September 2026 Regular Board of Education Meeting

No discussion - moved to vote.

Treasurer Bazley reported as follows:

Nothing too crazy with our monthly financials two months into the fiscal year. Interest is performing well, and the Fed reserve did implement a 25 basis point rate increase at their September 16th meeting. We’ll see what happens with rates going forward. Nothing out of the ordinary with our bank reconciliation. Our fund balances are also about normal. We have about $6,000 left in our 495 career tech construction grant fund. We’re awaiting one more PayApp from the Architect/Contractor to be paid out so that we can get that project closed out. It should be completed and closed out at the end of this month as it needs to be. We’ll complete the FERs for our grants by the end of this month and submit them for the FY26 grants.

The biggest thing to note/point out in our general fund this month is the $448,840 HB 186 ICC clawback. This is the one time “hold harmless” payment from the state with their property tax relief bills that were passed. Due to the wording of the law, collectively some school districts were reimbursed $54 million more in reimbursements and others were reimbursed $15 million less than their taxpayers were credited with the ICC, a net result of $39 million more paid by the state. This is because ODT included other fund tax levies in the TY24 guarantee instead of just general fund. We will have to watch this as we were overpaid in reality by about $6k according to our ICC credits, but according to the ODT calculations we were overpaid $12k because they left Wyandot off for us. We’ll have to monitor it to make sure they don’t claw back more than they should, if they do claw back the overpayments.

Our biggest reason for the difference in revenue between this year and last has to do with real estate settlements. At this point last year we had received all of our tax settlements, and this year we are still awaiting Richland County (our biggest) and Ashland County. The latest I’ve heard is that Richland is still maybe this week or the first week in October before we’ll receive that settlement.

The biggest difference in expenses for this August compared to last is really the equipment expenditures. That mostly has to do with some orders placed last year that didn’t get paid until this fiscal year. We’re planning to move up the ordering timeline for equipment this year for several different reasons, but to try and avoid delays in getting equipment and getting things ordered closer to when the equipment requests are actually submitted.

Tonight I also have for your approval the FY27 Appropriations. We legally have to have these Board Approved and filed with the County Auditor by September 30th every year to get a certificate back stating we are not appropriating more than we have available. Nothing really out of the ordinary, the General Fund Appropriations match the Forecast we approved last month. Other funds are mostly based on historical spending trends, we are appropriating for the rebid of the cafeteria expansion. We do have an adjustment to our certificated resources for your approval, this is due to having more grant eligible kids than anticipated and compared to last year.

The 412 Certificates are also included in this report. They are certificates stating that Pioneer has the monies to cover health insurance, salaries and appropriations. Essentially between our revenue and cash balance we can cover all the forecasted expenses for each fund. This is for audit compliance, and our auditors ask for them every year.

We don’t have to take any action tonight on moving meetings, but did want to get on your radar and talk potentially moving our November and December Board Meeting dates. Our November meeting is currently scheduled for November 16th and would conflict with the OSBA Capital Conference. Our December meeting is currently scheduled for December 21st, and with that being our Christmas break, there wouldn’t be culinary students around to be able to have our typical Holiday Dinner put on by our amazing culinary students. If we wanted to move that meeting up a week, we’d suggest Tuesday, December 15th, to avoid conflicting with any of our current Board Member’s home school meetings.

No discussion - moved to vote.

Mr. Nickoli recognized guests, Mr. Frye, Mr. Kowalski, and Amanda Glessner.

Amanda Glessner present as EAP Representative.

No public input.

No correspondence.

Director Frye reported on the following:

Pioneer held our Senior Job Fair on 9/4/2026. 79 employers were in attendance. The Job Fair was very well organized and ran smoothly. Academic staff prepared seniors and assisted with resumes.

Many businesses hired a student at the job fair

A few businesses will hire when students turn 18 years of age

Over 30 businesses expressed interest in joining a career tech program advisory committee
 

Pioneer hosted our Fall Business Advisory Dinner and Meetings. Pasta dinner was prepared and served by Pioneer’s Culinary Arts Program. 

Labs out in the community and welcoming guest speakers already

Ohio Valley Manufacturing- visit and recruitment of students

Masonry- retaining wall community project

Carpentry- home siding community project

Industrial Diesel- motorhome service and tire replacement project

Performing Arts- Crestline Harvest Festival
 

Pastries with Parents- September 25th at 8:00am

Staff Inservice Day- October 9th

Mr. Burtscher presented to the Board Pioneer's 5 star report card and discussed all of the categories and everything that goes in to the report card and the scoring of each one. 

Board Member Mike Grady gave the legislative report:

Since our full time state legislature has not met since June, I thought it might be enlightening to briefly discuss the process by which the Ohio School Board Association establishes its legislative platform.  The purpose of the Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) Legislative Platform is to state  publicly OSBA’s positions on a variety of issues facing public education. The platform conveys to legislators, policymakers, the public and the media where OSBA stands. The platform guides OSBA’s advocacy efforts.Each item in the platform has been approved by 75% of voting delegates.  Any changes, additions, deletions in the platform need to be approved by 75% of delegates.  Each board of education in the state is entitled to appoint one of its members as a delegate to vote at the OSBA Delegate Assembly annual business meeting.  Hence, the Columbus Board of Education has one vote as does the PCTC Board of Education.

Districts can submit items to the platform committee in the spring.  The platform committee meets in August to propose changes to the platform.  Additionally, there is a process to propose changes from the floor of the meeting.  Individual delegates can address the assembly before a vote is taken on changes.

Superintendent Nickoli reported as follows:

We are proud to, once again, have earned a 5-star rating on the 2025-2026 School Report Card that
was released last week. Our staff and students work very hard to achieve a delicate balance
between meeting the demands of both the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and our
local employers. We are planning a staff event to celebrate our continued success.

I am recommending that you approve an agreement to rent, for $1.00, the “Jaws of Life” from the City
of Shelby Fire Department for use as a training tool in our First Responders Program. Our continued
partnership with the City of Shelby greatly benefits our students by providing resources and
experiences that might otherwise be unattainable.

I am recommending that you approve an Affiliation Agreement with North Central State College.
They opened an Early Childhood Education Program and are in search of Pre-schools for Field
Experience Placements for their students. Our pre-school staff is excited to potentially serve as a
train site for the NCSC students.

We met with representatives of Fanning-Howey on Friday and have a schedule to re-advertise and
bid our Cafeteria Expansion Project. We were notified that, as expected, the cost of the project will
likely increase. Fanning-Howey Representatives suggested that we should expect a 6% increase
over last year’s estimated costs. It’s our hope that an expanded construction schedule and an earlier
bid acceptance will generate greater interest in the project. I expect to bring a bid for your approval to
the November Board Meeting.

There are some exciting upcoming events scheduled for later the months of September and October.
They are:

o September 25 - Pastries with Parents
o October 8 & 15 - Parent-Teacher Conferences
o October 9 - Staff Professional Development Day
o October 16 - End of 1 st Grading Period

I am recommending that you accept the retirement resignation of Brian Madison, our Shelby Project
Lead the Way Satellite Instructor. He started at Pioneer in August, 2005 and has been a highly
respected and valued teacher at Shelby High School and Shelby Middle School. His friendly
demeanor and professionalism will be greatly missed.
I am also recommending that you approve the employment of Krista Dull as our new Attendance
Secretary. Please be reminded that one of our Student Services secretaries resigned for family
reasons and after a thorough search, transferred our Attendance Secretary, Ariel Little, to that
position. Mrs. Dull will replace her and, in fact, has already started and is very quickly learning the
nuances of the job and integrating very well to Pioneer.
All other Items are normal for this time of year.

No discussion - moved to vote.

No discussion - moved to vote.

No discussion - moved to vote.

Entered Executive Session at 6:52 pm

Returned to Regular Session at 6:59 pm.

No discussion - moved to vote.