July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.

Classes heating up at high school (08/29/06)

Jay School Board

By By JACK RONALD-

Jay Schools officials said Monday they're continuing to monitor temperatures at Jay County High School during the final push to complete a renovation project that includes an overhaul of the air conditioning, ventilation, and heating system.

Superintendent Barbara Downing told the Jay School Board classes have been moved in some cases to try to make students and staff more comfortable despite the lack of air conditioning. She added that she is also keeping in touch with the school nurses to make sure there are no serious problems.

Ron Krieg, director of buildings and grounds, is checking temperatures in the building about 2:30 p.m. each day. It hit 84 degrees in the high school on Monday. "The planetarium was the hot spot today," Krieg told the board.

"I feel like we're monitoring that," said Downing. "If we feel we need to do early release, we'll do that." She added, "Construction is going as planned."

Architects will be on hand at the Sept. 25 board meeting to provide a detailed update. The renovated swimming pool is expected to be filled on Oct. 1.

Downing also told board members she and Jay County Sheriff Todd Penrod had met at length with Brian Minish of Premier Ethanol to discuss concerns about traffic and safety procedures in connection with the ethanol plant being developed about half a mile from the high school.

"I left the meeting and so did Sheriff Penrod with the thought that the proposed ethanol plant has safety in mind and is not a threat to the high school," she said.

The plant is expected to generate about 75 to 80 trucks per day in additional traffic as corn is brought in. About 90 percent of the finished ethanol product will be shipped out by rail, Downing said.

She reported that enrollment in the school corporation as of Friday was 3,857, down slightly from last year's official count of 3,871. Elementary enrollment was down, while high school enrollment is up a bit.

Initial figures showed JCHS enrollment of 1,215, up from 1,187 last year. The largest elementary enrollment was at General Shanks Elementary School with 341 students. Pennville Elementary School is the smallest in the system with 105 students.

Downing also walked board members through the often complex and overlapping rules on school accountability on the state and federal levels. Public Law 221 set accountability standards at the state level, while No Child Left Behind set federal standards. The two don't completely mesh yet, making it difficult to get a single yardstick for measuring school performance.

Under Public Law 221 standards, Bloomfield Elementary School is ranked as "exemplary," while General Shanks and Redkey Elementary School are ranked as "commendable." All other schools and the corporation as a whole are ranked in the "watch" category.

"We do not have any school in the lowest category," said Downing.

In other business, the board:

•Learned the July state basic grant funds had been received.

•Agreed to advertise for an auction on Oct. 20 to sell surplus school property.

•Scheduled a special board meeting for Sept. 25, while limiting the Sept. 18 meeting to approval of the 2007 budget. The change was made due to scheduling conflicts on the part of board members.

•Accepted the resignations of David Reece, radio/TV director at JCHS, Emily Funk, special education teacher at JCHS; Renee Drumm, attendance office secretary at JCHS; Lisa Mann, English teacher at West Jay Middle School; Bobbi Jellison, custodian at East Jay Middle School; Nancy Hummer-Isaac, bus driver; Henry Kunkler, bus driver; Amie Billington, instructional assistant at JCHS; and Jill Goetz, food service worker at Westlawn Elementary School.

•Approved medical leave requests submitted by Bethany Johnson, Westlawn; Stacy Campbell, Redkey; Thelma Myers, East Elementary School; and Doris Muhlenkamp, Bloomfield.

•Approved the hiring of Carrie Fifer Byrum, third grade teacher at Bloomfield; Brooke Geesaman, fifth grade teacher at East; Chelsee Rains, extended day kindergarten teacher at East and General Shanks; Janet Dues, food service manager at East; Marie Bruggeman, part-time instructional assistant at East; Lois Ann Lugar, part-time food service employee at General Shanks; Ida Houston, English as a second language teacher for the district; William Paul Saxman, fourth grade teacher, Pennville Elementary School; Suzanne Durkovich, pilot early intervention project teacher for Westlawn, Redkey, and General Shanks; Kindra VanSkyock Stouder, fifth grade teacher at Redkey; Jenny Cornett, part-time special education teacher at Redkey; Sara Wolf, second grade and extended day kindergarten teacher at Westlawn and Redkey; Catherine M. Fugiett, librarian at Redkey and Westlawn; LaNae Abnet, eighth grade English teacher at East Jay; Amy Bergman, sixth grade science teacher at East Jay; Annette Proefrock, eighth grade math and science teacher at East Jay; Nicole Liter, eighth grade mat teacher at West Jay; Diana Kellermeyer, English teacher at West Jay; Kathryn Nunley, part-time family consumer science teacher and part-time special education teacher at West Jay and JCHS; Loretta Reece, radio and TV teacher at JCHS; Larry Sprunger, math teacher at JCHS; Melissa Muhlenkamp, vocational agriculture teacher at JCHS; Brandy Chowning, attendance office secretary at JCHS; Jacqueline Price, instructional assistant and job coach at JCHS; Mary Jutte, bus driver; Nancy Valentine, bus driver; Nicole Byers, bus driver; Lisa Robbins, full-time food service at JCHS; Sandy Huelskamp, full-time food service at East; and Paul Lake, bus driver.

•Accepted extra-curricular activities resignations from Emily Funk, assistant girls' swim coach at JCHS; James Myers, assistant eighth grade football coach at West Jay; Janice Miller, intramural sponsor at Bloomfield; Andrea Oswalt, elementary cheer sponsor at East; and Karen Storie, sixth grade team leader at West Jay.

•Approved extra-curricular activities contracts for Michael Hunt, eighth grade football coach at East Jay; Rick Wellman, eighth grade assistant football coach at East Jay; Jack Houck, seventh grade football coach at East Jay; Eric Butcher, seventh grade assistant football coach at East Jay; Ed Geesaman, eighth grade volleyball coach at East Jay; Rebecca Wellman, seventh grade volleyball coach at East Jay; Beth Stephen, sixth grade volleyball coach at East Jay; Kim Bye, assistant cross country coach at East Jay; Donna White, sixth grade team leader at West Jay; Violet Current, eighth grade volleyball coach at West Jay; Christine Garringer, seventh grade volleyball coach at West Jay; James S. Myers II, eighth grade football coach at West Jay; Zeb Sutton, seventh grade football coach at West Jay; Eric Griffin, seventh grade assistant football coach at West Jay; Greg Garringer, cross country coach at West Jay; Adam Foster, volunteer football coach at JCHS; Ryan Younts, volunteer football coach at JCHS; Mark Aaron Hoevel, volunteer boys' soccer coach at JCHS; and Jan Rittenhouse, junior class sponsor at JCHS.

•Approved ABE-GED teacher contracts for Dana McClung, Gary Tarr, and John Ferguson.

•Approved Kids Hope USA volunteers as presented.

•Approved final summer session driver's education contracts for Dennis Dwiggins and Ted Habegger.

•Approved the 2006 gifted and talented grant and the 2006 Title II part A grant as presented by Downing.[[In-content Ad]]The 2007 Jay Schools budget moved through a public hearing Monday without comment from the public.

The budget, which will be adopted on Sept. 18, calls for total school expenditures of $31,301,272. That's up 5.4 percent from the 2006 budget.

Here's how that total budget breaks down:

• General fund - $23,425,500, up 2.5 percent.

• Debt service fund - $1,998,900, up 60.6 percent.

• Retirement/severance pension debt - $555,172, no change.

• Capital projects fund - $2,880,000, up 6.9 percent.

• Transportation fund - $1,747,700, up 4.8 percent.

• Bus replacement fund - $444,000, up 2.8 percent.

• Special education/pre-school fund - $250,000, up 4.2 percent.

The budget has an advertised property tax rate of $2.1374 per $100 assessed valuation, but the advertised rate always drops after assessment figures are updated and the budget receives state approval. For instance, in 2006 a rate of more than $2.04 was advertised but the actual rate was finalized at $1.4096.
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