Board says no to debt (03/17/2009)

Jay School Board members rejected the idea of taking on more debt Monday night.

On a 5-2 vote, the board decided not to use a financing system known as Senate Bill 516 to spread the cost of heating, ventilation and air conditioning improvements at East Elementary School over a 10-year period.

The East project was the first in a series of HVAC projects involving Redkey, Pennville, and Westlawn elementaries that superintendent Tim Long had proposed addressing by means of Senate Bill 516.

"That East project is not going to happen this year, and it's not going to happen through 516," Long said after the vote.

Instead, the boiler work at East will be the first in a series of one-at-a-time HVAC upgrades to be paid for from the school corporation's capital projects fund.

It will have to wait until the next budget year before the project can be taken on.

"The challenge for me is to figure out how to make it happen in a way that's palatable to the board," said Long. "We'll go back to the drawing board."

Monday's vote came after an hour-long board discussion about how to approach the needed school improvements.

A similar hour-long discussion took place at the February board meeting.

Board president Bryan Alexander, who with Mike Shannon voted in support of using 516 financing, maintained that spreading the cost over 10 years makes more sense from a cash flow standpoint and would allow the improvements to be made more rapidly.

"If we do these things and do them one at a time, they're not going to get done in my tenure on the board," said Alexander. "I'd like to see them through."

"Nobody's bending anybody's arm here," said Long. "This is about philosophy."

But board members Mike Masters and Jay Halstead were firm in their opposition.

"Somehow we just keep adding and adding (debt)," said Masters. "I'm going to vote no to a 516 tonight. I think the conversation is over."

Masters and Halstead were joined by board members Larry Paxson, Jim Sanders, and Greg Wellman in opposition to the proposal.

Sanders indicated he was uncomfortable with the 516 approach, which differs from the traditional design-spec-bid approach to capital projects and allows firms to bid based upon their own designed solutions to HVAC problems.

"I really don't like the 'solutions' bid," said Sanders. "I like to look at apples to apples. ... I cannot make a proper comparison."

Performance Services and Honeywell had both submitted bids on the East work under the 516 process. Honeywell's bid was the lower one, but the bid by Performance Services was recommended by the school corporation's architect because it was considered the better solution.

In other business, the board:

•Applied for a waiver of canceled school days, making up six of the nine days that have been lost. That would make the last day for students June 4 and the last day for teachers June 5.

•Approved contracts for Ted Habegger and Dennis Dwiggins to teach driver's education at Jay County High School.

•Approved the retirements of Thelma Cook as a custodian at East Elementary and Terry Cheek as a history teacher at West Jay Middle School.

•Approved a leave of absence for Stephen Sommerfield, industrial technology teacher at both middle schools.

•Approved the resignations and terminations of Ed Paxson as a vocational agriculture teacher at JCHS and Denise Rogers as a secretary at Redkey Elementary School.

•Approved extracurricular assignments for Brittany O'Dell as girls' track coach at West Jay, Ryan VanSkyock as volunteer assistant girls' track coach at JCHS, and Richard Jones as volunteer assistant boys' track coach at JCHS.

•Authorized field trips by the eighth grade to Washington, D.C., the JCHS cheerleaders to the University of Kentucky, the fifth grade at General Shanks Elementary School to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, and JCHS physics students to Cedar Point.

•Approved a bus request by the Jay Community Center.

•Accepted the donation of a flag pole for East Jay Middle School from the Portland Evening Optimist Club and an anonymous donation to the alternative placement program.[[In-content Ad]]"It really is a great program," 20-year-old Casey Brenner told the Jay School Board Monday night. "I wouldn't want anything to happen to it."

The program is called Credit Recovery and along with the Freshman Academy at Jay County High School it's increasing the odds for student success.

Brenner, Dunkirk, told the board she was one credit short of graduating with her class in 2007. By using the PLATO learning software on the high school's computers at her own pace, she was able to master algebra and earn the credit she needed for her diploma.

"I understand math so much better now," she said. "It teaches you so much."

Guidance director Vickie Reitz said 124 credits have been earned by students since Credit Recovery was implemented last year.

While Credit Recovery is targeted on students nearing the end of their high school career who need to make up credits, the Freshman Academy focuses on building student success from the start of the high school experience.

Freshman Academy coordinator Dolphus Stephens noted that the greatest loss of students to dropping out occurs between the freshman and sophomore years. It's that loss which is targeted by the academy.

Twelve teachers working in three teams spend two periods a day with freshmen in a rigorous program that emphasizes high standards and intense levels of communication between teachers and students and teachers and parents.

"We're not lowering standards. We're raising expectations," said Stephens.

Part of that is the elimination of the grade D from the report card.

"We're not accepting a D," said Stephens. "A D's not passing."

Instead, students at risk of failing are given a grade of IP - In Progress - and have two weeks to raise their grades to a passing C.

Stephens said 44 percent of those receiving an IP grade were able to bring it up to a C within the two weeks. Students must pass 7 of 9 classes to participate in extracurricular activities.

"There's a lot of conferencing and parent communication going on," he said. The Freshman Academy Boosters organization has been formed, following the pattern of a traditional PTO, to provide support.

"The key is everybody working together," said Stephens.

Though only in its second year, the Freshman Academy is already making strides in reducing student failure rates.

In a typical year, for example, 48 to 50 percent of freshmen might fail the first semester of algebra at JCHS. This year, the failure level dropped to 18 percent. Similar gains were posted in biology and English. The program also covers computers and careers.

"This is not just a program in name," said superintendent Tim Long. "What they're doing is not accepting mediocrity and not accepting failure."

JCHS principal Phil Ford was enthusiastic in his praise. "I've never seen a program be as effective immediately as this program has been," he said. "This has been everything it was supposed to be and more. ... It's about making kids successful."