Windham – Windham Board of Education (BOE) met for their regular monthly meeting a week earlier to accommodate a board member’s work schedule.
Legislative report was given by Melissa Roubic who reported that Ohio House Bill (HB) H.B. 202 will limit the retire /rehire benefits of school employees that will effect some of the school’s employees. She also reported that the state’s changing the minimum required number of school days to hours will make it a challenge if the new proposal to have all school instruction days take place between Labor Day and Memorial Day. This bill is being discussed but currently is not a law. In other legislative news, the state has appointed a new committee to examine the possibility of making the funding to districts correlate with student performance.
In the superintendent’s report, Gregg Isler reported that the ACT scores for the district were still improving. He also reported that the buildings were ready to go, the school has received enough backpacks for students in K-5th grade, including new enrollees, and the Brick by Brick Scholarship Fund after this year’s dinner stands at $187,000. The dinner raised approximately $3700.
Principal Michael Chaffee acknowledged staff members Roger Eakins, Barbara Balchick, Robert Kujala, Dougle Hankins and Alysia Tinker for attending the technology workshop in Columbus and their tireless work on obtaining technology grants for the district. He also reported that band and fall sports were up and running. This year Windham will not be fielding a junior varsity football team due to lack of participants.
Craig Alderman, transportation and maintenance supervisor, reported that the parking lot light timers were way off and he is currently looking for digital timers for them. The current timers are out-dated, difficult to set and easily get off schedule. He stated that the school buildings and buses are ready to go. The 2011-2012 bus stop schedules have been posted on fliers and have been distributed around town. Parents, please note the new start time for Katherine Thomas Elementary school is 9 am. Due to the time adjustment, students can expect the buses to arrive about 10 minutes later than last year. Also new in transportation, after studying the dangers of the intersection verses the liability of children walking across private property, the board agreed to allow the bus to turn onto Wadsworth Road to pick up students. In the past students had to walk across private property to be picked up on SR 303 because of the limited visibility at the intersection. The BOE will be asking the trustees for assistance in getting the state to post new signage stating that there will be a bus turning at the intersection. The bus will only make right turns on and off the road.
In other board new the board adjusted the position of Robert Kujala. He was originally hired to be the Director of Special Services/ Preschool His responsibilities will be elementary principal along with director of special services. The district hired Dr. David Root as part-time Education Administrative Specialist Consultant for the school year. He will be working in the special services department. The board announced they have added extra responsibilities for Stacey Best who will be paid a stipend to assist the districts principals. An executive session was held; with there being no decisions rendered, the meeting was adjourned. The BOE meets on the fourth Thursday of each month at 7pm at the board office.
