Elementary addition progressing despite prolonged wet weather
Significant progress is being made on the Northside Elementary School classroom addition, despite several months of wet weather, architect Michael Spaeth reported at Thursday’s school board meeting.
The approximately 5,500-square-foot addition includes four prekindergarten classrooms, each with their own restroom, cabinets and cubbies. The addition is being paid for by a $500,000 grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, with the balance coming from district funds.
The project, which is set to be completed before school begins in August, is ahead of schedule in some areas and behind in
others, Spaeth said. Builders had to combat rain in March and April, and are currently working to make up the time they lost, he said.
Spaeth said that the walls and roof structure of the addition are complete. Currently, masons are laying bricks along the exterior of the building and workers are almost finished adding decking to the roof and ready to begin adding the final roofing materials, Spaeth said.
The contractor is about two weeks away from adding windows and insulation, he said. Once the building is closed off, work will begin on the interior finishes, he said.
Heavy rain April 29 and 30 did create some flooding problems for the elementary school that resulted in preschool students getting the day off on May 1.
Assistant superintendent Jody Wiggins explained that during the construction process, the floor level of the addition is slightly different than the floor level of the rest of the building. Builders left a three foot hole between the two levels to make sure that water didn’t puddle and flood the existing building before the walls were closed. However, the exceptionally heavy rainfall caused the three-foot-deep hole to fill and water began to flood the existing classrooms.
Wiggins said a teacher discovered the problem when she stopped by to feed her fish on Saturday evening. Eight to 10 maintenance employees came up in the middle of the night to move furniture and squeegee out water, he said. Rainbow Cleaners also helped with the cleanup process, he said.
In the end, only a few rugs had to be thrown away because of water damage, he said. Prekindergarten teachers spent May 1 putting their classrooms back together so that students could return on May 2.
“It was not a pleasant process but it worked out,” Wiggins said.
“It could always be worse,” said board president Brian Lamb. “Just think if the teacher hadn’t come up to feed her fish. Who knows what you could have walked into Monday morning?”
School employees spent the rainy weekend touring the other buildings to check for leaks or flooding, said Superintendent Ken Ramey. None was found, he said.
“A lot of people stepped up to make a difference for our school district,” he said.
In other business, school board members approved employing First Security Beardsley Public Finance as the district’s financial advisor for a period of three years.
First Security Beardsley Public Finance has already served the school for 16 years, Ramey said. The firm provides the district with financial advice and training.
School board members also approved a federally required special education statement of intent and assurances. Ramey said the agreement states the district will adopt all federal procedures and apply those rules to all special needs children between the ages of 3 and 21.
The district has 542 students who have been identified as having special needs. The program receives a total of $2.7 million from the state and federal governments for students with special needs, Ramey said.
“It’s pretty highly regulated and highly monitored,” he said.
A special school board meeting will be held at 5 p.m. June 5 in Superintendent Ken Ramey’s office for the purpose of accepting resignations and approving hiring new employees for the upcoming school year. The district’s regularly scheduled board meeting will be moved from June 8 to June 15 to give principals another week to complete hiring before the new contract year begins on July 1. It will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the school board room at the Siloam Springs Middle School.
The school board took the following actions:
• Accepted the resignation of Jamie Wasson-Jones, high school special education teacher; Karen Sturges, middle school language pathologist; Kirstin Vanada, Allen Elementary School second-grade teacher; Gale Keese, Southside Elementary School instructional faciliatator; Yoselyn Parra, Allen Elementary School first-grade teacher; Jennifer King, high school math teacher; and Rachelle Shelby Moyers, Allen Elementary School special education teacher.
• Approved hiring of Twyla Lowry, Southside Elementary third-grade math and science teacher; Stacy Irwin, Allen Elementery School counselor; Guy White, Main Street Academy physical science, environmental science and biology teacher; Kevin Cohea, Main Street Academy English language arts teacher; Marilyn Hoyt, Main Street Academy career/social studies electives teacher; Lanna Hardy, Main Street Academy social studies teacher; Julie Lewis, Main Street Academy math electives teacher; Michael Lewis, Main Street Academy math teacher; Trashell Snow, Main Street Academy student support services; Macey Burr, Intermediate School fifth-grade language arts/social studies teacher; Wesley “Adam” Hensen, Intermediate School fifth-grade math and science teacher; Aaryn Whitney, Southside Elementary School third-grade literacy teacher; and Darcy Ireland, Middle School eighth-grade pre-Algebra I and math teacher.
• Renewed the contracts of 242 classified employees for the 2017-2018 school year.
• Approved renewing the contracts of two certified teachers who were accidentally omitted from the list of teachers rehired at the April school board meeting.
• Approved hiring parttime employees to help with summer maintenance duties.
• Approved the transfer of one student from the Siloam Springs School District to the Gentry School District.