LOUDONVILLE — Jennifer Allerding had goals entering her first year as Loudonville-Perrysville Exempted Village Schools’ superintendent: improving communications and relationships, and making the district safer.
At Monday night’s board of education meeting, she shared updates on both.
Transparency and trust
Allerding said the district has been trying to build trust and transparency with the community via communications. She encouraged people to download the district’s app.
“All-Call” is also up and running, she said. That system sends out messages to parents from the district. There was a trip-up with getting it running, where all emergency contacts were fed into the system.
“Every grandma and grandpa, the whole town of Loudonville, heard from me on my first All-Call,” Allerding joked.
She said it has since been fixed, and now only parents should be getting those updates.
Building newsletters also went out to families the last two months, and a district newsletter will come to all Loudonville residents in the mail in October.
Centegix security
Safety is another point of emphasis for Allerding. She said the whole staff has been trained on the Centegix system.
If there’s an emergency and a call for help is initiated, help can arrive on the scene in less than 60 seconds, Allerding said. The district hasn’t used it yet, but she said she accidentally pressed it once, thinking the security system was in test mode when it wasn’t.
“Everybody thought I was out on the baseball field needing help, and they came running,” Allerding said. “So I felt pretty good about that.”
It worked out to the 50-yard line on the football field, Allerding said.
She added that staff has done a good job of trying to keep doors in the building shut, something the district does for security reasons too. That’s a challenge thanks to the heat, but Allerding said staff worked on it at the start of the year.
Other board business
Allerding also shared an update on the greenhouse project.
To date, the Future Farmers of America alums in Loudonville have raised $215,000 for the project, leaving $285,000 the district still needs to raise. That’s the same situation as last month’s board meeting.
The district may seek those funds through grants, Allerding said. The district receives a check each year from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the timber and logging in the state park.
“Because a tornado came through, we’re projected to get a check in excess of $100,000 potentially,” Allerding said. “It might be my recommendation that we could use that toward this greenhouse project, potentially.
“We are looking at all different options of how we can make this project happen for our kids.”
Bids for the greenhouse project will open on Oct. 17, Allerding said.
The board of education also approved a series of donations, mainly school supplies for the year’s start.
The Music Boosters of Loudonville-Perrysville Schools also gave a funding grant of $43,950 to the district. That grant was approved Monday night, too.
It will go toward instruments, band uniforms, awards and banquet for band and choir, music supplies and more.
It also accepted the retirement of Budd School custodian Bryan Coey; approved an out-of-state trip request for the baseball and softball teams to go to the Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and approved four overnight wrestling trips.