Greencastle kicks off new school year

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

A new school year has begun and Greencastle School Corporation has gotten the ball rolling. At Monday's school board meeting Greencastle Schools Superintendent Dawn Puckett apprised the board of the completion of summer projects and of the start of the school year.

Summer vacation for students didn't mean the end of projects for the school. Puckett let the school board know that summer projects were finishing up, including the completion of Greencastle High School and Tzouanakis Intermediate School roofs.

Puckett said that the roof projects were completed. There is still a beam at the intermediate school, which will be replaced during fall break this year. She also told the board that Moisture Management offered an enhanced warranty on the high school's roof.

The warranty would cost $103,000 and would cover the cost of repairs and labor on the roof for the next 20 years.

To lock in this price for the warranty the corporation would have to act on it in the next two years.

"It sounds like the extra warranty they sell with a big screen TV or laptop," school board member Mike White said. "There are better places to spend $100,000."

The discussion on the warranty was tabled until next month's meeting so that more information could be given.

The school board approved the transfer of land to the city of Greencastle. The piece of land is .67 acres at the old Miller School. Right now the corporation uses this land as a storage facility and will be allowed to continue using it as such until the city is able to sell the property.

Linda Nelson, food services director, informed the board of the numbers fed during the summer feeding program.

Some 3,500 children were served breakfast and 5,500 for lunch. With the success of the summer feeding program this summer Nelson wants to incorporate a third site for next year.

The school board was happy about Nelson's success.

"Thank you," Denise Sigworth, school board member said, tearing up a bit, "I can't imagine a child not having food."

Nelson also informed the board that bids had come in for food products for the school year; all bids were approved.

Puckett also announced the unofficial number of students enrolled, there are currently 1,983 students enrolled. This number can change over the next few weeks and an official tally will be available in September, but as of now the corporation has the same number of students as last year.

The superintendent also touched on the subject of the recent arrest of former assistant athletic director, Zachary Remsburg.

She praised the high school administration for how they had handled the situation and reminded all that were present that children's safety was the corporation's number one priority. Puckett made no further comment due to the ongoing investigation.

In other business:

- The board approved the donation from Shuee's of a refrigerator for the science department at the high school, Shuee's also took two old refrigerators from the department.

-Corner Stone was hired to do speech therapy after the resignation of the teacher originally hired.

- Puckett, Russ Hessler and several of the schools have joined the social media site Twitter. People can now follow and receive updates on the corporation and the schools.

- The retirement of Shirley Brackney, fifth grade teacher at Tzouanakis Intermediate, was approved.

- The resignations of Chelsea Trammel as custodian at Tzouanakis, Rebecca Treadwell as preschool bus driver, Cheyenne Maddox as instructional assistant at Greencastle Middle School and Cathy McCall as the National Honor Society sponsor at the high school were approved.

-Kara Hazlett was approved for FMLA and maternity leave.

- The board also approved the hiring of; Stephanie Hunter as instructional assistant at Deer Meadow, Charlotte Thomas as noon aide at Deer Meadow, Lois Sprouls as custodian at Tzouanakis, Jayne Ann Hill as athletic secretary at the high school, Donnie Watson as substitute bus driver, Haley Wagoner as substitute custodian, Jennifer Zigler as co-sponsor for National Honors Society, Brenda Meyer as co-sponsor of National Honor Society, Meredith Wade as Spanish club sponsor, Edwin Jacobi as volunteer assistant girls 'soccer coach at the high school and Jimmy Beasley as volunteer assistant football coach.

The next Greencastle School Board meeting will be held on Monday, Sept. 16 at 7 p.m.

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