July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
South Adams project gets green light (06/15/07)
South Adams School Board
By By JACK RONALD-
BERNE - The word came late Thursday afternoon.
Though the count of petitions wasn't yet officially complete, there was a clear winner. County officials contacted South Adams Schools superintendent Cathy Egolf with the news that yellow petitions in support of a $25 million school construction project outnumbered blue petitions in opposition by roughly 2,000 to 600.
"That's close to 80 percent," Egolf said this morning. "We had great support from both Geneva and Berne."
The project, which had been debated for months but prompted a remonstrance petition this spring, will replace the elementary school in Berne and the middle school in Geneva with a new pre-kindergarten through grade 8 facility connected to South Adams High School on its campus in Berne.
Both of the existing schools are aging badly and have been a constant drain in terms of maintenance and energy inefficiency.
Throughout the petition drive, the school corporation has continued meeting with architects on the design-build project so that things can move forward as quickly as possible.
Prior to the remonstrance, school officials had hoped that initial construction work could begin in August. Instead, because of the delay for the petition drives, that work won't begin until late December or early January, when winter weather will be a factor.
Originally, school officials hoped that students would be in the new building in August of 2008. Now it looks as if it will be early in 2009 before that happens.
"The upside is we are now South Adams," Egolf said. "I really hear the community talking about South Adams" rather than Berne or Geneva. "I think the community really feels ownership."
"As president of the board, I'd like to thank all involved in the petition drive," Tony Mellencamp said this morning. "Now we have to get on with the important work to be done ... for everyone."
Egolf also said today that Brent Lehman, who has been principal at South Adams Junior-Senior High School, has been hired as assistant principal at Norwell High School. Nicholas Eccles was hired as the new principal at South Adams earlier this week.[[In-content Ad]]
Though the count of petitions wasn't yet officially complete, there was a clear winner. County officials contacted South Adams Schools superintendent Cathy Egolf with the news that yellow petitions in support of a $25 million school construction project outnumbered blue petitions in opposition by roughly 2,000 to 600.
"That's close to 80 percent," Egolf said this morning. "We had great support from both Geneva and Berne."
The project, which had been debated for months but prompted a remonstrance petition this spring, will replace the elementary school in Berne and the middle school in Geneva with a new pre-kindergarten through grade 8 facility connected to South Adams High School on its campus in Berne.
Both of the existing schools are aging badly and have been a constant drain in terms of maintenance and energy inefficiency.
Throughout the petition drive, the school corporation has continued meeting with architects on the design-build project so that things can move forward as quickly as possible.
Prior to the remonstrance, school officials had hoped that initial construction work could begin in August. Instead, because of the delay for the petition drives, that work won't begin until late December or early January, when winter weather will be a factor.
Originally, school officials hoped that students would be in the new building in August of 2008. Now it looks as if it will be early in 2009 before that happens.
"The upside is we are now South Adams," Egolf said. "I really hear the community talking about South Adams" rather than Berne or Geneva. "I think the community really feels ownership."
"As president of the board, I'd like to thank all involved in the petition drive," Tony Mellencamp said this morning. "Now we have to get on with the important work to be done ... for everyone."
Egolf also said today that Brent Lehman, who has been principal at South Adams Junior-Senior High School, has been hired as assistant principal at Norwell High School. Nicholas Eccles was hired as the new principal at South Adams earlier this week.[[In-content Ad]]
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