By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
Kathy Jenney spent her last Galion school board meeting as the superintendent, but her replacement was seated to her right, ready to take the reins of the district.
Mark Stefanik was approved as a consultant to the district by the board, for the period of July 15 to July 31. On August 1 he will become the superintendent. During this two-week period he and Jenney will be working to smooth the transition of the takeover. Stefanik’s most recent post was that of Director of Elementary Education and Assistant Superintendent at Wooster City Schools.
“This is the best part of the job, showing up after a success.” These were the words of John Payne of Bradley Payne LLC, a financial advisor group in Centerville, Ohio. Payne and his group were working on the refinancing proposal of Galion’s building bonds. He, obviously, returned with good news.
Nine million dollars of the total bond issue of $15 million was refinanced in this round, and will save the taxpayers more than $2 million. This is not money that will go back into the district’s pocket, but will result in savings for the residents of the Galion school district. They were originally predicting $1.6 to $1.7 million in savings, so to get more than $2 million was quite a coup. Only refinancing $9 million of the $15 million was more advantageous than refinancing the whole $15 million due to bank qualification rules. If the interest rates cooperate again next year, they will refinance the remaining six million.
“It’s the best I’ve seen in this business,” Payne said.
New buses are on the way for the district. As it sits, they are four buses short of what they need for the upcoming school year, but the board took measures that would alleviate that problem. They will be leasing five buses from Cardinal, at a total of $115,463.59 per year. It is termed a lease, but at the end of it the District will own the five buses.
Galion will be on the ballot in August, but they had to approve the paperwork to go on the ballot in November should the ballot go down next month. Dennis Long offered some information to the public that the Homestead Exemption which is currently on the books is about to go by the wayside. This applies to retirees, seniors, and those with disabilities. If the levy is passed in August, that exemption would be grandfathered in. If the levy is passed after August, that exemption would not exist anymore and would result in higher taxes for those segments of the population.
Christine Cletzer, Joylyn Fine, Dennise Holtzapfel, Melinda Nicholls, Richard Predmore, and JoAnne Wiggins were approved as retire-rehires for the upcoming school year. They will be reinstated at the same step and degree level as previous. Long pointed out that this is that last group that is eligible for such steps, and this is the last year that it will happen.