April 12, 2017 at 4:42 a.m.
SA finalizes sale
Schools brought in $445,148 for 4.81 acres
SA finalizes sale
Copyright 2017, The Commercial Review
All Rights Reserved
BERNE — The “for sale” sign is finally down.
South Adams School Board learned Tuesday that its sale of the former elementary school property to Biggs Indiana Properties became official Monday.
It also approved resurfacing of the track and discussed several other projects.
Superintendent Scott Litwiller reported that board president Arlene Amstutz signed the closing documents for the sale of the 4.81 acres located at the northwest corner of U.S. 27 and Indiana 218. The property used to be home to South Adams Elementary School, but that building was torn down after the 2009 construction of the new elementary/middle school building connected to the high school to create a single campus on the south side of Berne. (The former middle school building was located in Geneva.)
Biggs purchased the property for $375,000, with an additional $100,000 coming from Berne Community Development Corporation. After broker fees and closing costs, South Adams Schools made $445,148 on the sale.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” said Litwiller. “We knew it was going to happen and it finally happened.”
The board had been looking at several options for the school track, and on Tuesday settled on grinding down the current six-lane track, adding a new layer of asphalt and then putting on a new braided rubber surface. Brooks Construction of Fort Wayne and Leslie Coatings of Indianapolis will handle the work, which will cost a total of $117,922.
South Adams already had $96,000 set aside for the project, and the remaining $22,000 will come from encumbered funds from 2009 construction.
Litwiller also reported that Allen County Builders was awarded the general trades contract for the high school renovation project that is slated for this summer. That work, which will include creating a new high school office and renovating some classrooms around the media center, is slated to begin as soon as school lets out in May.
While looking forward to that work this year, Litwiller also asked the board to consider what projects should take priority in the future. His suggestion was that renovation of the remaining classrooms around the media center be completed in 2018. That work was originally all planned for this summer, but the nearly $2 million South Adams saved by refinancing bonds was not enough to cover the full project.
Amstutz, who with her fellow board members spent the day visiting the schools, agreed with Litwiller’s assessment.
“After the tours that we’ve taken today I think it’s very evident … we need to really look at finishing that shortly so that it doesn’t become such a big span between finishing that whole area,” she said.
In other business, the board:
•Accepted the resignations of boys basketball coach Andy Brown, high school student government advisor Shelia Graber, assistant to the food service director Tessa Hofstetter, assistant swim coach Jeannine Wurster and custodian Josh Tankersly.
•Approved the following: adding a staff position for a middle/high school business teacher; summer school courses for IREAD, Jump Start Remediation, Wilson Reading, credit recovery and credit advancement, summer band, supervised ag experience and migrant education courses; the addition of a psychology course to the course description guide while not committing to offer the course in 2017-18; the hiring of Lana Sharp as a tutor; allowing the hiring of part-time student workers for the summer as custodians (two) and tech helpers (two); allowing training for the new food service director prior to approval of his or her hiring at the next school board meeting; designating a cooler, laptops and iPads as surplus equipment; a request from Head Start for one-year lease of an elementary school classroom for a monthly fee of $600; a field trip for the a cappella choir to Celina, Ohio, and April 26 to the Precision Machine Technology Show in Columbus, Ohio.
•Learned that new laptops for high school and elementary school teachers have arrived and are now in use. New elementary school iPads for students are expected to arrive within a couple of weeks. Technology director Myra Moore also reported that South Adams saved $60,800 from the original quote because the new iPad is offered at a lower price.
•Was reminded that the next Indiana School Board Association regional meeting is scheduled for May 18 in Fort Wayne.
All Rights Reserved
BERNE — The “for sale” sign is finally down.
South Adams School Board learned Tuesday that its sale of the former elementary school property to Biggs Indiana Properties became official Monday.
It also approved resurfacing of the track and discussed several other projects.
Superintendent Scott Litwiller reported that board president Arlene Amstutz signed the closing documents for the sale of the 4.81 acres located at the northwest corner of U.S. 27 and Indiana 218. The property used to be home to South Adams Elementary School, but that building was torn down after the 2009 construction of the new elementary/middle school building connected to the high school to create a single campus on the south side of Berne. (The former middle school building was located in Geneva.)
Biggs purchased the property for $375,000, with an additional $100,000 coming from Berne Community Development Corporation. After broker fees and closing costs, South Adams Schools made $445,148 on the sale.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” said Litwiller. “We knew it was going to happen and it finally happened.”
The board had been looking at several options for the school track, and on Tuesday settled on grinding down the current six-lane track, adding a new layer of asphalt and then putting on a new braided rubber surface. Brooks Construction of Fort Wayne and Leslie Coatings of Indianapolis will handle the work, which will cost a total of $117,922.
South Adams already had $96,000 set aside for the project, and the remaining $22,000 will come from encumbered funds from 2009 construction.
Litwiller also reported that Allen County Builders was awarded the general trades contract for the high school renovation project that is slated for this summer. That work, which will include creating a new high school office and renovating some classrooms around the media center, is slated to begin as soon as school lets out in May.
While looking forward to that work this year, Litwiller also asked the board to consider what projects should take priority in the future. His suggestion was that renovation of the remaining classrooms around the media center be completed in 2018. That work was originally all planned for this summer, but the nearly $2 million South Adams saved by refinancing bonds was not enough to cover the full project.
Amstutz, who with her fellow board members spent the day visiting the schools, agreed with Litwiller’s assessment.
“After the tours that we’ve taken today I think it’s very evident … we need to really look at finishing that shortly so that it doesn’t become such a big span between finishing that whole area,” she said.
In other business, the board:
•Accepted the resignations of boys basketball coach Andy Brown, high school student government advisor Shelia Graber, assistant to the food service director Tessa Hofstetter, assistant swim coach Jeannine Wurster and custodian Josh Tankersly.
•Approved the following: adding a staff position for a middle/high school business teacher; summer school courses for IREAD, Jump Start Remediation, Wilson Reading, credit recovery and credit advancement, summer band, supervised ag experience and migrant education courses; the addition of a psychology course to the course description guide while not committing to offer the course in 2017-18; the hiring of Lana Sharp as a tutor; allowing the hiring of part-time student workers for the summer as custodians (two) and tech helpers (two); allowing training for the new food service director prior to approval of his or her hiring at the next school board meeting; designating a cooler, laptops and iPads as surplus equipment; a request from Head Start for one-year lease of an elementary school classroom for a monthly fee of $600; a field trip for the a cappella choir to Celina, Ohio, and April 26 to the Precision Machine Technology Show in Columbus, Ohio.
•Learned that new laptops for high school and elementary school teachers have arrived and are now in use. New elementary school iPads for students are expected to arrive within a couple of weeks. Technology director Myra Moore also reported that South Adams saved $60,800 from the original quote because the new iPad is offered at a lower price.
•Was reminded that the next Indiana School Board Association regional meeting is scheduled for May 18 in Fort Wayne.
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