Board hears info on a variety of topics

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

CONVOY — Talk of property revaluation, technology, security and facilities made up the bulk of Monday’s meeting of the Crestview Local Schools Board of Education.

Treasurer Ashley Whetsel addressed recent property reappraisals by the Van Wert County Auditor’s Office and said the district’s valuation has increased by approximately 45 percent, from $153 million to $222 million.

“These are estimates put out by the county auditor so they’re not hard and fast yet,” Whetsel said. “This change in property values is intended to be a redistribution and not something to increase the revenues for varying tax authorities, so basically if your property value increased the same as the average increase for the district, your property taxes are not going to change. If your property value increased more than the average, then your property taxes will increase and if your property value increased less than the average value, your property taxes will decrease.”

Whetsel also cited House Bill 920, which rolls back millage rates on levies and protects property owners from unvoted tax increases. She also said because of the revaluation, she’s anticipating a nine percent increase in collections, or about $380,000 more, with 10 percent of that going to collection fees.

Technology Coordinator Shane Leeth updated board members on technology and security enhancements, including the installation of 11 new cameras on the east side of the building, from Door No. 2 to the bus parking lot.

“Those security cameras will give us coverage where we have not have coverage before, where we’ve had a few little things happen here and there, those have been blind spots for us,” Leeth explained.

He also said the district is upgrading four existing network video recorders.

“The big upgrade there will be faster speed on the systems themselves and more storage space for video and we’ll be able to add additional cameras should we need to,” Leeth said.

Network security is an ongoing process, including the ability to monitor internet activities by students.

“What the alert will do is monitor student web activity and alert us to any kind of suspicious student behavior whether it be self-harm, a situation where violence could come up – we get an alert with a screenshot and I can forward that on to the building principals and the building principals can talk to the student or forward it on to the next person who needs to see it,” Leeth said. “We’ve had a few alerts come up but most of it has been false positives, which is a good thing. What it does is monitor keywords and different behavior as far as the way kids are searching or sites that they’re going to and then we’ll get a screenshot of what they’re doing and we can follow up from there.”

Leeth told the board that security grant money is being used to update door controllers, which will allow for more flexibility when multiple events are going on at the school after hours.

Superintendent Kathy Mollenkopf noted that Technology Assistant Meghan Lautzenheiser has spent a significant amount of time becoming the district’s “Google guru.”

“Her knowledge base has been beneficial to teachers as they utilize that platform,” she said.

Board members Brad Perrott and Andy Perrott provided an update on the Modern Facilities Strategic Plan Committee, which included discussion of various needs. A meeting is scheduled for Wednesday and the board is expected hold a work session sometime after that to discuss updated information, which will then be brought forward at a future board meeting.

In other business, the board:

• Approved a field trip high school physics field trip to Springfield, Ohio on October 23.
• Approved the after-school tutoring program for elementary students.
• Accepted the resignation of Krystal McCollum, food service worker, effective November 10.
• Accepted an anonymous donation of field product valued at $220 for the baseball program.

The next regular meeting of the Crestview Local Schools Board of Education will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, November 27, in the multipurpose room.