Kenston Local board hears parent plea over long routes, approves routine finance and personnel items

The Kenston Local School Board on Aug. 11 approved a slate of routine financial and personnel items and heard a detailed transportation update while a parent urged the district to revise transport for students attending Lawrence School.

The meeting opened with roll call and the Pledge of Allegiance, then moved into department updates. Chris Elmer, the district’s transportation director, described route counts for the coming year — nine high-school, 12 middle-school and 22 elementary routes — and outlined two new technologies intended to improve safety and tracking: the StopFinder app for parents and a Wayfinder system on buses. "StopFinder is an app that parents can put on their phone so that they can see where their student's bus is," Elmer said. She said Wayfinder will place tablets on buses and issue swipe cards to students; the district will start Wayfinder on seven buses to train drivers and expand from there.

Elmer also warned the board that she learned late about several planned road closures affecting routes. She said Bainbridge Road would be closed for about 46 days and Haskins Road for roughly 21 days, and that the district was rerouting buses and planning earlier pickups — about 10 minutes earlier for affected stops — to keep schools on schedule. "So we will be sending out a message to let the parents know on Bainbridge Road and the side roads over there that they're gonna be about 10 minutes earlier starting on Monday, the eighteenth," she said.

During the public-comment period, parent Julie Shirkle of Sugar Land Falls addressed agenda item 14.4, the transportation agreement for a student attending Lawrence School. Shirkle said her son’s placement was not by choice and asserted the family's out-of-pocket cost for the coming year is $24,000 after the state provided $12,000. She also said the bus route assigned to her son "will have to be on a bus for over an hour and 15 minutes" and estimated some days could approach three hours of daily travel. She invoked a cited statute in the transportation notice, saying the agreement refers to "RC 33 27.01," and urged the board to create a better transportation plan for students in similar circumstances. "I'm asking so very little of you. I'm so please provide a better transportation plan for these students that you have done such a disservice to," Shirkle said.

Superintendent Doctor Willingham and the board responded that they would follow up with Shirkle after the meeting. "We'll make sure we follow-up," the superintendent said.

In other business, Treasurer Mister Kales reported on a June corporate sponsorship event that he said had generated $103,750 to date for the district. He said the district created a separate fund to hold sponsorship revenues and that administrators are working with school leaders to identify priorities for spending and potential internship or externship opportunities with local businesses.

Representatives from Bomber Elite, the booster organization, described volunteer and fundraising plans for the athletic season, including an online revised raffle, playoff-hoodie sales and special events such as a first-responder night and the season opener against Solon.

The board took a series of routine votes, approving the minutes, financial reports and reconciliations, substitutes, multiple classified personnel items (including an adjustment increasing some nurses' hours from seven to 7.5, which administration said moves those positions to full-time), supplemental contracts, business-operations items including an obsolete-items list, and volunteer appointments. Where trustees asked for clarification — for example, on why two supplemental contract amounts differed considerably — administration explained that supplemental pay reflects step and level placement on the salary schedule.

The meeting closed with a reminder about the community event Bainbridge Rocks at Centerville Mills and adjourned at approximately 7:47 p.m.

Votes at a glance - Approval of minutes (July sets): approved by roll call (motion moved by Jen; second by Jim). - Financial items (9.1–9.7): approved by roll call. - Approval of substitutes (10.1): approved by roll call. - Classified personnel (11.1–11.5; separate items 11.7–11.9): approved by roll call; one abstention was recorded on a separate item. - Supplemental contracts (12.01–12.04): approved after administration explained salary-step differences. - Business operations (14.1–14.4, including obsolete items): approved by roll call. - Volunteers (18.1): approved by roll call.

What happens next The superintendent and administration said they will follow up with Julie Shirkle about the Lawrence School transportation arrangement and the district will notify parents on affected routes about timing changes related to road closures and Wayfinder/StopFinder rollouts.