By Noell Wolfgram Evans

The Tallmadge Board of Education held their September meeting on the 17th at 6 p.m. The meeting took place in the Tallmadge High School Community Room.

In attendance were Council President Mark Fairhurst, Vice President Mike Passarelli, Council Member Todd Loughry, Council Member Jennifer Ross and Council Member Chad Davis. Also attending were Superintendent Steve Wood, Treasurer Jeff Hostetler, Director of Curriculum Courtney Davis and Director of Student Services Roy Zeman.

The meeting was called to order promptly at 6 p.m., and Fairhurst immediately led those in attendance in the Pledge of Allegiance. After the pledge, the roll call was taken and Fairhurst then welcomed and thanked all those who were attending the meeting both in person and online.

The first order of business was the approval of the minutes from the Aug. 20 meeting. Those were approved unanimously. 

Hostetler next recommended that the board approve a resolution to adapt the fiscal year 2026 budget. He stated Ohio House Bill 96 changed some of the requirements for schools in regard to reporting on their budgets. In order to stay in compliance with HB 96, Hostetler said the board would need to affirm this appropriation resolution next month. A motion was made and the resolution was passed unanimously.

The Superintendent’s Report followed. Wood asked that the board hold a first reading of two policies. The ACAA is the district’s policy on sexual harassment in regard to Title IX policies. Zeman said that no changes were made to the policy, but now that he was going to be the coordinator, it had to be re-approved by the board.

Zeman explained that IGBA was the district’s policy for special education services. He said that this policy was approved in April but it needs to be re-approved annually by Nov. 30. This process would ensure the district was compliant with that requirement.

Fairhurst asked that agenda items 5.1 through 5.15 be considered as one consent agenda item. This motion was agreed to by the full council. Each of those agenda items has to do with a staffing change.

Wood said that “when it comes to staffing, we are as strong as we’ve ever been.” Of all of the changes covered in the now-consent agenda, he singled out the hiring of Laurie Ulbricht as a reading tutor. He then recognized her, as she was in attendance. Ulbricht said she was “very excited to be joining” the district.

He also called attention to the hiring of Amber and Michael Coughlin, who will be working on the fall play at the high school. They will be staging “Clue.”

Wood then offered a note of congratulations to the “athletes who have had a great fall season.” He singled out the "coaches, kids and their families” for the time and effort on and off the fields. 

Next, Davis took some time to explain the Ohio School Report Card rankings, which were recently released. In terms of Achievement, the district has been rated 4 stars. 

“Overall, we are meeting or exceeding expectations,” Davis said. 

She then went section by section for the other report card metrics. Progress had 3 stars and Gap Closing was given a 5-star rating, as was Graduation. Early Literacy just missed a 4-star rating. To achieve that, a district needs a 78% score total. The district had a total of 77.3%. The College, Career, Workforce, and Military Readiness category saw the district with a 3-star rating. 

The district was recently assigned numbers for the levies, which the board previously approved to go in front of the voters. Wood shared those numbers (Issue 53 and Issue 54), along with some background detail on the need for the levies. He reminded the board that both of the levies are “necessary to continue to provide services and programs for kids.”

Overall, Wood said, enrollment is “stable with just under 2,500 students this year.” The average cost per pupil for the district is just under $12,000. The state average is just over $12,000.

He said that while property values have gone up, because of an Ohio law, property taxes have not kept pace, so there is no additional revenue coming to the schools. In fact, Wood said, the state has traditionally supplied 40% of the funds that the district needs, but that number will soon be closer to 25%. The levies are intended to make up the difference. One levy is a renewal, while the other is for new funds.

During the period of public comments Jon Bryan, a member of the Tallmadge Teachers Association, said the group “voted and we unanimously support both levies.”

With no additional items on the agenda, the meeting convened at 6:30 p.m.