School parking lots set for paving (2/24/04)

It’s going to be a big summer for paving parking lots.

The Jay School Board authorized advertising for bids to renovate the Jay County High School lot, and resurfacing of the East Jay Middle School lot also is scheduled as part of the school construction project.

Jay School Corporation business manager Brad DeRome told board members Monday the EJMS work also will be coordinated with the city of Portland’s re-paving of River Road and the alley near the Jay County Community Center.

“It’s very expensive to do this parking lot (the north lot at JCHS),” superintendent Barbara Downing said. “I’m looking at cost containment.

Kari Vilamaa of the architectural firm of Barton-Coe-Vilamaa, Fort Wayne, estimated work on the main lot at the high school will cost about $310,000. The project also is being advertised with two optional alternatives which would add parking on the south and east sides of the building.

One option, which would add parking near the front office entrance and spaces close to the building on the south, would cost an estimated $35,000.

A second option, which would create a new lot in what is now a grassy area on the south side of the building, would cost an estimated $65,000, Vilamaa said.

Vilamaa’s plans call for eliminating concrete “islands” in the north lot and milling off about two and a half inches of the old pavement.

While engineers originally believed the north lot lacked a solid base, borings indicated the parking lot has 10 to 11 inches of asphalt on top of three inches of stone. “We changed our approach” after learning that, Vilamaa said.

Board members expressed some skepticism about the alternate options, particularly the proposed south lot which could force the relocation of a practice soccer field.

Plans call for bids to be opened on March 16 and contracts to be awarded April 26. Construction would start June 7 and would be completed by Aug. 1.

At DeRome’s urging, the board approved the creation of a “rainy day” fund in the school’s accounts, transferring $60,000 of unused and unencumbered funds from the debt service fund. The money became available because of lower interest rates in the school corporation’s temporary borrowing.

Money can only be moved into the account after the end of the school system’s fiscal year if funds are available.

As established by the board, the fund can be used only for transportation operating expenses, forward funding of retirement obligations, emergency small equipment purchases or emergency capital repairs.

Any expenditure from the “rainy day” fund would require board approval.

“This board and future boards would have to discipline themselves,” said board president Duane Starr, “to use this only as a last resort, sort of like money hidden away in a sock somewhere.”

DeRome reported that the school corporation did not receive its state basic grant this month and borrowed $1.8 million from the Indiana Bond Bank in January. He expects the system will borrow more funds in March, April and May, paying them back by the end of the year.

ISTEP Plus scores for students in grades four, five, seven and nine were reviewed for the board by Downing. In all but grade nine, Jay students tested above the state averages in both math and English.

“I was very happy with how many of our students performed,” Downing said.

The superintendent had words of praise for Sam Shoemaker, who submitted his retirement resignation Monday.

Shoemaker, executive director of the John Jay Center for Learning, has been adult education director, assistant principal of JCHS and principal of Pennville High School. He has been with the school corporation for 45 years.

“Sam has brought so much energy, so much vitality to our district,” she said, noting that he’s a past recipient of the Portland Area Chamber of Commerce citizen of the year award and had been honored as the assistant principal of the year for the state of Indiana.

Board members also accepted the retirement resignation of longtime teacher Hilda Cheeseman and the resignation of Sarah Harris as part-time transportation secretary and part-time transportation instructional assistant.

In other business, the board:

• Heard an update on negotiations with the Jay Classroom Teachers Association. Four negotiation sessions were held in February, one of them lasting all day. “We have no tentative agreement,” Downing said.

• Gave a standing ovation to the staff, parents and students at Westlawn Elementary School for being recognized by the International Reading Association. “We’re so proud of your efforts,” Downing said. “You have a real passion about teaching children in a different way.”

• Granted a medical leave request for Sharon Newman beginning March 1.

• Hired Lisa Gasca as part-time secretary at General Shanks Elementary School and Jennifer Blackford as Title I liaison between the Youth Service Bureau and the school corporation.

• Unanimously approved extracurricular contracts for Cory Ward as assistant wrestling coach at West Jay Middle School, Violet Current as eighth grade girls’ track coach at WJMS, Alice Imel as volunteer middle school assistant swim coach, Teresa Kelly as volunteer middle school assistant swim coach, Dave Bergman as assistant boys’ golf coach at JCHS, Amy Hawbaker as assistant softball coach at JCHS, Barbara Stultz as varsity girls’ tennis coach at JCHS, and Bob Lake as assistant girls’ track coach at JCHS.

• Approved an extracurricular contract for Doug Arbuckle as assistant softball coach at JCHS on a 5-2 vote with board members Jay Halstead and Mike Shannon dissenting.

• Approved field trip requests by JCHS Latin Club members to the state convention in Bloomington on March 12 and 13 and by the JCHS varsity cheerleading squad to summer cheerleading camp at Lexington, Ky., July 11 through 14.

• Appointed Susan McCombs and John Miskinis to the Dunkirk City Public Library Board for two-year terms.

• Formally accepted a $20,000 grant for library materials from The Portland Foundation.[[In-content Ad]]A book on growing up under apartheid in South Africa has been removed from the Honors English curriculum at Jay County High School after school board members objected to passages they found offensive.

“Kaffir Boy” by Mark Mathabane has been used by the JCHS English department for more than 10 years.

“Last year we received a complaint about a book that was an assigned reading,” board president Duane Starr said Monday night. “It reared its ugly head again this year.”

Starr indicated that an alternative reading assignment was developed last year but that “Kaffir Boy” was assigned again this school year.

“I’m an ex-sailor, and I was offended,” said board member Mike Shannon, who said he had read a portion of the passage in question.

First published in 1986, Mathabane’s account of his childhood in poverty and racially restricted South Africa has been the subject of controversy in other school systems.

“I wasn’t altogether surprised by the parents’ objections,” Mathabane wrote in 1999 for The Washington Post. “The raw emotions and experiences in ‘Kaffir Boy,’ which constitute the core of its power and appeal, have made the book controversial since its publication.”

A portion of the book, roughly three pages long, is a graphic account of an incident which occurred when Mathabane was 7 years old and was driven by hunger to “tag along with a ring of boys who prostituted themselves for food.” The book recounts a scene involving boys and men at a migrant workers’ hostel.

“One of the men came after me, and I bolted out of the hostel,” Mathabane wrote in 1999. “I fled because I knew that what the men were doing to the boys was wrong, and recalled my parents telling me never to do wrong things. I was called a fool — and shunned — by those boys afterward. Resisting peer pressure is one of the toughest things for young people to do. That is the lesson of the prostitution scene.”

In a letter to school superintendent Barbara Downing, English department faculty members said students who found “Kaffir Boy” offensive had the option to read another book.

“‘Kaffir Boy’” was not a requirement of the class,” they wrote. Calling it a matter of censorship, they added, “We feel, despite assurances otherwise, that this sets a dangerous precedent.”

“I don’t feel that’s censorship at all,” said Starr. He challenged the English faculty members to read the offending passages aloud at a public meeting.

“I assure you Mr. (Jack) Ronald wouldn’t publish it in the newspaper, and Mr. (Rob) Weaver wouldn’t put it on the radio,” Starr said.