School board to replace risky bleachers in gym

Officials agreed to let the district handle marketing and recruitment for a cyber school.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Fitch High School's old bleachers aren't going to be around much longer to terrorize people with fears of giant splinters from broken planks or taking a tumble from a misstep.
If you had the chance to attend events at the Fitch gym this past winter, said schools Superintendent Doug Heuer, then you saw for yourself just how scary those bleachers are.
"We had to rope off some sections," Heuer said at the school board's Wednesday meeting. "One young man got a splinter in his leg of considerable size."
So for the safety and security of everyone who attends events at the gym, he said, the bleachers have to go.
They were built with the original school, said the district's Athletic Director Joe Nohra, and weren't even motorized. A machine the district threw away last year pulled them out, and it takes 11 or 12 people to do that job, he said.
Service Supply Inc. of Cuyahoga Falls will demolish and remove the bleachers then install new ones for $216,945.
District administrators and board members said interest accrued from bond money for the new middle school will pay for the work. Law requires that money to be spent on building improvements, and the bleachers qualify.
Heuer said he is not sure when the work will begin, but it won't start until after school is out for the year.
Cyber school contract
In other business, the board voted to approve a service contract to handle marketing and recruitment for the cyber charter school Virtual Community School of Ohio, based in Reynoldsburg near Columbus.
In return, Heuer said, the district gets $1,200 for every pupil attending the school from the Austintown area. And for every other pupil in Northeast Ohio who enrolls as a result of the district, it will get $1,000.
Heuer said that persuading just one percent of around 40,000 home-schooled students in the region to attend the virtual school could mean $400,000. He said that will help offset the loss of state funding for each student who leaves the district.
Heuer said there will be no cost to the district for the marketing efforts. The district will publicize the school on its Web site and at state superintendents and school board meetings. He said it also will contact home-schooling organizations.