Cardington Board of Education tightens belt, reduces staff positions

By Eve­lyn Long -

Rev­enue was a top topic at the Feb­ru­ary 11 Card­ing­ton Board of Edu­ca­tion meeting.

The board approved the Reduc­tion in Force of four cer­ti­fied posi­tions. Supt. Brian Petrie noted these are not indi­vid­u­als but of posi­tions that were approved by the board at the Jan­u­ary meeting.

Those posi­tions include one 7–12 art posi­tion; one K-12 music posi­tion; one 7–12 math/CBI posi­tion and one 7–12 Social Stud­ies position.

Also approved was the reduc­tion of force of four clas­si­fied posi­tions: one 12-month cus­to­dial posi­tion; one head cook posi­tion (7.0 hours) at the Inter­me­di­ate School; one assis­tant cook posi­tion (6.0 hours) at the Inter­me­di­ate School; two Inter­me­di­ate aide posi­tions (7.5 hours and 7 hours); one shared aide posi­tion Elementary/Intermediate (7.5 hours); one half inter­me­di­ate sec­re­tary posi­tion; one half EMIS posi­tion and six bus dri­ver posi­tions. Again, Supt. Petrie said these are not indi­vid­u­als but posi­tions that were approved by the board at the Jan­u­ary meeting.

Supt. Brian Petrie briefly reviewed Gov. John Kasich’s pro­posed bud­get regard­ing the state’s schools. He said that under the new for­mula the Cardington-Lincoln Dis­trict, who received $6.4 mil­lion in fund­ing this year, will receive no increase next year under the new for­mula. No Mor­row County school will receive an increase, he said.

Calls have been made to the governor’s office for an expla­na­tion of the for­mula and they are await­ing a response. Petrie and the board reviewed the papers sent from the Office of Bud­get and Man­age­ment indi­cat­ing some dis­tricts are receiv­ing sig­nif­i­cant increases and oth­ers, none. He reviewed infor­ma­tion from the OBM indi­cat­ing the num­ber of stu­dents served in the dis­trict and its rela­tion to the district’s prop­erty value. The Card­ing­ton dis­trict receives 73% of its fund­ing from the state. The county is the sec­ond poor­est county in the state.

Look­ing at the infor­ma­tion from the OBM, it shows the per pupil val­u­a­tion for the dis­trict for every stu­dent in the dis­trict and the total prop­erty value in the dis­trict divided by the num­ber of stu­dents is sig­nif­i­cant because it rep­re­sents the abil­ity of the dis­trict in tax effort. The Card­ing­ton per pupil amount is $99,987 mul­ti­plied by the num­ber of stu­dents and that rep­re­sents the total assessed val­u­a­tion of the dis­trict. This is how to mea­sure tax effort, he noted. Another way to look at it, he said, is the ‘higher this num­ber is the lower the indi­vid­ual bur­den is on the tax payer to cre­ate money in a dis­trict.’ It was also noted the Card­ing­ton dis­trict is right around the bot­tom fifth in the state.

Petrie said the bud­get process goes from the gov­er­nor to the House, Sen­ate — back and forth and by July, it is hoped to have the final budget.

Giv­ing his report was dis­trict trea­surer Scott Osborn, who said the actu­als this year com­pared to his fore­cast last year show that, “we are right on pace with our rev­enue — what I pro­jected last Octo­ber. We’re at 59.46 per cent — our expen­di­tures are a lit­tle bit ahead and that is typ­i­cal because our sup­plies and pur­chase ser­vices are paid at the begin­ning of the year. I’m not real wor­ried at this point.”

He said the district’s rev­enue sec­ond half tax pay­ments are big­ger than the first half tax pay­ments, so the 59 per­cent is look­ing good for revenue.

“We’re right on tar­get — and our expen­di­tures aren’t too far out of whack, he added. “I’m com­fort­able with that con­sid­er­ing we’re 59 per­cent through the year. It’s always good to mon­i­tor each month from here on to the end of June.”

The board approved pay­ment of Jan­u­ary bills total­ing $905,578.08 on war­rant checks 82355–82525.

Com­ment­ing on bul­ly­ing in the dis­trict from July 1, 2012 to Jan­u­ary 31, 2013 the Petrie said there were no reports of bul­ly­ing. Petrie cred­ited the proac­tive nature of the admin­is­tra­tors. “We do a very good job of deal­ing with inci­dents the first time they come around.” There are sev­eral ways to report bul­ly­ing, he said. A call can be made by a par­ent or indi­vid­ual to the build­ing prin­ci­pal or assis­tant or by going on the school’s web site.

The board approved the bul­ly­ing report.

Also approved was the cre­ation of dona­tions from the Card­ing­ton High School Class of 1963 and the cre­ation account fund for res­i­dent Edu­ca­tor Pro­gram Race to the Top Grant Money. Petrie explained that every new teacher in the dis­trict who is newly licensed needs to attend a four-year Res­i­dent Edu­ca­tor Pro­gram and has a men­tor appointed to them. The is grant money from Race to the Top that the state comes in with to pay a stipend to those mentors.

Also approved was:

(1) The elim­i­na­tion of Bus Route #15 (a vacated posi­tion) 3.5 hours per day;

(2) Cre­ation of an aide posi­tion (Para­pro­fes­sional Aide, eight hours per day, 185 day

Con­tact)

(3) Job descrip­tion of custodian

(4) Home tutor­ing for Home Instruc­tion for a stu­dent By Todd Jol­liff, up to five hours per week for FY 13 at the tutor rate of pay.

The approved con­sent agenda included the fol­low­ing: the res­ig­na­tion of Dan Bow­ers, bus dri­ver, effec­tive Jan­u­ary 25, 2013; the employ­ment of Yvonne Eastep, inven­tory clerk (7–12), effec­tive Jan­u­ary 24, 2013; Nicole Hiett, (inven­tory clerk (K-6), effec­tive Jan­u­ary 24, 2013 and Anita Foos, sec­re­tary (inter­me­di­ate), effec­tive Jan­u­ary 28, 2013

Employed as clas­si­fied sub­sti­tutes were Michelle David­son, aide; and Cyn­thia Mc-Curdy, aide, both effec­tive Feb­ru­ary 6, 2013; Kelly Evans, aide and Carl Hard­wick, Sr., cus­to­dian, effec­tive Feb­ru­ary 2, 2013.

The super­in­ten­dent said the school cal­en­dar for 2013–2014 will be con­sid­ered at the next meet­ing. A two year cal­en­dar may be proposed.

Supt Petrie noted the pend­ing board meet­ing at Tri-Rivers Career Cen­ter on April 8 with a tour and din­ner at 6 pm and the meet­ing at 7 pm.

The super­in­ten­dent and 7–12 Prin­ci­pal Joe Mills con­grat­u­lated the spelling bee win­ner, Nadia Ker­man, an eighth grade stu­dent, run­ner up Cade Ruehrmund and the eight oth­ers who will be com­pet­ing in the county bee at High­land High School on March 5.

This meet­ing, which began at 7:07 pm, adjourned at 7:55 pm and mem­bers entered exec­u­tive ses­sion based on employ­ment of pub­lic employee or offi­cial and review­ing with pub­lic employ­ees con­cern­ing their com­pen­sa­tion or other terms and con­di­tions of their employment.

The ten minute ses­sion con­cluded at 8:07 pm and the board adjourned at 8:08 pm with no fur­ther busi­ness transacted.

The next meet­ing of the board will be held March 11 at 7 pm.

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Feb 20 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.