Board approves organizational resolutions, contracts, personnel actions and routine items

The New Philadelphia City Board of Education approved a package of organizational resolutions, vendor contracts, personnel hires and retirements, student activity budgets and several routine administrative items during its meeting at South Elementary.

Organizational resolutions adopted included setting 2025 board meeting dates, establishing a board service fund of $15,000, authorizing the treasurer to pay presented bills and transfer within the general fund, and authorizing the treasurer and superintendent to attend professional meetings and travel on school business. The treasurer was authorized to request advance tax revenue payments from the county auditor and to invest inactive and interim funds in accordance with Ohio Revised Code section 135.412. The board designated The Times reporter as the official newspaper for legal ads, set board compensation at $40 per month for up to 12 meetings per year, and authorized Jeff Williams to serve as interim superintendent in the absence of Superintendent Amy Wentworth.

The board approved vendor contracts and expenditures presented in the treasurer's report: a three-year contract with Solid Rock Photos (ending 2028), a Learn Well contract providing 5 hours per week of special-education instructional services at $51 per hour for a student, a quote from Flickinger Piping for a high-school boiler makeup water system (amount listed as 54.50 in the transcript), a Vincent statement of work for security software at $29,300 for fiscal year 2025, and a gardener-service proposal for rooftop-unit displays at $3,550. The board also approved an invoice to Staley Technologies for a security camera at Central Elementary for $1,297.50 and accepted a $100 donation from UPS to the AR program at Central. The Quaker Corner student activity budget for fiscal year 2025 was approved.

Personnel and human-resources actions approved included accepting retirements for two long-serving staff members — Stacy Tobacco (K–2 literacy teacher) and Barbara Ross (speech-language pathologist) — and hiring recommendations including Bridal Troyer (title tutor for York), Bruce Alexander (district daily substitute), and Jessica Domingo (EL care professional, bilingual). The board approved a set of substitute and volunteer assignments and other supplemental positions.

The board also approved curricular and calendar items: the preschool handbook for 2025–26, Weldy Middle School handbook for 2025–26, the New Philadelphia High School 2025–26 course guide, a nonroutine field trip for the steel-drum group to St. Louis, and a College Credit Plus memorandum of understanding with Kent State University. The meeting also served as the public hearing for the proposed 2025–26 full-year calendar; the board voted to approve the calendar as presented.

All listed motions were approved by roll call during the meeting; where the transcript recorded votes the chair announced "motion carries."