July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Board OKs early plan for projects (11/29/05)
Jay School Board
By By JACK RONALD-
Preliminary schematic designs for the Jay County High School renovation project got a nod of approval Monday from the Jay School Board.
As outlined by Kari Vilamaa of the Fort Wayne architectural firm Barton/Coe/Vilamaa, the vocational instruction area of the high school would undergo a major reconfiguration while staying within the existing footprint of the building.
Renovations to the high school swimming pool call for moving the west wall of the pool area 25 feet to allow for an eight-lane pool. Permanent seating along the east side of the pool would allow for about 335 spectators.
Much of the work in the project — which will be paid for by an $18 million bond issue — involves major upgrading to the school’s 30-year-old heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.
The emphasis, Vilamaa told the board, will be upon energy efficiency and much more sophisticated zoning of the building. In the pool area, a dehumidifying system will also be installed.
“It’s been a struggle at times ... to get everything in the right place,” said Vilamaa. “It’s coming together pretty well.”
Throughout the planning process, architects have been getting input and suggestions from the high school’s faculty and staff.
Swim coach Barry Weaver was on hand Monday to give his stamp of approval to the pool design.
The board expects to approve construction documents and advertise for bids in late January.
Bids would be opened and contracts awarded in February, with construction expected to start in April.
Asked by board members if the project would come in under the $18 million cap which has been established, Vilamaa acknowledged that’s always a concern at this part of the process.
“I’m at a stage where I’m kind of nervous, but that’s typical,” he said. “I think we’re okay, but I want some safety valves.”
Vilamaa said he would work with superintendent Barbara Downing to develop some alternates and options in the specifications to allow for flexibility if bids come in high.
“The cap is there,” he said. “You can’t exceed the cap.”
Board members gave unanimous approval to the Jay Schools Building Corporation to issue $2 million in bond anticipation notes to help finance the process prior to the issuing of the construction bonds. When the construction bonds are issued next spring, the bond anticipation notes would be paid off.
Jay High principal Wood Barwick reviewed new state graduation requirements for the board which will require some changes in block scheduling as of the 2006-2007 school year.
Under the new requirements, which are an extensive revision, schools with block scheduling would be required to have at least 85 minutes of instructional time per block. Currently, JCHS has a modified four-block schedule which allows for a shorter block to accommodate band classes.
As tentatively outlined by Barwick, the new four blocks would be as follows: Block one, 8:10 to 9:37 a.m.; block two, 9:42 to 11:07 a.m.; block three, 12:17 to 1:45 p.m.; and block four, 1:47 to 3:15 p.m.
The time from 11:07 a.m. to 12:12 p.m. would be devoted to lunch, Jay Today, and silent sustained reading, with lunch divided into A and B modules.
Other changes will be the requirement of biology I for all students, requiring two credits of geography instead of one, and the elimination of keyboarding from the English curriculum in ninth grade.
“All of the requirements have increased for our students,” said Downing.
As a result of the changes, the high school will be offering 56 credits rather than 64, with 46 still required for graduation. Students will still have the opportunity to take a number of elective classes, Barwick said.
“I don’t think it will hurt our vocational offerings,” he added.
On a split vote, the board directed Downing to return to discussions with the Jay Classroom Teachers Association about the 2006-2007 calendar.
In a draft form presented by Downing on Monday, the calendar would call for a nine-day Christmas vacation next year rather than a one-week vacation.
Board president Doug Inman recommended staying with one week and cutting the two days off the end of the school year.
The school calendar is a “discussible” item with the teachers’ union rather than a subject for negotiation, but some board members were uncomfortable with taking Inman’s changes back to the teachers for more discussion.
“I think it’s Kryptonite,” said board member Bryan Alexander, who joined Jay Halstead and Mike Shannon in opposing the move.
In other business, the board:
• Approved tapping the school corporation’s “rainy day fund” for $40,000 to install a new boiler at the central office building. Alexander cast the sole vote against the move.
• Approved as presented a three-year technology plan for each of the school corporation’s buildings.
• Appointed Downing to serve as the board’s representative on the board of directors of Jay County Mentoring Inc.
• Formally accepted a comprehensive school reform grant for Judge Haynes Elementary School.
• Approved leave requests for Kari Anderson, Mike Harris, Tammy Ford, Terrence Cheek, and Lynn Duffy.
• Accepted the resignation of Bloomfield Elementary School custodian Karen Rose and the extra-curricular resignation of Amy Hanna as sixth grade girls basketball coach at West Jay Middle School.
• Approved the termination of Julie DiBattiste as an instructional assistant at West Jay.
• Hired Antonia Myers as an instructional assistant at East Elementary, David Younger as custodian at Bloomfield Elementary, and Peter Wiggins as a substitute driver’s education teacher.
• Approved a long list of coaches including Janet Dirksen as eighth grade girls basketball coach at West Jay, Kim Haffner as seventh grade girls basketball coach at West Jay, Brian Miller as sixth grade girls basketball coach at West Jay, Derek Rodgers as eighth grade boys basketball coach at West Jay, tom Crouch as substitute seventh grade boys basketball coach at West Jay, Erin Arnold as volunteer girls basketball coach at West Jay, Mike Haffner as volunteer girls basketball coach at West Jay, Andrew Isch as freshman boys basketball coach at JCHS, Ben Dues as assistant boys swim coach at JCHS, Emily Funk as assistant girls swim coach at JCHS, Donald Gillespie as volunteer girls basketball coach at JCHS, Heath Williams as volunteer boys basketball coach at JCHS, and Mark Myers, Justin Adams, and Andy Pfiefer as volunteer wrestling coaches at JCHS.
• Approved a memorandum of understanding with May Jane Smith and Rebecca Henry as part-time speech therapists.
• Approved a field trip by the Jay County High School choirs to Cleveland, Ohio, in April, and a field trip by East Jay sixth grade students to Chicago in May.
• Granted requests to use school buses by the Jay Community Center and the Jay County Girl Scouts.[[In-content Ad]]A divided Jay School Board rejected a proposal Monday that would have put part-time instructional aides in elementary classrooms with 30 or more students during the second semester of this school year.
Five classes — three at Westlawn Elementary School and one each at Pennville and Bloomfield — would have received the additional aides based upon current attendance figures. Most elementary classes are about 25 students.
See Aides page 5
Continued from page 1
Board members Greg Wellman, Doug Inman, and Mike Masters supported the proposal, which grew out of Wellman’s concerns about the size of the third grade class at Bloomfield.
“The problem is the range from top to bottom and being able to meet the needs of the kids,” said Wellman.
“Teachers felt the quality of instruction was not as good as it should be,” said Masters.
But the majority of the board — Bryan Alexander, Jay Halstead, Mike Shannon, and Frank Vormohr — was unconvinced, citing concerns over getting the school system back into deficit spending.
“Is all of a sudden 30 the magic number?” asked Alexander. “I don’t know if hiring three or four or five people we’re going to solve this problem.”
“You open a whole can of worms,” said Vormohr. “We’re going to have every school, every teacher, every parent in here” asking for more instructional assistance.
The board has had to trim a number of classroom and library aide positions over the past few years in order to get spending under control, and board members acknowledged those cuts have been painful.
Masters and Wellman argued that the early elementary years are critical. “We’re just saying in this situation 30 kids is too much,” said Wellman.
Inman helped craft a proposal which would have put 25-hour per week aides in the five classrooms; those aides would not have been eligible for health care benefits and would have cost the school corporation about $4,000 each for the semester.
“I don’t want to go into deficit,” said Inman, “but I think we walk a very fine line. ... I’d hate to sacrifice education for $20,000.”
As outlined by Kari Vilamaa of the Fort Wayne architectural firm Barton/Coe/Vilamaa, the vocational instruction area of the high school would undergo a major reconfiguration while staying within the existing footprint of the building.
Renovations to the high school swimming pool call for moving the west wall of the pool area 25 feet to allow for an eight-lane pool. Permanent seating along the east side of the pool would allow for about 335 spectators.
Much of the work in the project — which will be paid for by an $18 million bond issue — involves major upgrading to the school’s 30-year-old heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.
The emphasis, Vilamaa told the board, will be upon energy efficiency and much more sophisticated zoning of the building. In the pool area, a dehumidifying system will also be installed.
“It’s been a struggle at times ... to get everything in the right place,” said Vilamaa. “It’s coming together pretty well.”
Throughout the planning process, architects have been getting input and suggestions from the high school’s faculty and staff.
Swim coach Barry Weaver was on hand Monday to give his stamp of approval to the pool design.
The board expects to approve construction documents and advertise for bids in late January.
Bids would be opened and contracts awarded in February, with construction expected to start in April.
Asked by board members if the project would come in under the $18 million cap which has been established, Vilamaa acknowledged that’s always a concern at this part of the process.
“I’m at a stage where I’m kind of nervous, but that’s typical,” he said. “I think we’re okay, but I want some safety valves.”
Vilamaa said he would work with superintendent Barbara Downing to develop some alternates and options in the specifications to allow for flexibility if bids come in high.
“The cap is there,” he said. “You can’t exceed the cap.”
Board members gave unanimous approval to the Jay Schools Building Corporation to issue $2 million in bond anticipation notes to help finance the process prior to the issuing of the construction bonds. When the construction bonds are issued next spring, the bond anticipation notes would be paid off.
Jay High principal Wood Barwick reviewed new state graduation requirements for the board which will require some changes in block scheduling as of the 2006-2007 school year.
Under the new requirements, which are an extensive revision, schools with block scheduling would be required to have at least 85 minutes of instructional time per block. Currently, JCHS has a modified four-block schedule which allows for a shorter block to accommodate band classes.
As tentatively outlined by Barwick, the new four blocks would be as follows: Block one, 8:10 to 9:37 a.m.; block two, 9:42 to 11:07 a.m.; block three, 12:17 to 1:45 p.m.; and block four, 1:47 to 3:15 p.m.
The time from 11:07 a.m. to 12:12 p.m. would be devoted to lunch, Jay Today, and silent sustained reading, with lunch divided into A and B modules.
Other changes will be the requirement of biology I for all students, requiring two credits of geography instead of one, and the elimination of keyboarding from the English curriculum in ninth grade.
“All of the requirements have increased for our students,” said Downing.
As a result of the changes, the high school will be offering 56 credits rather than 64, with 46 still required for graduation. Students will still have the opportunity to take a number of elective classes, Barwick said.
“I don’t think it will hurt our vocational offerings,” he added.
On a split vote, the board directed Downing to return to discussions with the Jay Classroom Teachers Association about the 2006-2007 calendar.
In a draft form presented by Downing on Monday, the calendar would call for a nine-day Christmas vacation next year rather than a one-week vacation.
Board president Doug Inman recommended staying with one week and cutting the two days off the end of the school year.
The school calendar is a “discussible” item with the teachers’ union rather than a subject for negotiation, but some board members were uncomfortable with taking Inman’s changes back to the teachers for more discussion.
“I think it’s Kryptonite,” said board member Bryan Alexander, who joined Jay Halstead and Mike Shannon in opposing the move.
In other business, the board:
• Approved tapping the school corporation’s “rainy day fund” for $40,000 to install a new boiler at the central office building. Alexander cast the sole vote against the move.
• Approved as presented a three-year technology plan for each of the school corporation’s buildings.
• Appointed Downing to serve as the board’s representative on the board of directors of Jay County Mentoring Inc.
• Formally accepted a comprehensive school reform grant for Judge Haynes Elementary School.
• Approved leave requests for Kari Anderson, Mike Harris, Tammy Ford, Terrence Cheek, and Lynn Duffy.
• Accepted the resignation of Bloomfield Elementary School custodian Karen Rose and the extra-curricular resignation of Amy Hanna as sixth grade girls basketball coach at West Jay Middle School.
• Approved the termination of Julie DiBattiste as an instructional assistant at West Jay.
• Hired Antonia Myers as an instructional assistant at East Elementary, David Younger as custodian at Bloomfield Elementary, and Peter Wiggins as a substitute driver’s education teacher.
• Approved a long list of coaches including Janet Dirksen as eighth grade girls basketball coach at West Jay, Kim Haffner as seventh grade girls basketball coach at West Jay, Brian Miller as sixth grade girls basketball coach at West Jay, Derek Rodgers as eighth grade boys basketball coach at West Jay, tom Crouch as substitute seventh grade boys basketball coach at West Jay, Erin Arnold as volunteer girls basketball coach at West Jay, Mike Haffner as volunteer girls basketball coach at West Jay, Andrew Isch as freshman boys basketball coach at JCHS, Ben Dues as assistant boys swim coach at JCHS, Emily Funk as assistant girls swim coach at JCHS, Donald Gillespie as volunteer girls basketball coach at JCHS, Heath Williams as volunteer boys basketball coach at JCHS, and Mark Myers, Justin Adams, and Andy Pfiefer as volunteer wrestling coaches at JCHS.
• Approved a memorandum of understanding with May Jane Smith and Rebecca Henry as part-time speech therapists.
• Approved a field trip by the Jay County High School choirs to Cleveland, Ohio, in April, and a field trip by East Jay sixth grade students to Chicago in May.
• Granted requests to use school buses by the Jay Community Center and the Jay County Girl Scouts.[[In-content Ad]]A divided Jay School Board rejected a proposal Monday that would have put part-time instructional aides in elementary classrooms with 30 or more students during the second semester of this school year.
Five classes — three at Westlawn Elementary School and one each at Pennville and Bloomfield — would have received the additional aides based upon current attendance figures. Most elementary classes are about 25 students.
See Aides page 5
Continued from page 1
Board members Greg Wellman, Doug Inman, and Mike Masters supported the proposal, which grew out of Wellman’s concerns about the size of the third grade class at Bloomfield.
“The problem is the range from top to bottom and being able to meet the needs of the kids,” said Wellman.
“Teachers felt the quality of instruction was not as good as it should be,” said Masters.
But the majority of the board — Bryan Alexander, Jay Halstead, Mike Shannon, and Frank Vormohr — was unconvinced, citing concerns over getting the school system back into deficit spending.
“Is all of a sudden 30 the magic number?” asked Alexander. “I don’t know if hiring three or four or five people we’re going to solve this problem.”
“You open a whole can of worms,” said Vormohr. “We’re going to have every school, every teacher, every parent in here” asking for more instructional assistance.
The board has had to trim a number of classroom and library aide positions over the past few years in order to get spending under control, and board members acknowledged those cuts have been painful.
Masters and Wellman argued that the early elementary years are critical. “We’re just saying in this situation 30 kids is too much,” said Wellman.
Inman helped craft a proposal which would have put 25-hour per week aides in the five classrooms; those aides would not have been eligible for health care benefits and would have cost the school corporation about $4,000 each for the semester.
“I don’t want to go into deficit,” said Inman, “but I think we walk a very fine line. ... I’d hate to sacrifice education for $20,000.”
Top Stories
9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit
Chartwells marketing
September 17, 2024 7:36 a.m.
Events
250 X 250 AD