November Meeting

Our November 17th school board meeting began with many board commendations to particular students to recognize their successes in athletics and music. Congratulations to them all, for their hard work and perseverance!

The Treasurer's section of the meeting was pretty straightforward, with action taken to accept the Appropriation and Amended Certificate as presented, a depository agreement with National City, and Transfers. There were no "Now & Then" POs this month.

For the Superintendent's portion, Mr. Griggs presided for the last time in his capacity of interim superintendent while Paulette Baz was on maternity leave. The recommendations on various personnel matters were unanimously accepted, including a retirement, several volunteers, certificated and supplemental contracts.

We were asked to approve the process to begin taking bids on mold remediation in the closed off section of the Middle School. We have had both state level and county Board of Health representatives inspect this building and give recommendations. There are about 5 rooms that will receive mold remediation and the other cleanup can be done by our custodial staff.

Bids for a new ADA compliant bus had been received, and we were asked to approve the Blue Bird bid of $80,030 which included a $1500 trade-in allowance for our 1991 Blue Bird bus plus an early payment discount of $200. There was a short discussion of whether a better price for the old bus might be obtained by attempting to sell it on our own. We unanimously approved accepting the bid from Cardinal Bus Sales & Service for the Blue Bird bus, and we may expect delivery in March 2010.

There were reports by Mr. Griggs and Mona Dyke on the Ohio School Board Association (OSBA) conference recently held in Columbus. We had a short Executive Session, and then our official business was finished.

A report from Mr. Griggs showed that our absence rates have been running from 5-9%, which is in the "normal" range.

Mona and I thought it would be helpful for our newly elected board members to receive some training prior to them taking office. With schedules being so crowded this time of year, we were able to set one date for a financial training session with Treasurer Cheryl Swisher. Other training will be provided as time permits, in addition to that provided by the OSBA.