The July 21 Wooster City Schools Board of Education regular meeting had both good news and not-so-good news
While the board members approved the 2026-30 Wooster City Schools Strategic Plan, they also heard a discouraging year-end report and about the need to refinish the high school gym sooner than expected
And while it was a short meeting without reports, public participation and recognitions, barely going over half an hour, the board members also missed having students of all ages in attendance being honored
“I miss all those little voices that help us say the Pledge of Allegiance,” Board President Jody Starcher said
Many people helped bring the strategic plan to approval who thanked the board for putting the final touches on it. It was discussed at length during the June 16 regular meeting
“Just a few changes were made based on some of the suggestions you made both at that meeting and in email to me,” Tudor said. “Our next step will be to meet with our admin team and start to plan out how we will address the strategic plan over the next five years and who will be accountable and responsible for different aspects of it.”
Opening her year-end report to the board, Treasurer Amy Welty said changes in state funding for the Wooster district are kind of alarming
Welty said Wooster moved into the minimum amount for state funding this spring, something she and Tudor said they didn’t expect to happen until 2027. In some cases that means the district will receive about half of what it received a year ago for students with extra costs while the costs for those students have increased significantly
Just as this drop in state funding came a year earlier than expected, so did the need to refinish the high school gym floor
“We were hoping and intended to wait until next year to refinish the high school gym floor because we had the bleacher project this summer and felt a little overwhelmed to get both coordinated and done and not impact fall sports, particularly volleyball,” Tudor said. “Unfortunately, we are going to be doing that anyway
“We’ve had some issues. Part of that was with the vendor from last year, which we are looking into and addressing. The polyurethane is peeling back. There are parts of the floor that are exposed. It’s not safe. Our floor is vulnerable to major issues if water got on it.”
That work will take place during most of the first part of September, impacting six home volleyball matches. Three of them will be played at The College of Wooster while the other three are home-and-away conference matches that will be flipped to away matches during the refinishing work and home matches later in the season
The board approved the refinishing work and several other items such as the purchase of two buses and a van
Board members also approved the minutes of their June meetings — the June 16 executive session, June 16 regular session and June 29 fiscal year-end meeting — as well as the June 29 emergency meeting, which included the approval of fiscal year 2026 amended appropriations, fiscal year-end advances and fund transfers, and approvals of the Sodexo Food Service management renewal for the 2026-27 school year and certified and classified personnel resignations, retirements and leaves of absence
The next meeting will be a regular session open to the public at 6 p.m. Aug. 16, both in person in the large group instruction room at Wooster High School and online at www.woostercityschools.org/board-of-education/boe-meetings
