July Board Mtg

On the third Tuesday evening in July, the Swanton Board of Education met for our regular meeting.  Only 4 board members were in attendance, as Mr. Ueberroth was again unable to be there.

After the routine matters of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, observing a moment of silence, and adopting the  revised agenda, we heard from BettyJo Sadowski on the Middle School yearbook, and also from the 8th grade team on the Tikatok Project.  We had one member of the public who addressed the Board, and then we went into Executive Session to discuss employee employment.

Upon our return, the items included in the Consent Agenda were passed.  These items included minutes of our past meetings in June, various reports from the Treasurer, and personnel recommendations from the Superintendent.

New business items included a discussion on a proposed panel of 5 residents from our district with aptitude in finance, who are willing to serve in an advisory capacity to the Board.  Other districts have used similar ideas and found that such a panel can be a great liaison to the community as well.  No vote was taken on this matter.  The proposed name for then group is: Financial Activities Communication Team (FACT).  I like it!

The contractural agreements with Chartwell's (our food service vendor) and Stapleton Insurance  for 2010-11 were accepted as presented.

New business under the Superintendent section included agreements with the Northwest Ohio Computer Association (NWOCA) and the NW Ohio Juvenile Detention Center.  Both items passed unanimously. 

A few minor changes to the job description for Prom Advisor were accepted as presented.  Boy, how times have changed since my high school days, back in the Dark Ages.  We never had a "prom advisor" - our Student Council worked on the details and got them approved through the proper channels without needing to have a contractural agreement with the union.  That was over 30 years ago - guess things are done differently now!

A job description for Class Advisors was also presented for our approval.  There was a short discussion on the matter - I asked when we last had these jobs filled?  The answer was back before the district went into fiscal caution and had to RIF the positions (among others).  The pay scale for these positions is 11% of the base salary.  The vote to accept the job descriptions and place people into the jobs was 4 to 1, as I voted "no" on this one.

Student Handbooks for the 2010-11 school year were presented and accepted as presented.

Delayed from our June meeting was a decision on the date for graduation in 2011.  At that meeting, Kris Oberheim shared some concerns she had been told by parents about the timing of this year's ceremonies.  Steve Gfell, high school principal, put out a survey to parents of 2010-11 seniors and asked their preference among a couple of options.  The clear favorite was Saturday, June 4th, which would allow us to avoid the Memorial Day weekend holiday.  We voted to approve Saturday, June 4th at 2 p.m. for graduation in 2011. 

Committee reports were next on the agenda.  On the subject of the Swanton Recreation program, Kris Oberheim stated that she had been in conversation with several community members about the possibility of creating another joint recreation program between the School District and the Village.  Kris is looking into all the ramifications of such a venture, and said she is scheduled on the agenda for the Village Council meeting in August.  There was some discussion on the matter, which you may hear on the recording provided on the school district website here.  (scroll down the page to the Podcast list for the July 20th meeting)

Mona Dyke reported on the strategic planning discussions with which she has been involved, and also spoke about the upcoming training on BoardDocs which is a software system designed to minimize paper and printing for meeting agendas and associated documentation.

The committee on drug testing is waiting for the survery results to be tablulated before we move forward.

The Board then went into Executive Session for the purpose of the Superintendent evaluation.  As the hour was late, we did not finish that evening and will need to do so at a later date.