Galion BOE approved refinancing of bonds

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

The Galion Board of Edu­ca­tion voted to refi­nance two series of bonds dur­ing its March 20 meet­ing. These bonds from the Ohio School Facil­i­ties Com­mis­sion, issued in 2004 and 2006, funded the con­struc­tion of the cur­rent school buildings.

John Payne, a finan­cial con­sul­tant from Bradley Payne Advi­sor Group, was present that evening to advise the Board and answer ques­tions. He explained that the wait­ing period for refi­nanc­ing the 2004 bonds is almost over. (The wait­ing period for the 2006 series is not up until 2016.) If Board mem­bers gave autho­riza­tion for the process to move for­ward, then prepa­ra­tion of legal doc­u­ments and dis­trict infor­ma­tion would begin. The dis­trict would not be oblig­ated to act on refi­nanc­ing when the wait­ing period ends.

Payne esti­mated the cur­rent inter­est rates on the bonds of 4.5 and 4.85 per­cent would be reduced to 3.35 and 3.15 per­cent, respec­tively. The new inter­est rate for the 2004 series would be a sav­ings of an esti­mated $1.6 mil­lion, or 12 percent.

Trea­surer Terri Day empha­sized that the refi­nanc­ing would not be a sav­ings to the dis­trict, but to the tax­pay­ers, thus keep more money in the com­mu­nity (rather than pay­ing off the bonds at the cur­rent rate).

In addi­tion to the res­o­lu­tion for approv­ing the refi­nanc­ing process, the Board approved two other res­o­lu­tions in response to Gov­er­nor Kasich’s pro­posed bien­nial bud­get (House Bill 59). The first res­o­lu­tion opposed increas­ing publicly-funded vouch­ers for pri­vate and parochial schools, which would reduce funds for pub­lic schools.

The other res­o­lu­tion was in oppo­si­tion to the $15.3 mil­lion in reduc­tions to Edu­ca­tion Ser­vice Cen­ters because ESC’s are “a vital link and part­ner in the pri­mary and sec­ondary edu­ca­tional process, pro­vid­ing a range of ser­vices to their mem­ber school dis­tricts, includ­ing cur­ricu­lum devel­op­ment, pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment, tech­nol­ogy assis­tance, admin­is­tra­tive and super­vi­sory ser­vices, preschool and spe­cial edu­ca­tion pro­grams, and spe­cial­ist staffing and sup­port ser­vices for at-risk youth.”

That evening, the Board rec­og­nized Galion High School stu­dents who were regional win­ners for the 2013 Governor’s Art Exhi­bi­tion: Dominic Erl­sten, Zachary James, Macy John­son, Searah Melvin, Eric Pow­ell and Austin Prosser.

Sev­eral stu­dents ath­letes were also rec­og­nized, includ­ing wrestlers Nicholas Flow­ers, Mason Fry, Deaken McCoy and Zachary Tupps (who placed 4th in the State tour­na­ment). Four mem­bers of the Boys Swim Team qual­i­fied for Dis­trict com­pe­ti­tion: Con­nor Kempf, Zane Ekin, Chad Karnes, and Sam DeN­ero; and five mem­bers of the Girls Swim Team qual­i­fied for Dis­tricts: Rebecca Rig­don, Kris­ten Bene­dict, Car­o­line Shi­fley, Kennedy Gregg, and Saman­tha Altstadt.

Board Vice Pres­i­dent Jen­nifer Kuns reported on stu­dent achieve­ment, par­tic­u­larly sta­tis­tics for high school stu­dents in post-secondary enroll­ment. Sev­en­teen juniors and seniors cur­rently attend classes OSU-Mansfield or North Cen­tral State Col­lege, one stu­dent is in the senior to sopho­more pro­gram and NCSC, seven are in the Col­lege Now Pro­gram at the Kehoe Cen­ter (these stu­dents will have a two year asso­ciate degree in engi­neer­ing when they grad­u­ate high school) and 25 stu­dents have dual enroll­ment in advanced math and cal­cu­lus courses, offered through NCSC.

Direc­tor of Cur­ricu­lum Dr. Sandy Pow­ell informed the Board that there will be a train­ing day on March 22 for devel­op­ing stu­dent learn­ing objec­tives, in prepa­ra­tion of the new eval­u­a­tion sys­tem being imple­mented next school year.

In super­in­ten­dent updates, Dr. Kathy Jen­ney stated that admin­is­tra­tion is con­tin­u­ing with the cam­paign for the tax levy. The schools will soon have spe­cial vis­i­ta­tion times for the com­mu­nity to see how the One-to-One Pro­gram is being uti­lized and other excit­ing things hap­pen­ing in class­rooms. Details forthcoming.

The dis­trict will con­duct civil ser­vice test­ing for cus­to­di­ans at the end of April. This is the first time the test has been given since 2008. Lastly, Jen­ney con­grat­u­lated the Food Ser­vice Depart­ment for pass­ing the Ohio Depart­ment of Education’s review with full compliance.

In per­son­nel rec­om­men­da­tions, the Board approved the res­ig­na­tion of Mid­dle School teacher Ryan Tan­ner, effec­tive immediately.

Jon Stine­hour was approved to serve as the Dean of Stu­dents at Galion High School for the remain­der of the 2012–2013 school year. Jen­ney noted this is not a long-term posi­tion, Stine­hour will fill the posi­tion until a new Assis­tant Principal/Athletic Direc­tor is hired. Later in the meet­ing, the Board approved a sec­ond read­ing for the job descrip­tion for that posi­tion; the final read­ing will take place at the April meeting.

The fol­low­ing were approved under the retire-rehire plan for one-year con­tracts: Joy­lyn Finch, Den­nise Holtzapfel, D. Melinda Nicholls and Richard Pred­more. Michelle Har­mon and Kate­lyn Hur­ley were approved as fall and win­ter cheer­lead­ing advisors.

An agree­ment with DT Petro­leum was tabled for the next meet­ing. It was for a five year lease-to-own arrange­ment for diesel fuel tanks, in order to save on fuel costs of the buses. Board mem­bers were con­cerned about the uncer­tainty of state reg­u­la­tions and did not want to act immediately.

With no fur­ther busi­ness, the Board entered exec­u­tive ses­sion to con­sider the appoint­ment, employ­ment, dis­missal, dis­ci­pline, pro­mo­tion, demo­tion or com­pen­sa­tion of a pub­lic employee with no fur­ther action to be taken.

The next meet­ing is April 17 at 6:30 p.m., at the Mid­dle School com­puter lab.

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Mar 21 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.