The New Bremen Local Board of Education met in regular session at 7:15 p.m. in the Community Room.
Roll Call:  Mrs. Michele Bambauer, Mr. Scott Bertke, Mrs. Shelly Busse, Mr. Cory Suchland, and Mrs. Suzanne Wells.  Also present were Superintendent Jason Schrader, K-8 Principal Diane Kramer, High School Principal Brian Pohl, and Treasurer Jill Ahlers. 
President Cory Suchland led the pledge of allegiance.

Elementary Principal, Diane Kramer, submitted the following report:

1.	Continuous improvement
•	The inservice on January 13th will include the following professional development:
Frontline Absences Management System, Virtual Classroom, English Language Arts curriculum presentations, writing Written Education Plans, department/grade level meetings.

2.	Instruction
•	The week before Christmas our fourth grade students made and sold chocolate covered pretzels for their entrepreneurial project.  They learned about the entire process of using resources, capital outlay, and finances to create and market a product.  They made just over $500 which was donated to the following organizations:  St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, American Cancer Society, Red Cross, Auglaize County Animal Shelter, Make A Wish Foundation, and World Wildlife Foundation.
•	Second nine weeks report cards will be sent home on Thursday, January 11th.
•	STAR Early Literacy, STAR Reading, and STAR Math winter benchmarking is taking place January 3-24.  
•	At the end of December we received the results of the Third Grade State Reading Test that was administered in October.  Our overall passage rate was 64% with 88% meeting the requirements of Third Grade Reading Guarantee. These results are very similar to last year.  All students will be administered the test again in the spring.  Students who did not pass will be invited to after school intervention which will take place two days a week starting in February.  

3.	 School Operations, Resources and Learning Environment
•	We currently have 56 students registered for kindergarten screening which will be held April 3rd and 4th.
•	The annual sixth grade DARE graduation was held on December 20th.  Congratulations to our essay winners:  Mara Lozier, Olivia Heitkamp, and Elizabeth Garman.
•	Our district Spelling Bee for grades 4-8 will be held on February 6th at 9:00 a.m. in the middle school gym.

4.	Collaboration
•	On Thursday, December 21st, we held our annual K-6 Christmas assembly.  Each grade level sang and performed a few Christmas songs.  We closed the assembly with a video of “What Teachers Do Over Christmas Break”.  

5.	Parent and Community Engagement
•	Eighth grade high school orientation will be held on Monday, January 29th at 7:00 p.m. in the high school auditorium.  All eighth grade parents and students are required to attend.
•	The first meeting for next year’s 8th Grade Washington DC field trip will be held on Monday, February 5th at 7:00 p.m. in the elementary cafeteria.

6.	 Special Education
•	On January 3rd I attend a co-teaching/inclusion inservice at Wapakoneta presented by Anne Beninghof.  Anne is an internationally recognized consultant and trainer, Anne has more than 33 years of experience in the field of education. Currently, Anne co-teaches part-time to design instruction for heterogeneous classrooms. In both her presenting and writing, Anne focuses on creative, practical solutions for more effectively including students with diverse learning needs in general education classrooms.  She will be presenting to our teachers on November 2, 2018.

High School Principal, Brian Pohl, submitted the following report:
1.	End of course exam retakes have been completed.
2.	The 9 Tri-Star schools met to discuss upcoming changes possible with the advent of the new Tri-Star 2.0 opening in 2019.
3.	We completed a round of random drug-testing and had a drug dog in to check student lockers.
4.	First semester is completed.
5.	The scheduling process for 2018-19 will be underway soon.
Athletic Director, Gary Jones, submitted the following report:
Tentative dates for winter tournaments are as follows:
 
•	Sectional swim meet at Lima Saturday 2/10
•	District swim meet at BGSU Friday 2/16
•	Sectional girls’ basketball at either Allen East or Coldwater Wednesday 2/21 and Saturday 2/24
•	District girls’ basketball at Wapakoneta Thursday 3/1 and Saturday 3/3
•	Boys’ sectional basketball Tuesday 2/27 and Friday 3/2 at either Coldwater or Bath 
•	Boys’ district basketball Tuesday 3/6 and Friday 3/9 at Wapakoneta
•	7th grade girls’ basketball 2/1, 2/3, 2/8 at St. Henry
•	8th grade girls’ basketball 2/1, 2/3, 2/8 at Coldwater
•	7th and 8th grade girls’ basketball championship game 2/10 at Coldwater
•	7th grade boys’ basketball  2/8, 2/10, 2/15 at New Knoxville
•	8th grade boys’ basketball 2/8, 2/10, 2/15 at Ft. Recovery
•	7th and 8th grade boys’ championship game 2/17 at Ft. Loramie
•	Girls’ Bowling Sectional Saturday 2/17 12:00 PM at Minster
•	Boys’ Bowling Sectional Friday 2/16 6:00 PM at
•	Minster
•	Girls’ Bowling Districts Thursday 2/22  5:00 PM at Rossford
•	Boys’ Bowling Districts Friday 2/23  5:00 PM at
•	Rossford
 
Upcoming dates and events at New Bremen:
 
•	Cheerleading, bowling, swimming and boys’ basketball senior night Saturday 2/10
•	Girls’ basketball senior night Thursday 2/15
•	MAC winter banquet Monday 3/5
•	Winter sports awards program Monday 3/12
•	Baseball and softball practice begins on Monday 2/19
•	Track practice begins on Monday 3/5

	The 2018 Activity Free week will be from Sunday, July 1 through Sunday, July 8.

Technology Director, Brian Puthoff, submitted the following report:

•	Chromebooks – We are rolling out our Chromebook pilot project on January 17th. I have configured our directory synchronization tool that allows us to automatically create student accounts in our network and in our Google domain as soon as a building secretary enrolls a student in our district. (This will become vitally important if the decision is made later this year for New Bremen Schools to go one-to-one with Chromebooks.) In the meantime, Mrs. Ross will pilot this project using Chromebooks in her Spanish classes on January 17th. Mrs. Ross was chosen to pilot this project because she has experience using Google Education from her previous school district employment.

•	Absence Management – As you know, we are implementing Frontline Absence Management as a tool to eliminate the cumbersome and time-consuming process we currently use for employee absences and for getting substitute teachers. We will be training our teachers on Frontline Absence Management on January 12th. The plan is to then inform our substitutes of this new process and train them, if necessary. We expect to ‘Go Live’ on February 1st.

Treasurer Recommendations
1.	Approve the Regular School Board Meeting minutes on December 13, 2017.
2.	Accept a donation of $500.00 from St. Peter’s Church to the FCA group.  
3.	Approve the General Fund Paid Bills . . . . . .	   $	77,080.85	 
4.	Approve the Lunchroom Fund Paid Bills . . .    	   $	  9,085.92	 

18-5		Motion by Busse, second by Bambauer that the board approve the motions contained in the Treasurer’s recommendations as presented. Upon the call of the roll, the vote was as follows: Bambauer, yes; Bertke, yes; Busse, yes; Suchland, yes; Wells, yes. Motion Carried.

Superintendent Recommendations

1.	Approve an agreement for the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years, as negotiated between the Auglaize County Educational Service Center, 1045 Dearbaugh Avenue, Suite #2, Wapakoneta, Ohio 45895 and Rehabilitative Service Inc., 4390 Buschor Road, Coldwater, Ohio 45828 to provide Physical and Occupational Therapy services to the Auglaize County Educational Service Center for its member schools.

18-6		Motion by Wells, second by Bertke that the board approve the items contained in the Superintendent Recommendations as presented.  Upon the call of the roll, the vote was as follows: Bertke, yes; Busse, yes; Suchland, yes; Wells, yes; Bambauer, abstain.  Motion carried.  
	
Other New Business Items:
A.	Annual Appropriation Resolution
Now that we have received the Amended Certificate of Estimated Resources from the County Auditor’s Office, permanent appropriations can be adopted. The following changes from the Whole-Year Temporary Appropriations were as follows: 
Account Code	Fund/Account Title	Amount	Increase/Decrease	
001 Fund	General 	-51,275.88	Decrease	
002-9797	HS Building Bond Retirement	315,770.70	Increase	
002-917A	K-8 Building Bond Retirement (Establish)	398,612.45	Increase	
004-917A	K-8 Building – LFI (Establish)	326,068.46	Increase	
005 Fund	Replacement/PI Fund	15,500.00		
019-9999	PLTW Fund	600.00	Increase	
022-900B	OHSAA Tournament Fund	300.00	Increase	
200 Fund	Activity Funds (200)	3,750.00	Increase	
300 Fund	Activity Funds (300)	21,500.00	Increase	
551 Fund	Title III	260.60	Increase	
572 Fund	Title I	299.95	Increase	
590 Fund	Title II-A	-78.02	Decrease	
599 Fund	Title IV (Establish)	10,000.00	Increase	

Estimated Revenues are as follows:

BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Education of the New Bremen Local School District, Auglaize County, Ohio that to provide for the current expenses and other expenditures of said Board of Education, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, the following sums be and the same are hereby set aside and appropriated for the several purposes for which expenditures are to be made and during said fiscal year, as follows:

18-7		Motion by Bertke, second by Suchland that the board approve the items contained in the resolution as presented.  Upon the call of the roll, the vote was as follows: Busse, yes; Suchland, yes; Wells, yes; Bambauer, yes; Bertke, yes.  Motion carried.  

Informational Items
A.	School Board Recognition
January is School Board Recognition month.  Our school children benefit every day from the dedication and commitment to public education of school board members.  They all make personal sacrifices and spend countless hours tending to board business. It is often a thankless job, so we would like to say "Thank You" to the individuals who serve on New Bremen's and all of Ohio's Boards of Education.

Proclamation
WHEREAS, it shall be the mission of the New Bremen Local School District to provide all
students with the best possible education; and

WHEREAS, the school board sets the direction for our community’s public schools by
envisioning the community’s education future; and

WHEREAS, the school board sets policies and procedures to govern all aspects of school
district operation; and

WHEREAS, the school board keeps attention focused on progress toward the school district’s goals and maintains a two-way communications loop with all segments of the community; and

WHEREAS, serving on a school board requires an unselfish devotion of time and service to carry on the mission and business of the school district; and

WHEREAS, the school board must respond on behalf of the community to the educational needs of students; and

WHEREAS, the school board voluntarily accepts the above-mentioned responsibilities;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that I, Mr. Jason Schrader do hereby proclaim
January 2018 as School Board Recognition Month in New Bremen. I encourage all citizens to publicly and privately thank the school board members from all school districts serving this community for their dedicated service to our children.

B.	Contracts Expiring
Personnel whose employment contracts will be expiring at the conclusion of the 2017-18 school year are being evaluated and will be recommended to the Board for employment action during the next few months.  A total of twenty-four (24) employees have employment contracts that expire at the end of this school year.

C.	Discuss Board Retreat dates

18-8              Motion by Bertke, second by Bambauer to adjourn to executive session for the purposes of Appointment or Evaluation and Property Purchase or Sale at 7:29 p.m.  Upon the call of the roll, the vote was as follows: Wells, yes; Bambauer, yes; Bertke, yes; Busse, yes; Suchland, yes. Motional Carried.

18-9               Motion by Wells, second by Busse to return to regular session at 8:59 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.
		There will be a special school board meeting on January 31, 2018 at 6:30 p.m.  The purpose of the meeting will be an executive session to discuss Appointment or Evaluation.

18-10             Motion by Suchland, second by Bambauer to adjourn the meeting at 8:59 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.

				
			President							Treasurer