By Ashley McCarty-
The Adams County Ohio Vallery Board of Education met on Aug. 31 to welcome a new teacher and discuss regular business and staff reports.
A motion by Board Member Judy Campbell to approve the agenda was seconded by Board Member David Riley, the board agreed.
A motion by Board Member Richard Davis to approve the minutes as read was seconded by Board President Charlie Bess, council agreed.
“Just a general comment to student and staff recognition, you look at all the work that went into starting the school year out, and we’re now nine days into it. This board knows that, we’ve met a few different times based on what you just read right here in the minutes. So, kudos to everybody, to the board, to the staff, to the students. It’s gone really well,” said ACOVSD Superintendent Richard Seas.
Bess said that along with that, she had heard some nice comments about their new positions.
“About what a good job the custodial staff and new sanitation workers are doing. Even the students are noticing the sanitation workers, and everybody out in the building wiping things down and keeping things safe. So, even the kids are noticing that efforts are up to try to keep them safe and keep the virus down, so I really appreciate the staff being on and doing that because when even the kids take notice, that tells you something. So, I was really pleased with that,” said Bess.
Davis said he was in all of the district buildings, and several administrators made a point to tell him how well the custodial staff is doing, he added that he really appreciated it.
The board recognized new Cross-Categorical Peebles Elementary Teacher Cara Sheer.
“There’s a lot to learn, but we’re moving right along, and I’m enjoying everything that I’ve seen so far, and I’ve been able to reach out and talk to some of the other teachers that are in a similar position as I am. They’ve helped me immensely, and everyone I’ve talked to has been super supportive. They’re ready to have me on,” said Sheer.
In the treasurer’s report, Treasurer Brian Switzer reported that $97,500 would be transferred this week to Eugene Vogler for this year’s farm payment.
There were also several donations from community business in support of school programs: Barry’s Chevrolet, Southern Hills Therapy, Adams County Home Care, West Union Electric, Holsinger’s Monument, Shupert’s Tire Service, Roy E. Gabbert/Law Office, and Lifetouch Studios.
“You have a resolution to participate in a class action suit against the pharmaceutical company who is being sued because their product is being linked to the opioid crisis. So, if there is a settlement, and we have children who need special needs services because of opioids in their family, we would get a portion of the settlement for the services that we provided to those children,” said Switzer.
Switzer reported there is also an agreement on the agenda between the district and ACRMC.
“In this trying time of the COVID-19 virus, we have reached an agreement where our staff — we’ll send out an email to staff tomorrow once approval of this agreement — if any staff member feels that they are sick, or having symptoms, go to their building nurse, the Adams County Health Department official will do an initial assessment, if the nurse feels that our employee needs to be sent for testing, they will have written order from Dr. [William] Hablitzel to send them to the hospital for testing. The district is covering the cost of that test,” said Switzer.
A motion by Campbell to pass the resolution to participate in the class action suit was seconded by Davis, the board agreed.
A motion by Riley to approve donations, the agreement with ACRMC, and the transfer was seconded by Board Member Gay Lynn Shipley, and the board agreed.
Superintendent Seas glossed over House Bill 305.
According to The Ohio Senate website, House Bill 305 “creates a new financing system for school districts and other public entities that provide primary and secondary education to be implemented beginning in fiscal year 2020. It requires funding under this system to be paid directly to school districts, community schools, and STEM schools for the students they are educating (rather than including community and STEM school students and students who open enroll in the student count of the districts in which they reside, deducting funds attributable to those students from their resident districts, and paying those funds to the schools in which they are enrolled as under current law). Similarly, it requires direct payment of state scholarships, rather than deducting the amounts of those scholarships from students’ resident districts.
This system specifies a unique base cost and a unique “per-pupil local capacity amount” for each city, local, and exempted village school district. Generally, a district’s per-pupil local capacity amount is subtracted from the district’s per-pupil amount of its base cost to determine the district’s per-pupil state share of the base cost. Each district’s foundation funding is equal to the district’s aggregate state share of the base cost plus targeted assistance, special education funds, economically disadvantaged funds, English learner funds, and gifted funds. These components of the system are phased-in over six years and subject to a guarantee for fiscal year 2020 and for each fiscal year thereafter.
City, local, and exempted village school districts also receive transportation funding, supplemental targeted assistance, and career-technical education funding. These payments are not subject to the phase-in. The system does, however, guarantee transportation funding for fiscal year 2020 and 2021 for those districts that are subject to the foundation funding guarantee.”
The bill is sponsored by new House Speaker Robert Cupp of District 4 and John Patterson of District 99.
“So that certainly takes care of the house side of things, and I believe that bill is in house committee right now as we speak. So we’ll keep an eye on that,” said Seas.
Lisa Toole reported on the elementary schools.
“Lots of things going on. We’re getting Adams Virtual Academystudents back every day. We re-enrolled three today at North Adams. Some days it’s four or five district-wide, so that’s going to impact numbers, too. The biggest issue that we’re dealing with is the Third Grade Reading Guarantee and mandatory testing, because our Adams Virtual Academy students have to be tested reading diagnostics, because there are children still on our roster. They can do that at home, and we’ve communicated that to them, but the kids not on track will have to have a Reading Improvment Monitoring Plan, and teachers have to write those RIMPS, and there’s some discretion on who writes that RIMP, because Jefferson County is saying they can’t write it. That’s a conversation that we’re just going to have to have, which is a big concern of mine right now, because we are mandated to get those diagnostics [on kindergarten thru third-grade students] and if we don’t have scores identifying students on track, not on track, and Reading Improvement Monitoring Plans for those kindergarten thru third-grade students, we will receive demotions. As long as we are in school, we have an assessment for third-grade, those are just things we have to plan for,” said Toole.
The Third Grade Reading Guarantee test is not out the door because of COVID-19.
“It’s still very much in effect. That’s a big piece of it. Lots of technology going on, lots of teachers have done a great job this year with amping-up their resources and utilizing technology and implementing that into the classroom; Google Classroom, our programs and software that we already have in place, utilizing that. Lot’s of good things. I think people are really glad to be back in school at the elementary, I’m sure it’s the same thing at the high school. I see a lot of happy kids, lot of happy teachers. Purpose, productive and it’s just a great place to be on a daily basis. I can only say good things about the elementary right now in that manner,” added Toole.
OVCTC Director Tad Mitchell reported to the board.
“Off to a great start. To echo some of the things Lisa said, I mean, students, feel like they’re really excited to be back in the building, teachers likewise. We’ve got a lot to do in the administrative part. I have a meeting with the counselors on Wednesday to just kind of review our new graduation policy we adopted, plus the fact that we missed out on the testing in the Spring, so the state is allowing us to supplement the grades that were earned in those classes for the test scores and the tests they must take in December. So, what that means is like a senior that didn’t have the 18 points to graduate, the counsel has to go back and look at all seven of those classes, enter those grades, see if they have 18 points now, and what test they may have to take in December. So, those are some things that we’re going to talk about on Wednesday, trying to go through all those,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell reported that career exploration classes are up after some worked-out glitches.
“Some of those students are working through those classes, doing a pretty good job on that. Fantastic start to the school year,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell reported that CTC numbers are up, but students are evenly dispersed between programs.
Safety Director Mike Parker offered his report.
“Safety looks so much different this year than years past, but a lot of the same things we had faced in the past we’re still facing right now on top of COVID-19. Given the average every day thus far, the staggered start times in the security aspect of it is pretty nice. We can actually focus more on one school at a time in each attendance area, given that the high school starts first, CTC, then the elementary and kind of everything in between. So, it spaces our time out quite drastically, but enough time to secure the buildings and get everybody settled down. Facing a few more security issues that we’ve addressed, and it’s basically the nature of the beast right now. We have kids classes going outside more so now than ever, so now the perimeter aspect of it and having that many kids outside, it is different within itself. The masks, eerily, great. Little to no issues that we’ve seen. Everybody has been compliant,” said Parker.
Parker also addressed signage, especially at the elementary schools.
“Especially North Adams and Peebles that are longer lanes. Slowing traffic down, just when we have people outside. Maybe some striping and crossings, because they do go across the road to different sections [of grass], but other than that, everything’s been really smooth,” Parker explained.
As Seas began his Superintendent’s report, he extended his compliments toward transportation.
“Just want to say about transportation. What they did, what they were able to pull off in a couple months. It’s worked really well, I think what we need to do is just continue to tweak things. We could use a few more drivers, and I think now it’s a job, it’s a full-time job, so drivers are going to get around a minimum of six hours. Kudos to Melissa and Tabi, and the work they’ve done, and the drivers. We lost a lot of experience there, we lost 13 drivers,” said Seas.
Bess said that all of the drivers pretty much had brand new routes.
A Facilities update was provided to the board:
● Special Education Office remodel project has been advertised to accept bids; bids will be opened at the Central Administrative Office on Sept. 11 at 10:30 a.m. by Treasurer Brian Switzer.
● The four hour sanitation worker program has received tremendous praise from building principals, teachers, custodians, other staff, students and parents. Many have expressed thanks to the superintendent, treasurer and the board of education.
● Some minor carpentry work has been completed at the Oliver Building to allow the kindergarten thru third-grade program to operate there.
● The Peebles Elementary fire alarm system has an issue that is preventing it from properly storing trouble signals. The system is not compromised in notifying in the event of an actual fire.
● To date, the school has spent $123,887.07 in purchases associated with viral contagion in their school buildings. This includes the purchase of several misting machines, additional reserves of hand sanitizer, hand soap, cleaning supplies, building alterations in the form of glass and plexiglass partitions, portable classroom counter-shields, thermometers, gloves, face masks and a variety of other items.
● All three high school buildings have had issues for several years with the pit area in front of the stage flooding during severe rainstorms. The pit area had some additional concrete added now in hopes of fixing the problem.
● On Sept. 14 at the Peebles High School, Debbie Ryan of the Adams County Creating Healthy Communities Program will be leading a “walk audit” to assess the safety of pedestrian traffic in the area adjacent to the bus garage leading to the high school. The audit will take place at 1:30 p.m and Ryan has asked for representatives of the district to attend.
● The Maintenance Dept. purchased a new, slightly used with full-warranty skyjack lift.
● Completed work on the parking pad, driveway and sidewalk at West Union High School ball field and new fence at softball field.
Seas and Mitchell addressed Title IX Law, after taking a three-day training in regards to the law.
“When people think of Title IX, they automatically think about sports equity across the board. In Title 9, one of the major changes that they dealt with is also dealing with any sexual harassment claims within the district. A lot of that training was spent how you handle that sexual harassment claim,” said Mitchell. Mitchell is the Title IX coordinator for the district.
A motion by Campbell to enter executive session was seconded by Bess, the board agreed.
With no more business before the board, the meeting was adjourned. Meeting minutes will be approved by the board at the next meeting, subject to revisions.