20-03-2025
Conneaut school board hears from Gateway principal, staff
CONNEAUT — Gateway Elementary School staff spoke to the Conneaut Area City School Board about progress on working with students, literacy education and upcoming school events at a Wednesday meeting.
Principal Dawn Zappitelli said the school recently received a Momentum Award from the state.
'That says we are doing what we need to do to start closing gaps in the progress that kids are making,' she said.
Every year, the school works to find new ways to help kids grow and develop, Zappitelli said.
'We have a large amount of students that have already met their year's growth goal,' she said.
Zappitelli said school staff are working to improve kids' behavior on the playground and outside.
'We're still finding that kids are having trouble,' she said. 'They don't really know how to play. As you're driving around town, you may not see them riding their bikes or playing kickball as much as they did in years past.'
Gateway started recruiting fifth graders to be junior coaches to teach younger students how to play, Zappitelli said.
'We brought in Playworks the last two years ... to talk about doing analysis of our playground, see some of our strengths, our weaknesses and what we can do better,' she said.
Gifted Intervention Specialist Christina Alessi and fifth grade teacher Adam Lytle presented on the fifth grade economic fair.
Lytle said the fair's goal is to teach students about saving, budgeting and entrepreneurship.
Students at Gateway start their own mock business, and have mock advertisements.
Lytle said last year's fair included bracelets, comic strips, balloon art and terracotta pots.
'You know how kids are,' he said. 'They're very good at using their imaginations.'
Alessi said the fair is funded by career grant funds from A-Tech.
Intervention Specialist Jodi Pasanen spoke on Gateway Grows Reading. She said the program focuses on advancing students' reading abilities, and each year, students read a book.
Pasanen said this year's book is The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling, which is an age-appropriate retelling of the legend of King Midas.
District Treasurer Jackie Miranda said district fiscal staff are eligible for an award from the Ohio Auditor of State's Office after the district received a clean audit.
'That's a feather in our cap for doing well,' she said. 'I'm very proud of our office and our staff for going through and following the guidelines that we put in place.'
Superintendent Lori Riley said the district's website will be overhauled to be more friendly to parents and administrators.
'We should be able to launch that by the summer,' she said.
Riley met with city leaders about getting a second school resource officer, she said.
Conneaut Finance Director John Williams is looking to see how that could be done, Riley said.
'We'd really like to have that second person in place to go back and forth between [Conneaut Middle School] and Gateway [Elementary School] by the beginning of next school year,' she said.
Board members discussed a 1.5-mill renewal levy the district will have on the May 6 ballot. The levy would collect $252,000 annually.
Board President Chris Brecht said people should understand property revaluations do not increase the levy's collection.
'It's the same amount that was originally approved, and it doesn't grow based on inflation or any other formula,' he said. 'We get the same amount that was approved almost 20 years ago, today.'
During his legislative report, board member Russ Coltman said the state's two-year budget should be done by June 30.
'We'll have lots more changes between here and there,' he said.
Coltman said school vouchers and real estate taxes have been on the table during budget discussions.
Riley said she is participating in webinars and calls to stay up to date with the state budget's impact on schools.
