5-year forecast, policy and class changes approved at Hillsboro school board meeting; intermediate school receives national recognition

The Hillsboro City Schools Board of Education reviewed the district’s financial outlook and approved changes to policies and classes during their Monday, Nov. 25 meeting.

During their regular monthly meeting, the board approved the five-year forecast as presented by district treasurer Ben Teeters. The forecasts are reviewed and approved each spring and fall.

The current figures show the district “in the black until 2027” and potentially “$7 million in the hole” by 2029. Teeters listed fiscal year-end cash balances estimated at $10,622,184 in 2025; $7,487,184 in 2026; and $3,230,809 in 2027. In fiscal year 2028, Teeters has the district in the red by $1,306,452, and for 2029, it is in the red by $7,130,001.

However, Teeters said part of the reason for that is that he has “flatlined” the real estate taxes and state aid due to the “unknowns” associated with those amounts, while calculating “expenses on the high side.”

Also approved was a lengthy list of updates to school policies, including revising existing policies, adding some new ones and removing others.

Revised policies are: 0100 Definitions, 0142.1 Oath, 0151 Organizational Meetings, 0152 Officers, 0155 Committees, 0163 Presiding Officer, 0164 Notice of Meetings, 0167.7 Use of Personal Communication Devices, 4120.08 Employment of Personnel for Extracurricular Activities, 4121 Criminal History Record Check, 5200 Attendance, 5500 Student Conduct, 5780 Student/Parent Rights, 6320 Purchasing and Bidding, 6460 Vendor Relations, 7530.01 Board-Owned Technology Resources Used for Communication, 7530.02 Staff Use of Personal Communications Devices, 7540.03 Student Technology Acceptable Use and Safety, 7540.04 Staff Technology Acceptable Use and Safety, 8310 Public Records, 9160 Public Attendance at School Events, 1130 Conflict of Interest, 3113 Conflict of Interest, 4113 Conflict of Interest, 6110 Grant Funds, 6111 Internal Controls, 6112 Cash Management of Grants, 6114 Cost Principles - Spending Federal Funds, 6325 Procurement - Federal Grants/Funds, 6550 Travel Payment & Reimbursement/Relocation Costs, 7310 Disposition of Surplus Property and 7450 Property Inventory.

New policies are: 0165 Board Meetings, 5131 Student Transfers, 5136 Personal Communication Devices and 7540.09 Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Rescinded policies are: 0165.01 Regular Meetings, 0165.02 Special Meetings and 0173 Board Officers.

A replaced policy is: 0166 Agendas.

Renumbered policies are: 0167.2 Executive Session and 0167.7 Use of Personal Communication Devices.

“We meet with Neola,” superintendent Tim Davis said. “We go over each and every policy. A lot of things that change are just simple things, as far as changing the word, like ‘employee,’ ‘board president.’ They went through and changed some things with the CEO. the CFO, put a slash for treasurer.  They changed the name of communication devices.

“There really isn't anything big. Even the new ones that are in there were consolidated from old policies, so they took a couple old policies, and they created a new one because of some of the wording that they took out.”

Also approved, in an unrelated motion, was the 2025-26 high school registration handbook.

According to Davis, most of the changes deal with various classes, including adding two general physics classes that are College Credit Plus; removing woodworking classes due to increased demand for welding classes; changing the names of various courses, including Drama I and Drama II (now Acting and Theater History); Intro to Strength and Conditioning and Strength and Conditioning II; Life Skills (now Intro to Family and Consumer Sciences); and some other changes to welding courses.

“Due to going to welding with Great Oaks, we are losing some of our woodworking classes,” Davis said. “Those classes were not being filled. We didn't have very many kids that were signing up for those courses. Woodworking Technology, Advanced Woodworking Technology, both of those have been removed because of the amount of kids that we have in welding.

“We need that extra time for Mr. [Joshua] Pohlman [industrial tech teacher] to teach the welding. Also, Design and Manufacturing, the class that we took in, it's kind of been combined in some of our Advanced Welding classes, so they will be doing that instead of a specific Design and Manufacturing class.”

Davis added that there is “a waiting list” for students wanting to take welding classes.

“[Pohlman] is doing it all day long now,” Davis said “We would love to kind of work with Great Oaks on the possibility of adding another instructor.”

In other discussion:

• Davis announced that Hillsboro Intermediate School has been chosen as one of 10 National ESEA Distinguished Schools from Ohio and will be recognized during the 2025 National ESEA Conference in February in Austin, Texas.

According to eseanetwork.org, "The National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program is a project of NAESPA that publicly recognizes qualifying federally-funded schools for positive educational advances and the outstanding academic achievement of their students."

“We were one of 10 schools that received this nomination to apply,” Davis said. “What we were applying for was to present in Austin, Texas, and also the spring conference in Columbus. It was for exceptional student performance for two or more years and also closing the achievement gap between student groups.

“Again, a testament to our intermediate school for being nominated for this. It's a great honor.”

The intermediate school received the state’s highest rating, five stars, on the most recent state report card for its overall score, as well as in each category graded: achievement, progress and gap closing.

“Congratulations to Mrs. [Darci] Miles [principal] and her staff and the success that we are having in the fourth and fifth grade on state tests, closing the gap,” Davis said. “Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Mrs. Miles.”

Davis also noted that on the same morning of Monday’s regular board meeting, school board members held a work session to review plans for the next decade.

“We had great discussion on that,” Davis said. “I will provide the board with more in depth of where I think we're going to be with order of importance, but the items on the agenda we're dealing with were safety measures of exterior doors at both the high school and the elementary; we're talking about the possibility of resurfacing the tennis courts; expanding the playground; and dealing with curbs, sidewalks and barriers at the high school, middle school and the elementary.

“That's just an overview of some of the things that we discussed, and we will be looking forward to more things to come as we kind of solidify our next progression in a master plan or 10-year plan.”

Board president Bill Myers added that the district has “pretty much completed everything we set out to do a decade ago in improving our student life and our schools.

“Now it's time to kind of sit down again and get that next step and see where we're headed as a district and how we can continue to improve student life here at Hillsboro,” Myers said.

In other discussion, Davis acknowledged the accomplishments of the staff and students of Hillsboro’s drama department, as they recently produced the show “Deadline.”

“Our students absolutely are amazing with the performances they put on,” Davis said. “I can't say enough about our theater department, with Mrs. [Jenna] Horick and the amount of volunteers that we have. The stage and the set, the crew and the lights, all the people.

“For a high school performance to have that type of set and turnout is just amazing. I'm in awe of how talented our kids are in the arts, and we look forward to the spring musical.”

Other recent shows include the second grade, fifth grade and the fourth grade musicals.

“We're getting those elementary kids into the auditorium, which also gives our community a chance to see it if they haven't been in there,” Davis said. “All we get is great feedback for how wonderful the auditorium is, so again, I want to thank our board for going through and making that happen.”

The district celebrated “a lot of success this fall with the athletes and sports teams” at the Frontier Athletic Conference fall sports banquet, with winter sports either just beginning (girls basketball, bowling) or getting ready to in the next week or two (boys basketball, wrestling, swimming).

• Student board representative Madison Dearmon recapped numerous recent events and activities.

For the Hillsboro Great Oaks FFA, “60 first-year members” were recognized at their annual Greenhand Night; Dearmon and 29 other members attended the National Convention in Indiana; Dearmon and 24 other members attended Ohio FFA’s Leadership Night at Miami Trace; and the chapter organized Ag Day for 120 fourth graders.

Additionally, Dearmon and three other FFA members — Brianna Foxx, Addy Knauff and Claire Winkle — competed in the district job interview CDE in Fayetteville.

“Addy took second place, Claire Winkle took fifth place, Bri took seventh and I took seventh as well,” Dearmon said.

For upperclassman updates, Dearmon said that “each senior painted their hand, put their handprint on the wall and signed it” to decorate the senior wall at the high school, while they are also planning competitions and games as a “second-quarter incentive for students” right before Christmas break. The junior class is planning the spring prom and “finishing up the alumni brick sale,” which ends Dec. 2, Dearmon said.

The Student Council hosted this year’s Veterans Day program, with officers speaking at the event and performances by the symphonic choir and band. The National Honor Society is also awaiting word on “all of the new candidate applications” before holding an induction ceremony sometime “after Thanksgiving break.”

• Board members Beverly Rhoads, Jerry Walker and Bill Myers all said they enjoyed attending the Ohio School Boards Association’s annual capital conference in their respective reports.

Also in her report, Rhoads discussed the Nov. 13 Great Oaks Board of Directors meeting. The board approved the district’s five-year financial forecast; authorized a project updating the outer building for the Live Oaks Career Campus; and heard other construction updates. It was noted that MSA Design received Learning By Design’s 2024 Outstanding Project Award for the Live Oaks Career Campus renovation project.

Students recognized at the Great Oaks meeting included the Live Oaks JROTC, which won the national championship in the Female All Services Division at the 2024 USACC JROTC National Raider Challenge at Fort Knox, Ky., with all 14 members earning four-year unconditional full-ride scholarships.

Current and former Great Oaks FFA students were also acknowledged for earning their American Degrees and competing and/or placing in national competition at the National FFA Convention.

Board members were also recognized. Rhoads was a recipient of the Aptitude Award at the OSBA’s fall conference, while other Great Oaks board members also were recognized, including Mary Cleveland, Great Oaks Board Chair and Princeton City Schools representative, who is now OSBA President-Elect.

Rhoads added that applications for the 2025-26 school year are being accepted now through Feb. 4 for the four Great Oaks campuses.

• Board member Larry Lyons gave a brief update on legislative developments and commented on the district finances.

“There are four bills that are on the lame duck session right now that could have an impact on public education if they go through,” Lyons said. “Kudos to Ben and Tim for keeping our expenses in line and keeping our bottom line healthy. We appreciate that.”

• The board approved the financial reports as presented. According to Teeters, the district had a general fund cash balance of $13,972,185 for October 2024, up from $12,171,802 in October 2023; expenses of $2,293,561, down from $2,358,690 last year; and revenues of $3,121,512, down from $3,197,133 a year ago.

“We’re running about the same trends as we had in past years,” Teeters said.

• The board approved a charge policy for the 2024-25 school year that reads: “Hillsboro City Schools is participating in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). All students will receive one free breakfast and one free lunch every day, regardless of having money in their account. Students will not be permitted to charge any extra food or a la carte items.”

Teeters said this is “a clarification” to “address the a la carte part of the criteria” for the free meal policy.

• The board accepted the resignation of paraprofessional Kristen Ward, effective Nov. 29.

• The board approved leaves of absence for cook Amy Bieler (effective Oct. 3-21); head cook Kim Collins (effective Oct. 8, lasting several weeks to months); and custodian Nancy Jennings (Nov. 13-Feb. 17).

• The board approved the following individuals for the contracts and positions indicated: classified, Angela Anderson (paraprofessional), Kaley Ballein (cook, retroactive to Nov. 18) and Ashley Wyatt (paraprofessional, retro Oct. 28); sub certified, Hannah Conley, Trista Mount, Bailey Wilson and Beth Wright; volunteers, Kia Armstrong and Erica King (all), Adam Bible (HES, HMS), Kayleigh Cowguill and Leah Rose (HES), Kordell Ford (wrestling coach) and Brennen Priest (coach); sub classified, Danielle Klein (custodian, retro Nov. 13) and Cariann Todd (aide, clerical, retro Nov. 8); and supplemental, Amy Captain (HS varsity basketball cheerleading coach), Brandie Fenner (MS basketball cheerleading coach), Blake Kibler (HS freshman boys basketball coach), Nick Fite (equipment manager, retro Aug. 2) and Ben Pence (elementary wrestling coordinator).

• The board accepted donations from the Rotary Club ($200 toward books for elementary students, Rural King ($100 toward school supplies for elementary students) and Sunrise Sunset Childcare Center ($575 toward robotics).

• Following the regular meeting, the board entered an executive session for the purpose of holding a suspension/expulsion hearing pursuant to RC 3313.66.

Publisher's note: A free press is critical to having well-informed voters and citizens. While some news organizations opt for paid websites or costly paywalls, The Highland County Press has maintained a free newspaper and website for the last 25 years for our community. If you would like to contribute to this service, it would be greatly appreciated. Donations may be made to: The Highland County Press, P.O. Box 849, Hillsboro, Ohio 45133. Please include "for website" on the memo line.