Wellsville Board of Education

Monday - November 15: The Wellsville BOE held their regular monthly meeting this past Monday evening. Present at the meeting was Board President Ed Bauer, VP Tom Brophey and members Karen Dash & Bill Miller. Also in attendance was Superintendent Rich Bereschik, District Treasurer Coleen Wickham, Garfield Principal Lisa Ferguson, WTA President Darlene Allison and approximately 40 members of the Wellsville Teachers Association. The meeting was held in the Daw Middle School cafeteria.

For the Financial Report, Mrs. Wickham reported that as of the end of October the General Fund had a balance of $1.9 million. October receipts were $330,510 and expenditures were $859,125. There was $309,510 moved from the General Fund to the General Set-Asides for text books and capital outlays. The General Set-Asides has a balance of $734,549. Interest earned in October was $4,339.47.

For Legislative Update Tom Brophey announced he attended the OSBA Capital Conference last week. It is estimated the shortfall in the State budget for the next bi-annum will be $7/$8 billion. With the campaigning and elections not much has been done by our legislators since this past June. The new budget has to be in by March 15, 2011.

Governor-elect Kasich has already met with the OSBA lobbyist. Brophey reported the governor-elect believes in shrinking government and services including school funding. Ohio ranks 49th with money going into the classrooms. Kasich wants to increase vouchers to private schools and believes in consolidation of services, possibly consolidation of school districts. However the new governor wants to eliminate unfunded mandates. Brophey related that rumors at last week's conference was that Kasich may push for increasing teacher's contributions to their retirement funds in SPERS and making 35 years the minimum for full retirement. Saying "we really don't know what's going to happen" Brophey said that local school districts may even lose control by their school boards.

With a show of solidarity in a sea of blue "We Stick Together" t-shirts, WTA President Darlene Allison announced "we found out today, we're well disappointed, that the Board is not going to be able to meet with us to negotiate until December 14. We were hoping to have reached an agreement by this point in the school year but unfortunately we have not been able to." Contract negotiations have been going on since this past July. From what we have been able to learn increased cost of insurance and 0% pay increase is at issue. Wellsville educators rank near the bottom throughout the state in compensation. We have since learned that a meeting has been scheduled next Monday for negotiations.

Garfield Principal Lisa Ferguson was the only one with a Good News Report. There were nearly 200 people to attend the Garfield open house in September. In October nearly 40 people attended the PTO meeting and 265 family members attending Grandparents Luncheon in the four days that was held. There were 27 attending the October Parenting Skills sessions. Fall scores for the 3rd Grade reading achievement tests are due at the end of the week. There were no reports submitted from the Middle School or the High School.

A list of 41 volunteers for Garfield Elementary was approved. Dana Pucci was approved as a short hour lunch prep/server for Daw Middle School. Matt Disch was given the nod to be an Intervention Tutor for the remainder of the school year. Kayla Adams was approved as a substitute cafeteria employee. Jayne Ewalt was approved as a substitute as an Early Childhoood Generalist from pre-kintergarden to Grade 5. General Education substitutes approved were Greg Sabbato, Kendra Wetzel & Janice Palmer. Effective November 30, the resignation of tutor Christina Cusick was also approved & Marie Foster was named to replace her.

A motion was passed to add a kindergarten student to the list of students for transportation in lieu of payment to St. Aloysius. A field trip to Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville, WV, for Grade 4 students was approved.

Jimmy Malone & Charles Fisher were named volunteer wrestling coaches for the season. Dave Thompson Jr. was named Head Varsity Baseball coach.

In closing comments Bill Miller thanked all the WTA members for attending. Mrs. Dash complimented Miss Barlow and the performers in the Halloween Concert. She said she really enjoyed it. Tom Brophey wished good luck to all the winter sports teams and congratulated all that participated in fall sports. Ed Bauer congratulated the Volleyball team for their exceptional showing this year. Bauer also noted that the football team did very well saying he enjoyed the games because they never gave up.

The meeting adjourned at 6:52 P.M. Next meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 13 at 6:30 P.M. in the Superintendent's Office. Pictures are from Monday's meeting.

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