Report on Shaker School Board Regular Meeting - Tuesday, October 8th

The meeting commenced at 6:03pm with all of the school board members in attendance. Also in attendance were Superintendent Gregory Hutchings and Treasurer Bryan Christman.
 
PUBLIC COMMUNICATION TO THE BOARD
There were no public comments offered during the “Public Communication to the Board” period provided at the beginning of the meeting.
 
PRESENTATION BY SHAKER STUDENTS
Six Shaker students (5 seniors, 1 junior) attended the Minority Student Achievement Network Student Conference in September see more here The students gave a 15 minute presentation followed by questions from the board. The students would like to do several things to address the needs of the Shaker community:1- a Shadow program for MS students to follow a HS student, 2- a freshman orientation, 3– a community forum.  Suggestions from the students for the district included hiring more minority teachers, find ways to improve student engagement, and offer study circles for all levels of classes not just the AP level.
 
ACTION ITEMS – PERSONNEL
The Board approved all recommended changes in assignments, appointments (3 positions), and resignations (3, all retirements). The board also approved additional compensation for supplemental contracts (38), special assignments (138) and curriculum writing and planning (40).
 
ADOPTION OF BOARD POLICIES
First reading of policies to be adopted to comply with state law and the new standards based evaluation frameworks - Ohio's Teacher Evaluation System and Ohio's Principal Evaluation System. Under these systems teachers and principals are to be assigned an effectiveness rating of: Accomplished, Skilled, Developing or Ineffective.  Various actions are called for depending on the rating - including remediation and/or removal. See the Shaker teacher policy here and principal policy here.  Full description of the state requirements for teachers is here and principals is here.
 
TREASURER’S MONTHLY FINANCIAL REPORT
The August financial statement (here) covers only 2 months of the fiscal year and did not contain a comparison to budget. Total revenue was $0.58 million or 2% less than prior YTD primarily due to lower real estate taxes. Total expenditures were $78 thousand or 0.5% greater than prior YTD.
 
APPROVAL OF THE DISTRICT'S FIVE-YEAR FINANCIAL FORECAST
Treasurer Christman gave a PowerPoint presentation on the forecast (here). In comparison to the 5-year forecast approved in May 2013, the actual results for FY 2013 showed $1.34 million greater revenue and $0.80 million lower expenditures, with expenditures exceeding revenue by only $20 thousand rather than the forecast $2.16 million.
Expenses are forecast to exceed revenue by $2.01 million for FY 2014. The forecast calls for additional unidentified annual budget savings of $1.00 million to be found in FY 2015 and each year thereafter.
Assumptions or highlights of this forecast include:
 -  A blended overall 2% per year salary increase, including annual experience steps, for all years after the current collective bargaining agreements expire.
 -  A projected annual growth rate of 10% for health insurance costs. Budgeted for FY 2014 at $8.00 million.
 -  A projected annual growth rate averaging 5% for out of district tuition costs. Budgeted for FY 2014 at $5.30 million.
 -  Approval of a property tax levy of at least 6.9 mills in 2014. A levy of 6.9 mills is estimated to yield $5.34 million per year.
 -  The net additional budget savings to be identified each year commencing in FY 2015 was reduced from $1.50 million to $1.00 million.

The October 2013 5-year forecast is here and May 3013 forecast is here
 
BOARD MEMBERS' REPORTS AND HIGHLIGHTS
Amy Fulford reported that the Finance & Audit Committee was working to be able to identify and track intentional cost savings and to be able to differentiate intentional cost savings from fortuitous positive variances in the budget.
 
EXECUTIVE SESSION
The board recessed at 7:57pm to discuss employee personnel matters, namely the Treasurer's annual evaluation, under Ohio Revised Code Section (ORC) 121.22(G)(1), and preparation for collective bargaining negotiations under ORC Section 121.22(G)(4).
 
The detailed October 8th agenda is here.
 
Tour Your Schools Day – October 14th
School Board Work Session – October 24th, 6:00pm at HS Small Auditorium
School Board Regular Meeting - November 6th, 6:00pm at HS Small Auditorium

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