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.

K-6 Principal, Diane Kramer, submitted the following report:

1.	Continuous Improvement
•	District and building Value-Added reports were released last week.  Value-added shows the growth individual students and groups of students make from one year to the next.  I will be sharing these results with teachers.  Teacher level Value-Added reports will be released in late October/early November.

2.	Instruction
•	Learning opportunities for students outside of our classroom walls:
•	Students in Mrs. Burnett’s cross-categorical unit attended the annual fishing derby at Grand Lake St. Mary’s on Sept. 11th.  This was sponsored by ODNR and the Lake Improvement Association.
•	Fifth grade students visited Brukner Nature Center on September 12th, 13th, and 16th.
•	Kindergarten visited Brumbaugh Fruit Farm on October 8th.
•	Sixth grade students will be going on a manufacturing field trip to Crown, Coldwater Machine, and JR Manufacturing on October 18th.

3.	 School Operations, Resources and Learning Environment
•	Over the past couple weeks we have been reviewing our safety procedures conducting a fire drill, lockdown drill, and evacuation drill with the assistance of Chief Skinner and the New Bremen Fire Department.
•	Meetings have been scheduled with staff to the explain changes with our Wellness Program through the EPC.  We will no longer provided district level wellness incentives, all incentives will be through the EPC.  
•	On October 4th, the high school senior athletes and band members came to the elementary to have lunch recess with our grades K-6 students.  The students and staff enjoy these opportunities for student interaction between buildings.

4.	Collaboration
•	The elementary Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt/Green Belt group is working on the cafeteria schedule for students in grades K-6 as well as meal participation and the overall cafeteria experience.
•	Karen Rose from Mercer County ESC visited our October staff meeting to talk about STEM challenges for this school year as well as curricular services MCESC can provide our teachers.
5.	Parent and Community Engagement
•	The first Kindergarten Project Ease was held Tuesday, September 17th.  Students invited a parent or grandparent back to school in the evening for a special literacy activity.  For this session, students listed to the popular children’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  The follow up activity focused on story elements, sequencing, and retelling
•	Fire prevention week was held October 7-11th.  On Friday, October11th, members from the New Bremen Fire Department gave a fire safety presentation for students in grades 1-3 while our   kindergarten students explored a real fire truck and learn what it is like to be a fire fighter.
•	Online parent-teacher conference scheduling will continue through Sunday, October 20th.  This year we are again giving parents an option of a face-to-face conference, phone conference, or no conference if teachers did not feel it was necessary to meet.  This allows us to limit conferences to two evenings: October 28th and 31st.  Thank you to Cardinal Pride parent organization for providing meals for our teachers on these evenings.

6.	 Building Project
•	Our Junior Builders program kicked off on Friday, September 27th.  Students were given a safety orientation, toured the building site, and enjoyed pizza for lunch.  All students are very excited to be a part of this group.
•	Tours of the new building have been held for staff members in the elementary.  All who toured we very appreciative of the opportunity to check out the progress of the new school.  We will continue to offer tours throughout the building project.

Upcoming Events:
•	Oct. 17		End of 1st Nine Weeks
•	Oct. 22-23	3rd Grade State Reading Assessment
•	Oct. 25		K-6 Grade Cards Sent Home
•	Oct. 25		Junior Builders Program
•	Oct. 28		K-8 Picture Retakes
•	Oct. 28/31	Parent/Teacher Conferences (2:00 p.m. early dismissal)
•	Nov. 3-8	Right to Read Week
•	Nov. 11	Veteran’s Day Assembly
   
7-12 Principal, Marcus Overman, submitted the following report:

Continuous Improvement
-	I am coordinating an Active Shooter drill with Chief Skinner to take place on October 29th. I plan to run a Pep Rally Schedule to give us time to run through two different scenarios as well as give us time at the end to debrief on the drills.  
-	The first Power of the Cardinal Character Session was held last week.  I worked with students on the value of leadership, and what it is as well as what it is not.  We played a quick game and had some fun with it.  I look forward to November’s session as Jim Place will be here to speak to students.  

Instruction
-	The Gifted Policy for the district has been updated by Wendi Moorman.  Wendi met with Diane and I several weeks ago to outline the plan for gifted moving forward.  The biggest change in our gifted program is that we are moving to the Iowa (Specific Academic Identification) and CogAT (Creative Thinking) assessments for identification.  These tests replace the TerraNova and InView, and both will now be offered online.  
-	Congratulations to Grant Brautigam for being our Honda-Ohio State STEM Award Winner!

School Operations, Resources & Learning Environment
-	I am glad to report that we have not had any discipline issues for the entire first quarter of the year.  That is an amazing accomplishment for both the students and the teachers. 
-	Manufacturing Week went well for the students.  Trips were scheduled for several days and I am happy to report that student behavior was not an issue and I have heard great things when speaking to the students.  
-	20 staff members are working to complete their Yellow and Green Belt training.  We have had two trainings thus far and are looking forward to the third.  I hope all of the groups find excellent solutions to the problems they are working to fix!  I see this being a big asset to our students when we offer them the opportunity to go through the training.  
-	Homecoming all went well.  We had over 240 tickets sold for the dance and students really enjoyed their time.  Congratulations to the King and Queen, Landin Boyle and Benedetta Bettinelli.

Collaboration
-	The Green Belt Project that my team is working on is creating a cohesive bell schedule for grades 7-12 for next school year.  We are working as a team to complete this project and asking for information from all staff members involved.  I am also working with local schools to gather information about their bell schedule and their likes/dislikes with it.  

Parent & Community Involvement
-	Parent Teacher Conferences are right around the corner.  Again this year, I asked for teachers to send me a list of names they would like to see at conferences.  Heather Kuck and I worked to get letters sent out to those parents.  I am hoping to see another good turn out again this year.  
-	For the first time, students in grades 9-12 will not be receiving a paper report card.  Report cards can be accessed via the ParentAccess site.  This will give parents the opportunity to print the report card themselves, or to view previous report cards their students have received.  A letter was sent to all parents earlier this month.  

Upcoming Events
Thursday, October 17th
	-End of 1st Quarter
	-E/MS Carry-In
Monday, October 21st
	-Grades due 11:59pm
Tuesday, October 22nd
	-Washington DC Trip leaves
	-Wright Patterson AFB Field Trip
Wednesday, October 23rd
	-Collaboration
Friday, October 25th
	-Washington DC Trip returns
	-Halloween Dress Up Day
Monday, October 28th
	-Picture Re-Takes
	-PT Conferences (Early Dismissal)
Wednesday, October 30th
	-National FFA Convention
Thursday, October 31st
	-PR Conferences (Early Dismissal)
Tuesday, November 5th
	-Americanism Test
Thursday, November 7th
	-Tri-Star Field Trip
Friday, November 8th
	-Green Belt Training
Monday, November 11th
	-Interims Due
	-Veteran’s Day Assembly
	-Cardinal Pride Meeting
Tuesday, November 12th
	-Rotary Career Day

Athletic Director, Gary Jones, submitted the following report:

October 2019 Athletic Update

1.	New scoreboards for the high school gymnasium have been ordered. We are also adding lights on the backboards, a game/shot clock on the backboards and game clocks in the locker rooms. Thank you to First National Bank, Minster Bank, Thieman Quality Metal Fab and NKTelco for sponsoring the cost of this project.

2.	A group of athletes including Dave Homan, Abi Powers, Trevor Bergman, Kaylee Freund, Zach Bertke and Josie Reinhart attended the OHSAA Leadership Conference on the campus of Ohio State University on October 1st with Chad Wells. 

3.	New Bremen is a host site for the Northwest sectional final volleyball tournament on Thursday October 17. The first match at 5:30 will be Arlington vs. Minster and the second match starting approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first match will be New Bremen vs. Kalida.

4.	Cross country will begin tournament action on Saturday October 19 at Columbus Grove. The girls are scheduled to run at 11 AM and the boys at 1 PM

5.	Congratulations to the following New Bremen athletes and coaches for earning All MAC Honors. 

      Girls golf – 1st team Sarah Parker, 2nd team – Cassie Stachler, Honorable Mention – Alli     
Wilker

Cross Country – 2nd team Madison Cordonnier, Alayna Thieman, Landin Boyle

Volleyball – 1st team – Claire Pape, Taylor Paul, Macy Puthoff, 2nd team Josie Rinehart, Honorable Mention – Ashton Heitkamp, Diana Heitkamp, Coach of the Year – Diana Kramer 

6.	The winter OHSAA parent meeting is scheduled for Tuesday October 29 at 7 PM.  

Treasurer’s Recommendations:

1.	Approve the Regular School Board Meeting minutes from September 18, 2019.
2.	Approve the General Fund Paid Bills 	$100,836.19 
3.	Approve the Lunchroom Fund Paid Bills	$13,241.51 
4.	Accept the donation/pledge of $10,000 each from the following companies for purchase of locker room clocks and basketball scoreboards and shot clocks for the high school gym: First National Bank, Minster Bank, NKTelco, and Thieman Quality Metals. These donations will be received now through calendar year 2021.  

19-63		Motion by Suchland second by Busse 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.	Board Policy Adoption/Revisions:

Policy #	Title	
1310	Employment of the Treasurer	
1340	Non-Reemployment of the Treasurer	
1615	Use of Tobacco by Administrators	
2413	Career Advising	
2431	Interscholastic Athletics	
3215	Use of Tobacco by Professional Staff	
4215	Use of Tobacco by Classified Staff	
5113.02	School Choice Options	
5200	Attendance	
5350	Student Suicide	
5512	Use of Tobacco	
7300	Disposition of Real Property/Personal Property	
7434	Use of Tobacco on School Premises	
7440.03	Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems	
7540	Technology	
7540.04	Staff Technology Acceptable Use and Safety	
7544	Use of Social Media	
8462	Student Abuse and Neglect	
8500	Food Services	

2.	Approve the Gifted Education Policy as presented.

3.	Approve the amended Tri Star Agreement as presented (Tri Star Advisory Board Referral #128).

19-64		Motion by Bertke, second by Bambauer 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.	Construction Update: 
We have made up 12 days on the construction project due to the additional overtime hours worked.  The new date for substantial completion is August 19.
	
19-65	         Motion by Bambauer, second by Bertke to adjourn the meeting at 7:25 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.

				
			President							Treasurer