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Ottoville readying for new school year
CLOVERDALE — Ottoville Local Schools Board of Education addressed a light agenda in regular session Monday at St. Barbara Parish in Cloverdale. The board historically holds its July meeting in Cloverdale, which is part of the district.
The school will welcome 36 open-enrollment students in August. The number is slightly higher than in years past and will give the district a small increase in state funding due to the fact that fewer Ottoville students open enroll outside the district. Students come from eight other school districts including: Delphos, Continental, Fort Jennings, Kalida, Lincolvniew, Wayne Trace, Paulding and Elida. There are 38 kindergartners registered for the upcoming school year.
The board approved accounting measures for $76,771 in government stimulus funds the district will receive this year and next. Superintendent Scott Mangas told the board that the district will need to be careful what the money is used for since the funding will disappear after 2011.
“We don’t want to necessarily start a new program with this money because it will be gone and we will need to find additional funding to continue the program in 2012,” Mangas said. “The stimulus dollars represent 6 percent of our state foundation money, so in FY 2012, we will receive 6 percent less than we are now.”
State funding was also discussed with the district seeing a negative 1.62 percent in state foundation funding for the next two years.
“It could be worse. Many programs were cut up to 20 percent. There are also districts who were cut more,” Mangas added.
Mangas received a copy of the state budget pertaining to school funding and said he was reviewing the information and will be able to tell the board more at the next meeting.
The district also received an additional $400 for its dual credit program. Mangas said that money was left over in the state grant fund and it was distributed between the schools that offer the dual credits on their campuses. In the upcoming school year, dual credits in math, science and foreign language will be offered. Teachers at the school have been approved by various colleges to teach the courses, which will in turn count as high school and college credits. There is a fee associated with the offering but it is at a savings to parents and students compared to the cost of a college-level course.
Book bills for the 2009-10 school year will be due Aug. 18 and 19. Parents will also be able to put money on cafeteria accounts at that time.
In other business, the board:
• Approved membership in the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding with dues of $255. Dues in the coalition are based on average daily membership of a school;
• Approved a contract with Industrial Appraisal Company for $3,775 to perform the district’s review of inventory and capital assets. The company will perform the review in August. For a $290 fee, they will also assist the district with yearly maintenance of the lists;
• Approved new, revised and replacement Board of Education Policies; and
•Approved adult and student tickets for all high school contests at $6 and $4, respectively. All tickets will be $6 at the door.
The next meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 17 in the high school.