District on track to balance budget for this fiscal year

Three people were honored for their achievements at the Dec. 20 Batavia School Board Meeting.

Melissa Copestick is a seventh grade language arts teacher at Batavia Middle School. She was one of 81 teachers nationwide named as a National Board Certified Teacher by The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

This assessment required more than 100 hours of work and took Copestick a year to complete. She was required to submit four portfolios, including three video recordings of her classroom work and one of her accomplishments outside of the classroom.

She also had to complete six exercises, each taking 30 minutes, in her content area.

Michael Enriquez, board vice-president, said that Copestick is one of only eight local teachers to earn the award this year.

“You’re in an elite crowd,” he told her.

Sarah Gadbury, a Batavia High School art teacher, recognized a local businessman for his contributions to her students.

John Dingo is a portrait artist and owner of Dingo Photography and Imaging in Batavia.

Dingo provided internships at his business for several art students who wanted to study photography in depth. Gadbury read several letters from students who interned with Dingo. One student, Batavia senior Adam Lyons, wrote that Dingo was an “inspiration.”

Finally, nine-year-old Keagan Gadbury from Batavia Elementary won $100 for himself and $500 for the school art department from Park National Bank in Eastgate.

Elementary students from local schools competed for the right to be the designer of the bank’s holiday cards. Gadbury’s art now graces the cards sent out by the bank for this holiday season.

In other business:

District treasurer Michael Ashmore reported that Batavia remains on track to balance its budget this fiscal year. The long range forecast, however, is not so positive.

He told the school board that by next year he expects the district to have a $1.5 million deficit because of rising costs and a loss of tax money on the local and state level.

The district is looking to put an operating levy on the ballot in May.