VWCS board honors robotics team

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert City Board of Education heard a mix of positive and negative financial news as part of a report on the district’s five-year forecast provided by Treasurer Mike Ruen, and also honored the Van Wert High School Robotics Team that finished 12th at the world championships held last month in St. Louis, Missouri.

Ruen noted during his report at Wednesday’s May board meeting that, while School District Income Tax receipts were up 14.9 percent this past year, five-year projections show the district could face a deficit of more than $2 million by Fiscal Year 2018.

In addition, while personnel salaries have decreased this year and should do so next year as well, Ruen said, largely because of the retirement of veteran teachers and the hiring of younger, less experience replacements, those costs again show increases in the final three years of the five-year forecast.

During the educational impact portion of the meeting, the board heard a presentation from advisor Bob Spath and members of the Van Wert High School Robotics Team on their 12th-place finish in the world robotics championships held in May.

The VWHS team would likely have done even better if not for an unfortunate pairing with a team from Siberia in Russia that resulted in lost points because the VWHS robot was tipped over and the students couldn’t overcome the language barrier well enough with the Russians to have them right the VWHS robot.

Spath said he felt the VWHS robot – and robotics team – were “the best in the world” and said plans are to make competing at the world championships a regular occurrence, although he stressed that funding would need to be raised to cover the cost of that trip. This year’s robot, the USS Enterprise, but nicknamed “Bessie” by the students, will be put “out to pasture” — broken down for parts for next year’s robot, Spath said.

Several members of the robotics team were on hand to talk about the experience, which included making friends with other students from all over the world. The students, who are also part of the Project Lead the Way pre-engineering program at VWHS, noted that the class and robotics project have further reinforced their plans to pursue engineering in college. Three of the four seniors who attended the board meeting plan to major in engineering, with two of those studying aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati and the other pursuing a degree in chemical engineering at the University of Toledo.

Board President Mike Morrow also presented a plaque to Spath and the robotics team honoring their success at the world robotics championships.

As part of his report to the board, Superintendent Ken Amstutz talked about a delay the district had to implement on short notice Wednesday morning due to a power outage at Van Wert Elementary School.

Amstutz noted that a single-vehicle accident on Ohio 118 had knocked out power in the area of the schools, but added that, while the high school-middle school complex had power the elementary school did not.

A discussion of the problem with American Electric Power employees working the area resulted in school officials learning that the elementary school power outage was not an AEP problem, but needed to be handled by school personnel. One positive, Amstutz said, was that workers from Woolace Electric, the electric contractor when the elementary school building was constructed, was at the school that morning and was able to restore power quickly.

“They (Woolace) went through it and, within a few seconds, they did some switching and checking and they had the power back on,” the superintendent noted.

Unfortunately, the timing of the accident meant that some school buses were already on the road by the time the decision could be made to postpone the start of classes for two hours while the problem was sorted out.

The superintendent added that, while some parents weren’t happy with the lateness of the decision to delay classes, there wasn’t much school officials could do, given the timing of the accident.

“It was a very late decision, sometimes you don’t have those choices,” Amstutz said. “If the accident had happened at 4 in the morning, instead of 5:30 or quarter till 6, we would have responded differently, but it did not.”

Also Wednesday, the board approved a number of personnel items, including accepting the resignations of several district staff members. Resignations were tendered by teachers Patrice Lautzenheiser, Rebecca Brenneman and Kathy Mansfield, and longtime bus driver Randy Humerickhouse, while cheerleader coach Jamie Crippin also resigned from her supplemental contract position.

The board also approved hiring Julie Anderson as an elementary secretary and Sarah White as a middle school guidance counselor, and authorized summer school teaching assignments and summer substitute custodial employees.

Summer school teachers for the high school included Wendy Howell, Nancy Brown, Natasha Wilhelm, Charlie Witten, Jennifer Trittschuh and Jeff Kallas, while Jay Royer will teach summer courses at Van Wert Middle School.

LifeLinks Community School summer school staff will include Doug Adams, Kyle Hammons, Tim Wertenberger and Ashley Wharton.

Eli Alvarez, Corey Clifton and A.J. Foster were hired as part-time summer substitute custodial workers.

In other action, the board:

• Approved the following charitable donations: $170 from First Federal Savings & Loan, $300 from Van Wert Federal Savings Bank and $1,500 from Walmart for the Robotics Club; $1,025 from the Van Wert County Foundation for the Van Wert City Endowment Fund for Educators; $500 from Mike and Lila Shadle for the district’s Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) chapter; $2,000 from Chuck Thompson to fund the athletic scholarship in his name; and $70 from Flagship Tax Center for Van Wert Elementary School.
• Approved certified contracts for the 2014-2015 contract year.
• Approved a list of graduating seniors in the Class of 2014, providing all requirements are met. Graduation will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 1, in the VWHS gymnasium.
• Approved fall and winter sports ticket prices for the upcoming school year, and also gave the go-ahead for the WBL vs. NWC/Lima area All-Star Football Game, to be held Friday, June 13, with a rain date set for the next day.
• Authorized renewing membership in the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
• Approved a contract to provide services for the Ohio Family and Children First Council’s Help Me Grow program between Van Wert City Schools, acting as administrative agent for the program, and the Van Wert County Board of Developmental Disabilities.
• Approved a resolution opposing a legislative initiative to remove the “thorough and efficient” educational provisions from the Ohio Constitution.
• Learned that Tami Suzuki will be advanced on the teaching payscale from “master’s degree” to master’s degree plus 15 hours.”
• Learned that Franklin Bowen will be added to the list of substitute bus drivers.
• Went into executive session to discuss contract negotiations, with no action taken afterwards.

The next scheduled meeting of the Van Wert City Board of Education will be held at 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 18, in the First Federal Lecture Hall.