CAMDEN —January is School Board Recognition Month in the State of Ohio and is sponsored by the Ohio School Boards Association.
During the Preble Shawnee Local Schools Board of Education meeting on Thursday, Jan. 3, current serving members were recognized for their efforts. Members of the board include Charlie Biggs, Bill Crawford, Gary Rader, Julie Singleton, and Jeff Wood.
“Every year, school boards throughout Ohio are recognized for the sacrifice that the members give their communities. We’re always thankful for our board of education members,” Superintendent Matt Bishop said.
Also at the meeting, Student Senate Representative Kaylie Campbell spoke about their recent trip to Vancrest Nursing Home in Eaton, where they delivered several poinsettias to the residents. According to Campbell, the residents were very appreciative. A video was posted to the Preble Shawnee Local School District Facebook page showing the visit.
The Junior High School Student Senate also visited the Greenbriar Nursing Home in December.
Campbell updated the board on winter sports, spirit week, the canned food drive, and the holiday assembly.
“We had the Christmas assembly, which was a lot of fun. We collected canned goods for food banks and we had over 600 cans collected. There were several activities, which included racing games and a senior dance, which was hilarious if you haven’t seen the video. There was an ugly sweater contest, a student and a staff one,” she said.
“We sold tickets during lunch for a pie in the face, so you could pie a staff member in the face. We raised over $200 and that money will be going to the Clevenger family.”
In other business:
•The board held a public hearing on the 2019-20120 school calendar. According to Bishop, they are required to host a public meeting 30 days before they vote on the issue, giving everybody a chance to look at the calendar and give their opinions.
This year, the district put four different calendars out for the staff to vote on. After a week, Calendar B was the option with the most votes.
“This one is very similar to last year’s calendar. It has a very similar start, it has a fall break in October, two full weeks for Christmas — which I know everybody will be excited about — it has a four day weekend in February, spring break which matches up with all county schools, Good Friday off, and has us out before Memorial Day,” Bishop said.
“The big thing for us was trying to get out before Memorial Day. I know that is tradition. It lines up with us getting the church for graduation. That was important. Once you get off of that date that they set for us, then you’re not guaranteed and you don’t want to change churches. Not that you want to base the whole calendar off of that, but it is a significant thing for us.
“I will say, at least two of the other options have a later start. Going into the following week — but they pushed us after Memorial Day. Looked like the consensus was, we’d rather start the week we normally do and get out before Memorial Day. That is the calendar that will be on the agenda for Feb. 14.”
