NEW BREMEN – The New Bremen board of education met Wednesday, Aug. 17, to ready the district for the new school year, which begins Wednesday, Aug. 24.

Superintendent Jason Schrader reported contractor Luginbill Construction is expected to complete construction of $430,789 bus garage by Sept. 23. He said the concrete floor had been completed and currently the siding on the 50 foot by 190 foot building is going up. The new facility is located at the northeast corner of the school property off Cardinal Drive. The funding is left over from the elementary school building project.

Treasurer Jill Ahlers received board permission to accept a $2,000 anonymous donation to the Cardinal Campaign

Elementary Principal Diane Kramer reported grades K-6 class lists were posted on the school website on July 29 with welcome letters to parents and students sent out the same week by homeroom teachers. She also said the class supply lists and school calendar was posted on the same page.

She shared with the board the current K-6 enrollment for the start of the 2022-2023 school year along with figures from last year’s numbers indicated in asterisks.

There are a total of 428 students enrolled (415 last year). Kindergarten has 60 (down from 61). In first grade there are 66 (up from 63) In second grade the number is 63 (up from 57). In third grade 58 students are enrolled (down from 61). In fourth grade there are 61 (up from 53). In fifth grade there are 57 (down from 61). In sixth grade there are 63 (up from 59).

Kramer noted that although requirements of the Dyslexia Bill approved by the Ohio legislature have been pushed back to the 2023-2024 school year, they will still implement the components of assessing students and providing interventions based on assessments results.

Teachers will receive training on dyslexia during the second half of the 2022-23 school year. Kramer noted that she is looking forward to starting her 13th year as elementary principal at New Bremen. She said “It’s hard to believe this year’s seniors were entering kindergarten the same year I started at New Bremen!”

Junior-Senior principal Marcus Overman said New Bremen will be sending 33 junior and senior students are attending Tri-Star this year. Last school year the total number was 36.

For those who would like to become familiar with their teachers, he said a Meet the Teacher session will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 23.

For parents who want to know how social media may be affecting their children, a social media safety presentation will be held for parents on Wednesday, Aug. 31, at 6:30 p.m. in the junior high gym. On the following school day, presentations will be held for students in grades 4-12 the following school day.

He said orientation was held for incoming seventh graders and ninth graders on Sunday, Aug. 7. Both sessions were well attending. The seventh-grade agenda focused on their schedules, being able to navigate the building, and practicing opening their lockers. The ninth-grade meeting focused on graduation requirements.

Overman also said they will be implementing Motivational Mondays once per month for grades 7-12 to work on character, leadership, and other qualities needed to be the best version of themselves. This will start in September. Guidance councilor Chris Lauterbach, athletic director Chad Wells and Overman will run the program.

Wells said individual ticket prices at the gate will be $8 for football and basketball games. Presale tickets are $7 for adults and students. Passes for reserved and general seating also are available.

He added that the community can follow New Bremen sports at either https://www.newbremenschools.org/athletics.aspx or on Twitter @NewBremenSports.

Brian Puthoff, director of technology said they have expanded the school’s Chromebook One-to-One program down into grades 3 and 4. As a district, they are now One-to-One in grades 3-12. Grades 5-12 have Chromebooks that students take home on a daily basis but in grades 3 and 4, student Chromebooks will be kept in the classroom.

There is now a total of 820 student Chromebooks in the district he said, which includes Chromebooks available in specialized technology environments like the Dianne Komminsk Center.

He said this summer they have all the computers in the engineering lab, design and media lab and the Komminsk lab.

Upgrades to cybersecurity, which he said is always an important factor in the school environment, had been completed. This includes a 2-Factor Authentication for a few of the school’s systems. Within the next few weeks, they will also be implementing next-generation antivirus software called Endpoint Detection and Response which is better at catching viruses, malware and ransomware and can easily “contain” systems that get infected.

They also replaced-upgraded the entire virtual server environment. After the new equipment was installed, he said they configured the system and all of the school’s data has been successfully migrated to the new system.

In other business, the board approved cafeteria bids, extension of teacher contracts, bus routes, contracts for supplemental staff and substitute teachers.