Board reviews contracts and staffing changes: nursing services, athletic trainer hiring, payroll increases on consent agenda

Tiffin City Schools presented multiple operational and staffing items to the board, including a planned shift of school nursing services to the county health department, proposed job descriptions to hire an in-house athletic trainer and a school safety director, and a 1% compensation increase for administrators, supervisors and support staff included on the consent agenda.

District staff described the nursing-services change as a transfer of the service from Mercy Health to the county health department. Presenters said Mercy Health does not specialize in school nursing and that the health department would provide the same level of care districtwide while meeting district background-check standards; staff said all health-department personnel working on district property would undergo the same FBI and BCI checks required for staff. The district stated the change is intended to preserve service quality and yield cost savings, though the meeting did not provide a dollar figure for savings.

On athletics and safety staffing, the board reviewed job descriptions to permit hiring a district-employed athletic trainer rather than contracting for athletic training services. Staff noted prior reliance on contracted providers and said bringing the role in-house is intended to maintain service quality while realizing fiscal savings. Related discussion covered the district’s plan to move away from the school-resource-officer (SRO) model toward a dedicated school safety director; staff said the proposed safety director would focus on daily safety planning, evacuation procedures and building-structure reviews while local police would continue routine building visits. The board was told Chief Volley would continue to make daily or routine check-ins from the police department but the district expects the safety director to be more embedded in day-to-day school safety work.

The meeting’s consent agenda listed multiple personnel and contract items: approval of the treasurer’s report, recognition of retirements, administrative and support-staff compensation adjustments (a 1% increase for administrators, supervisors and support staff), employee contracts for the 2024–25 and 2025–26 school years, resignations, donations and grants, and several service-agreement renewals (including a YMCA contract and Bascom communications services). Staff presented these as routine consent items; the transcript shows the consent agenda was called and no substantive questions were recorded on several line-items.

Board members also discussed vacant or hard-to-fill positions and a prior contract with an external provider (EFC) for additional support aids; staff said the district is bringing some services back in-house where feasible to save money while maintaining service levels. Several new coordinator positions were mentioned (curriculum coordinator, RTI/emergency coordinator) intended to support academics and intervention work; job descriptions for those positions are being prepared.