New members join BV BOE

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Members of the Buckeye Valley Board of Education met Wednesday to elect officers and discuss their goals for the next six months.

After swearing in the three new board members — Tom Ailabouni, Donald Dicke and April Scowden — the board held an election for president and vice president. Amy Dutt was elected board president, while Dicke was selected to serve as vice president.

The board then discussed its priorities for the next six months.

Members agreed a top priority is finding a new permanent superintendent after Dr. Andy Miller stepped down from the role at the end of 2021. Dr. Jeremy Froehlich is currently serving as interim superintendent.

Dutt, Scowden and Dicke also agreed that coming up with a plan to deal with the overcrowding at Buckeye Valley West Elementary needs to be a priority as well.

Dutt added her priorities include continuing to implement the district’s strategic plan and helping update the new members on where things stand within the district to make the transition a smooth one.

“Getting us to work as a team is a huge priority,” she said. “We’re going to have a lot of opportunities to work together on these things.”

Dutt also said she would like to improve board communication and discussed the possibility of the board posting a newsletter on the district’s Facebook page after meeting to keep families connected with what the board is doing.

Scowden added that continuing #OneBV is a priority for her.

Ailabouni then discussed several goals he has and issues he’d like to address.

Ailabouni said he wants to explore the effectiveness of one-way hallways and wants some clarification on the rules for quarantining students. He continued that he would like to see parents allowed to return to the buildings to take part in things like eating lunch with their children. He also noted his desire to see any paper placed in the glass windows of classroom doors taken down.

“We want to make sure the paper is taken off the doorways where everything is easy to see and everything is obvious what’s going on,” Ailabouni said. “(So if) someone comes in the school and is walking by the classroom, they can see what’s going on.”

Ailabouni also said he wants to upgrade the tech infrastructure at each school and equip all the buildings with fiber Internet. He continued that he would like to see the district put cameras in classrooms in order to allow “parents to see what’s going on in the classroom.” He said getting cameras hooked up to allow parents to view classes would be “a very easy thing to do.”

“If a parent is worried about something going on in the classroom, we can give them a username and password, and they can take a look at what’s going on,” Ailabouni said. He added the cameras in classrooms could also be used to keep quarantined students involved in classes.

Ailabouni also suggested putting cameras in hallways to prevent bullying.

“People talk about bullying … we should be able to see this stuff on camera,” he said. “If somebody got punched, where did it happen? Let’s see it on camera, and let’s make sure people are accountable for it.”

Ailabouni also said students using teacher bathrooms is “a big issue.”

Dutt said some of the Ailabouni’s issues can be resolved after discussion with building principals, and she added the board’s role is “to make overall change in policies, not so much to make specific rules for each building.” Regarding bullying, Dutt said the board will be looking at its anti-discrimination policy in the future.

The meeting was also the first to be recorded and archived after the board voted last year to purchase better equipment for recording meetings. Following the conclusion of every board meeting, the video recording will be posted on the district’s YouTube channel.

The Buckeye Valley Board of Education met Wednesday night to swear in newly elected members and discuss goals for the next six months. From left to right: Vice President Donald Dicke, board member Jeff White, President Amy Dutt, Secretary Kelly Ziegler, board member Tom Ailabouni and board member April Scowden.
https://www.delgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2022/01/web1_BV-Board.jpgThe Buckeye Valley Board of Education met Wednesday night to swear in newly elected members and discuss goals for the next six months. From left to right: Vice President Donald Dicke, board member Jeff White, President Amy Dutt, Secretary Kelly Ziegler, board member Tom Ailabouni and board member April Scowden.

By Glenn Battishill

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Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903 or on Twitter @BattishillDG.

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