At Monday’s Austintown Board of Education meeting, the stage was set for the use of the 9/11 Memorial Park for the girls’ softball games and a big donation was made to kick off Falco Tech’s next robot.
On the softball issue, the board approved a memorandum of understanding between Austintown Township and Austintown Local Schools for the township to provide use of the land at the 9/11 Memorial Park for construction, improvement, and maintenance of baseball/softball fields. A second agreement was approved with SportScape for installation of a softball field.
According to construction coordinator Mal Culp, the plan is to spend $13,000 to upgrade one of the existing baseball fields at 9/11 Memorial Park to bring it up to Ohio High School Athletic Association standards. A second field at the park will receive a $11,000 upgrade so it can be used as a legal practice field. Culp said that once complete, the school district will handle the maintenance of the fields while the township will continue to maintain the rest of the park.
As to the status of the new schools construction, Culp said there is not a lot of visible things going on right now.
“We have met with architects over the heating and cooling systems. We’ve seen some very good systems,” Culp said. “As for the visual, there are only little color flags in the ground marking utility locations. We will be doing some test drilling to make sure the ground can support the new buildings.”
Another guest at the meeting was Jeff Hughes, branch manager for the Grainger Foundation. He presented the board with a check for $10,000 to help the Fitch Robotics Team for the coming year. The team, known officially as FIRST Robotics Team 3193, a.k.a. “Falco Tech” needed the funds to register for the coming year. The donation will cover those costs and any funds left over from the entry fees will come back to the team.
“We wanted to give them a grant to help with their first entry,” Hughes said. “We think it is a great program.”
Falco Tech team leader Rick Zimmermann and assistant Mike Mellott were on hand to accept the grant.
In other business:
• The board accepted resignations for the following personnel: Kathy Wolfe, summer worker; Tiffany Tokar, summer fun camp teacher; Joanne Williams, teacher; Gayla Bock, teacher; Steven Ward, ninth grade boys basketball coach; Melissa Pezzuolo, paraprofessional at Frank Ohl; Charlotte Herman, food service at Watson; Prudence Morris, elementary guidance counselor; Heidi Peachock, teacher at Lloyd; Armand Detoro, summer worker; and Beth Nims, lead teacher at Frank Ohl.
• The board approved the following transfers and appointments: transfer Bobbie Jo Smith to food service worker at AMS; appoint Lori Brendlinger to food service worker at AMS; and employ the following: Theresa Billock as home instruction tutor; Jason Krpicak to summer 2010 worker; Angela Kukla to summer fun camp teacher; Lisalynn Segretario to substitute summer School teacher; David Stanley to part-time AV technician; Mary Steele and Patricia Baker to the position of school nurses; Brian Forgac, AMS head wrestling coach; Ellen Kosa, ticket manager; Jon Elliot, Jr., Fitch assistant football coach; Edward Rankin, Fitch co-assistant football coach; James Jerek, from AMS eighth grade girls basketball to assistant Fitch girls basketball coach; Amy Dolsak, ninth grade girls basketball coach; and Samantha Shaffer, freshman girls cheerleading advisor.
• The board agreed to employ crossing guards for the 2010-11 school year at $5.30 per crossing as follows: at AMS: Kathy Senvisky; at Woodside: Patty Infante, Rosemary Blakeman, and Lou Ann Fox; at Frank Ohl: Kathy Senvisky and Stephanie Dilts; and at Watson: Thomas Mosser.
• Approval was given for extended service days for the following counselors, librarians and teaching personnel as follows. Extended days are to be worked during the two months of August 2010 and June 2011 for the 2010-11 school year: Leslie Busicom, John Hudson, Brett Powell, Marie Dockry, Heidi Martin, Dan Rasor, Lauren Mechling, John Savage, Brian Fedyski, Lorraine Krueger, Maribeth McGlynn, Harold Wilson, and Sue Janca.
• The board approved the hiring of the following licensed personnel as follows pending receipt of official transcripts, favorable state and federal background checks, and favorable TB test results: Amanda Fryda, intervention specialist at Fitch; Melissa Vinarsky, district speech/language pathologist; Penny Callahan, elementary school guidance counselor; and Lorraine Hardman, independent contractor for auxiliary speech and language services at IHM/St. Joseph on an as-needed basis.
• Two resolutions were approved for submitting to the electors of the school district the question of the renewal of an existing 7.3 mill current expense tax levy and an existing 4.9 mill current expense tax levy..
• A resolution was approved, providing for the issuance and sale of bonds in the maximum aggregate principal amount of $26,682,099 for the purpose of paying the local share of school construction under the state of Ohio Classroom Facilities Assistance Program.
• A resolution was approved, authorizing the termination of an agreement with Renhill Group, Inc. for staffing services.
• Changes to the Austintown Middle School handbook for the 2010-11 school year were accepted.
• Dr. Tom Stellers was selected as a delegate and Kathy Mock as an alternate to the Ohio School Boards Association Annual Business Meeting at the Capital Conference Nov. 7-10, 2010 in Columbus.
• Approval was given for the appointment of a Business Advisory Council according to Ohio School Board Association requirements to advise and provide recommendations to the Board of Education on specific matters such as, but not limited to, suggestions for developing a working relationship among business, labor organizations and educational personnel in the district. This Council is in alignment with the Family and Civic Engagement Committee.
• The board approved a contract agreement between Oslavsky & Jaminet Architects for the OSFC construction project. The cost of this service will be shared between local board funds and state OSFC monies.
• Approval was given to purchase property at 4746 Woodhurst Ave. and 1185 Idaho Road, with Capital Projects Funds, for the purpose of new construction and traffic flow.
• The board approved the recommendation to employ Dr. James Shina of Austintown as consulting physician for the 2010-11 school year at a fee of $2,200.
• Approval was given, based on competitive quotes, to purchase paper towels and toilet tissue products from Hearn Paper.
• The board set the next regular meeting for 6 p.m. Aug. 16 at AMS.
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