One bidder for work at West Jay

The sole bid for the renovation and overhaul of the heating and cooling system at West Jay Middle School was accepted Monday by the Jay School Board.
Though more than 15 contractors and sub-contractors attended a pre-bid meeting on the geo-thermal project several weeks ago, only A. Hattersley Co., Fort Wayne, submitted a bid.
That bid — $1,499,503 — was slightly below the engineers’ estimate.
“We would have liked some more competition,” said engineer Woody Holm of Stair Associates Inc. But he expressed approval of both the bid amount and Hattersley as a contractor. The company was the prime contractor on HVAC work at East, Redkey, and Westlawn elementaries over the past two years.
Alan Stewart of Hattlersley told the board the company hopes to have the new air conditioning system installed before the start of school in August, with all work on the project finished by the end of 2012 or by January of 2013.
The project is expected to be financed by a 15-year loan from First Bank of Berne at 3.35 percent interest. First Bank of Berne provided the lowest quote for the loan, and several banks declined to offer quotes for a fixed-rate loan of that term, citing economic uncertainty.
The loan will be paid off with funds from the capital projects fund.
Approval of the contract and loan came on a 5-1 vote, with board member Jim Sanders dissenting. Board member Mike Masters was absent. Sanders has opposed borrowing for the project.
The board was unanimous in approving property casualty and workers’ compensation insurance quotes for the coming year. Property casualty coverage will be with Indiana Insurance, through First Merchants Insurance Service, at a cost of $134,188. Workers’ compensation coverage will be with Accident Fund, through First Merchants, at a cost of $75,617.
The combined cost is $209,805 for the year, which business manager Brad DeRome noted is up from last year but far below 2005-2006 when premiums topped out at $325,889.
Board members reviewed current policy on filling administrative staffing vacancies in the wake of complaints about the lack of public input on the hiring of a new principal at Judge Haynes Elementary School.
Superintendent Tim Long noted that administrative staffing has been handled in a number of different ways, sometimes with committees of parents and faculty involved and sometimes by moving administrators internally from one post to another.
“There’s been a variety of things done,” Long said. “We want to hire the best people we can. … On the process side, maybe we could have done some things differently.”
Long and board members indicated they will continue to review the issue in the future.
In other business, the board:
•Suspended its normal rules to adopt minor changes in school Internet use policy to bring it into compliance with changes in the Child Internet Protection Act. The rules were suspended because the policy change must be in place by July 1. Normally, policy changes are presented at one meeting then approved at a later meeting. With no other meetings scheduled in June, that procedure was not possible.
•Heard DeRome outline the 2013 budget calendar. He’ll seek permission to advertise the next school budget at the board’s Aug. 6 meeting, a public hearing will be held on Aug. 20, and the budget will be adopted on Sept. 17.
•Approved paying claims on a 5-1 vote with Sanders dissenting. Sanders and Long sparred over whether administrators and faculty on overseas exchange trips should be paid during their absence. Long noted that those staff members are supervising Jay Schools students on those trips and that all such trips are first approved by the board.
•Hired Holly Johnson as a special education teacher, Lynn Duffy as a part-time custodian at West Jay, Nicole Chapman as kitchen manager at West Jay, Angie Louck as an instructional assistant at Westlawn, Brandy Foster as an instructional assistant at General Shanks Elementary School, Emily Laux as a Reading Recovery teacher at Bloomfield and Pennville elementaries, Jessica Rowles as a gifted and talented teacher at East, Zachary Keller as a math teacher at Jay County High School, Taryn Koontz as an art teacher at East Jay Middle School, Joey Coons as a special education instructional assistant at Westlawn, Mayra Ronquillo as a pre-school instructional assistant, Autumn Harley as a pre-school teacher, and Dennis Dwiggins and Ted Habegger as driver’s education teachers.
•Accepted the resignations of Josh Hendrixson as an instructional assistant at JCHS, Tim Hildebrand as a math teacher at JCHS, and Emilie Garringer as a choir teacher at East Jay and JCHS.
•Approved extracurricular assignments for Nicholas Ehrhart as assistant swim coach at Eat Jay, William Bice as archery coach at East Jay, Lori Sims as sponsor of the yearbook and newspaper at East Jay, Jessie Mangus as gifted and talented coordinator at East, Andrea Oswalt as volunteer cheerleading coach at JCHS, Amanda Omstead as assistant cross country coach at East Jay, and Landon Martin as assistant seventh grade football coach at East Jay.
•Accepted extracurricular resignations from Leah Smith as sixth grade girls’ basketball coach at East Jay, Christy Shauver as sixth grade volleyball coach at East Jay, Deidre Rosenbeck as assistant cross country coach at East Jay, Ben Dues as senior class sponsor and student council adviser at JCHS, Amy Bergman as eighth grade girls’ basketball coach at East Jay, Chrissy Krieg as JAYKOM sponsor at JCHS, and Emilie Garringer as a color guard coordinator at JCHS.
•Approved field trips by the JCHS FFA to the national convention and the JCHS technical theater group to the Stratford Festival in Ontario in October.
•Approved bus requests by Jay County 4-H, the summer swim team, and the Girl Scouts.

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