HED … Swanton Local School District Board of Education Treasurer Sheila Horseman swears in returning board member Ben Remer during the board’s meeting Jan. 9.
By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jesse@thevillagereporter.com
The upcoming total solar eclipse led to the announcement of a school closure by Swanton Schools Superintendent Chris Lake during the board of education’s meeting early last week.
According to Lake, he had been told in several meetings that the best option for the school was to close, treating it as a calamity day.
“The last eclipse they had a few years back … over 21 million people moved into the path of the eclipse to witness it, and small towns like ours kind of got overrun,” Lake said.
“There was a little town in Kentucky that just went about their normal day, the eclipse happened, over 100,000 visitors showed up and their kids were stuck on buses for several hours because of the roads.”
Lake said he has been told to expect local roads to get bogged down by visitors, and that if school was in session that day and there was an emergency at the school, there was no guarantee emergency services could actually make it there.
“I’ve read articles about little towns where their sewer system was getting overwhelmed because of all these people that were in town,” he said.
Lake showed board members a detailed image of the path of eclipse totality – where people could witness the full eclipse.
Swanton lies on the northernmost edge of the path, with roughly one third of the northwestern city limits outside of that path.
According to Lake, closing Swanton schools that day should have minimal impact as it is the Monday immediately following spring break, so the break is effectively just being extended by a day.
OTHER BUSINESS
The board appointed Steve Brehmer as president and John Schaller as vice president. The board set its 2024 meeting schedule as follows: 6:30 p.m. on February 21, March 13, April 10, May 15, June 12, July 10, August 14, September 11, October 9, November 13, and December 11.
Board members Ben Remer and David Smith were re-appointed to the audit committee after having served on the committee last year.
The board appointed Marshall & Melhorn LLC, Squire Patton Boggs LLP, and Ennis Britton Co. LPA as legal counsel for 2024.
The board authorized the superintendent and treasurer to enter into/accept/participate in federal, state, or local grants or agreements and authorized the treasurer to appropriate those grants awarded, and to accept all donations to the school district on behalf of the board.
The board authorized the treasurer to make fund-to-fund advances, advance returns, and transfers as needed, with the board ratifying the actions at the next regular meeting, to invest interim and inactive funds in permissible investments pursuant to board policy and the Ohio Revised Code, to sign all checks drawn on school district bank accounts, to borrow funds in anticipation of future tax receipts at the best available rate for cash flow purposes, to convene meetings of the records commission as needed, to pay all bills, to obtain advances against tax collections to meet current expenses, and to pay all bills.
The board authorized the superintendent to send school employees to professional meetings within authorized appropriations, to employ temporary personnel in emergency situations as needed, to serve as the purchasing agent, and to serve as the board’s designee for suspension appeals.
The board also authorized the superintendent to offer teaching and non-teaching employment directly to candidates and to acknowledge acceptance of such offers on behalf of the board when the board is not in session, to be ratified by the board at a later date.
The board approved the half day teacher sub rate at $55 per day. They had previously approved a day rate of $110 but failed to set the half day rate at that time.
The board accepted donations of $6,500 from Swanton Welding for scoring tables and the Fisher Holiday Classic, $872.34 from Kroger rewards to the general fund, $362.81 from Kroger rewards for prom, $4,092 from the Swanton Athletic Boosters for prom, $250 from Posh’d Apparel for Swanton 7, and end tables and pencil cups with the Swanton logo from Sauder Furniture Store and Outlet for Swanton High School.
The board approved just under $16,000 in appropriations modifications, including a $15,000 grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.
The board approved a five-year administrative contract for Swanton High School Assistant Principal Anthony Menna and Student Services Director Sharon Marvin to run from Aug. 1, 2024 through July 31, 2029.
The board approved renewal of Keven Young’s position as trustee of the Swanton Public Library Board of Trustees for a period of seven years, effective Dec. 18, 2023, and expiring Dec. 31, 2030.
The board approved a short list of personnel recommendations for substitute teachers.
During halftime of the varsity basketball game versus Archbold, the district will honor the distinguished alumni class of 2023, which consists of 1988 graduate Col. Thomas Hansbarger – a 30-year Army veteran and the first Swanton student to attend West Point, and 1999 graduate Dr. Chris Baumgartner, a published author and professor of music at the University of Oklahoma.
The board ended its meeting by going into executive session for “consideration of the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of a public employee or official.”
The next meeting of the Swanton School Board will be held at 6:30 p.m. on February 21.
