Debate on evaluator

A new state evaluation process could mean adding an administrative position in the Jay School Corporation.
But members of the Jay School Board said Monday they want to continue to explore the possibility of contracting with an outside firm to evaluate the district’s teachers and building administrators.
Superintendent Tim Long, who had requested in February that the board approve creation of the position of RISE coordinator.
RISE is the state’s new evaluation and development system, which will be implemented during the 2012-13 school year.
Long, who had recommended Feb. 27 that the position be paid on a teacher’s pay scale, said Monday those plans had changed.
“The teachers … made it clear they don’t want teachers to evaluate teachers,” Long said.
 “We would … like to make this an administrative position.”
Long said that the individual being hired would focus on evaluation of approximately 77 certified personnel at Jay County High School.
Certified employees at the district’s elementary and middle schools would be handled by existing staff.
The new system will also spark changes in the district’s pay scale at the end of the current contract with the Jay Classroom Teachers Association, as compensation can no longer be based on years of service.
Long asked for and received permission to advertise the RISE coordinator position, but board members, including Jim Sanders, made it clear they want to explore using contract labor to do the evaluations.
“I’m not interested in adding another administrative position,” Sanders said.
Board member Mike Shannon had asked Long to explore that possibility at the board’s Feb. 27 meeting, and Mike Masters said Monday he believes it is an option that should be probed.
Also Monday, the board moved forward with a major heating and cooling project for West Jay Middle School in Dunkirk.
The project, which will be a maximum of $1.5 million, will be financed and paid for through the corporation’s capital projects fund.
Board members, with Sanders and Masters dissenting, approved the project during their last meeting. The board voted 5-0 Monday, with Sanders joining, to set a hearing on the project for Monday, March 26 at 6 p.m.
Work will include a closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling system and the project will be financed for a 15-year term. Payments will be made from the district’s capital improvement fund. Total indebtedness for the school corporation will be about $49.5 million after the project is completed.
Members of the board also agreed Monday to move ahead with the purchase of 16 school buses (14 full-size and two smaller buses) at a cost of $1,466,253. Of the total, $810,644 will be paid from the corporation’s bus replacement fund, while $655,609 will be financed. That financing will be through MainSource Bank, Portland, at a rate of 2.15 percent over four years. Over the term of the loan, the corporation will pay about $32,000 in interest.
In other business, board members:
•Approved courses being offered during summer school, as presented by assistant superintendent Wood Barwick. Courses at Jay County High School will include English 9-12, Algebra 1, U.S. Government, SAE Agriculture, Band (high school/middle school), Biology 1, Reading and Economics.
•Appointed Portland resident Barry Hudson as the school’s representative to the Portland Park Board. Hudson and his family donated the land that was developed into Hudson Family Park and lobbied the park board last year to consider relocating Portland Pool to the new park.
•Agreed to expand the summer lunch program to a fifth elementary school in 2012. School-age kids may eat a free lunch during a seven-week span (June 4-July 20) at Pennville, Westlawn, Judge Haynes, Redkey and General Shanks elementary schools. General Shanks was added to the lineup this year.
Adults with students may purchase a lunch for $3.25. During 2011, a total of 7,263 lunches were served to students, with 376 adult lunches. The program had $25,125 in revenue, most of which comes from federal funding, and $20,347 in expenses, for a net surplus of $4,778.
•Heard Long report that the first round of ISTEP-Plus testing was done last week and that he believes the corporation’s efforts in that area will pay off. “We feel really good about the way things are going,” Long said.
•Learned it is likely that the corporation’s first property tax draw, normally paid in early June, could be delayed because of new state legislation that could cause tax bills to go out later than normal.
If the tax funds are late, the corporation could be forced to borrow funds from the Indiana Bond Bank as a cash-flow measure, corporation business manager Brad DeRome said Monday.
•Voted to hire four new employees, including Karla Munday, part-time cook, West Jay Middle School; Nicole Chapman, cook, West Jay; and Ted Habegger and Dennis Dwiggins, driver training instructors, Jay County High School.
•Approved retirements for Karen Mettler, fourth grade teacher at East Elementary School and Shirley French, special education teacher at JCHS, effective at the end of the school year.
•Approved extra-curricular activity assignments for Cory Locke, volunteer assistant baseball coach, JCHS; Joni Penrod, volunteer cheerleading coach, JCHS; and Mark “Aaron” Hoevel, volunteer girls tennis coach, JCHS.
•Gave permission for DeRome to advertise for the purchase of a new car for driver education. DeRome asked for permission to advertise for a mid-size car such as a Chevrolet Malibu or Impala, a Ford Fusion or a Chrysler 200. DeRome’s estimate for the new or late-model vehicle is $15,000 to $19,500. DeRome recommended that a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt currently being used by driver education students be kept by the school corporation and used for employee travel instead of paying mileage for those employees to use their personal vehicles.
•Accepted a donation of $400 from the Church of the Brethren, Portland, for East Elementary.[[In-content Ad]]