PHOTO BY BRIANNA BALOGH / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
QUIZ BOWL … A small group of quiz bowl team members provide highlight to the board of education.
By: Brianna Balogh
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
North Central held the Board of Education meeting on December 17th in the Eagle room, due to the concert taking place in the auditeria, called to order at 6:01 pm by President Kati Burt.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited followed by roll call. All members, Dustin Meyers, Chuck Haynes, John Huffman, Tim Livengood, President Kati Burt, were present as well as Treasurer Eric Smeltzer and Superintendent Bute.
Prior to approval of the agenda, President Burt explained that there was a request to move Michael Babin’s administrative contract for Athletic Director to its own section to be voted on, now being action item 3. The agenda change and approval was motioned by Huffman and seconded by Livengood.
Burt, Huffman, and Livengood provided some congratulatory and appreciative comments. Burt gave a shout out to the Four County Student of the Month, Alayna Faunce and Huffman thanked the elementary staff for their hard work on the Christmas program. Livengood thanked the choir for their performance at the senior luncheon.
The treasurer’s report presented by Smeltzer was next. The first item was to waive the reading and approve the minutes for the November 19th meeting.
Second was the financial statements and investments from November, provided to the board. Smeltzer identified each sheet for the board and highlighted the cafeteria monthly profit and loss.
Across the state of Ohio, reimbursement for the free and reduced lunches was delayed resulting in two reimbursements depositing in the same month, making one month appear very low and one month appear very high.
The third item was several donations to accept: $619 from Nickloy’s Fix and Fab to the Backpack program; $979 worth of food provided for Teacher Appreciation Week by the Logger’s Lounge; $19,750 from the American Legion which more than half was used for playground updates and better accessibility; $4,880 from the Athletic Boosters; $54.95 from Spangler’s Candy Company for candy canes for grades PK-12.
The fourth item in the report was appropriation additions as follows: $40.00 Miscellaneous State Grant Fund from workers compensation grant pursued by Mr. Babin to acquire a new line painter; $1,000 Carl Perkins Vo Ag Grant; $7,706.95 Title 1 funds to support reading programs, in total $48,706.95.
The final item was to accept the amount rates determined by the budget commission and authorize the necessary tax levies and certifying them to the county auditor. All items were approved, being motioned by Livengood.
Following Smeltzer was Superintendent Bute with his report. He started by listing several thank yous and appreciation. He thanked all the organizations for the previously listed donations.
He also expressed a great appreciation for teachers, cafeteria staff, bus drivers, custodians, school advisors, administrative staff, school nurse and SRO.
He highlighted school nurse Hake’s hard work in securing a replacement AED free of charge through the Make Them Know Your Name Foundation and also was able to get two free training kits from the American Heart Association for CPR and first aid training.
He congratulated all the students participating in the several year-end concerts happening. He followed with a culture and playbook highlight of R-factor 2, supported with a slide talking about what you focus on and how you talk to yourself which can drive your feelings and influence your actions.
Calendar updates for the 2025-2026 followed with three options being presented to the union to be voted on. He is hoping to present the calendar to the public in February.
Bute updated the board at the recent NwOESC business advisory council meeting from September 17th, providing the minutes. Bute also provided the agenda for the upcoming meeting where the guest speaker was the Director of Ohio Department of Education and WorkForce Development.
The next topic was the wellness plan where a plan needs to be created on how certain funds will be spent. The plan was provided to the board which was a revised version of the previous year with little change.
Bute reminded that the next meeting would not have a work session. He finished with current enrollment numbers of elementary at 307, junior high at 67, high school at 148, and NOVA at 3 for a total of 525.
Administration reports were next with Elementary Principal Brent Saneholtz presenting first. He stated that the elementary school has been very busy in the recent month and the great first half of the school year.
Academics was the first topic, being the data received from the third grade reading guarantee scores. Sixty-eight percent of the students met either the promotion score or the promotion subscore. The Ohio state average score was 690 and the North Central score was 701.
The spelling bee was held on December 6th, and the winners will compete in January at the Williams County Spelling Bee.
Saneholtz highlighted the PTO activities over the last month. First was the Santa Shop which ran from December 9th through the 11th and was a first at the school. It was all not for profit and saw sales close to $5,000.
Next was the Staff Spotlight, started in December, which allows all North Central staff to be recognized individually.
Finally, Saneholtz congratulated all staff and students involved in the Elementary Christmas Program, especially the 6th grade classes who helped set up and tear down.
Following was Junior High and High School Principal Martha Hasselbusch. First, Hasselbusch introduced the quiz bowl team. There were several team members that could not be there due to other activities.
Quiz Bowl achievements so far have been many including the team tripling in size to have a complete varsity and junior varsity team for the first time in many years.
At the end of the Williams County Academic League regular season, two students finished in the top ten scorers, one in varsity and one in junior varsity.
The varsity finished fifth in the county and junior varsity finished fourth in the county. At the WCAL tournament junior varsity made it all the way to the semifinal. Quiz bowl wanted to thank the high school, the district and their coach for all the support.
Hasselbusch pointed the board to the mission on the provided secondary report before moving along to current and historical student attendance data.
Overall attendance has gone up for November, average being 89.67% for August – November. Hasselbusch also went over the staff attendance rates, being 90.21% for the same time frame.
Next was zero bullying reports for November and zero disciplinary referrals for seventh grade, which received a shout out from Hasselbusch.
The disciplinary referrals are as follows by grade: 8th at 12.5% with 5 referrals, 9th at 25% with 10 referrals, 10th at 40% with 16 referrals, 11th at 12,5% with 5 referrals, and 12th at 10% with 4 referrals.
Hasselbusch then introduced Aubrie Ridinger, Grade 7-12 Student Services Coordinator. Miss Ridinger started with student services.
Sophomores traveled to Four County to explore different programs and 18 have applied. As a reminder the deadline is February 1st. Eighth grade students also selected programs of interest at Four County for the January visit, which saw a complement to the eighth grade for being so well behaved.
CCP info night saw a huge turnout with a representative from Northwest State coming in to present to parents and students. The accuplacer was offered the previous week to assist students with selecting classes.
The accuplacer can be retaken until April 1st, which the school is looking into scheduling, so students do not have to travel offsite to test. College Career Day was the previous week, with 10 colleges attending. Seniors attend CPR training in the afternoon. Juniors took a practice ACT and benchmark testing was provided to other grades.
Ridinger continued with updates from the academic boosters which looked into fundraiser options and trying to bring in supplies for teachers.
The building leadership team organized staff spirit days and a secret Santa gift exchange. Thursday at 1:30 will be a “Minute To Win It” assembly.
Finishing up was BLT focused items, A Kahoot was played at lunch to review R-factors, where students received a prize and were also entered into a gift card drawing. A t-shirt contest is being planned for the beginning of the semester.
Hasselbusch continued by pointing the board to the student of the month and rising eagle section, where a shared spreadsheet has been created. The room was almost 100% full for the celebration. The next celebration will be held on January 17th.
Hasselbusch closed with increasing academic achievement plans. Individual meetings are still being held with teachers who administer state testing.
Targeted classroom walk throughs are being increased to multiple times a week. Teachers are continuing to have the opportunity to observe high achieving teachers, either in or out of the district, to observe and learn effective strategies to help increase student achievement.
Hasselbusch highlighted several pictures provided to the board of activities of the past month.
The athletic director’s report was presented by Hasselbusch as Mr. Babin was attending the concert in the auditorium.
The first item was Hometown Ticketing which is currently up and running. Digital season passes are in the works. Next was the 2025-2026 athletic schedules which are almost complete. Looking ahead, the OHSAA spring sports parent meeting will be held March 3, 2025 and the winter sports awards will be on March 10, 2025.
Next on the agenda was recommendations, which started with the approval of the next meeting date. The organizational meeting proposed for January 13th at 4:00pm with the regular meeting to follow. The motion was made by Haynes and approved by all.
Second was the appointment of president pro-tem, which saw Kati Burt appointed. Motion by Haynes, seconded by Livengood and approved by all.
The final recommendation was to approve 2025 membership to the Ohio School Association which was motioned by Livengood and approved by all. Second reading of the NEOLA revisions was next. The motion to approve was made by Meyers, seconded by Haynes. The motion was approved by all members.
The consent agenda followed. Extra duty positions were first including JV baseball coach, assistant varsity baseball coach, head varsity softball coach, two assistant softball coaches to be split in half, head varsity track coach, junior high track, volunteer girls basketball and a volunteer for boys basketball. The positions were accepted by all members with the motion being made by Livengood.
The second consent item was an extra duty position for junior class advisor. The motion was made to accept by Huffman with all members voting yes except Meyers who abstained.
The third employment approval was the previously moved contract for Athletic Director Michael Babin, a one-year contract. The motion to approve was made by Livengood, seconded by Haynes and voted no by Huffman.
With no need for an executive session the meeting adjourned at 6:50.