43
School construction progressing at Weathersfield schools
By Mary Smith
MINERAL RIDGE
Construction at Weathersfield schools is moving along quickly, schools Superintendent Damon Dohar said.
The district started classes two weeks later than normal, Sept. 9, to allow for work at the high school to be advanced enough for classes to start.
Working with a total of $25.2 million, including an Ohio School Facilities Commission grant of $17.5 million and a local bond issue of 6.6 mills to generate $7.5 million for 30 years, the district is remodeling and upgrading the high school and adding classrooms for grades seven and eight by remodeling current space.
A $1.5 million gymnasium also is being built, with concrete already poured for it and walls constructed.
Students are using portable classrooms next to the high school while the construction for grades seven and eight is underway. The junior-high wing is to be finished after Christmas.
Twenty-two rooms in the academic wing of the high school have been torn down, with wall studs removed and replaced, new walls constructed and the heating and cooling system replaced.
“We got about a year’s worth of work done in three months,” Dohar said.
At Seaborn Elementary School, where almost the entire building was torn down, walls are up for the grades-one-to four phase, and the foundation is being poured for the fifth- and sixth-grade wing.
The board approved the amended appropriation for 2013-14 of $11.216 million with a general fund of $8.2 million. Treasurer Laurena Rouan said the budget is about $150,000 higher than last year, with slight decreases in federal Title I programs for special education.
The $1.5 million Joe Lane Sports Complex, which was paid off last year, no longer is an ongoing bill for the district.
The board had borrowed $950,000 toward construction of the complex, which was built after Joe Lane donated $500,000 for a new sports complex in 2000, and also was donating more than $250,000 over the years to the complex debt.
The board approved 2 percent raises for administrative assistants, who have not had an increase in four years.
Rose Hinks, payroll account clerk, will receive a $660 increase, going from $32,978 annually to $33,638. Kim Rouan, superintendent’s administrative assistant and educational management information system coordinator/special education assistant, will receive a $612 increase from $30,600 to $31,212 a year.
Valerie Infante was moved from a six-hour assistant account clerk to an eight-hour assistant payroll clerk at a salary of $28,642 a year.
Transit Service Inc., 1130 Performance Place, Youngstown, again was contracted for special-education transportation services for the 2013-14 school year, at a rate of $45 a day round trip per student.
The contract runs from Aug. 1, 2013, to July 31, 2014.