Projects awarded

An HVAC project and a roof project are moving forward.

Jay School Board on Monday awarded bids for work to replace the heating, ventilation and cooling system for a section of West Jay Elementary School and for the replacement of two sections of roof at Jay County Junior-Senior High School.

The HVAC system that services the northeast wing of West Jay has experienced various maintenance issues during the current school year, which led the board to approve seeking bids last month. The project received bids from Project Design and Piping and Current Mechanical, both of Fort Wayne.

School board members Ron Laux, Donna Geesaman, Phil Ford, Vickie Reitz, Jason Phillips, Marcie Vormohr and Chip Phillips awarded the work to Project Design and Piping, which had the lower overall bid of $570,300.

They also reviewed two bids for replacing about 37,026 square feet at the east corner of the junior-senior high school over the band and choir rooms, auditorium and adjacent classrooms and 21,879 square feet at the west corner of the building including the vocational and agriculture area. That work also received two bids — from McGuff Roofing of Muncie and Landmark Roofing of Fort Wayne.

The board awarded the project to Landmark at a cost of $373,986.

The HVAC project will be paid for out of federal coronavirus relief funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, with the roof project to be paid from the corporation’s operations fund.

Board members also briefly discussed ongoing efforts to maintain facilities, with superintendent Jeremy Gulley noting that architectural and engineering firm Barton Coe Vilamaa is in the process of an overall facilities study to make recommendations for future needs.

Also approved Monday was the purchase of a new bus from Kerlin Bus sales and leasing for $163,432 to replace a current bus that was purchased in 2011.

In other business, the board:

•Heard a presentation from director of e-learning Katie Clark regarding the New Teacher Academy at Jay Schools.

The program is designed to help teachers who are new to the corporation — there are 16 this year — and involves assigning them a mentor who they meet with regularly. Funded through a Digital Learning Grant, the academy also provides information on various topics. So far this year those have included orientation, Skyward, Google Tools, generative artificial intelligence, e-learning, classroom management strategies, blended and online learning, Indiana Learning Lab (professional development) and professional growth/

•Approved the following: leaves of absence for art teacher Heather Keller, special education teacher Lauren Hemmelgarn, fifth grade teacher Taylor Schwarck and second grade teacher Kim Hyatt; extracurricular assignments include Carissa Allred as high school girls golf coach; two bus use requests from Fellowship Baptist Church Youth Group; various policy updates including mandatory curriculum, adjunct teachers and fee; an exclusive sports medicine sponsorship agreement with Indiana University Health for $15,000 annually; the assessment of the corporation’s wellness plan, which shows goals to be met with the exception of the areas of nutrition education and physical activity, both of which are being “partially met”; and canceled four checks that were outstanding for more than two years at a total of $6,658.13.

•Accepted the resignations of Redkey Elementary School special education resource teacher Mallory Bost, Redkey/West Jay elementary physical education/technology instructor Maggie Pryor and preschool nurse Amanda May.

•Heard from Jay County Council member Cindy Bracy about the county’s recent commitment of matching funds for a grant application to extend nearly 400 miles of fiberoptic internet lines in the county. She asked that the board think about the possibility of contributing toward the needed $3.9 million in local match dollars, noting that the expanded internet connectivity will be a benefit to the school corporation and its students.

•Accepted a federal Title II, Part A grant of $148,015,59, a federal Title IV, Part A grant of $84,217.35 and a donation of $500 from Kroger through Peyton’s Northern Distribution Center of Bluffton.