LISBON — With the Christmas break and the second semester just around the corner, the Lisbon Board of Education looks forward to enjoying the holidays and getting back to work in 2025.

“We will spend Christmas break turning our focus to what 2025 might look like — where we want to start out at the first of the year with the third nine weeks and second semester,” Superintendent Joe Siefke said at Thursday’s BOE meeting. “We want to think about some of the things that we’ve been talking about doing and have a plan of action for them, but in the meantime, we will enjoy this break while we have it, enjoy Christmas and then refocus for the new year.”

The board also paused to recognize the giving spirit at both McKinley Elementary School as well as David Anderson Junior and Senior High School, which has become a tradition at both buildings over the years. However, this year, the giving has been packaged into a village-wide initiative that saw the collaboration of the Lisbon Schools and 13 other village agencies to make the most impact to families in need within the district. Siefke discussed the Little Village, Big Hearts Giving Event organized by former Lisbon school board member Marti Grimm.

“It brings all the services and resources together,” Siefke said. “It really was a great idea to bring all the groups together, the churches in town that donate and all the other organizations, and streamline into one.”

Through collaboration of the organizations, as well as community members who have provided private donations and the Lisbon Police Department’s “Fill A Cruiser” campaign at Save-A-Lot, 107 in-need Lisbon households will benefit and receive nearly every item put on their respective lists that were submitted in November. Each agency, organization or group created an intake process, gathering among other things hats, gloves, blankets, food, vouchers, toys, hygiene products, puzzle books for senior citizens and clothing for both children and adults. Volunteers then coordinated a team distribution which will take place over the next few days at the Lisbon Lions Club.

For McKinley Elementary, Christmas charity is spearheaded every year by guidance counselor Missy Kemats.

“Mrs. Kemats, every year, takes upon herself under no directive from anybody to just use all the resources she has to give Christmas and Thanksgiving locally in the community. People contact her on behalf of themselves and others will reach out to her on behalf of a family they know,” said McKinley Principal Dan Kemats said. “She doesn’t leave anybody hanging. She takes care of everybody every year. She gets everything that our families need. While the initiative of Little Village, Big Hearts is new, making a difference is not is not new to Mrs. Kemats or McKinley.”

With Missy Kemats leading the elementary holiday drive, Dean of Students Lisa Baker has stepped to fill a similar role for the high school and junior high.

“We have Missy Kemats representing the elementary building and Lisa Baker representing the other building,” Siefke said. “It was just great to see both buildings and the entire village come together for Little Village, Big Hearts, which is just a great, great thing for our community and less fortunate families.”

Aside from giving credit where credit was due when it came to Lisbon schools doing its part in the village-wide giving campaign, the board also tackled several agenda several items, including approving the second and final reading of 40 NEOLA (an education consulting firm that develops personalized bylaws, policies, guidelines, and materials to more than 1,550 school boards in six states) board policies. The changes are mainly meant to reflect changing times and terminology.

The board also:

— Approved Jennifer Coldsnow as President Pro Tem for the Reorganizational Meeting in January 2025

— Entered into a contract with S.A. Comunale Company for annual inspection at McKinley Elementary and David Anderson Jr./Sr. High School of backflow prevention devices, dry and wet fire sprinkler systems at a cost of $500 and $1,100, respectively.

— Approved $75.00 per student per course as the stipend for online instructors for the second semester for the following staff members: Ashley Wallace, Jon Burnell, Michael Miller, Nikol Mundy, Dave Crismon, Natalie Vantilburg, Lauren Glenn, Meredith Dingey and Kristi Slagle.

— Approved the enclosed District Nutrition Compliance Report as adopted by the State of Ohio for both Nutrition and Food Safety.

— Approved a service agreement with Education Alternatives for a Lisbon student for the 2024-2025 school year to be reimbursed by Brunswick School District

— Approved a contract for the 2024-2025 school year with Wills Vision & Mobility Services, LLC to provide evaluation, planning and report writing time for a visually impaired student attending Robert Bycroft School for at a rate of $125 per hour. Additional time for ETR related meetings will be charged at the $125 per hour rate.

— Approved $100 stipends for staff members who completed three Gifted Professional Development hours. They were Dave Guy, Delania Link, Beth Devine, Kristi Slagle, Kami Shingleton, Matt Guarnieri, Sarah Julian, Maddie Wrask, Janet Lane, David Toot, Derek Joy, Juliana Sabrin, Michael Miller, Alex Walker, Ron Witman, Jon Burnell, Nikol Mundy, Steve Hlaudy, Meredith Dingey, Carrie Smith, Becky McCullough, Angela Sims, Ryan Snyder and Linda D’Ippolita.

— Approved Family Medical Leave for one employee.

— Approved the OSBA Membership dues in the amount of $4,908.00 for January 2025 through December 2025.

— Approved the financial report as written and listed bills in the amount of $1,191,909.

— Set next month’s meeting for Jan. 9 at 5 p.m.