001School District Board of Education regular meeting of Monday, April 14th, 2025. This is a meeting of the Vermillion Board of Education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business. It's not to be considered a public community meeting. There's a time for public participation during the meeting as indicated on the agenda. Vermillion board bylaw 0165.1. Call the role. Mrs. Inennis here. Mr. Benson here, Mr. Habermill here, Mrs. Steppp here, Mrs. Russell here, all members present. Okay. Uh, item number three, our citizens of the month who were optimistic this past month and Mr. Benson will help you out with that. My name is and I want to be a race car driver when I grow up. I'm in kindergarten. My name is My name is Jimmy and I want to be a and I'm
002in second grade and I want to be a com. My name is Alexander Trees and I'm in third grade and I want to be a hair stylist when I grow up. My name is Kinley and and and my grade is second grade. And what I want to be when I grow up is a famous painter. Thank you. Put her hand. Yes. Good. Other hand, buddy. Right hand. There you go. I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the government for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Nice job. Great job, guys. All right, on to item number four, legislative report. Chris. Okay. So, there's a lot of activity this past week at both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Um, both
003groups just uh went on what they call their spring break um this week and next week. So, after after this activity, there'll probably be a few weeks before things get going again. But the in the House, they passed uh House Bill 96, which is the bianual state operating budget. um that was po passed by a vote of 60 to 39. I'm I I there's a lot of information regarding that budget, but it does have to go through the Senate. So, we'll kind of sit and wait to see what happens there. In the uh in the Senate, Senate Bill 7 was a uh was passed by a vote of 33 to nothing. that would uh require all schools to provide annual instruction to students in grades K through 12 on the effects of short-term and chronic
004substance abuse. They also passed uh Senate Bill 50 which was uh by a vote of 24 to9. This bill would make changes regarding the age and schooling certificate requirements for work hours for persons under 16 years of age. So different requirements for a someone under 16 to gain a work permit. And then um the uh the House Education Committee also is sponsoring a bill. The reason I kind of picked this one um one of our local reps, Joseph Miller, sponsored this bill and it would require all school districts and educational service centers, teachers to be paid a salary of at least $50,000. So those are just some highlights from the past week. Thank you, Chris. On to item number five, student leaison board. So today we have Whit with her seventh grade students to talk
005about their National History Day project. Good evening. Um I'm Mrs. Stin. We every year our seventh grade students do a National History Day project. That's where they choose a topic. They research from September until Christmas break. And then when we get back to school, they start building their project. It consists of a project. So this is Charlie Kosovich's board. She was the exhibit board. And then we have Laya Jeffrey here. She wrote the paper this year. Um we do then take our projects to competition. So both of these ladies went to the regional competition in Fremont this year and they both advanced to the state competition which will be this um the 26th of April in Columbus. So they both are going to talk to you about their projects. Um, I'm Charlie. I did a
006work on um my project was very impactful for um Ohio and just acting protests. Um so quick summary students u killed shot killed by the Ohio National Guard American 70 um and it split basically split America and how they um and Those who create history I'm sure you all this quote sus national history day is an important opportunity for students across the nation our future and will carry the information of past history is important for those who can right now shooting is very popular shooting four state students were shot and murdered by the Ohio National Guard during the antivietnam war protest I feel people should know this know about my topic as I can teach future police officers and OMG members beneficial effort on how to keep future protests and social themselves and others Hi,
007my name is Li and I wrote a paper about Alice Paul and her work in women's suffrage movement. And I find that I chose my topic for a variety of reasons. One being the fact that it's very controversial. So I feel that if you were to ask a young girl how she felt about women and say their power in society, she would say that she felt the suffrage movement was a movement with impact and it was very important to history. But I feel that if you were to ask a young boy what he felt about this opportunity, he would say that he felt he would feel it's irrelevant and it wasn't something necessary for history and it was a topic that I had a lot of pride in and something that I really enjoyed researching
008and it was a lot of fun. Alice Paul was a very impactful woman. She took a lot of pride in her work and she did amazing. She she hunger struck and was forcefed eggs through a tube in her nose for hunger striking. She organized marches and protests and just did a lot of things to get women where they are in society today and women's rights are still booking. I also chose my topic because there are a lot of people involved with it. So, not only were there impactful women, but there were men. There were a lot of men who helped women gain the rights and the luxuries that they have today. And the not only help women, but it helps people of color, just people with differing ethnicities, pe people of different sexualities, and even
009trans people. Thank you both for coming to talk about your projects. Um, History Day is a a great program. I mean, we've been doing it for a number of years. I know since my girls were in school years ago and it's it's a great program. Thank you. Uh, we do not have any student board members here. So, on to item seven, bond questions and answers. Justin So I just it's now April fination, but I did this back in February. It's been the same presentation ever since. So again, this is again follow. So first and foremost, um why are we asking for a bond? So the school building are aging and there are urgent need of repair and modernization. Uh we have issues like leak roofs. We have inefficient heating and cooling systems. We get classrooms
010that no longer meet the modern educational standards. So one of the things I did uh I went to look at just how things actually built. Our high school uh is now 57 years old. Our middle school is is 49 years old. Um, it took me a little while to find the bus. I'm not exactly 100% sure on these numbers, but from what I can find bus 77 years old and uh our newest elementary school, it's already 10 years old. Time goes fast. So again, why are we asking for a bond? Well, Vermillion is always used as general fund to pay for capital repairs and upgrades. um the cost of these projects are just simply too great to continue following this this model plan. Um, so one of the things I did just to see where
011we stack up, I went to the department of taxation to see how many other school districts in Eur County have the I actually across the entire state of Ohio. And so by comparison, of the 611 school districts in Ohio, 211 of tax, uh, 410 of the schools have passed and 507 of them have passed the permanent approval. So when you combine those together, Vermillion is one of 43 school districts in Ohio that only has a general fund uh to pay these types of repairs. Um from there I turn to look into our our current expense our leies and see when were these passion has four current expense less. Uh they were passed in 1976, 1989, 1992, 1993. And the last operating less we pass it was an emergency that was back in 2008. So we're
012still operating the same revenue uh that we have when we pass that emergency. One of the things that I did add this presentation was just what is the total spending by district. Um this is where uh learn. So what I did is I just took a total um I didn't have fiscal year 24th time this but uh fiscal year 18 through fiscal year 23. So 6 years of spending um as shown in the table here schools spend the most in the last 6 years at the very top of the list there has actually spent $177 million on building infrastructure. And if you look at the very bottom spend now what I'm doing to show this this is money outside of the general. So obviously this does not mean the million has not spent any money
013on upgrading it. It means that it's spent general fund money and has not had dedicated fun. And so when you go down this list of schools uh per million is at zero outside of this general fund from 177 million down to almost 2 million for what this shows that every other school district in here in Marine County does have some form of additional funding outside with the exception of one of the main reason we are asking for so we have um co you know the schools received a bunch of co money. Uh where did all that go? How much did the rate? There was actually three different forms of I should say funding. First one was one that generated $60,000. There was another year later 2.4 million. And so how do we spend that money?
014where we used our SR1 and our SR2 funds to pay for 1350 years and 250 athletic attendance in 2021 and this was again to get all students and staff on one technology and that feast for 3 years was 1.35 which was slightly more than our ARP SR1 or SR and then in 2022 the district established the 07 capital projects fund and we transferred $2 million from marginal funds to7 capital projects fund and that money was obtained from the reimbursement of the ARP funds. So ARP funds they're a little bit a little bit more to it but ultimately it requires 20% of the grants to be spent on mediation summer learning for extending the school year. And so what we ended up doing this year, we put a new roof for $536,000. We put a new
015HVAC 1.1 mill. And we put a new hot water tank in the high school for $46,000. And we use the remaining 20% to hire four specialists. So again, how are we spending our money now? Well, um, we don't have dedicated. We don't have dedicated. So, this is all right now. Here's how we're spending technology for the last years. We spent 1.6 and just over half million gutters $664,000 $30,000. Uh we got an additional 432,000 this year buses in a land. Um when you add all this up over these four years, we spent 6.5 million. So that equals just average $1.6 million a year. So why are we asking? Here's the pictures of our test. Um we've got estimates back from our architects. Our architects they do work around the entire table line. In fact the
016entire table line they are putting out bids constantly schools and the bids that we're about to tell you the estimates that is receiving but right now they're telling us to replace all these is going to be $1.1 million. So we have water here at the high school and middle school. What happens is anytime you see any changes in pressure in the water, um these pipes are so old and they have to repaired so many times they tend to break. When they break, we dig everything up, patch it, put it back together, shut the water off the building, fill it back in. So what we're looking to do is just these pipes, dig everything up and replace it. So we have price here. So pressure does change. We don't have uh the estimate for that is
017120 to $200,000. Um this is here in the high school and it's hard to tell when you look at these pictures, but everything you see there's a white spot. That's actually the rubber memory wearing through. and you're actually in the seat room. Um, we've gotten estimates from our our architects and these estimates are anywhere between 5 and 7 million to tear off everything and to replace it. Uh, so what they're saying we need to do is we have two layers on the roof. need to remove the very first layer, the original layer is cement all that bus within our bus garage. What we have is plans to demo the bus garage and put a new facility there. Uh that estimate is $1.5 million. Take a look. All that's just brush screen there. We want to
018pay fast the project $900,000 for that. Um, and they get to replace the bus around $100,000. So, at the bus project, we're looking at $2.5 million or so to tear that down, put together a newer facility to pay that. So, just these four pictures, right? So, just go to the tennis courts, water maintenance, a new roof of the high school, and a bus garage. Those those four pictures or estimates are anywhere between $8.7 million and $10.8 million. And that's just a small fraction of everything that we get done. Um what else what else are we looking at doing? Well, our science rooms. We don't really have science. Um we don't have the way to plug in all the microscopes. We do uh to to put together a room that actually has the space and the
019proper focus. We're looking 1.52. Um I don't know if you have a chance to be in the restrooms here at the high school middle school. Um but those need to just be cost for that $900,000 we have. Same thing over the middle school elevator place there. Uh we have interior lighting rest our media center here. Our auditorium here lighting sounds with the lighting and sound really so outdated we can't buy light bulbs the only system we have so we replace that entire system and then we're talking about desks chairs case working those furnishings throughout the district and then we mentioned it before Right. So what can a bond be used for and for how long? So a bond is a a levy is a validation and it's to fund the building or renovations. Uh revenue
020generated leotens. So we cannot do anything to move on for salaries to cover health insurance for utilities to buy the bus. It all has to go towards uh total cost to repair and modernize preschool buildings. The bus is estimated to be $47 million. So that's a 3.91 million bond with 30 years and it'll be placed on 6,000. And then what's it going to cost? Looking at Zillow, the average home is right around $250,000. And so for the average home, $250,000 cost you $12 a month for a large break from $100,000 to 700,000 right there cost. That was all I had. Thank you, Justin. Item eight, public participation on agenda items only. This time is allotted for community members to speak to the board regarding an item or items on this agenda. Um, I've got a
021couple names here for public participation any having to do with the agenda at all. Okay, moving on. Uh, item nine, adjournment to executive session. I hereby move that the board adjourn to executive session for conducting or reviewing collective bargaining strategy by division G4 of section 121.22 of the revised code. I'll second questions. All right, call the roll, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermill, yes. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Motion approved. 50 and the time is 6:24 p.m. Justin, you've got the time to go back in. Yep. 6:46 p.m. On to item number 10, superintendent report. Yes. I re I recommend that the board uh ratify and approve the tenative agreement for September 1, 2025 to June 30, 2028 between the Vermillion Teachers Association and the Vermillion Local School District Board of
022Education which was ratified by the association on April 3rd, 2025. The board uh further author would have further further authorized the superintendent, treasurer, board president, and any other necessary persons to sign the final agreement and any uh required certifications. And that's an attachment A. I'll move. I'll second. I'll second. Any questions? Right. Call the role, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermill, yes. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Motion approved. 5-0. and B, I um recommend that the uh board approve the revision of district policies as recommended for the second read and attachment B. I'll go ahead. I'll second. Any questions? No. All right. Call the RO, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermill, yes. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Motion approved. 5-0. and C recommend that the board approve
023a one-year additional duties contract for 2425 to Kurt Herman for the overnight chaperon uh the overnight trip to Chicago as a chaperon on step one move. I'll second questions. Call the role, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermill, abstain. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Motion approve. Four yays and one abstension. You ready? You can't. You were quicker than I thought. Almost ready. Marlene is here to share with us. Um, she has a friend who's an astronaut. Not many people can say that. And um her friend is um interested in helping students understand what happens on these space missions. And so she's tapped into this and um at at some point they're going to we're going to have the opportunity to actually talk to her while she's in space. Right. Oh, that's awesome.
024I just love um so 2018 2019 school year. Um, my friend, who is an astronaut, happened to be aboard the space station and I had a student who was very interested in space and engineering. And so I said, "Hey, I happen to know this kid. If you have some questions for you, we'd be willing to answer them." Um, and of course, cuz she's awesome. She was like, "Yes, but I can't do it officially cuz I'll get in trouble because everything has to go through a public affairs officer and it has to be approved. but um send me an email form and I'll see what I can do. Well, she went above and beyond. She responded to his questions plus other questions in video format and sent them back down for my students to watch at
025that time. But because it was unofficial, I couldn't post them to my classroom. I couldn't post them to the school website. Um, but they were so impactful that I've used them um, every year since then because her message is just amazing about perseverance and making sure that um, you strive for your passion and what you're good at and you never stop living. Um, and so then this summer when we went to visit her, she said, "You know, we're going back up. I've got my date. It's, you know, spring of 2025. Why don't we put your school down?" Yeah. Sure. Yeah. What do I have to do? Nothing. I'll just put your name down and your school will be there and then you put an application in. All right. So, I call up Jen and I'm
026like, "Hey, Jen, I got a screen on her study for our school. She's going to put our name in. We're going to be able to maybe talk to her space station. We just have to fill out a simple application." Well, astronauts have their own handlers. And so, she had no idea that it was more than an application. So, thankfully, my principal is really good at numbers and data. I was a previous science teacher and she filled out well we filled out collectively 30 some pages of our approved I document um and unfortunately it was things that I was like I couldn't get it was student data it was numbers stuff that I wasn't privy to as a teacher um and stuff that she had access to. So, we go through this long process and then
027finally over spring break, we got the thumbs up that um even though it wasn't guaranteed because of Jen's hard work, it was approved. Um so, prior to spring break, I go to Dr. Hy. I said, "So, I have this opportunity. My friend's having to launch in space. Think I can go and watch it?" He's like, "Well, of course." So thankfully to him I was able to go and had the time because the first um chance got scrubbed and then uh I was able to be there for the extent of time. Um so what I did for that opportunity is I was able to ask kids before I went some questions. Um and through this whole event you have a astronaut that sort of guides you through the process so you can ask questions and answers.
028Um so I kind of sequestered them and said hey you want to answer some questions for my kids. So, I have a short video to kind of show you some of the videos that I brought back to my class specifically. Um, and then SNN has um already posted some hype videos and we have something posted on our school website. It will be Friday, May 23rd. Uh unfortunately because of the space station travels around the earth in 16 times a day uh we won't know our 20 minute window with the astronaut till about 2 weeks to a week before that date but it will be sometime in the morning of Friday May 23rd and we're going to do it in the auditorium here. We're able to send up 20 to 23 questions and then um Ann
029and her crew will answer them for us live. That's quick. [Music] Just technology. Hey sailors, it's Mr. J again. I'm here from the Kennedy Space Center. It's Pi Day, y'all. 3.14. We're here to watch my friend Anna Fang launch the ISS. Hi everyone, sailors. It's Miss J. I'm here with Kate Ruben. She um has been on the International Space Station for over 300 days, right? Collectively. So, um she's going to answer for you one a question. Um I think it was Jaden or Ty Tit who asked it. What's the hardest thing about being an astronaut? Well, I've got two answers. The the serious answer is one of the hardest things um is is leaving a planet. You have to leave your family behind. And you are working so hard when you're on the International Space
030Station. It's really cool though because you can see the Earth and it's absolutely beautiful up there in space. And kind of the funny answer is you don't get pizza for 6 months. I know you guys really 7. [Music] [Applause] I'm Marcos and he's going to answer the question. What piece of advice would you give for somebody who wants to get athletes? Thank you. Um, we're back from Banana Creek from watching our friend here blast off to the ISS. It hasn't even been 45 minutes till the takeoff and I still have uh no words, emotions, feelings, um, words, things that words cannot describe the experience of being surrounded by friends, family, loved ones for our astronauts who are heading to the ISS. Hi, I'm here with Siwa. She's ninja number 33. You might have seen her
031today helping the astronauts get in. Um, and I asked her what her favorite part of her job is for SpaceX. Well, my favorite part is just making them look good, keeping them comfortable, and just making sure they have a safe and successful flight. Thank you. So the great thing about this opportunity is even though we don't have a facility large enough for um our whole school to be together, they are providing a live download video or link that we can post to our website and our social media so that family members and other buildings can watch at the same time. That's awesome. Very cool. That's very cool. Thank you. Got him. All right. On to item 11, treasures report. Justin, thank you. Uh, a recommend a resolution of the board to approve the financial report
032for March 2025. And that's attachment C. I'll move. I'll second to the party. Yeah. Where is this? All right. [Applause] So, starting with the general fund revenue, um through through March, the district received 23 uh.1 million in general fund revenue compared to 23.1 million at this time last year and 17.5 in fiscal year 23. Uh as such, the district is on pace to collect slightly more than its historical average revenue in the general fund. Looking at the food service fund revenue by month through through the month of March, uh we've received $65,000 in food service uh fund compared to $624,000 last year at this time and 617,000 in fiscal year 23. Uh food service should continue to collect its historical average revenue. And then when we look at uh all funds revenue through the month
033of March, the district received 25.2 million in all funds compared to 25.4 4 million at this time last year and 25.2 million in fiscal year 23. And then again for a longer historical average look at revenue over the last eight fiscal years that'd be fiscical year 17 through fiscal year 24. Uh the district averaged 24.8 million. Uh this year we did sell one of our buildings 935 Decatur for 314,000 after auction fees and sold our laptops back to Apple for $263,000. Moving on to the expenditure side, looking at our general fund through the month of March, uh we've expended $20 million from the general fund compared to 19.9 at this time last year and 20.1 in fiscal year 23. The district can expect to spend slightly more this year than it did last year. And
034below is a breakdown of the individual general fund costs year-over-year. um take a look through that. But but the main thing here is really our purchase services have been going going down since 23. Um supplies are pretty much right in line with where they are. Our debt and interest payments are the same. Um other objects, that's the auditor fees. Erie County the last two years has not charged us a fee for collection of uh taxes, but they did in 23. That's why there's that difference there. Um, moving on to food service through the month of March. We've expended $790,000 in food service compared to 662,000 last year and 662 in fiscal year 23. Our spending should be slightly higher this year than our historical averages. Looking at all funds through the month of March, we've
035expended 22.5 million from all funds compared to 23.4 million at this time last year and 23.1 million in fiscal year 23. And then looking at our cash uh through month uh through through the month of March, we have a a total of 19.3 million in cash in our general fund compared to 20.6 million this time last year and 21.3 million in fiscal year 23. Looking at food service cash through the month of March, we've h we have a total of 217,000 uh compared to 377,000 last year at this time and 338,000 in fiscal year 23. And then when you look at all of our funds, all of our cash uh through the month of March, we have a total of 22.2 million in cash um from all funds compared to 23.7 at this time last
036year and 26.5 in 20 uh fiscal year 23. The next page shows you the breakdown of that 22.25 million in cash by fund um general fund all the way down to your your title two. And then lastly, taking a look at our investments uh through the month of March, we've earned a total of $528,386.19 in interest compared to $455,164.90 at this time last year. Uh so far this year we've earned $73,22129 more in interest uh which is 16.1%. Any questions? Call the roll please. Where is my page? Mrs. Inennis. Yes. Mr. Benson. Yes. Mr. Habermill. Yes, Mrs. Steppp. Yes, Mrs. Russell. Yes. Motion approved. 5-0. Uh B. Recommend a resolution to the board to approve the following donations. $6,750 from the prom to dawn committee uh to the VHS prom, $100 from Pauline uh Kennedy
037to VES lunch balances, and $112 from BSN Sports to the softball program. I'll move. I'll second. questions. Call the RO, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermill, yes. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Motion approved. 5-0. Thank you, Justin. Thank you. And as always, thank you to those uh individuals and uh organizations that give to our school programs. We appreciate it. Item 12, consent agenda. The superintendent and treasurer recommend that the board of education approve the consent agenda items. Action by the board of education in adoption of the consent agenda means that all items are adopted by one vote unless a member of the board, the treasurer, or the superintendent requests that any such item be removed from the consent agenda and voted on separately. A. Approve the minutes of the regular meeting
038of March 10th, 2025. Attachment D. B. Approve the employment action as listed. C. Approve the one-year 202425 additional duties contracts for those listed. D. Approve the one-year 2024-25 supplemental non-eing contract for the following. Chad Bridge change from co-freshman assistant basketball coach to the full supplemental. E. Approve the one-year classified limited contract for the 202425 school year to Emma Beer, Monitor Sailor Way. F. Approve the one-year classified substitute contract for the 202425 school year to Connie Laughlin and Ronald Calhoun. G. approved the one-year supplemental non-eing contracts for the 2025 2026 school year to Katherine Hayden, head girls soccer coach, and Andrew Malacos, assistant girls soccer coach. H approve the one-year certified limited contract for the 2025 2026 school year to Sarah Moore, uh, Sailor Intervention Specialist, and Brooke Meyer, also a Sailor intervention specialist. Any items
039to be removed from the consent agenda? I need a motion to approve it. I'll move. Crystal, I need a second. I'll second. Mark questions on anything. Those new teachers u will be here in August. You we're going to bring them all into the same meeting and you'll meet them all then. Okay. All right. Sounds good. All right, Justin, call the role. Thanks. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermill. Yes. Mrs. Stepp. Yes. Mrs. Russell. Yes. Motion approved. 5-0. Thank you. Item 13, dates and location of upcoming board meetings. Meetings will be held in the Vermillion High School Commons. Um, unless otherwise noted, Monday, May 12th, 2025, Monday, June 9th, 2025, and Monday, July 14th, 2025. And again, as we get to those dates, if you have any questions or problems with it, let me
040know. On to item 14, public participation. The public participation section of the board of education's agenda is specifically designed for the public to address the board with their compliments, concerns, ideas, and/or questions. The board welcomes your comments. If you wish to address the board regarding an issue, the board would remind you of two things. First, your comments should be factual and respectful of the rights of others. And second, before coming to the board with an issue, you should have first addressed it with the appropriate teacher, staff member, or administrator. This meeting of the board of education and public is for the purpose of conducting the school district's business. Time allotted, 30 minutes total. Individuals should keep their time to 3 minutes or less. Uh, as board president, I reserve the right to limit the speaker's
041time. And we have signed up for this, uh, Sandra and Brian Dwinsky. Go ahead up to the podium, please. Hi, I am Sandy. My husband Brian Quinsky um is also here. Um we are the new co-owners partnership with uh Lake Gary Lanes and Lucy's Bar Grill Rebellion. So, um, that became, um, oh, I think it was April 6th that became final. So, we're just requesting that it please be considered to bring the, um, VHS bowling teams home to Lake Erie Lanes. It's been a while. Um we kind of the previous owner started the process back in 2021 made it aware um being a parent of two children that went through the bowling program and um our youngest daughter actually is going to be going to Huntington University in Indiana to bowl. Um we just we
042would love to bring it home. So you know we had some busing issues this year. Um we had some concerns with the the kids traveling into um the rain for practices and matches and things like that. So um it it gets a little scary during the weather. So it you know it just didn't make sense for them to pass a bowling alley to get to a bowling alley. So um we appreciate the opportunity to speak put it out there. Um we love to bring them home. Um we did hang their banners proud in the facility. Um we offered them free practice time uh on our lanes and our girls became SBC champs this year. Wonderful. Oh wow. Thank you. And then this is Lonnie. She is one of the parents on the team. So she
043just wanted to um give her support. Hi Lonnie Ka. I just wanted to share some of the struggles um that I personally face. My son has been on the bowling team now for two years. Um, being a young bowler. Um, and the half of the team is they're all under the age of 16, the three that are left. So, every Saturday it's been a struggle. I've been leaving work, driving to Vermillion from Amherst to pick the kids up, driving them back to Redmond's, driving back to Vermillion for 2 hours, driving back to Redmond's, driving back to Vermillion. And I'm just seeing this being a crazy issue when we have a bowling alley right here in town. Um, so sometimes that was great. I could drive them. Sometimes it was great another parent could share in
044it. There's plenty of times where nobody can do that. They miss practice. There's no way to get them there. Um I just think having the team back in Vermillion would be so much easier and less of a burden um on us as parents and having three brand new drivers coming into their junior year. I would rather not see them driving all the way to um Lraine with their brand new driver's license. Um, another issue that I've seen is the lack of support from residents. Um, growing up, graduating from Vermillion, one of the big things is always that your senior picture gets hung up, um, at whatever sport you're in. Um, I've seen it with every single sport, every court. Um, except for bowling, which is sad. I mean, um, I'm not sure why that is.
045I never got an answer. Um, it's just sad that those kids had to miss out. I'm glad that Lake Elanes posted it. It should have been their home. Um again, never saw a reason, got a reason why. Um and then lastly, I want to mention half of the kids are gone this year. They're all graduating. There's going to be three boys and three girls coming back. They're all young. I think there might be there might be one who's going to be a senior on the girls team. One um trying to get a bowling team put together right now. That's not a bowling team. just you don't have one. You don't have enough to hold Bakers. Um so they need to recruit. If they're really planning on not having a bowling team next year, they're going
046to have to try to um get more people involved and that's going to be younger. Again, probably kids that aren't going to be able to drive to Lorraine. Um so I would really like to see it move back into town where there would be a little bit easier transportation. Um, so they don't get busing for practices. Not for bus, their home games, they get busing one day a week, which is insane when you're in a sport. I mean, I've had six other kids in sports. They've never practiced one day. If they want to practice additional on their own time, it's expense. Okay. So what Lake Erie Lanes and the previous owner of Lake Erie Lanes provided was the lanes for them to come on, you know, show up in full after school on the weekends
047and he never charged the kids. He just let them use the lanes because those of you that know bowling um know that wood lanes are harder to bowl on than synthetic. So Lake Erie Lanes is wood they're wooden lanes. um makes them a little better bowler to learn how to maneuver, how to correct. And then when they go on synthetic lanes, which most of the bowling alleys in the area have synthetic, they're awesome because they've already overcome those struggles with learning oil patterns and learning how to adjust on a more difficult lane. So, it gave them an advantage. Can I ask have any of you approached our athletic director about doing this? Yes, it has been. There was uh the previous owner did send letters in 2021. Um I have spoken personally um and and
048voiced my concerns to Jen Bingle as long as along with Stillman that why aren't we the home lanes? I mean, it's it's difficult. Um it wasn't a formal letter. It wasn't a formal email um when I spoke with them, but I know a parent did send in formal complaints this year by email. Did they get a response? Um yes. Not the one they were looking elaborate on that because I don't I don't That's okay. I was just wondering. Okay. It's just been a concern with with us parents, you know, and if we talk and it's a struggle and you know, you're trying to find rides. Um, I mean, we're going to districts and they're like, "We don't have busing, right?" Oride and we don't have a bus. Like, who can drive? Our match out in
049Sanduski was cancelled because the bus that was supposed to take us uh got into an accident and they couldn't find another bus. So, all of us parents are now sitting in Sanduski at Cedar Lane without our kids. So, it it's been a struggle and it's been a struggle for years. Um the numbers have greatly decreased and you know when Hannah started bowling there was 10 10 11 girls on the team. Um last couple years we've had eight. We had five of those girls graduate this year. Five. That's a lot. My boy and then you go from an SBC championship to not even having enough for a team. It's it's been a struggle. And you know parents have voiced the concerns. Um, but it's kind of fallen on deaf ears and now that we have taken
050ownership of Lake Erie Lanes and you know I went to Vermillion schools. I put my kids through Vermillion Schools. Uh, they're both you know going off of college. They bowling in college. It's just time to bring the bowling team home. Yes. Thank you. Well, first off, congratulations on being the new owners. Yeah, thank you so much for coming, you know, just to ultimately voice your concerns and just provide them a place to practice to get better. Right. I mean, it's not about it's not about money. It's not about that. It's about getting them practice, helping the kids. Absolutely. So, I mean, it's it's all about the kids. I spent four years coaching girls golf team here. This year, I'm coaching softball. It's all about kids. Yeah. I love it. And that's what I just want.
051We want to provide that opportunity for for younger kids growing up and want to start building the program back up. We want to make Lake Yuri what it used to be. Good. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thanks a lot. Yeah. To Lonnie's point, you got a bunch of underassman. They're going to need more practice, right? Okay. I've got everybody that was listed. Yeah. Lonnie. Okay. On to item 15, adjournment to executive session. Excuse me. I hereby move that the board adjourn to executive session to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of a public employee or official or the investigation of charges or complaints against a public employee, official, lency, or regulated individual unless the employee, official, lency, or regulated individual requests a public hearing by division G1 of section 121.22.
05222 of the revised code. I'll move. I'll second. Okay. Just call the RO, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermill, yes. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mot motion approved 5-0. And the time is 7:15 p.m. Time is 8:05 p.m. Okay. Uh, last item on the agenda, item 16. Uh, a motion to adjurnn. I'll move. I'll second. Call the roll. Mr. Dennis? Yes. Mr. Benson? Yes. Mr. Habill? Yes. Mrs. Stepp? Yes. Mr. Russell? Yes. Motion approved. 5-0. The time is 3:05 p.m. Thank you. Awesome.