HELPING FACULTY HELP STUDENTS … James “Bubba” Reeves” of the New York Life Foundation presents a check for $3,000 to Swanton Elementary School Principal Kristi Molter on behalduring the Swanton School Board meeting. The money represents $1,000 to each of the three schools for participating in the organization’s Grief Sensitive Schools Initiative, which gave $21,000 to Ohio schools to increase knowledge and resources available to staff to assist students dealing with grief and loss. (PHOTO BY JESSE DAVIS / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
By: Jesse Davis
An update on fundraising efforts for the new Swanton Bulldogs baseball / softball complex dominated discussion during Wednesday’s meeting of the Swanton School Board.
According to Superintendent Chris Lake, the school district now has roughly $250,000 cash on hand, with $461,000 in total funding pledges as well as materials for the infields pushing the total monetary value of received and promised donations breaking $500,000. Among the donors, he said, was Soaring Software Solutions, who has bought the field-naming rights.
With somewhere between $1 million on the low end and more than $2 million on the high end left to raise depending on options pursued and the impact of inflation on project costs, Lake laid out one path for the bulk of the remaining funding through a Jefferson Health Plan (JHP) loan program.
The program is offered to longstanding JHP members, with $3 million in first-come-first-served loan funding available each year at 65% of the prime rate.
The loans are available on plans of between 1 and 10 years with payments made monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually depending on the desires of the borrower. Lake said the potential option could jumpstart the project.
“Based on what we have, cash on hand, a loan between $1 (million) and $1.5 million, just based on the estimates that we’ve been working off of, would allow us to build the fields – playable fields – with all the drainage necessary, fences, dugouts. Everything we would need to get kids out there playing on the fields,” he said.
The combination of the loan and continued solicitation of donations would also help avoid another option, according to Lake.
“One of the things with this project has always been to try to keep it so we didn’t want to have to burden the taxpayers with, you know, trying to get a levy for this or anything like that,” he said.
Board President Ben Remer said by the numbers they had been provided he guessed the monthly cost for the loan on a 10-year amortization would be roughly $13,000 to $14,000.
That all of the estimates for the remaining costs for the complex, the proposed loan, and the loan’s costs were only estimates and not hard numbers led Remer to push for more specificity at a future meeting.
The project came up again during discussion on an item to award a contract to Henry Bergman to replace the main high school roadway as well as deteriorating sidewalks surrounding the school at a cost of $287,275.40.
Initially, Remer was concerned that parts of the work may have to be redone due to work on the new sports fields.
While those concerns were allayed due to the location of the contracted work, it led him to suggest another alternative for how the proposed JHP loan could be used.
“We could also go for $2 million, or $2.5 (million) and use the donation money for the first however many payments the donation money pays for,” Remer said, adding that donation money would continue to come in.
That idea met some resistance from both Treasurer Joyce Kinsman and Board Member Kris Oberheim, who said that as projects get going donation levels tend to decrease.
Lake added that many of the donations are already set to be paid to the school over the course of multiple years, so additional donations would be less likely.
“Well we want to start something soon … because the people who donated the money getting a little antsy,” Remer said.
Lake said it would be possible to have real numbers by the fall if they started contracting someone now to produce design plans for the project, but that would involve starting to use the money they have now.
“It’s just a long process,” Lake said. “In order to make something like this happen on your own with raised money … it just doesn’t happen quickly.”
Lake and Kinsman will be looking into more exact costs on the loan, the possibility of moving inside millage, what the school system’s 5-year financial forecast would look like with the addition of a $2 million loan, and other details prior to the board’s next meeting.
LUNCH PRICE INCREASES
The board approved a measure increasing the cost of school lunches at Swanton Elementary School from $2.65 to $3.10 and at Swanton Middle School from $3.10 to $3.60.
The change came after Lake said the state had told the school system their lunch costs were set too low. Oberheim cast the sole “no” vote.
AGREEMENT APPROVALS
The board approved several agreements for services and other items as well as the road and sidewalk work.
A new 18-month energy contract with Engie Resources LLC through Power4Schools will see the system’s rates rise from $.03129 to $.05635 per kilowatt hour, a near doubling.
Agreements covering the 2023-2024 school year included one with the Northwest Ohio Juvenile Detention Center to provide education services to any students incarcerated at the facility and another accepting a new per diem rate for the LEAP program of $155 per day, both for the 2023-2024 school year.
The board also approved personnel updates for the school system.
BOYS’ VOLLEYBALL AS A VARSITY SPORT
One parent spoke during the meeting to recommend boys’ volleyball be incorporated into varsity sports.
The woman said she already confirmed Springfield Local School District was willing to participate and Anthony Wayne Local School District was also interested.
She said the spring sport would only need 6 players to play and believed 10 to 15 students would be enough for a full team.
Jesse can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com.
