District on solid track to make 5-year levy last

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Over the past four years, as the econ­omy crashed, burned, and tried to recover it seemed each time Big Wal­nut Local School Dis­trict Trea­surer Feli­cia Drum­mey reported rev­enue to board of edu­ca­tion mem­bers it was either going down, or stay­ing flat.

But the econ­omy may be turn­ing around; at least as it impacts school dis­trict rev­enue. In her finan­cial report to mem­bers of the board Mon­day evening Drum­mey said income tax for the last quar­ter, received in Octo­ber, came in $143,000 higher than projected.

“This pay­ment rep­re­sents a three per­cent increase over last year, and that’s a pos­i­tive indi­ca­tor,” Drum­mey said. “Other Rev­enue also exceeded pro­jec­tions by $99,000 in the form of tuition pay­ments to the school dis­trict for fos­ter care chil­dren liv­ing in the dis­trict that we educate.”

Drum­mey did note that cap­i­tal out­lay for Octo­ber was $168,000, more than the pro­jected $25,000, because the dis­trict paid for its two new school buses.

Board pres­i­dent Pam Lil­lie asked Drum­mey how the dis­trict was doing with its levy dol­lars. She wanted to know if the dis­trict would be able to keep its five-year levy promise of no new money until the cur­rent levy expires.

“We’re on a solid track to make the levy last five years,” Drum­mey said. “In 2015 we will either have to look at cuts or go on the bal­lot with a levy in 2014. A lot of that is dri­ven by enroll­ment, and if the econ­omy is slug­gish and doesn’t recover rapidly that would have an impact.”

Drum­mey also explained that the school dis­trict made sev­eral insur­ance car­rier changes that will save one half mil­lion dol­lars in the first year, and cap insur­ance cost increases at 14 per­cent dur­ing the sec­ond year.

With board approval, the dis­trict is mov­ing from Med­ical Mutual to Ohio Health­care, mov­ing from Vision Plus to Eye­Med, and ter­mi­nat­ing Med­ical Mutual/Flex Save as a third-party admin­is­tra­tor of the district’s flex­i­ble sav­ings account and mov­ing to Dis­cov­ery Ben­e­fits as a third-party administrator.

Ralph John­son, from the Edu­ca­tional Ser­vice Cen­ter of Cen­tral Ohio (ESC), attended the meet­ing to give an Ohio Trea­sur­ers Eval­u­a­tion Sys­tem presentation.

Cur­rently the school dis­trict is part of a pilot pro­gram imple­ment­ing the Ohio Teach­ers Eval­u­a­tion Sys­tem (OTES), and is also imple­ment­ing an Ohio Super­in­ten­dents Eval­u­a­tion Sys­tem (OSES).

If board mem­bers adopt a treasurer’s eval­u­a­tion sys­tem with ESC serv­ing as an eval­u­a­tion con­sul­tant it would cost the dis­trict $1,500 to $4,000 for the one-year eval­u­a­tion program.

John­son said the job of a school dis­trict trea­surer has dras­ti­cally changed in the last five years because of fund­ing changes, the econ­omy, and the polit­i­cal land­scape; that what has been used in the past for eval­u­at­ing a treasurer’s per­for­mance was typ­i­cally a sub­jec­tive check­list — not an ade­quate tool for track­ing performance.

He said ESC assem­bled a team that stan­dard­ized treasurer’s eval­u­a­tions and came up with five basic stan­dards to track per­for­mance: lead­er­ship; finan­cial man­age­ment; facil­i­ties, prop­er­ties, and cap­i­tal asset man­age­ment; com­mu­ni­ca­tions and col­lab­o­ra­tion; and professionalism.

To imple­ment the ESC rec­om­mended treasurer’s eval­u­a­tion sys­tem is a five-step process, John­son said. Step one is to develop and revisit a standards-based job descrip­tion. The sec­ond step is to iden­tify the district’s annual fis­cal objec­tives. Third, develop work plans to meet those objec­tives. Fourth, con­duct a midyear for­ma­tive assess­ment of the treasurer’s per­for­mance. The fifth step is to con­duct an end of year sum­ma­tive assess­ment of the treasurer’s performance.

“This is just a tem­plate,” John­son said. “In school dis­tricts with 2,000 to 5,000 stu­dents a trea­surer is gen­er­ally a jack of all trades.”

John­son also noted one of life’s real­i­ties. A school district’s trea­surer will prob­a­bly make hun­dreds of deci­sions every week and mess up only one, but that one mis­take is the deci­sion that will be noticed and skew a sub­jec­tive check­list evaluation.

“Gone are the days of the check­list, one, two, three,” John­son said. “What’s a three to you might not be a three to me. A nar­ra­tive eval­u­a­tion is the best way to go.”

John­son said an objec­tive treasurer’s eval­u­a­tion process is really about good lead­er­ship, the board of edu­ca­tion being trans­par­ent, and stay­ing in focus; and that an objec­tive eval­u­a­tion sys­tem is not a one-way process — it has to be give-and-take between the board and the treasurer.

Lil­lie said if board of edu­ca­tion mem­bers decide to imple­ment a treasurer’s eval­u­a­tion sys­tem with ESC serv­ing as a con­sul­tant the issue would be on the Decem­ber board agenda so the process could begin in January.

Four Big Wal­nut High School Stu­dent Coun­cil mem­bers attended the meet­ing to give a pre­sen­ta­tion on stu­dents part­ner­ing with the school dis­trict to address cyber bullying

The four stu­dents — Nicole Meyer, Avery Kerns, Lind­sey Adams, and Caeilen Lozano – said stu­dent coun­cil mem­bers and other stu­dents are work­ing on a high school and mid­dle school pre­sen­ta­tion out­lin­ing the Jes­sica Logan act, a new Ohio law designed to help pre­vent cyber bul­ly­ing using social media.

The stu­dents said most stu­dents today to keep up with the world use tex­ting, twit­ter, and Face­book, but at times social media can do more harm than good. Under the Jes­sica Logan Act if cyber bul­ly­ing is brought to the atten­tion of school dis­trict admin­is­tra­tors and staff they now have the juris­dic­tion to act.

Adams said what Stu­dent Coun­cil mem­bers really want their peers to know is that every stu­dent has some­one they can go to if they are being bullied.

• Board mem­bers accepted the fol­low­ing res­o­lu­tion: Res­o­lu­tion Declar­ing Trans­porta­tion to be Imprac­ti­cal for Cer­tain Iden­ti­fied Schools (R.C. Sec­tion 3327.02).

• Board mem­bers approved the Spy­Glass Snap­shot Audit Agree­ment for analy­sis and rec­om­men­da­tion of cost recov­ery, ser­vice elim­i­na­tion sav­ings and cost reduc­tion sav­ings for telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions ser­vices, exclud­ing wireless.

• Board mem­bers approved the 2012–13 Sports Med­i­cine Ath­letic Train­ing Ser­vices Agree­ment with Nation­wide Children’s Hospital.

• Board mem­bers approved the ter­mi­na­tion of the group med­ical insur­ance car­rier Med­ical Mutual, as of Decem­ber 31, 2012.

• Board mem­bers approved United Health Care as the group med­ical insur­ance car­rier, as of Jan­u­ary 1, 2013.

• Board mem­bers approved the ter­mi­na­tion of the group vision insur­ance car­rier Vision Plus, as of Decem­ber 31, 2012.

• Board mem­bers approved Eye­Med as the group vision insur­ance car­rier, as of Jan­u­ary 1, 2013.

• Board mem­bers approved the ter­mi­na­tion of Med­ical Mutual/Flex Save as the third party admin­is­tra­tor of the District’s Flex­i­ble Sav­ings Account, as of Decem­ber 31, 2012.

• Board mem­bers approved Dis­cov­ery Ben­e­fits as the third party admin­is­tra­tor of the District’s Flex­i­ble Sav­ings Account and COBRA as of Jan­u­ary 1, 2013.

• Board mem­bers accepted the res­ig­na­tion of Pam Ott, Big Wal­nut High School Fis­cal Sec­re­tary, due to retire­ment, effec­tive Jan­u­ary 1, 2013.

• Board mem­bers approved a 90-day pro­ba­tion­ary con­tract for the fol­low­ing clas­si­fied staff: Kim­berly Schenz, 2 hour Food Ser­vice Worker, Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School, step 1, effec­tive Octo­ber 15, 2012; Matthew Bell, Cus­to­dian, 2nd/3rd shift split, Big Wal­nut Inter­me­di­ate Build­ing & Big Wal­nut High School, step 0, effec­tive Novem­ber 5, 2012; Jeff Aisel, Spe­cial Needs Assis­tant, Trans­porta­tion & Gen­eral Rose­crans Ele­men­tary, step 0, effec­tive Novem­ber 5, 2012.

• Board mem­bers approved an increase in hours for Dale Wolfe, Mail Car­rier, from 1.5 hours/day to 2 hours/day, effec­tive Novem­ber 1, 2012.

• Board mem­bers approved a cer­ti­fied one year lim­ited con­tract for Dorothy Bran­ham, .5 Inter­ven­tion Spe­cial­ist, Hylen Soud­ers Ele­men­tary, BA step 1, effec­tive Novem­ber 5, 2012.

• Board mem­bers approved a $150 stipend for Carol Burchett for non-scheduled Credit Flex hours.

• Board mem­bers approved the fol­low­ing sup­ple­men­tals for the 2012–13 school year, step 0:

Eagles First Flight – Group 5, Christina McDonough.

LPDC Chair – Group 6, Nancy McCracken Bennett.

LPDC Com­mit­tee – Group 7, Carol Burchett, Geor­gia Craig, Tuition Reim­burse­ment, Barb George, Dawn Nor­ris, Jen­nifer Restucci, Maria Tar­ney, Laura Wood.

Race to the Top – Group 6, Erin Barr, Julie Beeker, Geor­gia Craig, Nicole Lein­we­ber, Sarah San­drock, Mike Stone, Angie Stooks­bury, Mary Wolf.

Principal’s Advi­sory Com­mit­tee (PAC) – Group 7, BWE, Mark Adams, Sarah Bad­ger, Deb Con­nell, Susan Mon­fort, Shelly Olson, Karen Sny­der, Beth Zir­illo; GRE, Kim Cas­tiglione, Trisha Hilton, Chris­tine McWilliams, Kori Rigo, Lisa Shaw, Jamie Sohovich, Susan Stein, Mary Wolf; SOU, Mandy Bai­ley, Sandy Chi­ampo, Amy Kessler, Mar­garet McNaughton, Lind­sey Sim­mons, Maria Tar­ney, Matt Wil­son; BWIS, Rhonda Cor­ven, Lau­rel Fitch, Barb George, Susan Miss­man, Amy Read, Jes­sica Shel­ton, Paula Sier­adzki; BWMS (mem­bers not depart­ment chairs), Corry Schull, Kim White; BWHS (mem­bers not depart­ment chairs), Sarah Wytzka.

• Board mem­bers approved the fol­low­ing win­ter ath­letic sup­ple­men­tals for the 2012–13:

Boys Bas­ket­ball: Eric Myers, Head Coach, step 11; Mike Adams, Var­sity Assis­tant, step 8; Ric Cav­ic­chia, Assis­tant, step 11; Rich Smith, Assis­tant, step 11; Char­lie Row­ley, ¾ MS Assis­tant, step 6; Chris Holly, ¾ MS Assis­tant, step 5; Anthony Zarcone, Vol­un­teer; Evan Jack­son, Volunteer.

Girls Bas­ket­ball: Bob Scott, Head Coach, step 11; Gary Miller, ¾ Var­sity Assis­tant, step 11; Frank Turner, ¾ Assis­tant, step 11; Mike Tutorow, MS Assis­tant, step 11; Leigh Ann Baker, MS Assis­tant, step 2; Jason Manns, MS Vol­un­teer; Chris White, MS Vol­un­teer; Katie Fox, Volunteer.

Wrestling: Luke Moore, Head Coach, step 9; Aaron Mor­ris, ½ Var­sity Assis­tant, step 6; Tony Eisnnicher, ½ Assis­tant, step 11; Josh Pace, MS Assis­tant, step 2; Luke Wor­ley, MS Assis­tant, step 1; Doug Wor­ley, Vol­un­teer; Tim Hal­bakken, Volunteer.

Bowl­ing: Pat McClel­land, Vol­un­teer; Jayme McClel­land, Volunteer.

Gym­nas­tics: Misty Matthews, Head Coach, step 11; Kirsten Varner, Volunteer.

Swim­ming: Andy Chat­ter­ton, Vol­un­teer; Sarah Cline, Vol­un­teer; Jim Peter­fish, Vol­un­teer; Jen White, Vol­un­teer; Kate Sweeney-Bendure, Volunteer.

• Board mem­bers approved to rescind motion 12–147: Linda Borchers for 1-hour/day extra work at the bus garage, cur­rent hourly dri­ver rate, effec­tive Sep­tem­ber 12, 2012.

• Board mem­bers approved Cathy Dam­ron for 1-hour/day extra work at the bus garage, cur­rent hourly dri­ver rate, effec­tive Novem­ber 1, 2012.

• Board mem­bers approved Linda Borchers, bus dri­ver, for a 1.5 mid-day route, cur­rent hourly rate, effec­tive Novem­ber 1, 2012.

• Board mem­bers accepted the res­ig­na­tion of Ron McClure, Trans­porta­tion Super­vi­sor, sub­mit­ted for pur­poses of ini­ti­at­ing earned retire­ment ben­e­fits, effec­tive as of the end of the work­day on Octo­ber 31, 2012.

• Board mem­bers approved to employ Ron McClure as Trans­porta­tion Super­vi­sor begin­ning Decem­ber 1, 2012 and con­tin­u­ing through July 31, 2013. Such employ­ment to be at the same salary set forth in his cur­rent con­tract and sub­ject to such other terms and con­di­tions as are set forth in the writ­ten con­tract doc­u­ment pre­sented to this Board.

The next reg­u­larly sched­uled Big Wal­nut Local School Dis­trict Board of Edu­ca­tion meet­ing will be held at 7 p.m., Mon­day, Decem­ber 10, at the Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School Library.

Posted by Gary Henery on Nov 20 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.