Revere transportation supervisor lauded

by Sheldon Ocker

Jan. 13 board of education organizational meeting and work session

Transportation department Supervisor A.J. Neitenbach came in for high praise from Revere board of education members for carrying out two duties, in one case, almost heroically.

Finding and keeping school bus drivers has been a challenge nationally, but Neitenbach has repeatedly kept Revere from suffering from driver shortages that can cause chaos for kids traveling to and from school.

“I want to give a shout-out to A.J. for finding these substitute bus drivers,” said board member Courtney Stein. I think it’s amazing. Every district is struggling, and we keep approving people each month.”

Neitenbach is also one of two transportation department members who check winter driving conditions, helping to ensure the safety of students for trips to and from school and to districts hosting after-school sports events and other extracurriculars.

Board Treasurer Rick Berdine asked the board at the next regular meeting to allow Neitenbach to take a transportation department pickup truck home every winter evening, so he doesn’t have to use his personal vehicle to check sometimes snow-covered roads (the pickup is equipped with 4-wheel drive).

Berdine said the district’s insurance policy will cover Neitenbach, and he lives only about three miles from the Revere campus.

“A couple of Saturdays ago he was out in his personal vehicle at four in the morning to check roads,” Berdine said, referring to a drive to Stow High School, which was hosting a speech and debate tournament to which Revere was invited.

“I don’t think people realize that people are getting up at 4 a.m. and driving to Stow because we‘re going to be sending a bus there,” Stein said.

Roof replacement

Berdine reported that he accepted Industrial First Roofing’s bid to replace a section of roof at Richfield Elementary, with work to begin next summer.

According to Berdine, Industrial Roof’s bid of about $655,000 was substantially less than the next lowest bidder.

“I ask your approval to replace all the roof areas in the kindergarten wing,” Berdine said, adding that replacing seven roof drains will be included in the project.

Berdine said he put aside $300,000 in each of the past two years to pay for roof replacements. The rest of the cost will be paid out of the permanent improvement fund.

“We had been targeting a middle school section for this year but this one is more appropriate,” Berdine said.

Election, appointments

During the organizational meeting, Keith Malick was reelected board president and Stein vice president.

Board member Kasha Brackett was appointed as the district’s liaison to the Ohio School Board Association Capital Conference for 2025 as required by the state board of education. Board member Natalie Rainey was appointed alternate.

New procedure

Malick announced that instead of assigning one or two board members to various committees, this year those entities will be manned as committees of the whole.“We’ll be meeting as needed in our work sessions so board members can weigh in on anything that may be needed to be addressed by the board,” he said.