BLANCHESTER — “This is the kind of bill I would write if I was in our state legislature,” said Blanchester school board member member Chuck Shonkwiler about Ohio Senate Bill 216.

The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Matt Huffman (R-Lima), was discussed during the legislative report during Monday night’s meeting. Introduced on Oct. 10, it would make a variety of changes to Ohio law regarding continuing contracts for non-employees, teachers’ licensure and evaluation, aide permits, student testing, and college credit plus programs.

“I think this is the kind of thing that is addressing issues I have with how the state deals with things,” said Shonkwiler.

According to him, the bill would eliminate long-term sublicenses and consolidates all teachers licenses into grade bands — K-8 and 6-12. He said the district has been having trouble hiring new staff members since their license didn’t cover the right student age.

“I would’ve personally liked to have seen this done 10 years ago,” he said. “But at least someone is trying to address it.”

He hopes the board will look at the bill and vote to support it at the next school board meeting, at 5 p.m. on Dec. 18.