MINUTES OF THE MARGARETTA BOARD OF EDUCATION (BOE) REGULAR MEETING OF DECEMBER 18, 2023.

Margaretta Board of Education met in regular session at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, December 18, 2023 at the Margaretta Board of Education, 305 S. Washington Street, Castalia, Ohio.

Regular Board Meeting
Mr. Sutorius, Board President, then called the regular meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. requesting roll call by Mrs. Keegan:

Mr. Hula:	Present Mr. Schoenegge:	Present Mrs. Tucker:	Present Mr. Sutorius:	Present
Mr. Warner was excused from the meeting

The Pledge of Allegiance was then recited after roll call.

Approval and Correction of the Minutes
Motion by Mr. Hula, and seconded by Mr. Schoenegge, to approve the minute’s correction to the Regular Board of Education Meeting held on Monday, November 20, 2023 (date of the VoAg Ireland trip should have been documented as June 25, 2025 and not June 25, 2024); Roll Call: Mr. Schoenegge: aye, Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Motion by Mrs. Tucker, and seconded by Mr. Hula, to approve the minutes from the Special Board of Education Meeting held on Friday, December 1, 2023; Roll Call: Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, Mr. Schoenegge: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Board and Staff Reports
Townsend Community School’s (TCS) Report
Mr. Ryan Bohn, TCS Principal and Superintendent was excused from the meeting and Mr. Kurt shared Mr. Bohn’s report and stated that TCS has eighteen graduates for the 2023-2024 school year, and 491 current students as of December 18, 2023. On December 13th they visited Lorain County Community College (LCCC) to discuss partnering together for a satellite site. They have also completed end of course testing this Thursday, December 21st.

TCS Margaretta Sponsor’s Report
Mr. Kurt, stated that we had our monthly TCS/Margaretta meeting to review current events and we continue to attend the TCS board meetings. He also stated that the LCCC potential partnership would be a great fit for both students and the college to transition into a two year college program. Mr. Kurt also thanked TCS for taking the initiative to contact Ohio Edison to update the street lights to LED to help with the lighting around both buildings.

FFA Pond Drainage Report from Mr. Kurt
The sanitation scope video was shared with the board to display the blockage in the drainage pipe at the FFA pond. We received an estimate from Franklin sanitation to install a clean out on the 8” storm line and an estimate to replace the entire pipe. The decision was to perform the lower cost option of installing the clean out at the debris blockage

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Public Participation None

Introduction of Additional Items to the Agenda None

Treasurer’s Financial Report and Schedule of Bills
Mrs. Keegan presented the schedule of bills, bank reconciliations, fund balances, etc., that were included in the Board’s packages for review. Mrs. Keegan stated that the fiscal year to date revenue through November (with 1/3 of the fiscal year complete) was a total of $7.3M and expenses of $7.7M resulting in a decrease to the general fund balance of $(0.4)M. The beginning cash balance in the total general fund as of July 1, 2023 was $1.0M so at the end of November the general fund balance is $0.6M. Mrs. Keegan went through the variances in the year over year comparison, with the major variance in the revenue being the Nexus tangible personal property taxes of $(534)K due the company paying at 66% of the tax bill in 2022 and only 40% in 2023.

Treasurer’s Report
Motion by Mr. Hula seconded by Mr. Schoenegge, on Resolution number 23-24-32, approval to proceed with election renewal of an existing emergency tax levy. Mr. Kurt then discussed what the district employees can and can’t do as it relates to levy campaigns. He also stated that he will send an email distribution to the staff for guidance; Roll Call: Mr. Hula: aye, Mr. Schoenegge: aye, Mrs. Tucker: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Motion by Mrs. Tucker seconded by Mr. Schoenegge, on Resolution number 23-24-33, to approve expenditures that have exceeded the $3,000 threshold of the “then and now” provisions of Ohio Revised Code Section 5705.41(d); Roll Call: Mr. Schoenegge: aye, Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Motion by Mr. Hula, seconded by Mrs. Tucker, on Resolution number 23-24-34, to approve the contract with the Mental Health & Recovery Services Board for Sandusky County to provide $3,447 of funds (second half of school year) for mental health initiatives. Mrs. Keegan stated that Mrs. Kathy Hall was made aware that we are also eligible for mental health grants with Sandusky County in addition to Erie County given we are in both and therefore we applied for this grant money and were able to get the second semester payment this year; Roll Call: Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, Mr. Schoenegge: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Superintendent’s Report New Business
Motion by Mrs. Tucker seconded by Mr. Hula, to accept the building demolition and new parking lot contract for parcel # 31-61001.000 at 208 Lowell Street, Castalia, Ohio with Shortridge Construction. Project to commence December 19, 2023. Mr. Kurt informed the board that we received three bids on time and reviewed each and are recommending Shortridge as the low bid. The project is commencing as early as December 19th and the contractor is aware of our heavy traffic times of day and the dates of Christmas school break to maximize activity during the break; Roll Call: Mr. Hula: aye, Mr. Schoenegge: abstain, Mrs. Tucker: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

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Old Business
Motion by Mrs. Tucker seconded by Mr. Schoenegge, to approve Agriculture in Ireland FFA trip scheduled for June, 2025; Roll Call: Mr. Schoenegge: aye, Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Personnel Actions
Motion by Mr. Hula and seconded by Mrs. Tucker, to approve FMLA/unpaid leave requests; Roll Call: Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, Mr. Schoenegge: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Motion by Mr. Schoenegge, and seconded by Mrs. Tucker, to approve the revision of the Limited Employment Wage Schedule (updating minimum wage employees from $10.10 to $10.45). Mrs. Keegan clarified that this change is effective on January 1, 2024; Roll Call: Mr. Hula: aye, Mr. Schoenegge: aye, Mrs. Tucker: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Classified
Motion by Mrs. Tucker, seconded by Mr. Schoenegge, to hire Preston Elek and Reginald May Jr. as Sub Bus Aides for the 2023-2024 school year. Mr. Kurt mentioned that employees are on the agenda twice given they are different jobs and pay scales. He also stated that if we are able to continue this trend of bus driver availability, that we are looking strongly at going back to a single bus route for next school year; Roll Call: Mr. Schoenegge: aye, Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Motion by Mr. Hula, seconded by Mr. Schoenegge, to hire Scott Bechtel and Preston Elek, as Bus Drivers for the 2023-2024 school year; Roll Call: Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, Mr. Schoenegge: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Motion by Mrs. Tucker seconded by Mr. Schoenegge, to hire Jana Berg, as a Substitute Custodian for the 2023-2024 school year. Mrs. Keegan mentioned that Jana had worked over the summer for the district and is willing to help out over her Christmas break to cover fulltime employee’s vacations, etc.; Roll Call: Mr. Hula: aye, Mr. Schoenegge: aye, Mrs. Tucker: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Motion by Mrs. Tucker seconded by Mr. Hula, to hire Sondra Adams, as Substitute Bus Driver for the 2023-2024 school year; Roll Call: Mr. Schoenegge: aye, Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Informational
Mr. Kurt informed the board that Ohio School Council (OSC) had published the district’s savings through theirconsortiumandgeneralprograms (like Power 4our Schools electric savings, natural gas consortium, life insurance, school bus purchases, AEDs, electric audit refunds, Home Depot rebates). The total savings for the 2022-2023 school year was $76,382.

Mr. Kurt also stated that the HS art students were interested in displaying their work, which has prompted Mrs. Skinner to schedule the HS Art Show on January 13, 2024 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. He invited all to attend.

Mrs. Beth Burkett also asked if it were possible to have the MS/HS SRO move his vehicle up to the first spot in front of the school to help with the flow of traffic for arrival and dismissals. Dr. Theis was in the audience and stated that she would talk to him about that.

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Motion by Mr. Hula seconded by Mrs. Tucker, enter Executive Session to discuss the appointment, employment,dismissal,discipline, promotionor compensation ofpublic employees; Roll Call: Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, Mr. Schoenegge: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

The Board entered Executive Session at 5:35 p.m. with Mrs. Keegan, Mr. Lippert, and Mr. Kurt remaining in the Executive Session.

Motion by Mrs. Tucker, seconded by Mr. Hula, to return to open session; Roll Call: Mr. Hula: aye, Mr. Schoenegge: aye, Mrs. Tucker: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Motion by Mr. Schoenegge seconded by Mrs. Tucker, to adjourn the meeting having no further business to come before the Board; Roll Call: Mr. Schoenegge: aye, Mrs. Tucker: aye, Mr. Hula: aye, and Mr. Sutorius: aye.

Meeting adjourned at 6:15 p.m.

Next BOE Organizational and Regular Meeting is scheduled for January 8, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. at the Margaretta Board Office, 305 S. Washington St., Castalia, Ohio 44824

Respectfully Submitted

_________________________ Board President

______________________ Diane Keegan
Treasurer

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