Marietta Board of Education discusses SHP master plan, transportation, safety
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MARIETTA - Marietta Board of Education met on Thursday night and discussed updates to the facilities master plan through SHP, further conversations on the state report card rating and a transportation and safety update.
Josh Predovich, director of master planning with SHP, asked the board to approve a resolution that would ask the Ohio Facility Construction Commission to establish a new scope for project cost and local share with the Classroom Facilities Assistance Program.
He said the resolution "is going to bring you back into the OFCC fold. We'll get them started on our enrollment projections together, and then they'll update their facility assessments."
An initial enrollment projection was completed in 2019 and is "the key component that we need because we need to know what the OFCC’s starting point is going to be for our facility options, that;s going to be the baseline for a co-funded project," he said.
The Board approved the resolution in a vote 5-0.
According to Derek Huck, director of operations, in the next one to four years, around seven of the 15 bus drivers within the district will be retiring. He is working to recruit additional substitute bus drivers to balance this future shift in employment rates, "that way maybe they would be interested in moving to a full-time position when they become available," he said.
He said the district has four substitute drivers that aren't full time employees, and is looking to increase the pay of substitute drivers to pull in additional drivers.
The board approved the increase in pay for substitute drivers to $20 per hour in a vote 5-0.
Huck also brought forward the need of new windows at the Marietta Elementary School, with the plan to replace 20 windows next summer.
According to Huck, the windows are in poor condition and some are posing safety concerns for students and need to be replaced.
Board member Jeff Hollister said "If we've got kids in buildings with windows that are not safe, then we ought to be addressing those right now, not waiting until next summer. It doesn’t mean replace them all, but if you've got six windows that need to be replaced, let's replace them."
Board President Cody Parman and CFO Frank Antill said that if a list of the immediate needs are brought to the board the project will be approved.
Board member Chris Fennell brought up the topic of "uneasiness with the traffic around our schools."
Superintendent Mary Schaeffer said last week she met with Mayor Josh Schlicher on the installation of signs near Washington Elementary through the Safe Routes to School grant. She said while new signs are being installed, they are not the flashing signs the district asked for.
According to Schaeffer, Schlicher said the district would have to apply for the grant because at this time they cannot commit the dollar amount for the signs.
Since the applications for the grant open in the spring, Schaeffer is looking to get a crossing guard to aid students in crossing the street in the morning, and has reached out to the high school band director about the Band Boosters in this effort.
The Board had further conversation on the state report card ratings and the potential of renovating the Putnam school building to be a preschool building for the district in the new facilities master plan with SHP.
Schaeffer discussed the potential of restructuring the school buildings to better reflect the district on the state report card. Board members agreed that the report card rating should not be the "driving metric" for restructure, rather the emphasis on educational delivery should be the priority.
Parman said the update of Putnam could be a conversation with SHP to include the building in the new master plan exclusively as a preschool.
Schaeffer said "I think it's important we continue to talk about it, and I think it's prime time. All these conversations should inform master planning, so I'm very excited that we're having them."
In other business, the board recognized the October winners of the Focused and Fierce Awards; Phillips Elementary: Emory Chipps, Washington Elementary: Adelyn Casto, Marietta Elementary School: William Heck, Marietta High School: Riley Wilkinson, Community Partner: Washington County Behavioral Health Board, Tara Plaugher and Tammy Harris, Certified Staff: Sally Weihl, Classified Staff: Shannon Strauss.
Sophie Wheeler can be contacted at swheeler@newsandsentinel.com.