BUCYRUS — The Bucyrus City Schools Board of Education approved multiple new contracts and contract extensions Thursday, including the hiring of Tim Plumley to return to the sidelines as football coach next season.
Plumley was an assistant coach at Bucyrus from 2003-2017. He then spent two seasons as the head coach at Cardington-Lincoln.
Also during the meeting, Bucyrus Elementary Assistant Principal Timothy Souder received a new contract commencing Aug. 1 and ending July 31, 2023.
The board also approved a three-percent increase to the administrative salary schedule and to the central office salary schedule for the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years on a 4-1 vote. Board member Christa Graves voted no.
“No disrespect to any of our staff or admin, but my thought process is the unknowns at this point—are we going to see any cuts in our budget? What are we going to look like here when this is all said and done, and we get to return to whatever our new normal is going to be?” Graves said. “I’m just thinking where else we might have to really spend the money, especially if we are going to do online learning because we are going to have to supply some of our students with laptops to do—how are we going to figure all of this out?”
Board member Deb Hoover gave her thinking on why she voted yes.
“For me, I do understand and probably would have the same feeling if the next negotiation year, certainly that may be something that we are looking at,” Hoover said. “I don’t know how to take one segment of our staff out and say that everything else has been negotiated, but I can’t do it for you guys. That’s why, in all good conscience, I can’t take out one section of staff and say that I can’t do it for you.”
The board voted to maintain the district’s fees structure, with class fees and pay-to-play/participation fees being waived, and the drug testing fee remaining in place.
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for May 21 at 5:30 p.m.