Board reviews safety,schedule

The leaders of Fort Recovery Schools talked Tuesday about making sure their students have ample time to learn and are safe while doing so.
Superintendent Shelly Vaughn told the Fort Recovery School Board about a change in state requirements to counting hours of instruction as opposed to days, and also informed them the school system has been awarded a trio of safety grants.
The board also discussed several technology measures, including the addition of an employee kiosk and the possibility of going to paperless board meetings.
During a discussion about the school calendar, Vaughn explained the state has changed to requiring 1,001 hours of instruction for seventh through 12th graders each school year as compared to the previous requirement of 176 days.
She said the school could miss as many as 20 days based on its current schedule and still meet the state requirements. However, she said Fort Recovery will continue to hold itself to the previous standard of missing no more than five days because doing otherwise would be a disservice to students.
“It changes all the time,” Vaughn said of the state requirements. “That’s why … I think we’re best to adopt a calendar that’s very similar to what we already had in place. We know it works. We know it’s good for kids.”
Vaughn also told the board School Safety Grants have been approved for each of Fort Recovery’s three schools. The grants will be used to install a buzz-in system for the elementary, middle and high schools along with other measures to increase safety.
Fort Recovery is also still in the running for a Straight A Grant in a group along with Marion Local, St. Henry, New Bremen, New Knoxville and Minster. They combined to apply for a total of $15 million, which must be used for a one-time, sustainable purchase.
Board members Dave Hull, Jose Faller, Ginny Fortkamp, Aaron Guggenbiller and Amy Bihn also got an update on progress toward implementing the use of an employee kiosk, which would be used for scheduling employee days off and other functions that would help simplify the payroll process. Treasurer Lori Koch said the kiosk will go live for the first group of employees early in 2014 with the hope of having all employees using the new system by the start of the 2014-15 school year.
Also discussed on the technology front was the possibility of going paperless as a school board by using either the BoardDocs or ElectronicSchoolBoard programs. Board members expressed interest in the possibility, which would cost about $2,500 per year, but also had questions about cost, user friendliness and how much money such a system would save by using less paper and reducing labor.
“I personally am very interested in moving in this direction and going paperless if it’s cost-effective,” said Vaughn, adding that she would do more research and report to the board at a future meeting.
In other business, board members:
•Congratulated the FFA team that won the state championship and went on to place ninth at the National Agricultural Technology and Mechanical Systems Contest and senior Elle Sutter, who completed her cross country career by finishing 55th at the Division III state finals.
Also learned the FFA raised more than $3,000 to donate to a local family.
•Decided to move its next meeting to 6:30 p.m. Dec. 17.
•Scheduled a facility committee meeting for 5:30 p.m. Dec. 17 to discuss plans for leftover money from the high school’s $3.4 million renovation project that is nearly complete. Vaughn said there will be about $350,000 remaining when the project is complete.
•Agreed to offer vision insurance on an annual basis after 70 percent of employees who responded to a survey said they would prefer that option. The school system had previously offered the insurance every other year. The change is at no additional cost to the schools.
•Heard from Fort Recovery High School principal Jeff Hobbs that all but two seniors have passed the Ohio Graduation Test. Also got an update from elementary school principal Tracy Hein Evers that 71 percent of third graders have passed the third grade reading guarantee.
Both principals said teachers are working with the students who have not passed to help them reach those goals.
•Approved the following: Keeping pay for school board members at $80 per meeting with a projected 16 meetings (12 regular and four special) each year; A contract with Mercer County Health Department for services of public health nurses for 2014 at a cost of $2,470; Hiring Mindy Bubp as FRHS swim coach, Amanda Everman as FRHS junior varsity softball coach and Cathy Timmerman as FRHS volunteer assistant swim coach.
•Accepted donations totaling $1,675 for Get Real Week; $1,500 for a band tower hand rail; $500 for music therapy, $300 for the volleyball program and $50 for the Shane Long Memorial Scholarship.[[In-content Ad]]