McDonald board opposes voucher bill

October 11, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

McDONALD

The board of education Monday approved a resolution expressing opposition to House Bill 136, which grants vouchers to any public school student in Ohio to attend private or parochial schools.

The board’s resolution said that the legislation, which proposes to expand the availability of vouchers, “takes dollars directly from the already financially beleaguered local public-school districts resulting in fewer resources for the education of remaining students.”

The board also opposed any legislation that would transfer public dollars to support private education.

In other business, the board approved a contract with Warren City School District for vision services for the 2010-11 school year. The teacher hired through Warren works in several districts with visually impaired students.

The board also approved a contract with Weathersfield Local School District for bus-mechanic services for the 2011-12 school year at an hourly rate of $30.

The district’s own bus mechanic was cut from the staff two years ago as a cost-saving measure, and the district’s four running buses have been being maintained by taking them to various dealers.

Weathersfield already has begun working on buses for the district at the Weathersfield bus garage.

The board hired Hoffman Property Services of McDonald for the third-consecutive year for snow removal and salting on the high school and elementary parking lots. The charges will stay the same at $350 per plow and $250 per salt.

The company, run by a village resident, offered to do the snow removal when the district went into fiscal emergency in 2008, charging half what was being charged by a previous company. “It’s nice to see that village residents are still stepping up, in so many ways,” schools Treasurer Brian Stidham said.

The board approved a contract for special-education services with the Ohio Department of Education, Center for School Options and Finance for fiscal year 2012 for $210,000. The services offered include speech, occupational therapy and physical therapy among others, and are provided by the Trumbull County Educational Service Center.

The board also approved hiring Traci Williams as the district’s second educational aide/para-professional as of today for the current school year at a rate of $8.93 an hour for 6.5 hours a day. Her total contract is for 160 days for $9,288.

The district’s Title I fund was adjusted upward with an extra $10,391 coming into the district for fiscal year 2012. The total is to be $95,590.