By: Chelsie Firestone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
In a public meeting held during the November 17 regular board meeting of the Wauseon Board of Education, the Board answered a few questions regarding the retire-rehire of Superintendent Larry Brown that were raised by those in attendance. Those questions ultimately boiled down to two questions: What did the Board see as the justification of offering the retire-rehire to Mr. Brown? Would the same offer be made to other employees, particularly those of long tenure, of the school system? The overriding sentiment of those questions seemed to be “if it’s good for one, it ought to be good for everyone.”
Board member Larry Fruth explained that there were two primary reasons that the Board believed that offering the retire-rehire to Mr. Brown was an appropriate move because it would both save the tax payers money and because Mr. Brown was valuable to the school system. “It’s a huge savings to the tax payers and we know we have a good person,” explained Fruth. “We would be taking a risk to hire any one else.”
Board President Sandra Griggs responded to the question of whether or not such opportunity would be offered to other employees of the school system. “I don’t think any of us knew that there were other individuals who were interested,” explained Griggs. “This is not the first time we have done this. We have offered retire-rehire to employees in the past and I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t be willing to discuss that again at some point in the future.”
After closing the public meeting portion of the meeting, the Board moved on to commend students Quintin Reiser and Trevor Dominique for their outstanding athletic performance. Reiser, a cross country runner, recently broke the NWOAL record of 15:37 that had been in place for 31 years. Reiser’s time at the NWOAL League Cross Country tournament was 15:34.94. Trevor Dominique’s commendation came for trying the lowest score in league history with a 69 at the NWOAL League Golf tournament. It was later noted that each of the boys also earned Fall Scholar Athlete honors.
The Wauseon Middle School was also commended by the Board for the school’s recent designation as both a High Performing School of Honor and an Ohio School of Promise. This marks the second year that the school has been designated as a High Performing School of Honor and Middle School Principal Joe Friess expressed his gratitude for the faculty and the staff of the Middle School as well as how proud he was of receiving the designations and of the entire school system. “This is not just the Middle School. We, from Kindergarten through High School, are all one system that works together and this is honor not just for the Middle School, but for the entire school.”
Financial matters approved by the board during the meeting included:
•The authorization for “then and now” certificates for invoices from Clay Ewell Education, Earl Mechanical, and Troy Gype.
•All bills, financial reports, and investments as presented
•Donations of $200 from St. Caspar Catholic Church to the WHS Student Council after school program, $250 from TPL Properties to the WHS Art Club, $1808.95 from Parents Supporting Schools to the WPS Student Activity fund, $2785.19 from Parents Supporting Schools to the WES Student Activity Fund, $500 from Parents Supporting Schools to the WES Student Activity fund, and $30 from Brush Creek to the WES Student Activity fund.
•Modifications and supplemental modifications to the FY15 Permanent Appropriations and FY15 Certificate of Resources
•A $200 increase to the WHS Concessions Change Fund
•The adoption of the updated Section 125 Flexible Spending Plan Agreement with American Fidelity to reflect January 1, 2015 insurance premium changes, inclusion of the High Deductible Health Plan and HAS.
Personnel items approved by the Board included:
•The resignation of Leslie Gype as a full time Bus Driver, effective November 7, 2014
•An amendment with the parental leave request of Joe Allen to reflect a change in the start date from October 7 to November 3, 2014 with an end date of November 25, 2014
•A request for parental leave for Amic Richer, effective January 29 through March 27, 2015
•The resignation of Angie Spadafore as the WES Principal’s Secretary, effective November 6, 2014
•The resignation for the purpose of retirement of Robin Fisher as a WHS Physical Education Teacher, effective May 31, 2015.
•Several individuals as Athletic Department workers and volunteers for the playoff football game, retroactive to November 7, 2014
Additionally, the board approved the entrance into a service agreement for sensory services and conductive education between the Wauseon Exempted Village School District and Sara’s Garden for the 2014-15 school year.
The Board also heard from building principals, who all commented on the Veterans Day programs held by their schools. All expressed their gratitude to Guy Gruters, a POW from December 1967 through March 1973, for coming to speak with the students about his experiences.
The Board entered into Executive Session for the discussion of employment of personnel and the sale of property. The Board authorized the Superintendent to enter into an auction agreement with Whalen Realty for the sale of the Burr Road property. No further action was taken and the meeting was adjourned.
The next meeting of the Wauseon Board of Education will be held on Monday, December 8 at 5:30 PM at the Board of Education Office.
Chelsie can be reached at
chelsie@thevillagereporter.com