Board pleased with approval (09/12/07)

BERNE - South Adams Schools officials were still glowing Tuesday night, savoring Friday's approval by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance of a $25 million construction project.

"I would like to publicly thank Cathy (Egolf, South Adams superintendent)," said board president Tony Mellencamp. "It's been a real team effort ... and Cathy is our team leader."

Mellencamp and Egolf traveled to Indianapolis last week for a meeting with DLGF commissioner Cheryl Musgrave. The meeting had been arranged by State Sen. David Ford and State Rep. Mike Ripley, who both took part in the session.

After Egolf and Mellencamp made the case for the project, which calls for a new kindergarten through grade eight building adjacent to the current South Adams High School, Musgrave signaled her approval.

"It was surreal when she said, "Let's just sign it,'" said Egolf.

"I looked at David Ford, and he winked at me," said Mellencamp.

With last week's state approval, work on the project is expected to begin by mid-December.

Board members gave formal approval Tuesday to a 2008 school budget of $13,073,116. Of that total, $8,058,015 will come from local property taxes.

Policy changes recommended by NEOLA, an Ohio-based legal consulting firm that specializes in school issues, were reviewed in draft form by the board.

Board members were intrigued by the possibility of creating two non-voting seats on the board for students from the high school student council, but were uncomfortable with a policy proposal that would allow board members to take part in meetings by telephone.

The policy changes will continue to be revised by Egolf and board member Steve Dobbler, working with NEOLA, before being brought to the board for formal adoption.

"In the end, we will have eliminated all of those (board policies) that are antiquated or illegal," Egolf said.

On a 5-1 vote, with Arlene Amstutz dissenting, the board agreed to restructure non-certified staff working with computer technology, creating the post of instructional technician and data specialist and having two computer service technicians. The change will result in a significant increase in pay for the computer technician positions, boosting it to $18 an hour.

Board member Myron Schwartz said, "$18 an hour is a steal." But Amstutz expressed concern about raising the pay of a few non-certified positions without looking at all non-certified pay levels.

Board member Steve Hampshire was absent from Tuesday's meeting.[[In-content Ad]]