GENEVA — The Geneva Area City School Board looked at modifying its initial plans for a new district athletic facility at a Wednesday meeting.
Board President Michele Krieg said district leadership are considering having tennis courts at the athletic facility, instead of pickleball courts.
Under the proposal, the tennis courts at Geneva Middle School would be turned into pickleball courts.
Krieg said board members and district leadership became interested in the change after learning other projects in the Geneva area might add pickleball courts of their own.
District Treasurer Shelley McDermott said the changes to the facility plan will not affect the 1.96-mill bond issue to fund the facility’s construction on the ballot in November’s election.
“A difference in price is something the board would pick up,” she said. “[The bond issue] is set in stone.”
The board approved the plan for the athletic facility at a June board meeting, and will contribute just over $4.5 million to the project.
The district currently has an agreement with SPIRE Academy, set to expire in 2027, to play games there.
GACS Superintendent Paul Lombardo said parents will have access to a new app call BusRight in October, which will let them track busses, learn about delays and better communicate with the district.
During the board meeting, Lombardo brought up the app and briefly demonstrated how it could be used.
It will be accessible by district parents, and will have safeguards to make sure it cannot be accessed by people unaffiliated with the district, he said.
There is a tutorial on how to use the app on the district’s website, Lombardo said.
Lombardo is forming a new student advisory council for him and the board, he said.
“I’m really excited about this,” he said.
Lombardo will start meeting with students Sept. 26.
The board approved a financial forecast from McDermott.
The forecast projected expenditures going above revenue as the decade draws to a close.
McDermott said this is the first forecast under new rules from the state, and has to be submitted by Oct. 15.
District leadership is going through data in the state report card, Lombardo said.
Data compiled by district leadership from the report cards showed Geneva Platt R. Spencer Elementary School was the second-best school in Ashtabula County, behind Jefferson Elementary School.
During his legislative report, board member Brock Pierson talked about interest from Ohio politicians and residents in reforming or abolishing property taxes.
Pierson said he agrees there needs to be property tax reform, but the focus should be on how property taxes have shifted from larger corporations to homeowners and small businesses because of abatements.