The Indian Lake Board of Education approved during their Wednesday evening meeting, Sept. 25, a new bus garage project that will change the layout of facilities at Indian Lake Schools.
The board accepted a resolution awarding Baumer Construction, Inc., a $2.9 million contract to build a new Bus Maintenance/Storage facility and Fuel Station project south of the middle school along County Road 91 and the southern drive onto campus.
The current bus maintenance facility, located at the center of campus, is now too short to accommodate the size of modern buses.
“What this will allow us to do is get those buses inside, under cover, locked, and safely out of the weather,” Indian Lake Superintendent Dr. Rob Underwood explained.
“After studying the financial impact of this for well over a year, we know this is a way to extend the life of the buses and the overall security on our campus.”
Underwood said the bids for the project came in $1.3 million dollars under the original estimated cost. Building a new bus maintenance facility will open up the current garage to future projects and generate many more parking spaces close to the Indian Lake High School event entrance and Laker Stadium.
In addition, Dr. Underwood gave board members a report on the Indian Lake Schools State Report Card that was recently released. Indian Lake earned a 4-star rating, a slight slip from the past two years at 4.5 stars.
State testing took place less than a month after the March 14 tornado ravaged the Indian Lake area, closed school for a week and displaced many students and their families.
Dr. Underwood says he is more than satisfied with the state testing results, given the circumstances.
“The students actually took the assessments really shortly after the tornado hit our district. So for them to be able to focus and be able to come back from such a challenging event and to still have a really solid performance on those state assessments, we just couldn’t be any prouder.”
Superintendent Underwood said teaching teams are still analyzing results to make improvements for this year.
Finally, the board accepted the upcoming retirement next summer of longtime Indian Lake Schools Treasurer Coleen Reprogle. She has served the district for decades and with her knowledge and experience, Dr. Underwood knows her position will be a challenge to fill.
“It’s been such an awesome experience getting to work with her. I think there are very few people in the profession that work as hard as she does and give as much as she has given to this district.”
Board members are planning a search process to find Reprogle’s successor.
In other action, the board:
• accepted the supplemental contract resignation of Brian Tidwell, middle school boys basketball; and extended the following supplemental contracts: Melissa Kunkler, high school art club adviser; Brad Hoover, boys bowling; Sue Bishop, girls bowling; Ethan Fulkerson, middle school boys basketball;
• accepted a $2,500 donation to the Food Service Department for school lunches from the Amvets Post 39; a $250 donation from the Residents and Neighbors of Circle Drive (Lakeview) and the $364 donation from the Maplewood Community Fire Department to the Student Needs fund;
• approved Melissa Kunkler for a $100 half-day stipend for ALICE Intruder Training to be paid from the Performance Based Compensation Fund;
• approved Amber Newkirk and Cassandra Sullivan for $400 for two full days for the SMARTER Intervention professional development paid from the Performance Based Compensation Fund;
• approved Home Instruction Tutors Sarah Beres, Robin Boots and Cassandra Sullivan serving a MS and a HS IEP student at a rate of $25 per hour, as needed:
• approved a number of staff members as high school and middle school Thursday night monitors, to be paid at the rate of $20 per hour;
• approved the following staff members’ advancement on the salary schedule, effective Sept. 15: master’s plus 45 — Ryan Lillard, Theresa Nelson; and master’s —Linsey Titus and Brian Levingston.
Members also entered into executive session for the purpose of considering the employment of a public employee or official.
The next board meeting is 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21, in the Board Office.