Board votes to refinance '08 bond

BERNE — South Adams School Board set in motion the refinancing of a 2008 bond issue Tuesday in hopes of saving an estimated $1.4 million in interest costs.
On a 5-0 vote, with board members Julie Mansfield and Mitch Sprunger absent, the board approved a series of resolutions related to refinancing the bond issue that paid for the elementary and middle school project.
Superintendent Scott Litwiller said any savings realized from lower interest rates will go toward continuing renovation of school properties.
Umbaugh and Associates will act as financial adviser, and the Indianapolis law firm of Ice Miller will be bond counsel for the refinancing.
Litwiller told the board South Adams is preparing for ISTEP next week and noted that Indiana Department of Education had granted approval to use pencil and paper rather than taking the test online.
“Technically speaking we have the devices to do it (online ISTEP),” said Litwiller. “But we’re thankful that the DOE has allowed us to do this.”
A series of snafus with the online ISTEP proved to be an embarrassment for the state in recent years, and students seem to be more comfortable taking the test with pencil and paper.
“It takes a little more prep work,” Litwiller acknowledged.
Litwiller also told the board that the real estate broker listing the former school property at Indiana 218 and U.S. 27 reported no new prospects in the last month.
“Once we get a serious developer, questions will come up,” he said, citing soil testing, whether the property will be divided and whether a development would occur in phases as possible issues. “Until we have a developer who is serious about it, basically it’s speculation on our part.”
In other business, board members, who had spent the day in South Adams classrooms as part of a work session:
•Approved a summer school schedule that includes reading and remediation classes at the elementary level, credit recovery and credit advancement at the high school level, summer band, supervised agricultural experience and the summer migrant program.
•Agreed to donate 50 outdated laptops to Dots in Blue Water. The laptops will be “re-imaged” and taken to Haiti this summer for use by the Dots team.
•Approved a sub-grant agreement under the Secured School Safety program that will reimburse 50 percent of the cost for the school resource officer contract.
•Authorized a field trip by the freshman class to the University of Northwest Ohio and one by the senior class to the Columbus, Ohio, Zoo.
•Hired Miryah Boxell as auxiliary corps director and Amber Schwartz as extra-curricular treasurer.
•Agreed to let the Berne Chamber of Commerce use the property at Indiana 218 and U.S. 27 on May 21 and 22, when a circus will be performing.
•Approved a one-year lease agreement with Head Start for use of one classroom at the elementary school. The monthly rent will be $600. The 20 Head Start pre-schoolers will eat meals at South Adams, and the school corporation will be reimbursed for that expense.
•Approved resolutions of remembrance for two recently deceased school employees, longtime teacher Paula Borders and custodian Matthew Bauman. “We lost two very great employees,” said board president Arlene Amstutz.