Cloverdale steps back on project

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

In December, the Cloverdale Community School Corp. board unanimously voted in favor of a proposal provided by Odle, McGuire and Shook, Indianapolis, calling for upgrades for athletic facilities in addition to improved security measures at the corporation's three school buildings.

However, on Monday, the board made an abrupt shift, voting in favor of tabling the measure until further notice.

"This is tabled until the board has time to digest all this information," board president Linda Mann said.

Odle, McGuire and Shook provided the board with a presentation Monday proposing several options and upgrades.

The original proposal, which Milner showed the board in December, called for a health, safety and code compliance project, including:

-- Gymnasium bleachers and guardrail replacement at the high school, and

-- Security access control at all three corporation buildings.

In addition, Milner said in December that the proposal called for a sports and athletic project, including:

-- Replacement of the football field bleachers and press box and accessibility in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and

-- Baseball field improvement to include a re-grade of the landscape.

The original proposal also called for a renovation and building update project, which would include replacing exterior doors (and frames as required) at the high school.

At the time, Milner told the board the estimated cost for the project, without the baseball field improvements, was roughly $996,000. However, she said adding the improvements to the baseball field would push the estimated cost to roughly $1 million.

But on Monday, Milner said the board wanted time to decide which items should be addressed first.

"We have to narrow the scope of our project," she said. "We need to decide what our priorities are. We needed more information from the architects to know what our options are."

The project originally called for two phases, the first of which is schematic design from the architectural firms, in order to analyze the items.

The second phase of the project calls for the completion of the projects through bidding and construction.

Meanwhile, the board unanimously approved its 2007-08 school calendar.

"It's in draft form as it is," Milner told the board Monday. She added most of it was similar to previous school calendars with one exception.

Milner said the 2007-08 school calendar calls for students to go deeper into December because of how the calendar is set up this year. She added students would come back for the second semester later in January than usual.

In other business, the board:

-- Recognized elementary student Chloe Mannan, middle school student Joseph Rumley and high school student Charlene Jonte as Students of the Month.

-- Approved 13 facility use requests by a 6-0 vote.

-- Approved 23 professional leave requests by a 5-1 vote, with Nees voting no after expressing concern about nine teachers leaving on the same day.

-- Approved 20 field trip requests.

-- Approved the resignation of Amber Caulkins, elementary teaching assistant and Tina Oetken, library teaching assistant.

-- Approved the hiring of Donna Franklin, elementary teaching assistant, Renee Stoltz, elementary special education teaching assistant, and Shannon Evans, elementary teaching assistant.

-- Approved the hiring of Jarrad Hughes, paid assistant wrestling coach, Merlin Oetken, volunteer assistant seventh- and eighth-grade girls' basketball coach, and Gordon Williams, volunteer assistant seventh- and eighth-grade girls' basketball coach.

-- Approved benefits and salaries for Old National Trail Instructional Aides.

The board meets regularly on the second Monday of each month. Its next meeting is set for 7 p.m., March 12.

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