By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com

Newly elected Buckeye Central school board members Steve Aicholz, Elizabeth Diesch and Chris Martin garnered attention at the Board of Education meeting Thursday even though they haven’t taken office yet.

Outgoing board member Bernie Kessler proposed cutting the compensation of the Buckeye Central Board of Education members Thursday. Kessler, who was defeated in his bid for re-election in the November election, sponsored a discussion item on the agenda proposing that compensation be cut from $100 per to $80 per month.

Kessler made his proposal in light of the cuts the district has made recently. Fellow board member Missy McDougal reminded Kessler he had voted in favor of the increases 10 years ago, and now he was proposing cuts.

“We weren’t making the cuts then we are now,” Kessler countered.

As the lone board members who will remain in the next term, McDougal and Mike Kalb’s compensation would remain unaffected as they cannot vote on their own wages by statute. That situation led McDougal to expressing a degree of discomfort. She also expressed discomfort with the idea of her and Kalb making more than the three incoming board members.

“I think these three people have a lot of work ahead of them,” McDougal said.

No official action was taken as this was simply a topic of discussion and as such will continue to be considered.

Another topic of discussion, and another topic concerning the incoming board members, was put forward by outgoing council president Susan Shealy. The three recently elected members as well as Kalb are all public employees, and Shealy said she has been consulting the office compatibility rules and guidelines to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest with this arrangement.

Shealy added she would be in contact with the county prosecutor to make sure no conflict of interest existed.

“I think we’re stretching causing problems when there aren’t any,” McDougal said in reply.

Policy 8390, which restricts animals on school property, was approved in a second reading. This policy brought the issue to the fore of how to best inform the public of when new policies are passed and what they affect. All board policies are listed on the district Web site, but there are so many that it would be impractical to assume that they are diligently monitored. The idea of having a “new policies” section of the Web site was kicked around with an eye toward implementing it in the future.

In the financial department, Treasurer Nancy Ackerman had good news as income tax collections are up $35,000 over this time last year.

Ackerman noted the district is a third of the way into the fiscal year and everything is pretty much in line with what was predicted, with the exception of the aforementioned tax revenue. The bump in revenue could be caused by late filings, but as for right now it is a nice bump.