North Putnam Board elects 2013 officers

At its monthly meeting Thursday night, the North Putnam School Board elected new officers for the year, revisited the Bainbridge Elementary roofing project and discussed several topics concerning the upcoming school year.

The board has inducted three new members and has elected officers for the new year.

Jill Sumerlot, Jim Bowling and Darrell Wiatt took their oath of office as new members at Thursday's meeting.

Re-elected board member Mark Hoke also took the oath of office for his new term.

John Hays was voted in as president with Oliver Haste as vice president and Hoke as secretary of the board.

The first order of business for the new board was to retain Gene Hostetter as corporation attorney and voting to keep the board's meeting times the same (at 7 p.m. every third Thursday of the month).

Hays handed the reins over to Superintendent Dan Noel, who introduced Gerard Skibinski and Matt Mayo of Odle McGuire Shook (OMS), architects for the Bainbridge Elementary roof.

Mayo and Skibinski presented a new plan outlining prices for different color roofs, what needs to be done to fix the roof and what preliminary bids would be sent out to contractors.

After the OMS presentation from last month's meeting, questions were raised concerning the color of the roof and how it could affect the price to how to prevent further degradation to the structural integrity of the roof.

As for structural integrity concerns, Skibinski informed the board that some pieces did need to be replaced but nothing that would cause major concern.

"The structural issues will be fixed," Skibinski said, "and should hopefully prevent further rotting in the future."

The color of the roof was also in contention due to the reported large price differences. On the new pricing given, the difference in price for the colors was significantly smaller, going from a $200,000 difference, to about a $20,000 one. Mayo offered his apologies to the board for not having the correct figure at last month's meeting.

Noel inquired if OMS could have bid and construction guides ready by the board's next meeting.

"Yes, definitely," Mayo replied. "We are well ahead on this project."

Along with the continuing Bainbridge project Noel brought up other issues facing the corporation for next school year. Some of those issues being the 2013-14 calendar and open enrollment.

The calendar drafted for the 2013-14 school year featured a full week off during the fall and a starting date of Aug. 9, a Friday. The board decided to change the school's start date to Aug. 12, a Monday, instead of Aug. 9.

The reason cited for this is to give families another full week that could be used for vacation. Also, that Friday was during the time of the State Fair that many students are known to participate in.

Noel will see if the new calendar will be allowed for the next year.

For next year Noel also suggested the board allow open enrollment for the corporation. That would mean students outside the North Putnam Corporation could petition to come to schools in the area.

At this time students from outside the corporation that are enrolled in North Putnam schools must pay tuition to attend.

"I believe that it (open enrollment) is something that our corporation needs to look at," Noel voiced.

He went on to explain that this was not meant to tax the corporation, but to help. Additional students in the classrooms can mean additional money coming into the schools.

One of the last things brought up at the meeting was gun legislation. Since the recent shootings, guns and gun legislation have been the topic for government and schools to discuss.

Board members have been given information collected by Noel and Hostetter to consider. Haste suggested that the board look over the information and do some searching for more, then meet in a few weeks to discuss the topic more in-depth.

The board took this suggestion and will meet in the next few weeks to continue the discussion of what the corporation should do.

The next North Putnam School Board will be held Feb. 14.

In other business:

* Braden Patterson, Paige Cox, and Katie Welsh were honored as students of the month for January.

* Dec. 21 snow day will be made up on April 19.

* New employment included: Cheryl Crosby as a temporary English teacher at North Putnam Middle School, Michelle Hager and Benjamin Kunkler as bus drivers, Brandi Monnett as cashier/cafeteria worker at Bainbridge Elementary and Joseph Robinson as custodian at NPHS.

* New employment for athletics: Ciara Boyer will be the new head swim coach at North Putnam Middle School; Amy Hallet as assistant girls' basketball coach at North Putnam Middle School, Hunter Logan as assistant swim coach at North Putnam Middle/High School and Ashley Moeller as assistant track coach at North Putnam High School.

* Tammy Surber resigned as cashier/ cafeteria worker at Bainbridge Elementary.

* Kara Smith was terminated as North Putnam High School secretary.

* Nana Rising will be retiring from Bainbridge Elementary at the end of the school year.