The Ontonagon Area School District (OASD) Board went into closed session at their special board meeting on Monday. The purpose of the closed meeting was to give an evaluation of OASD Superintendent/Principal Jim Bobula.

The board evaluated Bobula for 2020-21 school year and found his performance to be rated as highly effective. The evaluation was conducted using the Michigan Association of School Board’s Superintendent Evaluation Instrument. The motion passed unanimously.

Commenting on behalf of the entire board, President Nancy Mattson stated, “Jim Bobula’s financial stewardship, relationships with the board, staff members, students, and community, and his leadership, especially during this time of COVID-19, have proven to be outstanding. Under Jim’s guidance, the district continues to move forward, in spite of the challenges during the pandemic.”

As the board has done last year and according to Mattson, “for many years,” Bobula was given an extra job and pay for being the 2020-21 school year special education director.

To replace the work that was done by former Guidance Counselor Tammy Lancioni, the board appointed Tim Routheaux, and Jodi Store to the duties that Lancioni did in the past.

The board also approved to amend “extra duty” contract for Jon Uotila, dean of students.

While the teachers were already given hazard pay Stipends for their work during the Coronavirus pandemic, during the last board meeting the administration and support staff were also given hazard pay. The $16,000 for this pay comes from the federal government’s CARES Act.

“The money for this is not coming from our General Fund, but from the CARES Act,” stated Mattson.

The board also extended the Christmas vacation for the students, as Dec. 21 and 22 will be non-session school days.

This additional two days off does not affect the mandatory days for a school year as the dtaff had “professional training.” 

“Therefore we were able to extend the Christmas vacation,” said Bobula.