Returning Staff Day

August 19 - First Day for 1st Year Students

August 20 - First Day for All Students

September 17 - All-Advisory Committee Dinner

September 25 - Pastries with Parents

October 9 - Staff Professional Development Day

October 8 & 15 - Parent-Teacher Conferences

October 16 - End of 1st Grading Period

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