By Matt Clevenger
For the Miami Valley Today
PLEASANT HILL — Members of the Newton Local Schools Board of Education have approved the sale of a small parking lot located adjacent to school property.
The lot does not serve any purpose for the district, and it will be sold to Matt Gray, who already owns a building located next to the property, for $1,000. Board members approved the property’s sale during their regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, June 23.
“It becomes a liability for us,” Superintendent Pat McBride said. “I don’t know whether it would even be big enough to build anything on it.”
“Matt will do some good things with it, and it will relieve us of plowing snow and liability issues,” he said. “He’s very community-minded.”
In other business, board members also heard an update from Treasurer Nick Hamilton.
“We are closed out and balanced for the fiscal year,” Hamilton said. “Right now, it appears that we’re going to be $577,625 in the black.”
“That’s revenue exceeding expenditures,” he said. “That is a very good position for the school district to be in financially.”
Forecasts early in the fiscal year had predicted much lower revenues, but another more recent forecast came closer to the actual figures.
“My first forecast, that was pretty much when our revenue was declining and everything was falling,” Hamilton said. “That was $179,000 in the black; my second one was $580,554 in the black.”
“We ended up really close to the second forecast,” he said. “Overall, I’m very happy with where we ended up for the fiscal year. Hopefully we can continue that trend.”
Board members also discussed the district’s policies regarding guidance counselors and announced a recent decision by the Ohio Supreme Court regarding weapons in schools.
“There was an Ohio Supreme Court ruling today on weapons in schools,” McBride said. “The bottom line is, we’ve got to take them out.”
In-school police officers and others who have completed basic peace officer training are not affected by the ruling, McBride said.
“The way we do it, from my understanding, and I talked to our attorney this afternoon, is that we’ll need to take them out. We’ll comply and move on I guess, and do the best we can,” McBride said.
Board members also discussed the district’s policy on guidance counselors, in response to recent questions.
“We’re too small to have a full-time guidance counselor, so that position has been covered by the two principals,” McBride said. “With the number of kids that we have, we can internally cover that with the people that we have.”
“That’s the way we’ve done it for the last couple years,” he said. “It’s advantageous for them to do it, simply because they are engaged with our kids and know our kids.”
“We have services that we can tap into when the need arises,” McBride said. “Guidance counselors are at a premium; if we would have a guidance counselor, we’d have to share them with somebody.”
Board members’ next regularly scheduled meeting will be held at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, July 14 in the district’s BOE room.
