The
Wapakoneta City Board of Education met in special session on Tuesday,
March 28, 2006, at 6:30 p.m. at the Board of Education Office, 1102
Gardenia Drive. The meeting was called
to order by President Ron Mertz. Roll
call was as follows: Sammetinger, aye;
Copeland, aye; Kantner, excused for personal illness; Mertz, aye; and Frame,
aye. Also in attendance were
Superintendent, Keith Horner; Treasurer, Susan Rinehart; the Lima News,
Wapakoneta Daily News, and Mark Selvaggio.
The Pledge of Allegiance
was led by President Mertz.
REPORTS FROM THE BOARD
Willie Sammetinger had the
following reports:
Laura Frame sent a thank
you to Tracey Wright and the Choral Music Society and wanted to publicly thank
and commend Tracey Wright, the members of the Choral Music Society, parents,
volunteers, and staff for the tremendous job they did with the Music and More
Competition that was held at the High School this past weekend. It was a great
show and the kids did a tremendous job at the event.
Keith Horner agreed with
Laura’s comments on Music and More and announced there will be a music/performing
arts center committee meeting on April 11 at the High School from 6:30 to 8:00
in the large group room.
Ron Mertz then thanked the
maintenance and custodial crew for the hours of work they do to make Music and
More a successful event.
PERSONNEL MATTERS
Creation
of Director of Operations Position
Sammetinger moved to create the
position of Director of Operations, effective August 1, 2006.
Seconded by Frame. Roll call:
Frame, aye; Sammetinger, aye; Copeland, aye; and Mertz, aye. Motion passed unanimously.
Ron Mertz then commented that the
purpose of the Director of Operations is that we are doing away with the
position of the Business Manager. We
are going to change the direction of the way we operate some of our work force.
That is the reason for the creation of the new position.
Reassignment
to Director of Operations Position
Sammetinger moved to eliminate the
position of Business Manager and reassign Don Arnett to the position of
Director of Operations for a 2-year contract, effective August 1, 2006,
consistent with the terms outlined in the contract marked as Exhibit A
(Director of Operations contract).
Seconded by Frame. Roll call:
Mertz, aye; Frame, aye; Sammetinger, aye; and Copeland, nay. Motion passed, 3 ayes, 1 nay.
Dave Copeland commented that he has
spent a lot of personal time on this issue. In his opinion, this position should not be our highest paid
employee. He does not agree with the
way the job was structured or the duties that are assigned to it, or the way
the salary was determined for the position of Business Manager.
Ron
Mertz commented that with this reassignment of Don Arnett, the Board is going
to not re-sign a renewal for him as Business Manager, since the Board is
eliminating that position. Director of Operations
is a brand new position with a new job title with a two-year contract. The contract, when Don accepts it, will
already tender his resignation after two years. Ron reminded the Board they will have two years to get somebody on
board to train to take over when Don leaves. Don has been with us a very long time and is very knowledgeable in
what he does.
Approval of Certified Contract
Copeland moved
to approve the Agreement between the Wapakoneta City Board of Education and the
Wapakoneta Education Association. The
contract is in effect from July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2009, per attached.
Seconded by Sammetinger.
Roll call: Mertz, aye; Frame,
aye; Sammetinger, aye; and Copeland, aye.
Motion passed unanimously.
Keith Horner commented that it was a
good process and he wanted to thank all of the team members on both sides and
teachers involved.
Dave Copeland commented that what
little involvement he had he found it very promising and interesting. Dave is a union person himself and saw a lot
of positives with our negotiations. He voiced
his concern that we make sure we follow through with what we say we are going
to do to keep that positive relationship going.
Willie expressed kudos to both sides
for being very professional. He stated
we all know when you deal with people’s livelihood and paychecks, sometimes a
person’s likes, dislikes, and emotions can get in the way and it appears to him
that this time it was handled very well. He is looking forward to working with the staff over the next
three years.
Ron Mertz then commented that he has
been on both sides of the table. This is his third contract with certified
staff that he has helped negotiate from the Board’s side. Ron has been working toward the trust that we
now have between the teachers and ourselves. We basically negotiated this contract without attorneys except to
check on language issues. We saved the
district a ton of money by not using attorneys. It was great. We finally
earned the trust of the employees that we do what we say we are going to do and
follow through with it. He wanted to
commend the whole Board to get us to this point in time.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The next Board meeting is
Monday, April 3 – 7:00 p.m. – High School
Mark Selvaggio had the
following comments:
·
Kudos to the Board for hiring Scott Minnig as the
head basketball coach. Scott’s speech
to each individual student at the banquet (no food was served so Mark is not
sure why it was called a banquet) was very inspiring. Scott complimented the strengths of each
player and commented on what they brought to the team. Mark said each boy will
remember what the coach said about them. It is pretty cool to have a coach who is so into those kids. Mark
wanted to thank the board for their decision to hire Scott.
·
Invited the board and community to Northridge on
Thursday, March 30, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. for their exploration night. It is for Northridge kids and their families
to explore math and science. It is for
2nd through 4th grade students, with an invitation extended to Centennial 2nd
graders. There will be lots of
different math and science fun-filled activities for everyone to do. Mark gave credit to Carrie Knoch who was in
charge of it and the teachers who took over. They invited people from the Neil Armstrong Space Museum and all
around. You can park at the high school,
too.
Dave Copeland responded to
Mark that he should not thank the Board for hiring Scott and taking credit for
hiring him, but Scott should take credit for being a candidate to be hired. Dave commented that Scott should not be given
credit only for a winning record, but more importantly for having a positive
program. Ron Mertz then commented kudos
to all of our kids and sports because we do have good attitude here at Wapakoneta
City Schools. Our sports program is
coming along great. We have a great attitude
win, lose, or draw, and we have great kids to go along with that. Dave then commented on what a positive
experience it was to see our school experience tournament atmosphere that other
area schools have had. He hopes that since
our kids have now had that experience they will want to keep that going.
The Board thanked Don
Arnett, Aaron Rex, and everyone else for organizing the buses that transported
the students to the tournament games.
EXECUTIVE
SESSION
Sammetinger moved to go
into executive session for the purpose of discussing employment and
compensation of a public employee or official; and preparing for, conducting,
or reviewing negotiations or bargaining sessions with public employees
concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their
employment, with no action to be taken except to adjourn.
Seconded by Copeland. Roll call:
Copeland, aye; Mertz, aye; Frame,
aye; and Sammetinger, aye. Motion
passed unanimously.
Upon returning from
executive session, it was noted that four Board members were present.
ADJOURNMENT
Sammetinger
moved to adjourn at 8:10 p.m. Seconded
by Copeland.
Roll call: Sammetinger, aye; Copeland, aye; Mertz, aye;
and Frame, aye. Motion passed
unanimously.
_________________________________
President
_________________________________
Secretary