The Tecumseh Board of Education (BOE) held a regular meeting at 7:00 pm on Oct. 25, 2016 in the Tecumseh High School Arrow Conference Room.

District Assistant Superintendent Paula Crew, District Treasurer Debra Schock, and Special Education Director Susan Wile also attended. Mert Christmann, Dan Studebaker, and District Superintendent Norm Glismann were not in attendance.

Springfield-Clark Career Technology Center (CTC) representative, Gary Cochran, reported four commercials produced by CTC students are now on the air, with ABC’s WKEF 22 in Dayton running the commercials most frequently.

CTC enrollment is up this year, but Cochran reports enrollment has slightly decreased to 680 students.

Cochran also reported the CTC’s H2O club raised $570.00 for Making Strides against Breast Cancer. The CTC’s multi-media students recently worked on a Scare-a-Crow project for a local contest. Projects were on display at the National Road Commons Park until Nov. 1.

Another big change for the CTC is the transfer of ownership of the campus’ Early Childcare Education Center to the Miami Valley Child Development Center. The Early Childhood Education program is still available for CTC students to take.

A Spaghetti Dinner and Silent Auction will be held at the CTC on Nov. 3 from 5:00-7:00. The CTC’s Eighth Grade Career Fair will take place on Nov. 9 at the Hollenbeck Center in downtown Springfield. Over 1,400 students will learn about 35 different careers and employers in just five hours.

The next CTC BOE meeting is scheduled for 5:00 on Nov. 21.

Tecumseh Local Schools approved gymnastics as a club sport with Jasmine Musick serving as volunteer advisor. The program costs nothing to the district.

Board members accepted the resignations of Stephania Ziegeler, Pamela Piper, Patricia VanGorder, Kathleen Catalano, and Deborah Myers. It also accepted a large number of new hires, including both classified and certified substitutes, as well as new coaches in the athletic department.

Due to a painful shortage of bus drivers, BOE members voted to accept Crew’s recommendation to increase the pay for substitute drivers to $12.42 an hour. “We are very much on the edge for Bus Drivers,” Crew told the BOE.

The pay increase means Tecumseh Local Schools is now commensurate with other districts in Clark County. Before the increase, Tecumseh was the county’s lowest-paying district.

BOE members voted unanimously to accept the district’s financial report. Except for a listing of fund advances, the financial report was not included in the meeting agenda nor provided separately to members of the public.

The fund advances approved to cover expenses equaled $369,962.21, which came out of the unencumbered general fund balance of $5,645,427.62 the district had on Sep. 30, 2016.

The BOE also approved the District Treasurer’s five-year financial forecast. Schock explained scheduling conflicts with the state means some of the numbers included in the five-year forecast are now incorrect; but as a fluid document, it can be updated as needed. A copy of the five-year forecast was not included in the agenda nor provided separately to members of the public attending the meeting.

The district approved a contract with Stevenson Construction Inc. of Springfield for snow removal and ice treatment for the 2016-2017 school year. The work is contracted out because the district does not own the appropriate equipment to provide snow removal itself.

Board members voted to renew the district’s membership into the Clark County Farm Bureau for 2017. The membership costs $80.00 plus a $3.00 contribution to the Agriculture Fund. Membership provides a $1,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of persons vandalizing and/or breaking and entering any of the district’s facilities.

Contract changes were approved for the district superintendent and district treasurer.

According to a paragraph of the superintendent’s contract read by BOE member Corrine Scott, the change to the superintendent’s contract adds verbiage making the superintendent’s salary increases contingent upon an annual review.

BOE President Kurt Lewis says the district treasurer’s contract was changed to include more compensation in preparation for Schock’s retirement when her contract ends in 2018. According to Lewis, more annuities were added, as well as more retirement benefits for the number of years of service. Lewis says the contract changes put Schock more “in line with the other treasurers before her.”

Lewis also says the BOE plans to eventually add verbiage to the treasurer’s contract making raises contingent upon an annual review. “There’s nothing in there to debate,” Lewis told the resident who asked about the contract changes.

A printed copy of the contract changes were not included in the agenda nor provided separately to members of the public attending the meeting.

Susan Wile reported the district is still waiting to hear what changes are being made that will affect the special education students who are served by Medicaid.

Crew says she plans to present information about the district’s internal student assessment tests at the November BOE meeting.

According to discussion at the end of the meeting, nothing has been resolved with security at Park Layne yet.

Corrine Scott commented on how well the Showcase of Bands went. She also asked about inviting a student representative to join the BOE meetings.

Lewis reported that the Tecumseh Education Foundation met and that teachers should get their mini-grant applications submitted by Nov. 18. Teachers can get up to $750.00 in mini-grant funds to use in their classrooms.

Citing discussion at the September BOE meeting, Board members were asked about the status of discussion about the Armed Defense Team. Lewis answered that the BOE had decided to hold a blind survey for teachers and employees at the end of the year to see how they feel about the idea. Lewis also states the BOE has no plans to hold any further public presentations providing information or discussion about the matter.

The next BOE meeting will be held at 7:00 pm on Nov. 15 in the Arrow Conference Room.

The December BOE meeting will be held at 7:00 am on Dec. 13 in the Arrow Conference Room

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