Cloverdale building project right on track

CLOVERDALE --The building project at Cloverdale Schools is well on its way as the Cloverdale school board accepted two different bids for the project on Monday evening.

The board was presented with several bids from project manager Dan Sulkoske, but chose to go with C.E. Reeve with a total of $318,000 for the elementary school and Danco with a total of $435,000 for the high school.

The board also chose to decline an alternate bid for $92,000 to add insulation at the elementary school.

"We did an energy payback calculation," explained Sulkoske. "It will be nearly 22 years for you to receive an energy payback. We recommend you don't accept this alternate."

There was also a $10,000 alternate for the re-roofing of the middle school corridor along with a $120,000 bid for new metal facia, which the board chose to accept.

The board approved the alternate bid for general roof coding at $30,000 as well.

In total the project will cost $913,000, which is much less than originally planned.

The extra funding will be used toward other projects possibly including boilers and chillers.

The project will begin immediately with crews arriving at the schools within the next few weeks. It is estimated that the entire project will be done by Dec. 14.

As Monday marked the first day of school, the preliminary student numbers came in.

This year it the Cloverdale School Corporation has a total of 384 elementary students, 434 middle school students and 414 in the high school for a grand total of 1,232.

Superintendent Carrie MIilner noted that the corporation as a whole is down about 20 students, but that number could go up in the coming weeks.

In other business, test Coordinator Kathleen Glaser updated the board on the 2011-12 ISTEP+ scores.

Glaser stated that in the third grade 80 percent of students passed in the English language arts and 59 percent in math. Fourth grade saw 59 percent pass English language arts, math and science. Fifth grade saw 47 percent pass English language arts, 58 percent pass math and 39 percent pass social studies. Sixth grade saw 51 percent pass English language arts, 61 percent pass math and 46 percent pass science. Seventh grade saw 56 percent pass English language arts, 53 percent pass math and 47 percent pass social studies. Eighth grade saw 66 pass English language arts and 70 percent pass math.

Glaser also noted that 100 percent of the middle school students passed the end of the course assessment along with one Cloverdale school student receiving a 100 percent score on the language arts section of the SAT.

"It's kind of exciting to see these things come from our high school," said Glaser. "These are very good things to see."

John Butler the Cloverdale varsity football coach came back to the board with some not so good news. The practice football field, which Butler had been approved to build last month will be forced to be put on hold.

"We are just a few feet short of being able to fit a full field," said Butler. "I don't think it's doable just yet."

Butler told the board that he is not giving up on the practice field idea. They will regroup and come up with another plan on how to build a full-size field.

The school corporation did get some good news this week as it received its Advanced Education accreditation.

Each of the schools received certificates to display in each school, as the district is now fully accredited. The next review will not be for another several years.

Finally, in new business the board reviewed and approved the propsosed 2013 budgets, capital projects plan and school bus replacement plan to be published.

The board also approved the use of prime time instructional assistants and a new Five-Star Technology Contract.

The following personnel were also reviewed and approved: the hiring of Glee Kerr as the K-8 treasurer and Kim Fulkerson as a bus aide; the resignations of Leah Ehmen and Heath Pruitt; Ann Ruble and Autumn Butler from part time to full time; Sara Varnes as volunteer assistant girls' basketball coach, Rod Mann and Jim Walter as a volunteer assistant cross country coaches; Tim Blayden as a volunteer assistant volleyball coach and Tom Winders as a volunteer assistant middle/high school football coach.

The resigaton of Kathy Moore as the middle school boys' track coach was also approved.

Stacey Baugh was also received approval to add 10 days to her contract, which will go from 230 to 240 days.