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LISBON - Sports stepped into the spotlight at the Lisbon Exempted Village Board of Education meeting on Thursday as Superintendent Joseph Siefke reported athletic numbers are the highest they've been for years.
"I am excited about the numbers. To get kids to participate, especially at a small school, can be a struggle," he said. "Right now, I couldn't be happier about the number of kids participating. That's what high school athletics is all about, participation and making memories."
As a small school, finding enough student-athletes to field all teams can be a challenge. Athletic Director Kyle Bing said it looks like that challenge will be met this fall.
"If things go well, this will be the first time in my tenure that we will field every team that we have," Bing said. "We need one more girl and boy for cross country, which I think they can pull, we will have full teams for cross country, girls golf, boys golf. We have a freshman volleyball team. In football, the numbers are in the 30s and in junior high they are setting in the 20s. The numbers are healthy and everything looks good. The coaches are working hard with the kids and we're excited about the fall seasons."
The board approved Abbey Brammer as the freshman volleyball coach in a volunteer capacity as no supplemental contract was available for the surprise position.
Also in sports-related hires, the board approved Quinn Puska as the Assistant Athletic Director (AD).
"We had a need for an assistant athletic director and Quinn has been around the district for close to 10 years," Bing said. "He's been a youth coordinator, a J.V. basketball coach. He knows the way we operate as a school district. He knows the ins-and-outs and all the basic stuff. He's familiar with how things work here, and I think he will be a great asset to the athletic department."
The board also approved the application for admission to Ohio Valley Athletics Conference for the 2024-2025 school. Siefke said the Blue Devils remain in their current league but joined the OVAC -- the biggest athletic conference in the country geographically -- to give Lisbon student-athletes more exposure and better opportunities, as well as help solve the challenges of finding officials for sporting events. Lisbon was one of the few OVAC holdouts remaining in the county with only Crestview and Salem the last two. Bing said "there are a lot of pros and very little cons" to joining the conference.
In other matters, the board regrettably accepted the resignation of custodian Brian Clapsaddle, a longtime employee who has spent over 60 years as a jack of all trades in the district. Clapsaddle has been a seemingly permanent fixture at Lisbon, serving as among other things the manager for the basketball court in the early 1960s and athletic filmer in the 1990s.
"Brian has been with us for a long, long time," Seike said. "We appreciate everything he's done for this district. For all the years he has been here and all the different roles he has played."
The board also learned that an anonymous donor gifted Lisbon Exempted Village Schools $10,000 to pay off lunch charges -- a donation that's become a yearly tradition.
"We've had this happen now for a few years. We've had a check come in every summer and the person wants to stay anonymous and help kids with their lunch debts and it goes without saying how appreciative we are as a district for the generosity."
The board approved acceptance of the donation.
In other board items:
-- Five bus routes (South and West, North and East, North and West, South and East and Special Needs) were approved, as were the hiring of bus drivers Tab Bailey and Raema Gori as classified substitutes.
The board also approved facility rental fees for the 2024-25 school year. The fees will remain the same as last year with event rental set at $200 per usage (multiple day requests may be adjusted upon superintendent's approval) and gymnasium practice rental fee at $50 per use (cost calculated at two hours). Personnel (custodial and food service) costs associated with rentals will remain at $15 per hour with a one-hour minimum charge.
-- Seifke reported that breakfast and school lunches will now be free-of-charge to all elementary, junior high and high school students.
-- The board resolved it to be impractical to provide transportation to nine private-school students within the district citing the cost of providing this transportation in terms of equipment, maintenance, and personnel due to the small amount of students to be transported. In lieu of transportation, payment will be made to the parents as established by state guidelines.
-- Twenty-eight academic supplemental contracts were approved. They were McKinley Reading Club Advisor Emily Long, Elementary Math Club Advisor Delania Link, Elementary Science Club Advisor Becky McCullough, Elementary Arts Program Director Rachel Gentile, Elementary Student Senate Advisor Kami Shingleton, Music Program Director (McKinley) Debbie Fonner Chorus Junior/High School Director Dominic Meyer, Senior Class Advisor Michael Miller, Junior Class Advisor Ryan Snyder, Spanish Club Advisor Meredith Deichler, Health Careers Advisor Kella Haren, Power of the Pen Advisor Madison Daugherty, JH Honors/Builders Club Advisor Ashley Wallace, JH Student Senate Advisor Carrie Smith, HS Student Council Advisor Stephen Hlaudy, HS Academic Challenge Meredith Deichler, JH Academic Challenge Janet Lane, HS Science Club Nikol Mundy, Math Counts Advisor Ryan Snyder, JH English Festival Teresa Crawford, JH English Festival Michael Miller, Olympian Advisor Ashley Wallace, Web Page Advisor Ashley Wallace, HS Department Chair Math Janet Lane, HS Department Chair ELA Teresa Crawford, McKinley Department Chair Reading Gwen Weikart, McKinley Department Chair Math Kristi Slagle and DAHS Pep Club Advisor Alexa Cardona.
-- The board passed approval of the financial report as written, the approval of listed bills in the amount of $1,114,050.68 and set the next board meeting for Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. at the district building.