Board delays baseball project

A planned revamp of the concessions building at South Adams Schools’ Harry F. Anderson baseball field has been pushed back. 

South Adams School Board voted Tuesday to accept a low bid for the work, which would see a new building constructed for concessions, restrooms and a press box, but decided to delay work on the project until summer. 

The board also ratified an agreement for the current school year with the South Adams Classroom Teachers’ Association. 

Bidding for the concessions building closed on Nov. 20, with the school receiving two offers. The lower was from Marquis Builders for $261,600, with Allen County Builders bidding $404,000. 

Both were higher than the $197,000 the board had allocated for the project — $97,000 from the rainy day fund and $100,000 from donations through the Adams County Community Foundation. 

South Adams superintendent Scott Litwiller told the board he met with Marquis to adjust the bid. Including the plumbing work and architect’s fee, the estimated total for the project is down to $221,730. According to the contract, the work would be completed by the end of March. 

Board member John Mann expressed concern about adjusting the bid and how the masonry work could be affected by cold winter weather. The school shouldn’t rush to complete the work simply because it’s hosting the IHSAA baseball sectional this year, he said.

“Everyone here, I know, wants to have something that we can be proud of and something that’s going to last. We don’t want something that we’re going to have to nickel and dime down the road,” Mann said. “I truly want this to be something that Harry Anderson would be very proud of.” 

The board had several options, Litwiller said: accept the low bid and construct the building as planned, which would require allocating additional funds from the rainy day fund; accept the low bid but delay the project until after the baseball season is over, which will still require extra funding; reject the bids and cancel the project; or reject the bids and seek new bids sometime in the future. 

The board ultimately decided to accept Marquis’ bid, but to delay the project. 

Also on Tuesday, board members ratified an agreement with the South Adams Classroom Teacher Association. It had reached a tentative agreement on Monday, with the association voting to approve it earlier in the day Tuesday. 

Per the agreement, $800 will be added to each teacher’s base pay. South Adams will pay 1.65 percent more overall for teachers’ salaries than it did last school year. The school will not pay any additional money toward health insurance premiums, which are going up by 5 percent in 2019.

Contributions will remain at $5,984 for a single plan and $15,021 for a family plan. 

In other business, board members John Buckingham, Landon Patterson, Arlene Amstutz, Julie Mansfield and Mann, absent Amy Orr and Mitch Sprunger: 

•Moved January’s school board meeting from Jan. 8 to Jan. 15.

•Were informed that the Indiana State Board of Education did not approve the amended Area 18 agreement, which South Adams’ board had supported earlier this year. The new agreement would have prohibited schools in the agreement — South Adams, Jay, Blackford, Southern Wells, Adams Central, Bluffton-Harrison, North Adams (Bellmont), Northern Wells (Norwell) and Huntington schools — from crossing school district lines to pick up students. Because the amended agreement was not approved, the current agreement will stay in place. 

•Were updated on the school closing procedures. Litwiller said two-hour delays will be the norm, with three-hour delays in place only when it is fairly certain that school will be open afterwards. He said decisions about school delays and closures will be made by 6:30 a.m. 

•Were informed that South Adams received $35,691.63 from the state, which comes out to about $30 per student, for its teacher appreciation grants.

To receive the stipend, teachers must be employed in the classroom, be rated as highly effective or effective and be employed as of Dec. 1 of this year.

Highly effective teachers must be paid at least 25 percent more than effective teachers; council voted to pay highly effective teachers $354.76 each and effective teachers $283.81 each. 

For the 2017-2018 school year, 82 teachers were rated highly effective and 14 were effective. Only two employees did not fall into either category, because of retirement or resignation.

•Were reminded how the school’s funds will change starting on Jan. 1. The general fund will become the education fund, supported by the state based on school enrollment. The capital projects, transportation and bus replacement funds will be combined into a single operations fund, supported by local property taxes. The debt service and rainy day funds will remain the same. 

•Selected its property/liability insurance and worker’s compensation contract. The board received three bids: $78,174 from Educational Service Centers Risk Funding Trust, $95,931 from Selective and Eastern Alliance via Bixler Insurance (which has been South Adams’ insurance provider since 2012) and $113,698 from EMC, via Graber Insurance. 

The board selected the low bid from ESCRFT, which is classified as a protected self-insurance pool rather than an insurance company. 

•Declared a bus that was totaled in an accident as surplus equipment. The insurance company will pay South Adams $31,806.99 and allow the corporation to keep the bus for spare parts. The board also approved the purchase of a used 2014 school bus for $56,079. It authorized spending $25,000 from the operations fund to pay for what the insurance payout won’t cover. 

•Approved a leave of absence for Sue Inniger, accepted the resignation of Pam Jones-Schwartz as a middle/high school special education intervention aide and hired Kyle Gildewell as the middle school girls’ basketball coach. 

•Authorized Litwiller and treasurer Becky Biberstein to play claims and transfer funds as needed between the end of 2018 and the first board meeting of 2019. 

•Accepted a donation of $880 from an anonymous couple, designated for an extra-curricular account. Board members elected to wait to allocate the money.

•Approved the calendar for the 2020-2021 school year.