BUCYRUS, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—Monday evening’s Wynford Board of Education meeting had quite a turnout after concerns were addressed at the March meeting.
The future of the boys’ basketball coach was decided upon at the meeting after speeches in support of him both at the March meeting and this meeting.
Emilee Powers, daughter of Mike Smith, addressed the board on the matter.
“My brother and dad are the same in their coaching dedication as they put in more hours than you could imagine to ensure the young men they coach enjoy being part of a team,” Powers began. “Wynford basketball has never in the history of the program had a full Wynford alumni staff with regards to one individual who has now dedicated himself to Wynford, as well. They give back to the community with providing concession stand services, encouraging youth sports, and attend their player’s other sporting events in the off-season.”
In her address, she claimed that his nonrenewal is for personal rather than professional reasons and called out the board on claims that nothing about the process has been done by the book.
“It is disappointing that personal opinions of the board members are potentially deciding
my dad’s fate with coaching with members who have verbally threatened my family, rumored to not renew his contract, as well as my dad being warned not once but twice that he would not receive enough votes to renew, which should be considered scratch voting, which isn’t allowed. However, there is a chain of commands for a reason that is put into place for a reason. According to board policy, when a public complaint comes in directly to the board, the board is to tell the individual’s supervisor, and the person is to be notified and given an opportunity to not only bring evidence but also allowed time to change. Section KLD and KLD-1,” Powers said.
Powers stated that her father still has not been told why the rumor of his nonrenewal began.
“How can anyone get better, learn, etc., if they are never told what they have done wrong or given an opportunity to change? When you wipe out the chain of command or disregard your own policy to which you swore into following, how can a community trust your decisions? How can a coach or employee not look at this scenario and question your sincerity to follow policies set in place. It speaks volumes of your value to Wynford Local Schools and the students of Wynford, as players and parents have verbalized their concerns with not renewing my family as the basketball coaches. You are showing that the only opinions that matter are your own and secretive reasons that you have not told my dad, the high school principal, athletic director, or the superintendent, all of which should be told if you follow board policy.”
When the time came for the decision, Levi Hartschuh made the motion to approve the contract. “I will make the motion for this. And in making that motion, I feel that we need to devote our time right now to our finances, and devote our time on uniting our community, and devote our time on uniting our staff because there is a divide amongst the community because of board actions. There is a divide amongst the staff because of board actions, and I think this is just digging us into a deeper hole,” Hartschuh said.
However, there was not a second, resulting in the motion dying on the floor and Smith’s contract not being approved as head boys’ basketball coach for next year.
There has been no official reason given for Smith’s nonrenewal.
Krista Richmond, a longtime teacher at Wynford, addressed the board on her frustrations with everything going on.
“In my 21 years of teaching here, I have never had a reason to contact my superintendent or the board members about any decisions that were made because ‘they were against the recommendations of the administration.’ Some of what I am expressing was written in a letter to the superintendent over a year ago in February, and I quote, ‘I don’t know that I have ever felt so betrayed and disappointed with the Wynford School Board as I have felt the past few days,’” Richmond began.
Richmond stated that those feelings from over a year ago have only increased, with morale among staff members at a low.
“We all feel like we are walking around with a cloud of doom looming over us, and it is really disappointing when I think of the connections to this district that all of our board members have, what our past board members worked so hard to create, and what is now our current work environment because of decisions made currently and within this past year. I just hope and pray moving forward, the superintendent and the school board seriously consider who they are affecting with the decisions they are making and realize they have created a feeling of untrust and turmoil,” Richmond said.
In her report to the board, Treasurer Leesa Smith reminded the board that they need to meet and finalize any cuts resulting from the 6.9 mill levy failure of a little less than one million dollars to complete the five-year forecast before May 1. She stated she needs time to reflect any changes made in the forecast due on May 31.
In her address to the community on the levy failure, Smith got emotional as she said, “We are going to work on communication; we’re going to work together like we always have—we’re going to work through this somehow, and we are going to get through this. We’re going to work together as a team in one way or another.” She stated they have a lot of trust in their legal counsel, as she has previously helped them with the district’s levies.
Regarding the levies, Trisler shared that he, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Langenderfer, and Mr. Hartschuh met with legal counsel. Their options were to either go with the renewal with the same terms, same language, and a twelve and a half percent rollback, meaning the taxpayers pay eighty-seven and a half percent versus one hundred percent, or they could look at new money or an income tax. A new levy would mean taxpayers would pay one hundred percent of the tax due to losing the rollback the state spends on levies established prior to 2013.
An income tax was tried in 1989, November 2004, May 2005, and November 2005, and it went down each time.
Hartschuh stated that he is not fully opposed to the idea of doing another levy.
“We’re going to have to anyways in the future, so I am not opposed to doing it and putting all of our money into one, obviously not the school’s money, but all of our coins and everything into one levy committee for one big levy to work instead of doing it two times and telling people, ‘no new taxes now, but in a year from now you’re going to have a new tax.’ I understand fully the twelve and a half percent, but I think that we’re going to go to the taxpayers, we need to just be honest with them and show them what finances are here at the school, and show them what we’re facing and say that we need new money. Getting a big enough committee, getting community support behind that, we can push to try and do that now,” Hartschuh said.
In other board-related businesses, the board approved reductions in field trips, NUHOP, trips not competition-related, and travel for extracurriculars to the surrounding counties, except for tournament games, state competitions, and one school bus.
One section of preschool, one assistant golf coach, one assistant football coach, one assistant volleyball coach, one assistant boys’ basketball coach, one assistant girls’ basketball coach, one assistant baseball coach, one assistant softball coach, and one head weightlifting coordinator were also supposed to be cut; however, the board tabled those until it receives return correspondence from the district’s counsel.
Superintendent Forrest Trisler recognized Kathy Smock and her lunch staff from the elementary and middle/high school buildings for earning the Superior Food Safety Award for having no violations for 2023. The elementary has received an award for all eleven years of the program’s existence.
The district earned the Momentum Award as a result of its 2022-2023 report card. The award goes to those who have improved their performance index by three or more points from the 2021-2022 school year and received a value-added rating of four or more stars.
The next board meeting is May 13 at 5:30 p.m.