Crestview BOE Slams Monday Meeting « The Independent VW

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

CONVOY — The July meeting of the Crestview Local Schools Board of Education didn’t last long at all. In fact, it took board members exactly 13 minutes to review Monday night’s agenda.

Many of the agenda items were personnel related. Beth Scheiner was given a two-year administrative contract as Transportation/EMIS Support Administrative Assistant, and Natasha Collins was approved for a one-year contract as a paraprofessional. The board accepted the resignation of paraprofessional Alexis Baker, effective immediately.

School principal Kathy Mollenkopf has informed the board that all teaching positions have been filled for the 2024-2025 school year.

Several additional coaching contracts were approved by the board, including Nate Place, junior varsity football coach; Colin Place, freshman football coach; Jim Wharton, head baseball coach; Meghan Lautzenheiser, head softball coach; John Rosebrock, head track and field coach; Becky Mack, junior varsity softball coach; Terry Crowle, assistant varsity baseball; Gregg Mosier, junior varsity baseball; Luke Gerardot, eighth grade baseball; Steve Richardson, seventh grade baseball; Chad Pugh, assistant varsity softball; Brian Bassett, eighth grade softball; Dylan Hicks, seventh grade softball; Rachel Alvarez, Randy Grandstaff and Matthew Speelman, assistant varsity track and field; and Deanna Grandstaff, high school track and field. Kyle Hammons, Kent McClure, Matt Perkins, Brant Richardson and Kole Rolsten were approved as volunteer baseball coaches, Jada Preston as volunteer softball coach and Tom Williman as volunteer track and field coach.

Outside of human resources, Mollenkopf noted that the district is transitioning to the Payschools platform for foodservice management. She said the transition is necessary because the current platform is being phased out. She also said that an informational letter about the change will be sent to parents on August 1.

“Ms. (Penny) Clark Lori Orsbon and I participated in several webinars with different vendors to see what might be available to us,” she explained. “We ended up with Payschools — it happens to be the common platform used by neighboring school districts and we were able to get some feedback from them, so we’re in the middle of a huge transition from one to the other right now.

In other areas, the board approved several other items, including:

• The reading list for 2024-2025.
• The Crisis Prevention Institution Plan (CPI Plan) for the upcoming school year.
• Compensation for event managers.
• The revised sports handbook.
• Lunch prices, sports ticket prices, preschool education costs, student workbook costs, and daycare attendant costs for the 2024-2025 school year.
• A list of substitute teachers, paraprofessionals, and school nurses from the Western Buckeye Educational Service Center.

Board members were pleased to accept several donations from the Van Wert County Foundation, including $1,108.97 from the Morgan L. Fortney and Mary L. Fortney Memorial Fund for senior scholarships; $111,125.55 from the Rae Mouser Smith and Dwight E. Smith Memorial Fund for Crestview High School teacher instruction and learning resources; $20,000 from the John D. and Nellie S. Ault Memorial Fund for the Lincoln Electric Torchmate CNC Plasma, and separate donations of $651 and $2,349 from the John D. and Nellie S. Ault Memorial Fund and Gertrude E. and Clarence L. Friedly Memorial Fund for the Innovation Workshop.

The next meeting of the Crestview Local Schools Board of Education will be held on Monday, August 12th at 6:00 p.m. in the multipurpose room. The board has also scheduled a work session from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, August 26th to discuss and learn more about possible upgrades to Crestview’s indoor and outdoor athletic facilities.