Lincolnview Board formulates ECC plans

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent writer

With Crestview working on plans to open that district’s own Early Childhood Center, Lincolnview officials are now looking at their own options.

The two currently use space at the Thomas Edison Center in Van Wert and one option is for Lincolnview to remain there, while other options are to add on to the existing K-12 building or the Community Center.

During Monday night’s monthly Board of Education meeting, board members heard from Brian Wolf of Garmann, Miller and Associates, who did a walk through and 18 point assessment of the Thomas Edison building. While various improvements and upgrades are needed, Wolf noted the building is in good condition and appears to be move in ready.

“We don’t see any high dollar items that would need to be replaced in order for preschool to continue there,” Wolf said. “If you were to upgrade everything per the recommendation, you’re going to be in the $400,000 to $500,000 range.”

Wolf also explained that a four classroom, 4,200 square foot addition to the existing school would be in the $1.8 million range, while a four classroom, 5,800 square foot addition to the Community Center would run in the $1.5 million range.

Dave Bagley with the Western Buckeye Educational Service Center was in attendance, and he said joining forces with Vantage Career Center’s preschool is a possibility.

“We’ve had some early conservations, but nothing has been discussed in great length,” Bagley told the board. “We still really need to sit down with them, but they’re looking at needing more space and they see that as a great opportunity to come across and join the preschools together.”

“It would give their students some more opportunities to work with more students and would give their staff a better chance to worth with our staff and possibly to expand,” Bagley added. “What we’re trying to do is look at other education opportunities to fill that building.”

By phone Tuesday afternoon, Vantage Career Center Superintendent Rick Turner said after discussing the matter, his school isn’t interested in moving the preschool program across the street.

Board members heard several other short presentations, including one from band director Nicholas Brown on the band’s various activities and another from Deb Stetler and several students on the recent “Rivals United” campaign with Crestview. The two schools combined to successfully raise over $38,000.

During her report to the board, Elementary Principal Nita Meyer said gifted student testing is done and results will soon be sent home, while Junior High/High School Principal Brad Mendenhall said his staff is working scheduling for the 2019-2020 school year.

Board member Eric Germann updated the board on his recent trip to Washington D.C. for the National School Board Association’s Equity Symposium and Advocacy Institute.

“The first day we had a guest speaker which was Secretary of Education Betsy DeVoss and that was rather interesting because she extolled the virtues of for profit charter schools,” Germann explained. “That didn’t go over very well.”

“We had a number of sessions on advocacy on Capitol Hill and on day two we met with our two senators over breakfast and had a good discussion with them on a number of issues.”

Germann also said he had a lengthy discussion with Representative Bob Latta about funding issues.

During his report, Superintendent Jeff Snyder said officials are working through three proposals to make up time lost to 12 calamity days.

“We have a student minimum number of hours of 1,001, but we usually build in our schedule 22 to 25 additional days, so we have more than enough days,” Snyder said. “If we don’t make anything up we still meet the state requirement.”

“However, we feel it’s very important to make an attempt to try to make those days up. We’re looking at potentially extending the school day by a half hour, 45 minutes or an hour, extending the school year by a couple of days, and we’ve even had a conversation about Saturday school.”

A decision could come soon.

In other business, board members approved a proclamation for National FFA Week; approved the 2019-2020 school calendar; approved the district’s open enrollment policy for the next school year; approved overnight trips for the Lincolnview FFA Chapter to attend the State FFA Convention May 2 and 3 in Columbus, one for high school cheerleaders to attend the OASAA State Cheerleading Championships on March 10 in Columbus and one for the high school baseball team to scrimmage three teams in Middletown on March 15 and 16.

The board approved supplemental contracts for Courtney Williams (varsity assistant softball coach) and Dan Williamson (junior high softball coach), and board members okayed a number of volunteer assistant coaches, including Torrey Walker and Angie Williamson as softball coaches; Chris Boyd and Steve Bollenbacher as junior high baseball coaches; Kyle Stechschulte as a high school baseball coach, and Eric Gissler, Marla Kemler, Greg Byrum, Al Arnold and Dylan Verhoff as track coaches.

The board also met in executive session twice, including one that lasted nearly an hour before the start of the regular session. No action directly related to either closed door meeting was taken.

The next meeting of the Lincolnview Local Schools Board of Education will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, in the Neubrecht Lecture Hall.