L’view board welcomes new employees

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Lincolnview Local Board of Education welcomed new employees and also heard reports on the start of school during its August meeting Monday in the district media center.

District Treasurer Troy Bowersock said the district was projected to lose approximately $154,000 in property tax receipts this year, while he got a laugh from board members when he talked about the money the district receives in state foundation funding, which remained flat-funded at $4 million for the past decade.

“That’s probably the easiest projection for this year and years to come,” Bowersock said. “You just take what we’ve had for the last 10 years and roll it forward.”

The treasurer also provided a written construction update on the district’s planned community center.

High School/Junior High Principal Brad Mendenhall and Elementary Principal Nita Meyer both talked about the K-12 open house held prior to the beginning of the school year.

Mendenhall noted that he also administered makeup end-of-course tests for the first time the last week of July to four students.

“Something brand new we did offer for some of those students who needed retakes,” he said.

Mendenhall said the district also conducted the ACT prep course for the second year in a row, noting that those students who took the course improved between 1 and 5 points when they retook the ACT.

He also noted that all Lincolnview students in grades 7-11 will take the ACT this year.

New employees who were at the August meeting include Dan Swick, seventh-grade social studies and science teacher who was formerly an assistant principal in the Elida Local School District; Jordan Dues, vocational agriculture teacher, a first-year teacher who recently graduated from The Ohio State University; Andrea Kable, a first grade teacher with 10 years’ experience; Amy Baldauf, an intervention aide who formerly taught at a preschool; Tasha Breese, a fifth grade English/language arts teacher who previously taught at Crestview; and Chelsea Giesige, a fifth and sixth grade intervention specialist, who taught six years at Defiance High School.

Eric Germann, district legislative liaison, talked about recent discussions at the state level on the new biennial budget, including how the sometimes confusing school funding formula was arrived at.

“It’s not how wealthy your district is, it’s how wealthy your district is relative to every other district in the state,” Germann said.

He also noted that the state has taken the “rob Peter to pay Paul” avenue, cutting funding from townships, libraries and other local agencies, and counties to maintain state revenues. That, in essence, has resulted in a need for townships and counties to seek levies to pay for road repairs and other local services.

Germann also talked about an area that has a big impact on Lincolnview: the CAUV agricultural revaluation.

His opinion that the CAUV process is fundamentally broken and they really need to go back and look at and rethink how they do it,” Germann said. “There’s merit to what they’re trying to do, but the way they’re doing it is wrong.”

He noted that valuations often swing too far one way or another, adding that valuations should likely be done on a yearly basis to keep changes smaller.

Germann said the biggest state funding problem is the opioid crisis, where efforts to deal with the problem is costing the state a lot of money, while those on opioids typically don’t make much money, and therefore

“It is a significant drain on the state budget with no end in sight,” Germann told the board.

Superintendent Jeff Snyder talked about work being done to renovate the district website and noted the district has added new radio equipment. Snyder also noted that Lincolnview has seen 256 students K-12 enroll in the district through open enrollment.

It is very exciting to see people who want to send their students to Lincolnview who don’t live in our district,” Snyder said. That’s more than a quarter of all students who are enrolled in the district.

Also Monday, the board approved a number of supplemental contracts, including a number for the district’s 21st Century program. Those include the following: Hilary Arn, program coordinator; Alexa Terry, Ariel McMasters, Lynn Bouillon, and Rachel Dettrow, after school tutors and mentors; Lindsey Breese and Cheryl Mongold, after school tutors; and Sharon Brincefield and Whitney Bigham, bus drivers.

Allen Arnold was given a supplemental contract as a high school girls’ assistant basketball coach, while the following volunteer coaches were also approved: Ashley Miller, cross country; Josh Maxey, boys’ soccer; Danica Hicks, seventh grade volleyball; and Steve Bollenbacher, eighth grade volleyball.

In other action, the board:

• Renewed membership in the Equity and Adequacy Coalition for the 2017-18 school year.
• Appointed Eric Germann as the voting delegate to the Ohio School Boards Association Capital Conference for 2017.
• Approved Jay Hoersten and Lori Romes’ advancement on the salary schedule.
• Accepted, with thanks, the following donations: $2,820 from the Klein Trust of the Van Wert County Foundation; $2,000 from the Cooper Family Foundation for an education grant donation, and $1,000 for the VWH Cooper Scholarship; $200 from St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Van Wert for the Needy Student Fund; and $120 from the Mike and Lori Niese, Craig and Kathy Staley, P & L Fertilizer, and Rick and Dianna Ashbaugh, for the Elementary Jeans Fund.
• Accepted the annual gym floor advertising payment of $3,500 from Van Wert Federal Savings Bank to benefit the athletic department.
• Approved an agreement with the Wood County Educational Service Center for the educational option program administered for the Wood County Juvenile Detention Center and Juvenile Residential Center.
• Approved Brion Deitsch to provide building consulting services for the community center and bus garade addition.
• Appointed Hollie Ford as the employee representative on the Van Wert Area Schools Insurance Group (VWASIG).

The next meeting of the Lincolnview Local Board of Education will be at 7 p.m. Monday, September 25, in the Neubrecht Lecture Hall.