School board honors district retirees
- Published: May 25, 2025
Another school year wraps up in about a week. Acknowledging the impending last day of school at its most recent meeting Thursday, May 8, the YS Board of Education bade farewell to a number of retiring educators, and welcomed a few new faces to the district, too.
Retiring this year are Nancy Bussey, Mills Lawn administrative assistant, after 33 years; Jody Chick, special education supervisor, after 36 years; Julie Cosler, McKinney and YSHS administrative assistant, after 14 years; Linnea Denman, kindergarten teacher, after 22 years; Dee Ann Holly, math teacher, after 28 years; Jane Jako, special education aide, after 16 years; and Shawna Welch, athletic director, after three years.
Also officially entering retirement is longtime social studies teacher and School Forest advisor John Day, though he will return to teaching and advising next school year.
“We are losing such an incredible cohort of staff and educators this year,” school board President Rebecca Potter said. “Having an impact on others at such a formative age, an impact that they’ll never forget — the teachers and staff members who are retiring have done just that.”
Present for the meeting were both Chick and Denman, to whom Superintendent Terri Holden presented plaques recognizing their long years of service.
Accepting her plaque, Denman said that, having grown up in the village, she initially thought she would teach in another community, but that she was ultimately drawn to Mills Lawn, because “this is where my heart is, and this is where we take care of the whole child.”
“I’ve felt so fortunate to be a part of this community and to be teaching in the community where I live, and to see the children as they grew,” she said.
Chick, in accepting her plaque, said she didn’t apply for her position in Yellow Springs Schools, but received a phone call from a past administrator offering her the job.
“I’d never even driven through Yellow Springs — next thing you know, it’s 36 years,” she said.
Chick mused on the grateful feedback she’s gotten from former students over the years, and the value she found in sending her own children to the local schools.
“Great community, great families, great friendships,” she said. “Thirty-six years — wow!”
Also present during the meeting, and welcomed by the board and district administrators, were Becca Huber, who will take the helm at Mills Lawn as principal this coming school year, and Joseph Bachman, who has been hired to succeed Chick as special education supervisor.
Facilities update
Director of Operations Jeff Eyrich gave an update on the ongoing facilities upgrades project, which is slated to be completed in late 2026.
At Mills Lawn, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and masonry work are ongoing; the big hurdle ahead for the next few months will be the renovation of both the school’s kitchen and main office. The main office staff and operations will move to the school’s current music room during the summer and may still be there at the start of the school year.
“Hopefully we can get them back for school, but if not, we’ll continue there until we can get that front office ready to go,” he said.
While the main office is being renovated, the main entrance to the school will also shift to the double doors outside the school’s music room and gym.
Superintendent Holden added that the district is “hoping for the best and planning for the worst,” and that the district will make an alternative plan for food service staff in the event that kitchen renovations are not completed by the start of the next school year in August.
At the East Enon Road campus, the former middle school “shoebox” building and former band room have been demolished; locker room walls, showers and restrooms have been removed near the schools’ original gym to make way for classroom and gym storage.
In the coming weeks, the community will “see a lot of dirt being moved and concrete poured … and you’ll start to see the walls being built for the new main office,” Eyrich said.
He added that the district has taken care to pre-purchase “long lead items” — that is, materials that often require a waiting period before they’re delivered — in order to keep the construction on track and on budget.
“With tariffs and all that happening, with the time it takes to get some of these items, we want to have most of that ready,” Eyrich said.
Financial update
Treasurer Jacob McGrath presented a financial report detailing revenues and expenditures for February and March; both line items, he said, were within a few percentage points of where they were expected to be according to the district’s November 2024 five-year forecast.
As the News has reported in the past, Ohio school districts are required by the state to complete five-year financial forecasts twice annually; the district’s next forecast is due at the end of May. However, the state’s two-year budget bill, which is under consideration by the Senate, currently includes a provision that would cap school budget carryover at 30% each year. (See the May 9 issue of the News for more on the provision.)
Because the budget is not expected to pass until June, McGrath recommended transferring money from the district’s general fund carryover to both the food service and athletic department accounts — both of which are typically underfunded through traditional revenues — for next year’s operations before the budget bill passes.
“With the pending legislation out there that may be looking at cash balances, if there’s any time to do it, it would be now,” McGrath said, later adding that, until the budget bill passes, “this is all speculation, so we have to work with the information that we know, and that’s why we have not taken any drastic measures.”
Without factoring in potential legislation, district revenues and expenditures are expected to keep pace with one another until 2029, when the district’s cash reserve balance will begin to dip; 10-year projections show a positive cash reserve balance through fiscal year 2034.
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