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Brookfield, Niles to share services

BROOKFIELD –The Brookfield Board of Education on Wednesday approved a shared services agreement with Niles City Schools for treasurer services.

Brookfield Treasurer Craig Yaniglos will serve as the interim treasurer in Niles. The agreement for sharing treasurer services will begin Monday.

The Niles Board of Education is scheduled to meet 5:15 p.m. today on the matter.

Yaniglos said with the shared services agreement will be a $30,000 savings for Brookfield, with Niles covering 60 percent of his salary costs and Brookfield 40 percent.

He said the agreement for him to be Niles’ temporary treasurer could be for a few weeks or for a few months.

“How long the sharing of the treasurer with Niles will be depends on the situation in Niles and how things work out. It could be three weeks or to July,” said Ronda Bonekovic, board president.

Yaniglos will handle the treasurer duties in both districts.

“I will be an employee of Brookfield schools, and Niles will use my services as a purchased service,” he said.

As part of the agreement Niles will share the total employee cost of the treasurer at $426.40 per day. He was paid $250 per day just in Brookfield.

Superintendent Toby Gibson said school officials from Liberty and Mathews schools will meet with Brookfield officials to discuss other shared services options among the three districts and ways to save money.

In another matter, with the defeat Nov. 4 by the voters of a 1,9-mill, five-year additional permanent improvement levy for Brookfield schools, officials are seeking input and feedback from residents and staff on what may have been the reason for the defeat.

The levy lost by a vote of 58 to 42 percent, according to unofficial results from Trumbull County Board of Elections.

A survey is on Facebook and the school website with 130 responses received in the past week. Plans are to also have the survey available in paper form at board offices.

“I want to get more surveys out into the community,” Gibson said.

He said the board of education and school officials will review the comments from the survey and sit down to review options of what to do next. They are also going to review voter information on the levy from board of elections.

“We want to analyze the data and information,” he said.

The levy would have generated $249,000 annually to improve security at schools, upgrade technology and other preventive maintenance.

Yaniglos had said the levy money would have been used for technology, infrastructure, school buses and safety. The levy also could be used for STEM curriculum and replacing three or four series of textbooks.

Yaniglos said this was the third time the district sought passage of the levy.

Voters last May turned down a five-year improvement levy, which was the second time the 1.9-mill levy has been voted down.

Officials plan to make a presentation on survey comments and possible decision on a levy at December meeting.

In other business, the district approved an agreement with the Brookfield Police Department for a full-time school resource officer who will begin working Monday.

The district will pay $34,000 for the resource officer for the remainder of the school year.

Gibson said this will be the first SRO for the school district,

Police Chief Dan Faustino said officer Ron Mann will serve as the resource officer, having served as a liaison to the schools in the past.

“We appreciate this. This is something we have wanted to have.” said Bonekovic.

Mary Arp of Brookfield Federation of Teachers union said the teachers support the resource officer being in the schools.

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