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District to expand school for growth
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: January 17, 2019

Valley Center Middle School will undergo another expansion.

The school board Jan. 14 voted to move forward with a four-classroom addition and an expansion of the administrative offices.

"If we don't do it now, and we have the money now, in a year or two it's got to get done," said board member Rhonda Price. "We're not going to stop growing. The middle school needs that space."

The school at 800 N. Meridian received a classroom addition as part of the 2016 bond issue. The latest expansion will be paid for with regular capital outlay funds as well as savings from the 2016 bond issue.

The school has more than 720 students in grades six through eight.

The building has just one empty classroom, said Mike Bonner, assistant superintendent.

The classrooms would be added to the west side of the building, just north of the main entrance. The office would also expand to the west.

Cost of the classroom project was estimated at $1.2 million, while cost of the office addition and renovation was estimated at $582,000.

The school board gave the go-ahead for the project. The district's contractor will seek bids for a possible late spring construction start. Bonner said the project would be expected to end in early August.

The expansion was part of a larger group of infrastructure projects — a total of $2.4 million worth — for which the school board gave its initial approval this week.

Other projects planned for 2019 include maintenance of the West, intermediate school, middle school and high school parking lots, hardware to equip buses with GPS, new softball and baseball scoreboards, fire systems at the middle school and intermediate school, artificial turf maintenance and tennis court maintenance at the high school.

In other business Jan. 14, the board:

•Approved donations of $5 for a food service account from an anonymous donor; $100 for food service accounts at West for an anonymous donor; $200 for food service accounts at the intermediate school from an anonymous donor; $500 for West Elementary counseling program from New York Life Co.; $500 for a teacher grant at Credit Union of America; and $1,000 for West Elementary for KAKE Reading Caravan.

•Heard a mid-year review of the district's finances.

•Learned that a group of superintendents has started discussing the possibility of updating the interlocal agreement among the nine school districts in the special education cooperative.

•Approved the 2019-20 health insurance renewal with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Cost to employees decreased 1.4 percent.

•Reviewed board policy updates.

•Met in executive session for 20 minutes to discuss an individual employee's contract.

•Accepted supplemental contract resignations from Courtney Yochum (high school girls soccer assistant coach, Dec. 10) and Ryan Jones (Tier 2 mentor, Jan. 2).

•Approved supplemental contracts for Jeff Sells (Tier 2 mentor, $250, Jan. 2) and Lexi Clark (high school girls soccer assistant coach, $2,898, Feb. 25).

•Approved the hiring of Eric Scriven (bus driver, $11.35 per hour, Jan. 7) and Cooper Tracy (custodian at the high school, $10.10 per hour, Jan. 14).

•Accepted resignations from Paul Meinecke (retirement, maintenance, April 30), Lonnie Thiessen (secondary math interventionist, May 25), Pete Bastian (middle school principal, June 24) and Abby Thompson (middle school assistant principal, June 10).

•Approved the transfer of Gretchen DeShazer (from four hours per day to five hours per day, food service, Dec. 4).

•Approved contract extensions for Mark Hoy (West principal), Mary Carpenter (Abilene principal), Adelyn Soellner (Wheatland principal), Greg Lehr (intermediate school principal), Jordan Funk (middle school assistant principal/athletic director), Jamie Lewis (high school principal), Kent Hipp (high school assistant principal), Brianna Reyes (high school assistant principal) and Caleb Smith (high school assistant principal/athletic director).

Bart Balthazor and Roger Joyal were not at the meeting.





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