Major Board Decisions

Our August 12th board meeting had two significant items above and beyond the usual. The first was a decision on whether or not to accept a grant from the U.S. Department of Education in the amount of $511,000 over 3 years. This grant held a stated purpose of reducing alcohol consumption in our student body.

No doubt you've heard about this one.

The grant was written by the Swanton Area Community Coalition (SACC), headed up by Neil Toeppe, and including other well-known community persons such as Village Administrator Jon Gochenour, Judge Colin McQuade (past SACC president), Deacon Dzierzawski (Village Council and CEO Community Partnership), Heather Wegener (executive director SACC, and wife of Deacon), and Glen Dominique, among others. Initially, the grant called for $191,625 annually but the feds reduced the administrative costs and brought the annual amount down to $170,525 - which is still a chunk of change. Mr. Dzierzawski tells me that former Swanton school superintendent, Neil Weber, affixed his signature on the initial filing documents.

I was quite surprised to hear Mr. Toeppe state in our meeting that the grant itself had been written in February! This was surprising because it was not seen by any board members until a mere day and a half before a critical deadline with the Dept. of Ed. (back in April) when no one had time to go through the 100 or so pages of verbiage to see exactly how it was laid out. With any grant, there are multiple deadlines to meet for various pieces of the process. (The initial filing on behalf of the district was, indeed, in February 2008).

Anyway, after a weekend media frenzy initiated by Mr. Toeppe's press release, he was given another opportunity to speak to the Board in our public meeting. President Dennis Heban told everyone present that our policy is to allow individuals of the public to speak for 5 minutes, with an additional 3 minutes to respond to questions or comments. Mr. Toeppe took twice that long to read his address to those in attendance.

That is what the public was able to witness. What no one had seen was the past few weeks of the board finally being able to read through the grant - and immediately seeing the disturbing allocation of funds. Here is what the grant summary page stated (remember, these are annual amounts):

Travel & Mileage Expenses: $14,412
Supplies (for the kids): $ 4,705
(including videos, workbooks, etc)
Contractural Payments to SACC: $85,920
(this included salary for full time Community Organizer @$18/hr, salary for part time Administrator @$18/hr, computers/desks/cabinets)
Project Director (for 50% effort): $30,000
Training for health teachers: $ 6,500
Substitute teachers $3,495
(this is for when the regular teachers are out for training)
Annual evaluation fee: $30,000
(this was written for the Community Partnership - originally it had $40,000 in that column, but the Dept of Ed reduced it)
Other Admin. Costs: $6,593

If you'd like to read the summary page for yourself, here is a link to a pdf file: Click Here

That is a seriously simplified overview of the entire grant, but you get the general idea.

So after Mr. Toeppe gave his final speech at the board meeting, we held our vote, and it was a unanimous rejection of this grant. A statement was subsequently read by Superintendent Paulette Baz, giving our position on the issue. And the TV cameramen packed up and left.

The SACC and Community Coalition have initiated other positive things for our kids - the SEED program comes to mind. The school district has other programs in place as well, with the same goal: to educate our kids about the dangers of alcohol and other substance abuse and minimize or eliminate their participation in them.

This particular grant was simply not an appropriate expenditure of tax money, in the opinion of the Board. However, that does not mean that ALL grants are inappropriate, and I'm certain the SACC and Community Coalition will be able to find other grants available that will allow us to continue our partnership in doing all we can to assist our children in making good choices.

The other major item before us last night was a request from the Swanton Public Library to place a 0.5 mil operating levy on the ballot this November. They were chartered under the school system decades ago - in 1935 - and thus need to go through us to place a levy up, even though their funding does not flow through our books.

Their last levy was for permanent improvement, and actually collected more than expected. The BOE was able to give them a little over $67,000 last month - money that had collected under their levy, but had not yet been issued to them due to oddities in state law. Thankfully, Cheryl Swisher was able to find a legal way to get them their money! Hooray!!

We have a GREAT library in Swanton! I know with the state decreasing the funds libraries have been receiving, cutbacks in hours and services have been initiated in Swanton to try and stay afloat. I honestly do not know how their books look, as no financial statements were provided to board members. (no doubt we could get them if we asked) The library board has wrestled with the situation, and came to the decision that an operating levy is necessary.

The awkward thing is that the library is tied to our school district which happens to be in two separate counties - Lucas and Fulton. Lucas County residents already pay taxes to that county's public library system. A tax on the entire school district for the Swanton Public Library would effectively have Lucas Co. residents paying tax to 2 library districts. It's a tough sell to many of those residents.

You would think there would be a way to either exempt those Lucas Co. people in the Swanton school district from Lucas Co. library taxes, OR somehow have those taxes collected turned over to Swanton. Ah - wishful thinking!

The vote from the BOE passed - so there will be a library levy on the ballot this November. I think we were told that it would cost a homeowner around $15 per $100,00 of property value, and should generate slightly over $100,000 annually for the library for each year it is in effect.

Now we look forward to the start of the school year!

Tax REDUCTION!

Yup - you read that right: the Swanton School Board is going to reduce school taxes for their district. The Fulton Co. auditor's office was in shock - no district in their experience has ever done such a thing!

The current income tax on Swanton school district residents is 1.25%, and it will continue to collect at that rate for another year. After lengthy discussions with our school treasurer, Cheryl Swisher, and careful forecasting, the Board is confident that we can LOWER that rate to 0.75% for our residents and still run the school efficiently and well.

Woo-hoo!!

The levy for the reduced rate will be on the ballot in November. Tell your friends!

Not only that - but the Board has also decided to allow the current permanent improvement levy to expire, and will NOT be placing it on the ballot for renewal. Instead, we will move 1 mil of inside millage to Permanent Improvement to care for the physical structures of our four schools. Although the individual savings will seem small, this combined with the reduction of the income tax level should greatly help our residents during these financially stressful times.

Woo-hoo again!!

We should remember that one of the reasons we are able to do these reductions is because the Board is now truly able to "see" where the district stands, financially, because our treasurer is very very good at what she does. I'm told she inherited a confused mess when she came on board, four to five years ago now, but she has turned that around. We just couldn't do these things for our residents if it weren't for Cheryl's quality management of our district funds.

One thing we are looking at now is how we can get that new Middle School built. You may remember that we were told some years ago by prominent residents, the superintendent and board members of that year that we would be able to get "2 for 1" when the district was working on getting a new high school. Now - as you can clearly see - we did NOT get "2 for 1" at all. So Cheryl is in contact with the state, our attorneys, and the auditor's office to see how that Middle School might be realized. That would be awesome!

I'll keep you posted as this is investigated. It is painfully obvious that our Middle School is in dire straits - and that was before the roof leak and mold was discovered in the old building. (altho they believe they have it contained, and that none reached the newer part of the building that is currently used)

I can't emphasize enough that this current school board is doing its best to do what is right for our students and what is right for our residents - even to the point of lowering the income tax rate. We study these issues - we consider them very carefully, and hammer them out over months of intense deliberations. It is not a flippant nor easy task at all. But each of us honestly cares about our district and wants to do what is in the best interest of ALL, even if that means we are unpopular with a few.

So the next time you see a school board member, shake his or her hand and thank them for their efforts on your behalf. It would mean a lot.

June Progress

The June meeting of the BOE ended with some positive steps "forward", in my opinion.

Angela Lutz was hired to replace retiring Linda Reeves at Crestwood. All of our retiring staff were honored that evening as well. I will especially miss Carolyn Short, who was the principal at Park School where I was able to volunteer my Friday mornings in the library.

One critical position that needs to be filled is that of someone to head up our cafeterias. Know anyone with experience who might be interested? If so, let Paulette Baz know right away! Other positions are also advertised, and interviews are continuing.

The board approved having our treasurer take the next step in our plan to place a reduced income tax levy on the November ballot. The current levy collects at 1.25% - our proposal is to lower it to 0.75%.

We also had further discussion about allowing the current Permanent Improvement levy roll off, and instead moving inside millage to PI in its place. This would result in a decrease in property taxes for our residents. No vote was taken on this issue that night.

A new board newsletter was approved, and will go to print this week. We hope to improve communications with all of our residents on district issues, and this newsletter will be a good start. I did notice, however, that Dennis Heban edited his original article and removed all reference to a blog. . . not sure why. Maybe his statement that we plan to update the website was thought to encompass the addition of a blog. We'll see!

You should be getting your copy soon, so let us know what you think - good, bad, or indifferent. We can't improve something if we don't know what needs attention, and we are relying on YOU to help us!

Campaign for Coach!

At our last Board meeting, athletic director Tim Zieroff proposed that we name our football stadium in honor of former Coach David Hansbarger. To that end, he also prepared a list of the Coach's accomplishments for our consideration. Let me share some of that with those of you who didn't grow up here.

"One of the most successful football coaches in Northwest Ohio Athletic League history, the former Bulldogs' mentor turned a struggling grid program in the early 1970's into a legitimate contender in which his teams captured two Northern Border League championships and five Northwest Ohio Athletic League titles while going undefeated twice in 1975 and 1981 during his outstanding tenure.

"Hansbarger, whose career record is 154-87-5 from 1972-1995, also guided the Bulldogs to their first post-season appearance in the 1995 Division IV state football playoffs. An active member in the Ohio Football Coaches Association, he has served in various capacities with the organization.

"His other honors included being named in the Region I Coach of the Year in 1975, '81, '90, and '95 and also coached the Ohio High School North-South All-Star Game in 1991 and the Ohio-Pennsylvania Big 33 All-Star Game in 1996."

Coach Hansbarger is a member of the Ohio High School Hall of Fame (not just ours!), and has a plaque honoring him hanging in the Ohio State University Stadium. (gate 8A on the East side)

The impact on individual lives beyond the practice field has endeared Coach Hansbarger to many former students. To some, he was a second father - to others, the only father figure they had during their high school years. This man made a positive impact that is still guiding others today, as evidenced by the many emails we have received on the matter.

At our May meeting, I expect that we will take a vote on naming the stadium in his honor. Stay tuned!

Interesting Stats

Not sure if you were aware of this, but we are in the midst of contract negotiations with the teachers union (SEA). As most of my life was spent working at The Andersons, in Personnel, I have no union negotiation experience (they are a non-union company). I have been told that the SEA with their OEA representative (translation: attorney) draft up their list of "wants" - and our negotiating team along with our attorney draft up a list of "offers", and then they try to hash things out in the middle.

Here are a few statistics for you to mull over. According to the last census, the average household income in Swanton was $42,000 or so. That is HOUSEHOLD income - generally a 2-income family combined. Conversely, the average teacher salary in our school district is $47,000 and some change. Interesting, eh??

While you're thinking that over, here is another fact for you. During the course of investigating the possibility of raising GPA requirements for athletic participation, I got a look at a report generated at the high school of students at the 70% level ("C") or lower. This report listed the person's name and each subject where the grade was at 70% or less. There were 209 students on that list. We have less than 600 kids in the entire high school student body, so this number represents a third of our kids who are doing poorly in school. The vast majority were far below the 70% line, and there were far too many kids flunking out of every single class.

Preliminary results from state testing are also grim. Yet, the average years of service of our teaching staff is very high.

So put those facts together, and see what you come up with.