Board moves forward on unused properties

Jay School Board on Monday moved forward with the process of disposing of two more unused properties.

The board gave superintendent Jeremy Gulley permission to hire a real estate broker for the former Judge Haynes Elementary School in Portland and approved a resolution affirming that it will no longer be using the Westlawn Elementary School building.

Gulley told the board there has been interest in the Judge Haynes property at 827 W. High St., Portland. He said Portland Mayor John Boggs has indicated that he hopes to put together a plan to develop housing at the site while Pathfinder Inc. is targeting the location as a potential home for Head Start.

Boggs intends to have a plan to present at school board’s July 19 meeting, Gulley said, while Pathfinder, a not-for-profit organization, hopes to know soon whether it has been awarded the Head Start contract.

“There’s some good options here,” said Gulley. “It’s just who can make it come together.”

The process for Westlawn — students from that building will shift to the former West Jay Middle School for the 2021-22 school year — isn’t quite as far along in the process. The school corporation still needs to receive approval from Indiana Department of Education to proceed with disposing of that property.

The school corporation has already unloaded a couple of properties this year, having sold the former administrative office at 1976 W. Tyson Road, Portland, to Brigade Electronics for $425,000 and six wooded acres adjacent to Portland Memorial Park to Derran McGill for $35,000. (The administrative offices were recently moved to the former General Shanks Elementary School building on Floral Avenue in Portland.)

Jay Schools previously turned over ownership of the former Pennville Elementary School site — the school closed in 2017 — to Pennville Community Center.

Board members Phil Ford, Vickie Reitz, Jason Phillips and Donna Geesaman, absent Ron Laux, Mike Shannon and Chris Snow, also gave business manager Shannon Current permission to use a la carte sales money to write off its negative fund balance caused by unpaid food service fees. The total in unpaid fees total about $90,000.

Current also recommended the school corporation implement use of the Tax Refund Exchange and Compliance System for collecting such debts in the future rather than going through the courts or collections process. The program, which would come at no cost to Jay Schools, collects debts via pending state personal income tax refunds.

Ford also expressed condolences from the board to those whose property was damaged in Friday’s tornado (see Wednesday’s newspaper for a follow-up story) and to former Jay Schools agriculture teacher Bob Lyons after a fire destroyed one of his barns Sunday. (Laux was not in attendance at Monday’s meeting because he was representing the board at a prayer service at the home of Betsy and Matt Minnich, whose home was damaged by the tornado.)

In other business, the board:

•Heard Gulley note that 2006 Jay County High School graduate Josh Atkinson has taken over as the board’s attorney following the retirement of Phil Frantz.

•Approved the following: a two-hour delay on the first Wednesday of each month during the 2021-22 school year to be used for professional development, test data review curriculum development and other purposes; a field trip to Italy from July 23 through Aug. 1 for high school Latin students; and updates to the school handbooks for the 2021-22 school year.

•Awarded a contract for a new roof on two sections of Jay County Junior-Senior High School to McGuff Roofing for $334,750.

•Approved a long list of new hires, including Whitney Bruggeman as the nurse at Bloomfield Elementary School, Jenna (Guggenbiller) Cupp as a third grade teacher at East Jay Elementary School, Mikayla Post as a fifth grade teacher at East Jay, Erika Kunkler as a math teacher at Jay County Junior-Senior High School, Michelle Gelzleichter as a Spanish teacher at the junior-senior high, Katina Gibson as a third grade teacher at Redkey Elementary School, Kymbra Keys as a third grade teacher at East Jay, Bruce Wood as JCHS cross country coach, Melynda James as JCHS gymnastics coach and Tim Millspaugh as JCHS assistant girls swim coach.

•Accepted the resignations of 12 employees, including eight teachers.

•Approved the retirements of JCHS secretary Jeanette Hoffman and junior high English teacher Diana Kellermeyer.

•Accepted the Summer School Grant ($33,147.02) and an additional High Ability Grant ($1,645).

•Set fees for the 2021-22 school year, most of which did not change. The board OK’d a $1 increase to $25 per hour for the pay rate for credit recovery.