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Friday, Mar. 29, 2024

VWCS bd. OKs supplemental contracts

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert City Board of Education approved lists of leadership teams, as well as a large number of supplemental contracts, during its September meeting Tuesday evening.

Administrative Assistant Bill Clifton talks about state testing during Tuesday's meeting of the Van Wert City Board of Education. Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent
Administrative Assistant Bill Clifton talks about state testing during Tuesday’s meeting of the Van Wert City Board of Education. Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent

Prior to personnel items, Superintendent Ken Amstutz noted during his report that he and eight other superintendents met with Ohio Representative Teresa Fedor (D-Columbus) concerning the State Report Card program. Amstutz said that, what was discovered from the recent report card findings was that income was a big factor in how school districts did on the test. The superintendent said that Ottawa Hills, arguably the richest district in the state, received straight As on the test, while Cleveland area schools got all Fs.

The highest scores came from districts where median family income was $69,000 a year, while those who did poorly were from districts were the median family income was $27,000 a year.

“So therefore, there’s a huge discrepancy from income, and it’s true: the higher the income, the better the achievement,” Amstutz concluded. “So those are some of the things that have to be addressed.”

He said that Fedor recommended that districts get parents involved in helping schools get action to improve the report card program.

The superintendent also talked about programs that are part of the Family and Children First Program.

Administrative Assistant Bill Clifton talked about district school safety programs, while also providing board members with district testing results, as well as an article from The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer about the report card program.

Clifton also said he felt that, while the report card results weren’t what administrators would have liked to see, they were in line with many local schools experienced.

“When you compare us locally, we didn’t do very well, but when you compare us to other WBL schools, we’re third in the league, and when you look at the 20 comparison districts, we’re at the top,” he said. “That said, we’re holding our own.”

Leadership team lists are as follows:

District leadership team – Superintendent Ken Amstutz, Tech Director Justin Bragg, Administrative Assistant Bill Clifton, Chris Covey (Project Based Learning), Doug Grooms (school psychologist), Nellie Schmidt (Media Center specialist), Nikki Adams (preschool), Jen Arend (Title I), Early Childhood Center Principal Lori Bittner, Drew Bittner (fifth grade), Deb Chiles (first grade), Ruth Ann Dowler (fourth grade), Ty Wannemacher (second grade), Assistant Elementary Principal Justin Krogman, Cayla Wise (third grade), Assistant Middle School Principal Darla Dunlap, Erin Lee (English/language arts), Tiffany Werts (math), Anita Zuber (English/language arts), High School Principal Bob Priest, Bob Sloan (music), Bob Spath (Project Lead the Way/math/science), Jennifer Trittschuh (social studies), Natoshia Wilhelm (English/language arts).

Of the district leadership team, all members are also part of their Building Leadership Teams, except for Amstutz, Bragg, Clifton, Schmidt, Dowler, and Trittschuh.

In addition, the following are also members of Building Leadership Teams:

Van Wert Early Childhood Center/Van Wert Elementary School – Ashley Breese (fourth grade), Regina Brenneman (preschool), Jill Fast (second grade), VWES Principal Kevin Gehres, Katie Krieg and Cayla Wise (third grade), Ashley McElroy (fifth grade), Shelly Place (kindergarten), Andi Sealscott (first grade), Alicia Welker (art).

Van Wert Middle School – Heidi Arney (intervention specialist), Principal Mark Bagley, Ben Laudick (eighth grade), Zane McElroy (GTT), Mike Myers (sixth grade), Sarah White (guidance).

Van Wert High School – Katie Adelblue (social studies), Katie Bowersock (intervention specialist), Kim Doidge (math), Assistant Principal Dave Froelich, Kerry Koontz (guidance), and Kathleen Overmyer (science.

Supplemental contracts were also approved, by school, as follows:

Early Childhood Center – Laura Foster and Kendra Parmenter, ECC multimedia advisors; Jen Arend, ECC Aimsweb manager; Jessica Small, ECC RTI manager; Nikki Adams, Regina Brenneman, Shelly Place, and Angie Stemen, ECC student rewards coordinator.

Van Wert Elementary School – Danielle Sudhoff and Betsy Davis, VWES Student Council advisors; Ashley Driggs, Ashley Sinn, Katie Krieg, Traci McCoy, and Nate Hoverman, VWES multimedia advisors; Sara Royer and Ashley McElroy, VWES student rewards coordinators; Amy Covey, Ty Wannemacher, July Mosier, Ruth Ann Dowler, and Jared Army, VWES RTI managers; Donna Clark, Cindy Etzler, Kathy Long, Kim Werling, and Drew Bittner, VWES Aimsweb managers.

Van Wert Middle School – Anita Zuber, Scholastic Bowl advisor; Tami Suzuki, Pam Morris, and Chris Gemmer, VWMS student rewards coordinators (33 percent); Sarah White (40 percent), Darla Dunlap (20 percent), and Ben Laudick (40 percent), VWMS Cougar Leaders advisors; Susan Semer, VWMS yearbook advisor; Zane McElroy, VWMS newspaper advisor; Mike Myers, sixth grade intramurals advisor.

Van Wert High School – Melissa Bloomfield, Katie Adelblue, and Caitlin Walker (all 33 percent), VWHS Beta Club advisors; Krista Baer, VWHS website advisor; Nancy Brown, VWHS newspaper advisor; Melissa Bloomfield, play director, musical director, and musical music director; Andrea Newell, VWHS music director; Caitlin Walker, Excalibur (yearbook) advisor; Eugene Aufderhaar, German Club advisor; Brenda Smith, Junior Class advisor; Jennifer Trittschuh and Natoshia Wilhelm, National Honor Society co-advisors; Wendy Howell and Jeff Hood, student rewards coordinators; Anita Zuber, Scholastic Bowl advisor; Khandiss Klinger, Spanish Club advisor; Judy Krites and Katie Bowersock, Student Council advisors; Charles Witten, “V” Club advisor; Melissa Bloomfield and Julia Reichert, Chamber Choir directors; Jennifer Trittschuh, Scarlet Squad advisor; Myrna Hamrick, Natoshia Wilhelm, and Kerry Koontz, senior project teachers; Bob Spath and Zane McElroy, Robotics Club advisors.

Also approved on Tuesday were a list of athletic supplemental contracts. Those include the following: Mark Bagley, boys’ head basketball coach; Chris Covey, boys’ assistant basketball coach; Ben Laudick, boys’ junior varsity basketball coach; Jeff Hood, boys’ freshman basketball coach; Ben Collins, head wrestling coach; Mark Collins and Austin McIntosh, assistant wrestling coaches; Megan Hurless, head swimming coach; Martha Martin and Keith Rydell, assistant swimming coaches; Kenzie Ray, basketball cheerleading coach; Nate Simson, head bowling coach; Nate Hoverman, seventh grade boys’ basketball coach; Kerry Koontz, eighth grade boys’ basketball coach; Terrin Contreras and Brad Allmandinger, VWMS wrestling coaches; Juliette Bonifas, girls’ assistant soccer coach; and Kara Kelly, seventh grade volleyball coach.

The following volunteer coaches were also approved: Brandon Miller, boys’ basketball; Connor Massillo and Cory Hirschy, VWHS wrestling.

Mentors and facilitators were also approved for the Resident Educators program, as follows: First-year mentors – Nikki Adams, Shelly Place, Tiffany Werts, Jennifer Trittschuh; second-year mentors – Kim Werling, Julia Reichert, Mike Myers, Tiffany Werts, Jennifer Trittschuh, Mary Kramer, and Karen Emerine; third-year facilitators – Ashley Breese, Betsy Davis, Traci McCoy, Ashley McElroy, Tom Baer, Drew Golden, Scott Jordan, and Khandiss Klinger.

In other news, the board:

Accepted the following donations: $150 from the Armstrong Air & Space Museum for the VWHS Robotics Club; $1,500 from the Carmody Fund of The Van Wert County Foundation for the VWMS Renaissance Program; $12,837 from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation for culture building in VWMS; $1,500 from Van Wert County Hospital for the VWES wellness programs; $325 from Action for Healthy Kids for the VWES wellness program; $100 from Tony and Shawna Gehres for the elementary school; and $50 from Lee’s Ace Hardware for the boys’ soccer team.

Hired Tiffany Marsee as a LifeLinks Community School online instructor.

Approved Doug Grooms and Michelle Stoller as representatives to the Va Wert Area Performing Arts Foundation Board, which operates the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio.

Approved a motion to grant all students with learning disabilities enrolled in the Resource program at VWHS a half-credit if all course requirements are met.

Learned that Jeff Kallas will be advanced on the payscale from master’s plus 15 hours, to master’s plus 30 hours; and Cayla Wise, bachelor’s to bachelor’s plus 150 hours.

Heard a presentation from Larry Mengerink on a plan to refurbish Eggerss Stadium, while also adding locker room facilities and restrooms, and a concession stand at the existing site. Cost is estimated at $3.2 million. Board President R.J. Coleman said the board would likely be making a decision on whether to renovate Eggerss Stadium or build a new facility at the current high school site in the next couple of months.

The next scheduled meeting of the Van Wert City Board of Education will be at 5 p.m. Wednesday, October 19, in the boardroom at the S.F. Goedde Building.

POSTED: 09/28/16 at 8:04 am. FILED UNDER: News