Loy hired to sell properties

Jay School Corporation has a broker for the sale of three of its properties.

Jay School Board on Monday approved hiring Loy Real Estate and Auction to handle the sale of three parcels, including the current administrative office building and the former Judge Haynes Elementary School.

The board also updated high school curriculum, heard a presentation from a representative of US Aggregates and hired Grant Zgunda, the former coach at Delta, as the new Jay County High School football coach. (See related story.)

Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy Gulley had asked the board at its Jan. 18 meeting to consider hiring a broker to handle selling or otherwise disposing of the administrative office building, 1976 W. Tyson Road, Portland, the former Judge Haynes Elementary School, 827 W. High St., Portland and a six-acre wooded parcel adjacent to Portland Memorial Park (north of Runkle-Miller Field and west of Hines-Inman Memorial Stadium). Judge Haynes was closed after the 2018-19 school year and the administrative offices will be moved to the former General Shanks Elementary School building in Portland after the current school year.

There has been significant interest in the administrative office building, including from Jay County Humane Society for a new animal shelter, Brigade Electronics for its headquarters, Portland Police Department, a church and at least two individuals.

After requesting proposals from local real estate brokers, Gulley recommended that Loy be awarded the contract.

Board members Phil Ford, Ron Laux, Donna Geesaman, Chris Snow, Mike Shannon, Vickie Reitz and Jason Phillips unanimously approved hiring Loy at its proposal of a commission of 1.55%.

The board also approved high school curriculum changes for 2021-22. That included dropping principles of marketing, principles of business, U.S. history honors college credit, horticulture science I, natural sciences, landscape management, culinary arts and hospitality II, algebra lab, theatre arts, theatre special topics and Shakespeare I and II. Assistant superintendent Trent Paxson said some courses were dropped because of the shift from block scheduling to the seven-period system that was implemented this year and others were canceled because not enough students were signing up for them.

Courses being added are Design fundamentals and honors algebra II. “Principles of” courses will replace “introduction” courses for teaching, agriculture, radio and television, advanced manufacturing, visual communication, design technology, healthcare, biomedical science, engineering, and business operations and technology.

Paxson noted that some courses are only offered every other year rather than annually.

Board members also heard a presentation from Eric Reynolds of US Aggregates about the company’s hope to expand its stone quarry operation to a parcel of land between Seventh Street and Tyson Road, which is near Jay County Junior-Senior High School. A Portland Plan Commission public hearing on the issue is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium at Jay County Courthouse.

Reynolds addressed concerns about blasting, saying state and federal standards are in place to ensure that nearby structures are not damaged. (There are houses between the proposed new quarry site and the junior-senior high school.)

Board president Phil Ford said his concern is making sure that the junior-senior high school will not see any adverse effects.

In other business, the board:

•Approved the following: the hiring of Lisa Wellman as art instructor for Bloomfield and East elementary schools; a contract with The Crossing for business and entrepreneurship services; increasing the athletics secretary’s salary after the addition of junior high responsibilities because of the consolidation of schools this year; an updated support staff memorandum of understanding that eliminated outdated language and added new language to indicate new positions; and a new virtual instruction policy that includes password protecting all meetings and monitoring attendance to ensure privacy, managing screen-sharing options, stopping class if necessary to protect the privacy of students and banning the recording of classes unless permission has been obtained.

•Accepted a $3,000 Rural Schools Cooperative Cecil B. Godsil Grant that was awarded to JCHS teacher Chrissy Krieg.

•Made a series of extracurricular assignments, including Kendra Lyons as JCHS assistant softball coach and Sydney Haines as JCHS assistant girls tennis coach.

•Accepted the resignations of Christy Moore (junior high instructional assistant), Eric Hemmelgarn (Bloomfield and East elementary art instructor), Alisha Rogers (East Jay elementary instructional assistant), Aundraya Steveson (Bloomfield and East technology instructional assistant), Nicole Henson (Redkey and Westlawn elementary art instructor) and Betty Harris (Redkey Just Say No sponsor).

•Received policy updates for their review, including revisions to student assessments, suspension and expulsion, school safety and transportation. The board is expected to vote on the policy updates at its March 15 meeting.