Charles City Board of Education OKs facilities expenditures as part of 5-year planning

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Board of Education approved $555,000 in facilities and vehicle expenditures for the 2023-24 fiscal year at its regular meeting this week.

The expenditure is part of “a systematic five-year plan looking at the facilities across the district,” said board member Kathryn Fox as part of a facilities committee report. The district continually updates the plan so it is always looking five years ahead.

Director of Operations Jerry Mitchell said there are a number of items that are usually included every year, such as continually updating signage throughout the district and making repairs to concrete items such as sidewalks and curbs as needed.

For the next fiscal year that will begin July 1, 2023, the plan includes purchasing a 71-passenger school bus for about $120,000, buying a 12-passenger van for $30,000 and replacing two roof areas at Washington Elementary School and over the weight room at the high school for a total of $225,000.

“Once we get those roofs done, Washington will be 100% done with roofs, so we’ll have warranty for about another 16 years on Washington, completely. So that’s really, really nice to have that done,” Mitchell said.

Purchasing another 12-passenger van will help with transportation costs, he said, because some groups will be able to use two vans for trips, which is less expensive than using a school bus.

Another $85,000 will go toward sealing the roofs on the north end of the high school, “everywhere from the circles to the north,” Mitchell said.

“We found a couple of different firms that do that and give a 20-year leak-proof warranty,” he said. “We’re very excited about that, because this end, as everyone knows, has not been the best in roof leaks lately.”

Other expenses include $60,000 to begin a plan of replacing the air handling units on the north end of the high school, replacing one each year for the next five years; $30,000 to make some door locks Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant; and $25,000 to put alarms on some exterior doors around the district that are not meant to be used for regular use, to help control access to the buildings.

The district plans on having about $783,535 in discretionary spending funds available for this type of expenditures next fiscal year, Mitchell said. With spending $555,000 of that, it will enable the district to put more than $228,000 into its cash reserve, continuing to build that reserve higher than the $1.5 million the district typically wants to have on hand for emergencies, so that some additional funds will be available as the district continues to look at larger facilities projects.

The Board of Education also approved a change order for $55,100 on the North Grand Building project, which involves isolating the 1970s part of the building which the school district continues to own, from the 1930s part of the building which has been sold to a developer to be turned into residential apartments.

An original plan to provide an egress route out of the 1970s part of the building involved going through an area that the developer considered part of his space, and so there were several months of negotiations to come up with a solution that didn’t involve exiting through a part of a building owned by someone else, which is against Iowa Fire Code, according to Will McAllister, the project manager for Woodruff Construction.

“What we ended up doing is instead of going out the north, out the dock there, we went through the south where there’s a kitchen. So we had to demo some existing freezers, a couple block walls, then we had to add a couple other doors there to get this egress. And then obviously build a wall that separates their ownership from what you guys own,” McAllister said.

TLC: The Learning Center is leasing part of the 1970s part of the building from the school district for a nominal fee, and is completely remodeling the area for its child care services.

Also at the meeting this week, the board:

• Began a new practice to recognize district employees each month who have been nominated by their peers for “‘going above and beyond’ to exemplify Charles City Community Schools’ vision, mission, and values.” Employees recognized this month are school nurse Jessica Moore, middle school teacher Liz VonHagen, Associate Director of Operations Sam Gaston, paraeducator Karla Friedrich and paraeducator (previously substitute teacher) Michelle Sweet.
• Received an update from Director of Academic Services Dr. Jennifer Schilling regarding the district curriculum management plan, including a grade K-5 math curriculum review, a grade 5-8 English language arts review, and a shift in the role of instructional coaches.
• Received a letter from former teacher and drama director Linda Brant as a member of “Friends of Performing Arts” pointing out the number of times the school district has built gymnasiums without building facilities for performing arts, why a new auditorium will need at least 800 seats, comparing seating capacities with auditoriums in other school districts, and concluding: “The goal of our school in recent years has been to offer excellent facilities for all of our students. Without an events center, we are not offering that to our fine arts students in instrumental music, vocal music, and theater.”
• Went into closed session “to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance, or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s reputation and that individual requests a closed session,” as allowed under the Iowa Open Meetings Law. After the meeting, Board of Education President Pat Rottinghaus said the board took no action after it came back into open session, and she said she could not identify the person being discussed.
• Set the time for a workshop meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 18, to 4 p.m. because there is a high school orchestra concert that evening.