Cloverdale superintendent to retire during fall semester

Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Carrie Milner

CLOVERDALE -- Cloverdale Superintendent Carrie Milner shocked the audience with the news of her retirement during the Cloverdale School Board's monthly meeting on Monday evening.

Saying few words, Milner advised the board of trustees of her intention to retire from her position during the fall semester of the 2014-15 school year.

"The reason for the early announcement is so that the Board of School Trustees can advertise the open position and plan to take applications in a timely manner," Milner said.

Milner, a Greencastle native, came to Clover-dale Community Schools in 2002. From that time she carried a variety of titles including being assistant superintendent for three years to Steve Wittenauer before being interim superintendent from January-June 2003.

Milner then went back to being assistant superintendent to Terry Englow from 2003-04 as well as to Damen Paige until 2005. She then filled the superintendent role in 2005.

"This is kind of tough to do," Milner said. " I do plan to leave this year, I will wait until the middle of our next fall semester. There's so many things to get done over the summer in particular the budget and finishing up our drainage project along with all kinds of things that are going to pop up. I wanted to bring it to your attention now so that the search process can begin."

Milner did not give a specific date for her departure, only advising the public and the board that more information will follow in the coming months.

The Cloverdale School Board also heard from Project Manager Dan Sulkoske who advised the board that work has now begun on the drainage project, which is scheduled for completion at the end of July.

Sulkoske advised the board that the storm sewer is currently being placed on the east side of the building with 95 percent of the pipe already being installed.

Sulkoske noted that while exposing many of the utilities there were a couple of minor surprises, but nothing major to worry about.

"There were a couple of issues, which is no surprise," Sulkoske said. "However, there should be no more surprises moving forward."

Total cost for the project will be right around $125,000.

Milner along with the board will take into consideration the option of repaving the northeast and south ends of the drive, which has been effected from the ongoing construction as well as just normal wear and tear.

"You have really bad existing conditions even without construction," Sulkoske said. "These two areas are really bad and just will continue to get worse."

Sulkoske estimated that $20,000-$30,000 would provide the repaving of those areas. However, the entire drive needs sub-grade repair.

"You should really dig that out and take care of the sub-grade issue and then come in with the asphalt," Sulkoske explained. "That $20,000-$30,000 number is just to take the surface off and redo it. It's a short-term fix. It will be nice for a few years and then it will break down because the sub-grade hasn't been taken care of."

Although Sulkoske advised the board there are several issues that are in desperate need of attention, the board made no decision on whether or not to move forward with the asphalt or to address the issue of the sub-grade.

Sulkoske also told the board that it will soon need to make a decision on the resurfacing of the track. However, the board later decided to put that project on hold for a later date as there are several issues with the track that also need to be addressed.

The board also recognized Stacey Baugh as the District 8 Middle School Principal of the Year. Baugh, nominated by faculty, earned the recognition during the early weeks of April by the Indiana Association of School Principals.

District 8 encompasses Parke, Hendricks, Putnam, Vermillion, Vigo, Clay, Owen, Sullivan and Greene counties. The honor is sponsored by the Horace Mann Companies

In other business:

* The board approved the hiring of summer school teachers Nicki Manion, Maggee Boyce, Megan Stepp, Tim Savini and elementary school IREAD summer school teacher Angie Ranard.

* The board also approve the resignations of high school guidance secretary Lisa Nally and middle school boys' track coach Kathy Moore along with the reassignment of Penny McPeak to high school guidance secretary and Stacy Artis to AEP/ technology.

* The board approved increasing the school lunch price from $2.45 to $2.55.

* The board also approved the elementary, middle and high school handbooks and athletic handbooks for 2014-15.

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