The New Bremen Local Board of Education met in regular session at 7:00 p.m. in the High School 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-6 Principal Diane Kramer, 7-12 Principal Marcus Overman, and Treasurer Jill Ahlers.  

President Shelly Busse led the pledge of allegiance.

PRESENTATIONS:
Mr. Shawn Brown and Mr. Dave Myers from Auglaize County ESC presented a check for $63,253.16 to the district for savings realized over several years for services rendered to the districts.

Fall sports representatives were present at the meeting to update the Board on their upcoming season.  Representing Volleyball were Coach Diana Kramer and players Chloe Bornhorst and Ellie Tangeman. Representing Girls and Boys Cross Country were Jessica Fledderjohann, Calla Ferguson, and Connor Ransbottom. Representing Boys and Girls Golf were Mitchell Moeller and Alli Wilker.  Representing Football was Nolan Bornhorst.  Representing Band was Brianna Wiedeman. Representing Cheer was Brooke Dicke.

K-6 Principal, Diane Kramer, submitted the following report:
1.	 Continuous Improvement
•	The district and building State Local Report Cards were released this week.  Below is an overall comparison of the district report card from last three years:

		2017	2018	2019	
Overall Grade:		NA	B	B	
Achievement:	The number of students who passed the state tests and how well they performed	B	B	B	
Gap Closing:	Shows how well schools are meeting the performance expectations for our most vulnerable populations of students in English language arts, math, and graduation	B	A	A	
Grades K-3 Literacy	Looks at how successful the school is at getting struggling readers on track to proficiency in 3rd grade and beyond	C	A	A	
Progress	Looks closely at the growth that all students are making based on their past performances	B	B	B	
Graduation Rate	Looks at the % of students who are successfully finishing high school with a diploma in 4 or 5 years	A	A	A	
Prepared for Success	Looks at how well prepared Ohio’s students are for all future opportunities	C	D	D	

Overall improvements:
•	Performance index improved from 102.2 to 103.8
•	Indicators met improved from 83.3% to 87%
•	Students with Disabilities Value Added improved from an F to C

2.	Instruction
•	Title I Reading and RTI classes began the week of September 3rd. Students were selected for intervention based on a multi-criterion scale from the end of last year as well the STAR results from this year.  Our annual Title I Parent Meeting will be held in October.
•	Students have been busy taking the STAR Early Literacy Assessment (grades K-1) and STAR Reading and Math Assessments (grades 2-8).  These assessments will be used to show student growth throughout the school year.  The program also allows us to look at student strengths and weaknesses as related to the common core standards in language arts and math.
3.	School Operations, Resources and Learning Environment
•	During the first two weeks of school I visited each classroom in grades K-6.  I introduced myself to each class and spoke about my role as elementary principal and my expectations from each of them.  The focus of our discussion was on having good character and making good choices.
•	Our 5th grade students took their annual field trip to Bruckner Nature Center on September 12th, 13th, and 16th.
•	We are celebrating spirit week this week in recognition of homecoming.  We will have a district wide pep rally on Friday, September 20th at the high school.  Students in grades K-8 will be bussed to the high school that afternoon.  The varsity football team plays Fort Recovery that evening.
4.	Collaboration
•	Initial contact has been made with teachers to start the evaluation process.  I will be evaluating 10 teachers using the full evaluation cycle and 24 teachers using the partial evaluation cycle.  These teachers will again be evaluated on both performance and student growth.  
•	I met with all grade level teachers (K-3) during collaboration time to review the diagnostic materials for the assessments that need to be completed by Sept. 30th for requirements of The Third Grade Reading Guarantee.  We will have results in early October for all students in grades K-3 as far as on track or not on track to be reading at grade level by the end of the school year.  Again this year, any third grade student who does not achieve a passing score on the State Reading Test is to be retained in third grade until the student is considered to be reading on grade level.  There will be some exception for students with learning disabilities.  All state assessments will be administered online this year.
5.	Parent and Community Engagement
•	The first Cardinal Pride parent organization meeting was held Monday, September 9th. There will be four meetings throughout the school year with the following officers:  President:  Ambie Lennartz, Secretary:  Renee Paul, Treasurer:  Angie Sunderhaus.  Fundraising this year will support needs for the new elementary building.

•	The first Kindergarten Project Ease session for students and parents was held Tuesday, September 17th.

6.	Special Education/Inclusion
•	We are currently working with a behavior specialist from the Reach Behavioral Health Services to assist in our Cross Categorical Unit.

7.	 Building Project
•	Boxes have been delivered for teachers to start packing up their materials and supplies as we go through the school year.  We will be issuing color-coded labels to assist in sorting boxes by pods.

•	Matt, Jordan, and Candy from Gilbane presented to students in grades 3-11 their junior builders program.  Two students in each grade level will be selected through an application process to serve on this team.  These students will travel out to the job site monthly to learn about the construction process.  Once the building is complete, these same students will serve as guides for tours of the new building.

•	Mandy and Becky from Garmann-Miller met with staff to look at loose furnishing options for the new building.  Teachers were surveyed on the types of furniture they prefer for classrooms as well as the extended learning areas.  The next step will be to have sample furniture brought in for teachers and students to try out.

•	Parents have been surveyed on how they plan for their children to get to school next year:  walk/bike, car, or bus.  This survey will assist us in developing bus routes especially with determining how many and location of in-town stops.
Upcoming events:
	September 27	K-8 Picture Day
	October 3	Kindergarten Field Trip to Brumbaugh Fruit Farm
	October 17	End of 1st 9 Weeks
	October 18	6th Grade Manufacturing Field Trip

7-12 Principal, Marcus Overman, submitted the following report:

Continuous Improvement
-	Karen Rose will be in next week to meet with all of our Resident Educators and mentors to get organized for the year.  She will be meeting with all of our Resident Educators four times throughout the school year to help support them on their transition into their position.  

Instruction
-	Manufacturing Week is quickly approaching.  There are many events planned for the week to assist students with learning the various opportunities that are available within manufacturing.  
-	Tricia Wendel has been meeting with Juniors and Seniors as a class and individually to assist them with their future plans.  Hopefully, these conversations steer them in the right directions with their interests and strengths.  
-	I will be attending a TESOL (teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Conference in few weeks.  I hope to learn new strategies that we can implement in our building to best serve this population.   

School Operations, Resources & Learning Environment
-	It is Homecoming Week.  Each day this week has had its own dress up theme that the kids have enjoyed.  We will end the school week with a K-12 Pep Rally out at the football stadium.  Big thank you to Loresa Burden and the student council for organizing the Homecoming festivities and the dance.  
-	Planning for next year’s bell schedule is underway.  Diane and I recently met with Mary Williams to discuss lunch times for K-12 students.

Collaboration
-	At our most recent Collaboration, we spent a lot of the time talking about the 2023 graduation requirements.  There are some important changes that are taking place for the Class of 2023 and beyond.  More information is scheduled to come out in December.  At that time, I plan to meet with freshman to go over the details as well as get the information out to the parents.  
-	Gilbane was in last week to talk to students in grades 3-11 about the Junior Builders Program.  Those selected, will assist in the construction process by spreading the word on the progress of the building as well as work together to provide building tours to the community.  

Parent & Community Involvement
-	The final Washington, D.C. meeting was just held on September 16th.  Final payments have been made and everyone is ready to go.  A total of 54 students and 23 chaperones will be making the trip from October 22nd-25th.  For the final payment, 25 of the 54 students received a refund because of doing so well with the fundraisers!
-	Thank you to the Cardinal Pride Association for donating money to purchase new bottle fillers in the high school.  Students are enjoying them!

Upcoming Events
Thursday, September 19th
	-WEP Writing
Friday, September 20th
	-Inspire Career Concert
	-Pep Rally
Saturday, September 21st
	-Homecoming Dance
Monday, September 23rd
	-Green Belt Training
Wednesday, September 25th
	-Washington DC Fundraiser Begins
Friday, September 27th
	-K-8 Picture Day
	-Jr. Builders Meeting
Saturday, September 28th
	-Marching Band Invite
Monday, October 1st
	-Honda Manufacturing Day
Thursday, October 3rd
	-Tri-Star Tours
	-RE Meeting
Friday, October 4th
	-Manufacturing Day 

Athletic Director, Gary Jones, submitted the following report:

1.	We recently had six lights go out at the football stadium and are scheduled to replace them on Thursday of this week. We are hoping that the ballast is in good shape and only the lights need replaced as the ballast we use are not readily available, we do have 6 ordered for now. The plan is to replace all of our current ballast and lights which should last around 10 years and then look into possibly switching over to LED lighting.
 
2.	We are replacing the scoreboards in the high school gym. The new Daktronics scoreboards, shot clocks, lighting around the backboard and game clocks in the 3 locker-rooms will be sponsored by First National Bank, Minster Bank, NkTelco and Thieman Quality Metals. Each sponsor is contributing $10,000 for advertising rights for the lifetime of the scoreboard. 

3.	CBC addition update. Dorsten Construction will order the building materials as soon as the floor plan is approved. The hope is to start foundation work this fall.

4.	The baseball and softball field work has been completed and both field look great. Thank you to Creative Grounds Group for their work on the grading of the fields.

5.	All American track resurfacing plans to stop by this week to look over the track and give recommendations on resurfacing.   

Technology Director, Brian Puthoff, submitted the following report:

•	Auditorium Equipment Upgrade: 
Back in September of 2011, we purchased the wall-mounted projector in the James F. Dicke Auditorium. At that time, this projector was state of the art, but since then, technology has evolved around it and we are now at a time where we need to replace this equipment. Over the last year, an increasing number of people, organizations and groups can no longer connect their computers to our projector because our projector does not accept the current video connections that are used by today’s computers. Computers are no longer being manufactured with the older video connections that our projector accepts.

In addition, our motorized projection screen on the stage is 20 years old and no longer holds an even, flat shape when in the down position. This gives the projected image a wrinkled, distorted look. In addition, the mechanics of this screen are failing and the ability to raise and lower the screen safely may become a problem. (We have had one case where the screen uncoiled and fell onto the stage during a performance. Fortunately, no one was hurt.)

We are going to replace both the projector and screen. The new projector will use HDMI connections (as well as handle older connections) and the new screen will provide a better surface to project to. Money for these upgrades has already been budgeted since plans to replace this equipment have been in the works for some time now.

•	District –Wide Communications and Smartphone Apps:
The admin team is always looking into ways to better communicate with our parents, students and the community. Recently, we have been researching having a smartphone app created for the district.

We spent quite a bit of time researching two companies that provide this service: Apptegy and eSchoolView.

Apptegy has a great product with a very easy to use, intuitive app. Their app development team would not only provide an app, but would also design and implement a new website for our district as well.

eSchoolView is our current website hosting company and Content Management System provider. eSchoolView also has and easy to use, intuitive app but they also provide a few other services that would drastically improve how we communicate with our students, parents and community. The have an online product that creates a parent portal – a “one stop shop” for almost anything a parent needs to submit or use with New Bremen Schools. Using various tools inside their portal, parents can pay school fees online, update their child’s information, register new students and even buy athletic season passes. eSchoolView also has two communication components that the district can use that would replace OneCall Now and Remind, two systems that we currently pay for. In addition, they will re-design our website with an updated look – something that we do every few years anyway. The eSchoolView system is approximately the same price as Apptegy, even though it has more features.

•	The parent company of eSchoolView also provides a cafeteria system, called MealsPlus, that we would like to switch to. This system is a cloud-based cafeteria system that is much easier to use than our current system. It also does not require us to purchase additional, specialized hardware like our current system and, since MealsPlus is developed by the makers of eSchoolView, parents can manage their child’s lunch account from within the same parent portal mentioned above.

In addition, because the MealsPlus system is cloud-based, we would no longer need to house a database server in our network, something that has an expense and is a requirement of our current system.

Treasurer’s Recommendations:
1.	Approve the Regular School Board Meeting minutes from August 21, 2019.
2.	Approve the General Fund Paid Bills . . . . . .	   $	93,420.41	 
3.	Approve the Lunchroom Fund Paid Bills . . .    	   $            385.27	 

4.   Accept a $600.00 donation from the Community Backpack+ program to be put towards student school fees.  We thank you for your generosity and support of our students!

5.   Adopt 2019-2020 Temporary (Whole-Year) Appropriations (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020).  All funds need to be within the amounts certified by the County Auditor in the Amended Official Certificate of Estimated Resources, which will not be received until December.  At that time, Permanent Appropriations will be recommended for approval.  Also, authorize the Treasurer, Superintendent, and Board President to sign the Annual Appropriation Measure Certificate as required by the ORC.  (The total amount reflects an increase of approximately 13.44% over last year’s appropriations due to the K-8 building project.  The General Fund appropriations reflect an increase of 2.64% of last year’s General Fund appropriations.)

 	Fund #	Fund Description	Total Amount	
1 .	001	General Fund (001) a. Set-Aside Budget Reserve (001-9903)	       9,576,387.00 	
2 .	002-917A	Bond Retirement K-8 Bldg (002-917A)	       719,543.76 	
3 .	004-917A	K-8 Building Fund – LFI	6,065,333.00	
4 ,	010-917L	Construction Fund – Local Share	    4,912,920.00 	
5 .	010-917S	Construction Fund – State Share	4,185,080.00	
6 .	010-917E	Gilbane Escrow Acct	5,000.00	
7 .	034	Maintenance Fund K-6 Building	            1,100.00 	
8 .	005	Replacement Fund (005)	        407,600.00 	
9 .	006	Lunchroom Fund (006)     	        261,500.00 	
10 .	007	H.A. Schrage Trust (007)	              125.00 	
11 .	009	Uniform Supply Fund (009)	          50,000.00 	
12 .	018	Public School Support Fund (018)	          18,500.00 	
13 .	019	Local Donations (019)	2,015,495.66 	
14 .	022	Trust Fund (022)	            7,800.00 	
15 .	200	Activity Funds (200)	        146,285.00 	
16 .	300	Activity Funds (300)	        215,004.00 	
17 .	451	OneNet Connectivity (451)	           3,600.00 	
18 .	461	Agriculture Education 5th Quarter	           4,511.27 	
19 .	516	IDEA Part B (516)	        137,017.95	
20 .	551	Title III LEP (551)	468.41 	
21 .	572	Title I (572)	          49,258.07	
22 .	590	Title II-A -Class Size Red/Eisenhower (590)	            9,957.54	
23 .	599	TitleI IV Student Support & Academic Achievement (599)	          10,000.00 	
 	 	Total All Funds	$28,802,486.66 	

19-58		Motion by Bertke second by Suchland 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’s Recommendations
1.	Pupil Activity Program Contracts
Employ the following individual for a one-year contract for the 2019-20 school year to direct, supervise, or coach the following student activity: 

Position	       Individual	Step
JV Boys Basketball	Jeff Roessner			3

2.	Approve the bus stops and times as presented in the attachments.

19-59		Motion by Bambauer, second by Wells that the board approve 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, yes.  Motion carried.  

Informational Items:
1.	 Contracts Expiring
Please be advised that the N-B Schools have 15 certified and 5 classified employees whose employment contracts expire at the end of the 2019-20 school year and will be evaluated during the upcoming school year.

1.	Listing of employees whose contracts expire
2.	Updated supplemental contract listing 
3.	Updated seniority listing 

2.	Beginning School Enrollment
The following graph illustrates the enrollment in the New Bremen Local Schools at the beginning of the school year over the past several years:

								         Teacher
  School Year	K-8	9-12	K-12	FTE	
	2001-02	673	323	996	62.19 
	2002-03	663	315	978	63.47	
	2003-04	665	305	970	63.05
	2004-05	638	322	960	61.38
	2005-06	629	304	933	61.55	
	2006-07	627	300	927	60.13
	2007-08	595	305	900	60.68
	2008-09	589	296	885	60.68
	2009-10	566	299	865	57.32
	2010-11	569	294	863	57.32
	2011-12	552	301	853	56.94
	2012-13	548	282	830	58.00
	2013-14	563	252	815	56.75
	2014-15	544	241	785	55.93
			2015-16	512	242	752	55.93		
	2016-17	526	230	756	55.30
	2017-18	525	241	766		55.30
	2018-19	514	238	752		54.65
	2019-20	524	237	761		55.40

	Teacher FTE Notes: Added CCU Teacher in-house (+1.0), No longer contracting P-T Spanish (-.25)		

3.	Green Belt Certification- 20 staff members will be completing the Six Sigma training which includes the yellow belt and green belt certifications. Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools for problem solving and process improvement.

4.	Mission/Vision/Objective Statements- Mr. Schrader would like input from the Board regarding the development of new mission/vision/objective statements for the district.  After some discussion it was decided to work with the District Leadership Team for input and following the completion of the building project, finalize the mission/vision/objective statements.

5.	Building Project- Progress is going well on the project.  The good weather has been beneficial.

6.	District App- Mr. Puthoff and Mr. Schrader are researching the possibility of a district app.  Mr. Puthoff’s board report explains this in more detail.

7.	High School Locker Room- Humidity is a problem in the high school locker rooms. Nothing dries which is a concern for health risks.  Air Conditioning estimate is $16,000.

Executive Session:
A.	The Board or Superintendent may desire to adjourn to Executive Session for the express purpose of discussing:
☐ Personnel
           	☐ Appointment or Evaluation		☐ Promotion
                 	☐ Employment                    		☐ Demotion
      	☐ Dismissal                          		☐ Compensation

Investigation of Charges or Complaints Against an Employee, Official, or Student

            	☐ Discipline                          		☐

☐ Property Purchase or Sale
☐ Conferences with an Attorney Involving Pending or Imminent Court Action
☐ Negotiations (Preparing, Conducting, or Reviewing)
☒ Matters Required to be Kept Confidential by Fed/State Law
☐ Security Arrangements

19-60             Motion by Bertke, second by Busse to adjourn to executive session for the purposes of Matters Required to be Kept Confidential by Fed/State Law at 7:49 p.m.  Upon the call of the roll, the vote was as follows: Suchland, yes; Wells, yes; Bambauer, yes; Bertke, yes; Busse, yes. Motion Carried.
	
19-61             Motion by Suchland second by Bambauer to return to regular session at 8:12 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.
	
19-62	         Motion by Busse, second by Bertke to adjourn the meeting at 8:13 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.

				
			President							Treasurer