BUCYRUS–On Monday evening, the Wynford board of education held its monthly meeting in the community center.
To open, the board recognized the boys’ seventh-grade and the girls’ eighth-grade teams for winning their N10 title games.
Michael Powers and Carson Kimmel coached the boys’ team. It consisted of Carson Brown, Jaren Vance, Jackson Hensley, Reed Johnston, Gage Massey, Clay Rogers, Drew Stanek, Memphis Routson, Justin Cremeans, Troy Miller, Ben Klamfoth, Bentley Benedict, Chase Smith, Blake Smith, Martin Grady, Levi McLaughlin, Owen Prenger, and Boston Roberts. The team was split in two for most of the season, but combined, the boys went 18-12 on the season.
The girls’ team was coached by Mark Kocher and consisted of Caroline Sheldon, Alivia Ritzler, Maggie Ridge, Ally Liming, Lily Laipply, and Brooke Frombaugh. The girls went undefeated this season.
High school principal Julie Miller presented the possibilities for academic intervention to the board after the idea of a study table if a student-athlete is below a 1.5 GPA was decided upon earlier this year.
In a survey sent out to high school teachers that day, twelve had responded so far. Of the twelve, three said they would monitor the study table, nine said maybe, seven said they would prefer it before school from 6:30 a.m. to 7:15 a.m., and five said they would prefer it after school from 2:35 p.m. to 3:20 p.m.
Board members Levi Hartschuh and Brett Ridge said they would like to see the study table used as a buffer before students are failing classes to get their grades back up and prevent them from falling into the ineligibility range.
The discussion was also briefly had as to what ramifications there would be should a student skip study table and who would be in charge of those or if there would be a precedent on the matter due to varying lengths and number of games in the different seasons.
Miller told the board that with detentions, if a student skips, they are assigned an ISS and given another detention, so the possible punishment for skipping study table could be somewhat similar in structure to that policy.
Miller said she would like to see those decisions stay with coaches so they can handle the matter within their team as they build relationships and the team component.
High school science teacher, Kelly Wheeler, spoke to the board about her concerns about the board’s approval of dropping the required credits for graduation from twenty-four to twenty-one and what that could potentially do for electives she offers.
“I’ve been teaching here for twenty-eight years and I’ve been pretty proud of that and that we have kind of held ourselves to a higher standard when it came to the number of credits that we require for our Wynford graduates, and I noticed that we are going from twenty-four to twenty-one,” Wheeler began. “I think having it a little bit higher than our neighboring schools kind of sets us a little bit apart from them so we can produce a more well-rounded Wynford graduate. I teach biology, but I also teach two electives—I teach anatomy & physiology, and I teach biology II. When you reduce the number of credits, I am not going to have these kids wanting to sign up for my classes and that concerns me because I feel like they are missing out on one less opportunity that they can learn something else as an elective before they graduate. Also, with the study table, if we are reducing credits and you are worried about GPAs, they are taking less classes and they’re walking a thin line whether they are going to have five credits to keep them eligible for the next season of sports. I thought maybe have some sort of discussion about the change, but the first I ever heard of it, I was reading it in the agenda.”
Wheeler also commented on the board not approving the volleyball coach recommendation last month, which led to the search being opened back up.
“Something that happened last month where you guys voted against our administrator’s recommendation for the volleyball coaching position–our administrators are in the trenches with us and I feel like if you don’t trust them, then it just kids of sets a bad feeling to the people on staff.”
The board approved the hiring of Tiniel Nickler as the new head volleyball coach for the 2023-2024 school year after reopening the search last month.
The board approved the retirement of Julie Crall, the school’s Education Management Information System coordinator, effective on July 31, and as head high school track coach effective at the end of the 2022-2023 season. The board thanked her for her many years of service to the district.
With a 4-1 vote, the board approved the senior project as an optional elective instead of a requirement for graduation.
Hartschuh was the sole no-vote, stating that it should stay as a requirement for students to take part in. “I think that it’s something that has just kind of been a community involvement thing for our students. In reaching out to other schools in our area, it is kind of a mix of who does and who does not do the senior project. I like the idea that other schools are doing where it is more of a career-based idea to have students get ready for the future, and they have to shadow certain careers for a certain amount of hours which opens their eyes to if they really want to do that in their future.”
The 2023-2024 calendar was approved and can be found by opening the dropdown bar and looking under the district header.
The next board meeting is April 17 at 5:30 p.m.