Salem school board OKs storm water work
By LARRY SHIELDSSALEM - The school board approved a bid to build a storm water detention facility at the Old Whinnery Farm on Monday.
The bids were opened on Nov. 7 and the low bid of $50,125 was submitted by Less Contracting, Inc. Superintendent Lou Ramunno said 16 bids, with the high bid of $99,339 bid by L.E.C. Limited, were received.
Howells and Baird, civil engineers, reviewed the bids and recommended Less Contracting of Salem.
The engineers said the company has performed several projects designed and administered by it.
"We have found the work performed by Less Contracting Inc. to be of high quality," Howells and Baird President Jon Vollnogle said in a recommendation letter.
Ramunno said he expected the project to begin as soon as possible, explaining storm water from about 80-acres of board-owned property has plagued some property owners in the Fairview Court and Fairview Avenue area with runoff.
The project was talked about last year, he said, adding the board wants to be good neighbors.
In other business, Southeast School Principal Lisa Whitacre made a 17-minute presentation on what her school is doing to get students into more writing, dealing with pattern problems and understanding mathematics.
She said everyday kids communicate what they know and what they don't know.
"We decided this was something we had to do," she said regarding what they don't know, especially in math. One technique is getting students to use music, connecting it to the need to write.
Whitacre also said writing about mathematics helped and "tell something about numbers."
She added, "People think you can't write in mathematics, but you can."
The school has also developed a "problem of the week" project during lunch with rewards of ice cream.
Whitacre said students are "helping us be more diagnostic, so we can help them."
The problem of the week, she aid, "... builds a sense of community in the class that we're all working on the same thing."
In other business, the board approved advertising for bids for a new school bus with specifications for it to be a 72 or 77 passenger vehicle. The proposed purchase is part of the district's bus development plan.
Treasurer Jill Rowe said the October general fund balance was about $2.8 million and the permanent improvement fund was close to $1 million.
She said expenditures were up for October because there were three paydays. She expected expenses like natural gas to increase as the weather changes.
In other business, the board recognized eighth-grader Zach Maenz for writing the winning Foundation for Appalachian Ohio's 3red Annual "I'm a Child of Appalachia" essay contest; Lisa Winchester, principal of the Southeast School and staff members, and the room mothers in the district.
In other business, the board, under a consent agenda approved a substitute teacher list for 2008/2009 pending background checks including Rex Allen, Spence Celand, Patrick Kane, Jodi Lewand, Debbie Reed and Elizabeth Tussey.
It also approved athletic supplementals for Henry "Hank" Brick as football weight room coach at seven percent, Dan Votaw, assistant seventh-grade football coach at nine percent and Russ Miller, head ninth-grade basketball coach at eight percent.
The board approved a student fund raiser for the AFS Club.
It also hired Aaron Vogt as a data entry clerk at $10 per hour for 30 hours a week effective as of Oct. 27.
The board also approved a family medical leave for Sandra Myers, a high school cafeteria employee.
Larry Shields can be reached at lshields@salemnews.net
