xqzBethel Board of Educatio1At the January 12,2015Bethel Board of Education (BOE), the board members conducted the first organization meeting required at the start of each year.  The purpose of the meeting was to elect officers for the year, set the meeting schedule and to approve compensation for board members.  

Joe Solch was re-elected as President and Michael van Haaren was elected Vice-President.  The regular meetings will be held on the second Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m.  In addition, the board members will be paid $125 per meeting for a maximum of 12 meetings per year.  They also they set aside $2.00 per pupil or $20,000, whichever is greater to reimburse board members for expenses incurred in the performance of their duties outside of the district.

Prior to the organizational meeting, the board met with the architectural firm to review the latest site plan for expanding the facility.  A public building project update is scheduled for Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 7:00 PM in the Elementary Auditorium.  The architects, construction managers, owner’s representative and board members will review the plans and be available for comments from the public.

During the administrative reports, Dave Oleszczuk, Network Administrator, reported that he expects the new website be up sometime this month.  The teacher pages have been moved to the new site and MDECA has created new email accounts for all employees of the school.  Oleszczuk also told the board members that he expects delivery of the new laptops for the teachers on January 13, 2015.  Some setup work is required including installing Office 2013, printers and any special software the teachers use.  However, the computers should be available shortly.

In athletic news, John Augustine, Athletic Director, reported that the school has been invited to join the Ohio Heritage Conference, which hopes to expand from eight schools to sixteen.  One benefit to the school is that the travel time to the schools in the conference is much shorter than the CCC conference schools.  However, Augustine recommended against the application, as it is expensive to apply In addition, if Bethel continues to grow at its current rate, Bethel would be the biggest school in the conference, which is a determent for competition.

In the superintendent’s report, Virginia Potter, Superintendent, reported that she has reached an agreement with Urbana University to fulfill the requirement to provide College Credit Plus.  The program allows high school students to enroll in both high school and college to strengthen the high school curriculum.  According to Potter, “Urbana University was the most cooperative of all the schools I talked to.  In addition, it is a four-year institution which will help when students complete the program.”

Potter also reported that enrollment has increased by 17 students in the last month alone.  The total enrollment as of the end of December was 1105.

The administration is looking to upgrade several areas of the curriculum.  The math curriculum team is looking at a new course of study to increase the rigor of the math offerings for next year.  In addition, the administrators are planning to offer more intervention for students during the course of the school day rather than after school.

The board members approved a resolution to place a renewal of the earned income tax on the May ballot.  The tax levy is currently set to expire at the end of 2015.  The annual income tax is three quarters of one percent.  If the renewal passes, it would be effective from January 1, 2016 for a period of five years.0.

In addition, Potter appointed Michael van Haaren to MDECA Assembly and Scott Lawson as the OSBA Legislative Liaison and to the Athletic Council.

The next Bethel BOE meeting is scheduled for February 9, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in the school auditorium.

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