Board donates Judge Haynes building

The Portland Foundation proposed the purchase at $1.

It won’t even need to scrounge up four quarters.

Jay School Board on Monday agreed to donate the former Judge Haynes Elementary School to The Portland Foundation, which is leading an effort to transform the building into a child care facility.

Board members also approved various changes in an effort to attract employees and OK’d the 2022-23 calendar.

Doug Inman, executive director of The Portland Foundation, sent a letter to Jay School Corporation superintendent Jeremy Gulley last month expressing the organization’s interest in the building that ceased operations as an elementary school at the close of the 2017-18 school year. At a joint session of Jay County Commissioners and Jay County Council this month, he pitched a plan — it has been developed through the implementation phase of Lilly Endowment’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) VII initiative — to renovate the former school and then lease it to an organization that would provide child care services.

The Portland Foundation has offered to contribute $500,000 for architectural and engineering costs if the county and city would contribute some of their federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for the renovation.

Gulley on Monday recommended the school board donate Judge Haynes, 827 W. High St., to The Portland Foundation for the effort. (It did the same when it donated the former Pennville Elementary School to Pennville Community Center.)

Several board members spoke in support of the push to expand child care services in Jay County.

“I’m just pleased that the building will be used for children in Jay County,” said board member Donna Geesaman. “It makes me happy.”

“That’s been identified multiple times — the need for child care …” added board vice president Ron Laux. “This is a good place to start.”

“I think it’s a win-win,” agreed board president Phil Ford.

Board members Mike Shannon, Jason Phillips, Vickie Reitz, Geesaman, Ford, Laux and Chris Snow, who was participating remotely from Germany, voted unanimously to donate the building.

They also approved a new incentive structure for hiring bus drivers and increased pay rates for various substitutes.

New bus drivers will get a sign-on bonus of $1,000 to be paid after a satisfactory 90-day performance review and an addition $500 at the completion of 180 school days. Employees who refer bus drivers who meet similar requirements will receive a $500 recruiting bonus.

Increases were OK’d for a variety of substitute positions. The new certified substitute teacher rate is $103 per day up from $100 and the non-certified substitute teacher rate is up to $85 from the previous $75.

The driver’s education pay rate was increased to $30 per hour from the current $28. To help cover costs, the fee for driver’s education was increased to $365 from the current $335.

The board also approved the 2022-23 school calendar that calls for the first day of school Aug. 11, fall break Oct. 19 through 21, winter break Dec. 23 through Jan. 2, spring break March 20 through 24 and the last day of school on May 18. Registration will be moved earlier in the summer — online registration will begin July 6 with in-person dates set for July 18 and 20 — in order to allow more time to work on schedules, bus routes and other logistical issues.

In other business, the board:

•Honored Portland Boy Scout Troop 202 during its Patriot Pride moment. The troop attended the meeting to learn about how local government works.

•Approved the following: Policy updates on topics including leaves of absence, nondiscrimination and phone use; a correction to its contract with Jay Classroom Teachers Association to fix language in the agreement; giving the greenhouse at the former Westlawn Elementary School to Brandy Foster, who was instrumental in adding the structure at the school property and shifting extra extracurricular funds for the greenhouse to be used for the greenhouse at Jay County Junior-Senior High School; field trips for the boys basketball team for a tournament in Madison, animal science students for a dairy tour and eighth graders to Washington, D.C.; leaves of absence for teachers Lauren Hemmelgarn, Kayla Nietfeld and Erin Homan; the hiring of Lifeskills instructional assistants Denise Denton and Cheyenne Mantooth, archery coach Dwane Ford, seventh grade girls basketball coach Harold Towell and junior high assistant wrestling coach Shon Byrum; the memorandum of understanding for support staff, with changes mostly pertaining to wage increases the board approved last month; removing former business manager Tarinna Morris as a signer with access to the corporation’s safe deposit box at First Merchants Bank and adding assistant superintendent Trent Paxson and deputy treasurer Irene Taylor.

•Heard from business manager Shannon Current that the corporation is projected to have a positive cash flow of $653,000 this year with a year-end cash balance of $4.46 million. That’s the highest mark since the last 1990s and is up from less than $1.5 million at the close of 2017.

•Accepted a $500 Donors Choose grant librarian Cathy Fugiett received to purchase a sewing machine and accessories to allow students with free time to make a t-shirt quilt over the course of the semester.

•Gave Current permission to make any necessary year-end transfers.

•Heard questions from Ryan Blalock regarding dismissal times at Jay County Junior-Senior High School and the installation of doors in some school buildings. Ford said the board would get him answers to his questions.