Board of Education Special Meeting

1. Mr. Scott Loomis, CHS Principal

2. Mr. Kevin Yoder, CHS Assistant Principal/Athletic Director

Ms. Terri Eyerman, Treasurer

Delegate - Dr. Jere Butcher

Alternate - Mr. Phil Hunt

Liaison - Mrs. Susan Mann

Alternate - Mr. Sam Bennett

Member - Mr. Phil Hunt 

Alternate - Ms. Terri Eyerman, Treasurer

Ms. Terri Eyerman, Treasurer

Insurance Committee - Mr. Phil Hunt

Athletic Council - Mr. Sam Bennett & Dr. Jere Butcher

Mr. Josh Predovich, from SHP, presented, beginning with going back through the history of the OFCC project stating it is a good place to start and is the same place the advisory committee will begin. After an overview of the history of the project back to 2009 discussing the segmented project. Segment 1 was the new ES and the Lincoln and Southlawn parts of the project. He discussed the benefits for most districts is that if you lock into a segmented project is that you lock into a local share that usually benefits the district at a later date.  Our district locked in at 67% state 33% local share. He also spoke about the waiver the district had to have approved to renovate the HS at that time. The district's first offer of funding will be in 2022, but there is a possibility that cannot happen if the commissions meeting in July does not include approval of future funding for the projects this year. He also discussed the enrollment study and expressed that our current study has negatively affected the project.  Current enrollment is projected to remain closer to 1540. Current enrollment is less than what was projected in 2009 when the project originated. At that time enrollment was expected to be over 1600+ students. the complication is that OFCC would like to see our district have one facility for all grades K-12. The challenge is that adding on to the existing building shares some spaces and results in fewer dollars budgeted by the Commission.  The district was locked in at the 67/33 local share, currently, our district would be 88/12 local share. SHP has researched to see if any district in the segmented projects has been successful in having their local share adjusted. There were none. Dr. Hire asked about the past enrollment projections declining enrollment implications.  He also asked about the 1500 limit that requires one building stating that our district has approximately 1540, so that 1500 number is not a hard number. Mr. Predovich confirmed that was accurate. He stated that SHP will provide the district with any information they need. They can check with their legal counsel to see if they can do anything, help provide, or advice to give to help get the local share percentage changed. He then presented three initial high school master plan options with estimates based on 2021 pricing provided by OFCC and reminded all in attendance that the pricing will change as soon as the 2022 pricing is available. He stated that he did estimate an increase in the spreadsheet after the last example where other locally funded items are listed. The three options were 1) to add onto the ES, which is the recommended option from the State. 2) Build a new facility, and 3) the greater financial impact to the community would be to renovate the existing HS. the greatest item that impacts this is excess square footage the state would not co-fund, therefore increasing the burden on the community share.  He also presented a PowerPoint presentation with more detail about the master plan options, showing overhead views of the property in order to discuss the possibility of locations, explaining the pros and cons of each option. The Board members asked numerous clarifying questions throughout the presentation until each was satisfied that they had a clear understanding of all that was being presented to them.  Mr. Predovich also explained that advisory committee meetings would continue to take place in order to get input and educate all those that are on the advisory committee. Dr. Hire spoke about the complexity of the situation because the local share has changed. He explained that it may be important to explore other avenues with a 21% difference in the local share/ He is researching everywhere he can in an attempt to change this. He has had conversations about this with legislators as he has been told that the law would need to change to adjust the local share. Dr. Hire will continue to research and do what he can to have the local share adjusted as the work continues so the district is ready to make a decision when the final decision to move forward or not needs to be made. Mr. Predovich explained that the district said no to the first offer from OFCC, this year we have the same offer, we have the option to postpone for a year. He cautioned the Board to be aware of the costs. The construction costs are going to continue going up. Will the savings of waiting to try to make a difference in local share outweigh the cost increase due to inflation and construction costs going up? Dr.  Hire stated that there will be unintended consequences any way we go. He will be discussing this further with the state our state rep. he is a new guy and could not believe that this happened to the district. He is new to the job, but he agreed that current districts that benefit from the law should not be impacted but the few that did not benefit should not be punished by asking the local community to pay more than the State shows they have the capacity to pay. Mr. Hunt shared that it is important to keep the community meetings going as we work through the details before moving forward. It is important to keep the group learning and informed. Dr. Butcher stated that he is shell-shocked about the thought of combining the building. Mrs. Mann stated she has worked in the ES and cannot see how the two could be combined, the shared spaces such as the cafeteria are already so crowded. 

Mr. Phil Hunt asked if everyone got a chance to look at the paperwork provided about replacing a board member.

They discussed the need to allow time to gather applicants, have a discussion about the applications, and interview the applicants. He stated that at this time, the 7th of February was the only scheduled time where all Board members were available. Dr. Hire stated that night could be the night you do interviews and/or pick a candidate. Dr. Hire stated that in his past experience,  the Board has always accepted applications, then interviewed applicants. Jere and Sam said in the past every applicant was interviewed. Mr. Hunt opened the discussion to pick a second date to have a meeting. It was decided that January 28th at 5:00 p.m. would be the first meeting to review the applications received at that time and that they would keep February 7th for further review, the second interview or to decide and approve the choice. It was stated that they could possibly name their appointment on February 7th, or if the Board needed another night, they could set another date at that time. They decided to put the 3rd date on their calendar at this time that could be canceled if not needed. February 10th was scheduled for a tentative 3rd meeting if necessary, again at 5:00 p.m. Mr. Hunt expressed appreciation to everyone for their flexibility. 

Ms Eyerman presented a PowerPoint explaining the New state funding formula's impact on the  District. She briefly discussed how the funding was presented differently than in the past due to students being funded where they attend instead of where they live. This resulted in less funding at this initial phase of the funding formula, but also resulted in reducing the number of expenditures to the district by not subtracting the Open Enrollment out, the Community School Funding out, and the Scholarship payments out.  She then showed how each of these was calculated for the forecast and the end result of the updated forecast at this time. She stated that the State is still making updates and refining details to the formula and changes were still expected, however, at this time, the results to the forecast are very favorable to the District and it is expected that they would remain this way.  She also stated that it was very important that the State of Ohio vote to continue with the phase-in of the new fair funding formula.

Dr. Hire talked about the school calendar and gave an update to the Board on how calamity days are calculated and where we currently stand with CHS and CES.