By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
The Galion school board meeting on Wednesday addressed a wide litany of issues but what the board heard was more bad news than good.
The district has an issue to address regarding its energy conservation measures. Dave Smith, a representative from the Brewer-Garrett firm which is overseeing Galion’s new energy system, made a presentation to the board regarding the project.
The project that has been overseen by Brewer-Garrett is saving the district money, $74,000 in 2012 and $58,000 in 2013. Brewer-Garrett guaranteed savings of $40,225 annually, up to a total of a little more than $600,000. Looking at it from that perspective the district is doing quite well. It was the dip from last year to this one that caused Brewer-Garrett to do a little investigating.
Last summer, Galion had an employee using one of the computers inappropriately and that computer was seized. When it was removed from the premises the “Invensys” system, which governs the district’s lighting, heating, etc, was erased. That program had never been backed up. Another firm by the name of Wadsworth-Slawson, whom it was hinted at should have had the program backed up, is working on re-writing the system.
Smith presented two options for replacing the program, as well as a third option of standing pat. Brewer-Garrett has expressed concern that it may be impossible to rewrite the program properly, at least properly without breaking the bank in the process. The other is to commission an entirely new system, which would run about $600,000.
According to Smith that if nothing were done, the district should still be saving $58,000 per year, but this is suboptimal based on the initial savings of $74,000. Smith also added that considering the timing of the mishap, that $74,000 might even have been below optimal. The district will consider the information from Smith’s presentation before making any decisions.
“It’s not the best news in the world, but it’s not terrible either,” Smith said.
Open enrollment out is a problem for many districts, and curriculum director Sandy Powell elaborated on a new form. Digital Academies are a relatively new phenomenon but they are starting to make their presence felt. Currently 125 students that are residents of the Galion district are enrolled in various digital academies. Exit interviews have been conducted on some of the students that opted out of Galion and into these schools, but Powell has not yet had access to them. Galion currently has its own digital academy, and anyone enrolling in that would be considered a Galion student for the purpose of extracurricular activities. The board is weighing options for spreading the word about this relatively new service.
October is five-year forecast time, and treasurer Terri Day made her presentation. As can be expected, much of the talk focused around the upcoming levy, and a renewal levy that will go before the voters in 2017. Admittedly, five-year forecasts get hazy once you go more than one or two years out, but the numbers are not good for the 2016 and 2017 school years should the upcoming levy go down, and the renewal a few years down the road fail to happen. In more immediate predictions, the district is set to operate at a deficit this year of $143,931. With the current predictions in place, the district will face a deficit in 2017 of over $1 million and in 2018 of over $2 million.
Superintendent Mark Stefanik presented some good news. The afternoon of the meeting he received an email from the state superintendent that Galion was one of 141 schools in the entire state to receive the designation of “School of Promise.” This designation was awarded to schools whose tests results showed great improvement from one year to the next. Galion’s was for its high school. This judgment was applied not to districts, but to individual schools, which greatly magnifies the significance of that list of 141.
Paula Durbin invited the board to present about the levy at Candidates Night. This will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 29 at the Galion Library.