New and familiar faces were in abundance at Wednesday evening’s Shelby Board of Education meeting as board members welcomed three new foreign exchange students to the district, but also said goodbye to three retiring staff members.
Shelby High School Principal John Gies introduced Karl Bruning from Germany, Alvaro Canas from Spain and Max Sowinski from Germany to the Shelby board, while also thanking the Hilliards and Lusters for serving as host families.
“I know this is not always easy to bring somebody in your house for a year and all the work that goes with that,” said Gies.
The three students each thanked the board for the opportunity to study at Shelby High School, and noted they were looking forward to the rest of the year.
“I’m really glad I can spend a year in an American high school because it was my dream to come here, and I want to say thank you to my family, I really enjoy it here,” said Bruning.
“It’s wonderful having foreign exchange students in the building, our kids really get a lot out of it and I think they really benefit from being here and experiencing this,” added Gies.
Teachers Cindy McIntire and Lisa Baker and occupational therapist Karen Rittenhouse were each recognized as retirees on Wednesday evening. McIntire and Baker each taught all 28 of their years in Shelby City Schools; Rittenhouse served as an occupational therapist for approximately 12 years.
“I will certainly miss my students a great deal,” said Rittenhouse, whose retirement was effective Sept. 19. “It was kind of a tough decision, and I appreciate the opportunities I’ve had with Shelby City Schools.”
Though Baker’s retirement is not effective until May 27, 2015, she explained she announced her retirement early to allow administrators adequate time to find her replacement.
“The real reason I did it so early is because I’m very concerned about the kids in our program,” said Baker. “I know with all of the cuts we’ve had to make over the years, I’m hopeful that the decision makers will really start looking at where they want the program to go and how they want it to continue. I’m hopeful the decision making process will get started rather early so that person can hit the ground running and know what’s coming.”
“It doesn’t fall on deaf ears, although you may sometimes think it does,” said Shelby Superintendent Tim Tarvin. “We have kept a good reign on expenses, but we also have to keep in mind that we have to provide for our kids the resources for them to be successful. As we go forward we have to keep that in mind.”
McIntire, whose retirement is effective on Oct. 23, was presented with a commendation from Tarvin stating, “Whereas Cindy McIntire has been a valued member of the staff of Shelby City Schools since 1986 in spending 28 years working with Shelby students, and whereas Cindy McIntire has shared her love of learning with hundreds of students during her 28 years as an educator, and whereas Cindy McIntire has been instrumental in passing on an appreciation of learning to those students.”
“I really have truly enjoyed working for Shelby City Schools; I grew up here, I went to school here, and it’s my hometown,” said McIntire. “I was thrilled to be hired and be able to come back and teach and work with all the wonderful teachers that I have over the years. I owe you my gratitude as a board and as a community for letting me fulfill my dreams. I wish I could’ve stayed a couple more years, but the Lord closes some doors and opens others. I’m sure kids will be in my future, I just won’t be teaching.”
In other news, Tarvin thanked the Shelby and Richland County Foundations for a number of grants to Shelby’s elementary and middle schools. Dowds Elementary received $1,500 from the Shelby Foundation for the “Learn to Swim” program with the Shelby YMCA, and another $2,000 from the Shelby Foundation for “Pencils to Tablets.”
Whippet News at Shelby Middle School received $1,000 from the Richland County Foundation, which has been used to purchase a drone mounted with a camera to take aerial pictures.
“The kids can go back and edit some of that material,” explained Principal Jeff Eichorn. “It can stay up in the air for about 15 minutes. They took it out for a test drive and got it about 10 feet off the ground. It goes 30 feet in the air, but we’re trying to keep it low to the ground and keep it all in one piece right now.”
An additional $1,450 grant from ilearnOhio will go toward Etextbooks in the elementary schools. Assistant Superintendent Paul Walker explained the Ohio Historical Society wrote a full textbook that is completely online with interactive videos, maps and tests.
“All the fourth grade teachers are using that as one of their main pieces of instruction for social studies,” said Walker.
The Shelby Board of Education also received an update on bonds from Treasurer Elizabeth Anatra.
“Several years ago when we sold bonds for the lovely building in which we’re now sitting, we sold bonds at a taxable rate,” explained Anatra. “When you do that, you pay a little bit more because your investors are going to have to pay taxes on the interest. We did that because at the time there was a government program called ‘Build America,’ which is still in existence, which subsidized the district’s interest costs pretty handsomely. So all things considered, it was a better deal to sell taxable bonds, and that’s what we did.”
“Since that time, to our surprise and chagrin, the government has backed off that program somewhat, meaning we and our taxpayers are responsible for a little bit more of the interest costs,” she continued.
She noted that the change was not a huge additional amount and is manageable at the same millage rate. Anatra added that the district was forced to reevaluate plans as the changes were made with no notice or input.
“In the meantime also interest rates have fallen a bit, so it now makes sense to look at selling tax-exempt bonds and in fact walking away from the rest of the subsidy,” said Anatra. “That’s what we’re voting on tonight, whether we would do that or not. What you’re giving us is an open-ended permission to do that; we won’t do it if it doesn’t make financial sense, meaning we don’t save money. But if we can sell and save a little bit of money, we will also free ourselves from dependence on this subsidy program, which in light of recent events would not be a bad idea.”
The Board of Education voted unanimously to allow Anatra to explore selling tax-exempt bonds and walk away from the rest of the subsidy from the government program.
Lastly, the board approved this year’s graduation time and date for the class of 2015 on Sunday, May 24 at 3 p.m. The time was moved from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. to accommodate attendees who want to attend church and the Baccalaureate before the ceremony, and will be held inside Shelby High School gymnasium once again.
“We had plenty of seats left over and it’s actually a smaller class this year,” explained Gies. “The reason it’s still on Sunday is the district track meet in Oak Harbor on that Friday night and the possibility of kids missing graduation. It’s a two-year contract with that at Oak Harbor, so that could change next year; we may be going back to Friday night next year, we’ll see what they move then and we’ll have those discussions then.”
