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Building expansion project to begin
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
By Jeff Corcino Staff Writer
With the high school renovation and expansion project set to start next week, the Clearfield Area School District looked at ways of controlling traffic at the building for the start of the school year.
At last night's school board meeting, interim principal Tim Janocko said because much of the construction will be taking place in the back of the building, all private vehicle drop-offs and buses will have to be moved to the front of the building.
The district is renovating and expanding the high school at a cost of approximately $35 million to allow the district to move the seventh and eighth grades into the school. The project is expected to take 21 months to complete, Superintendent Dr. Thomas Otto said.
To minimize congestion during construction, Janocko said they are looking to create a separate lane that would be striped in gold paint for drop-offs at the school to minimize the disruption between cars and buses.
Otto said the district is looking at hiring some crossing guards as a safety measure because everything is being moved out front for the duration of the construction.
Janocko said they are currently looking at several options for the hiring of crossing guards and said they are looking at putting a crossing guard at the bottom of the hill by the entrance of the school.
The school is also losing its rear parking lots due to the construction, and Janocko said they might not have enough parking for all the staff and students. Because of this the school might have to put limits on student parking, he said.
Although no decision has yet been made, Janocko said if limits were placed on student parking, they would likely give high school seniors first priority, then juniors, etc.
The upgrades to the school's football field, track and tennis courts are going well, but Otto said they did run into a few unexpected circumstances with the project. The district is in the process of installing a new artificial turf field and track in the football stadium and replacing its tennis courts.
Otto said the contractor for the project, Grace Industries discovered the electrical wiring for the football field was simply buried in the ground and was not placed in conduits. He said during construction the contractor accidentally cut one of the wires. He said they fixed it and went ahead and poured concrete over it. He said they later discovered that the stadium lights would not come on. The contractor accepted responsibility for the problem, removed the concrete and repaired the problem at no cost to the district.
However, to prevent such a problem from happening again, Otto said he authorized spending $25,000 to have all the underground electrical wires at the stadium placed in conduits. He said he made the authorization on his own because he did not want to delay the project and did not want the project to proceed without this being done and end up with a situation where they would have to tear everything up again to fix a wiring problem.
No one on the board voiced any objection to Otto authorizing spending $25,000 without getting board approval first and board member Tim Morgan said most businesses now require underground wires be placed in conduits.
The upgrades to the football stadium and track cost approximately $1.75 million, not including the cost of placing the wiring in conduits and the tennis courts at $198,000.
Otto said the contractor offered to give a discount to the district on the installation of a new sound system at the stadium and install it for $19,700. The low bid at the time of bidding was $50,670, according to the bid sheet provided to the media last April when the bids for the athletic upgrades were opened.
The board asked Otto if they had to decide now on the sound system or if they could wait and Otto said the board could wait if it wished and no decision was made.
The athletic upgrades are expected to be completed mid-August.
In other business, the board voted to:
• set the salaries of Janocko as interim principal at the high school at $95,364, retroactive to May 22, and assistant principal Heather Prestash at $74,160. Board member Jennifer Wallace voted against Prestash's salary.
• approve the request by the high school band to perform at the 2012 First Annual Capitol Hill Holiday Parade in Washington D.C. on Nov. 24. The band would leave Nov. 23 and return on Nov. 25. While there, students will have some sightseeing opportunities as well as some performance opportunities. All travel expenses will be paid for by the students with the help of student fundraisers.
• give permission for the high school band to perform at the 50th reunion of the Class of 1962 to be held on Aug. 18 at the Clearfield-Curwensville Country Club. There will be no cost to the district.
• approved the following personnel changes: resignations, Jill Bargiel, high school business education teacher; Janet Lukens, breakfast/noontime assistant at Bradford Elementary; C. Wayne Wood, varsity assistant boys basketball coach.
Transfers: Kelsey Casher, part-time classroom assistant at Centre Elementary to part-time classroom assistant at Bradford Township Elementary; Elizabeth Fulmer, part-time assistant at Bradford Township Elementary to full-time personal care aide at Clearfield Elementary; Debra Garito from part-time classroom assistant at the high school to full-time vo-ag assistant at the high school; Norma Johnston, full-time kindergarten assistant at Bradford Elementary to full-time library assistant at the middle school; Jennifer Maines, part-time kindergarten assistant at Clearfield Elementary to part-time classroom assistant at Clearfield Elementary; Kimberly McGarry-Clukey, part-time classroom assistant at Clearfield Elementary to part-time classroom assistant at Centre Elementary; Sharon Potter, part-time breakfast/noon assistant at Girard-Goshen Elementary to full-time PCA at Clearfield Elementary; Cathy Sones from full-time PCA at the middle school to full-time PCA at Clearfield Elementary; Lynette Timko, part-time PCA at the middle school to full-time PCA at Clearfield Elementary; Blair Wissinger, part-time kindergarten assistant at Clearfield Elementary to part-time classroom assistant at the high school.
Teaching transfers: Christine Bell, grade two at Girard-Goshen Elementary to grade two at Clearfield Elementary; Michele Shelter, grade four at Bradford Township Elementary to grade four at Clearfield Elementary; Jennifer Wright, special education at Clearfield Elementary to grade one at Clearfield Elementary; Cory Hoover, kindergarten at Clearfield Elementary to grade three at Clearfield Elementary; Rachel Johnson, kindergarten at Girard-Goshen Elementary to kindergarten at Centre Elementary; Mary Jane Pisarcik, special education at Bradford Elementary to kindergarten at Clearfield Elementary; Brandi Kalgren, grade three at Bradford Township Elementary to grade four at the school; Courtney Shagren, grade one at Girard-Goshen to grade three at Bradford Township Elementary.
Temporary professional employee appointments: Megan Clark, middle school special education teacher; Patrick Dobbins, middle school special education teacher; Amy Gilga, middle school special education teacher; Brian Gormont, high school chemistry teacher; Laurel Learish, kindergarten teacher at Clearfield Elementary; Paula Thorpe, special education teacher at Clearfield Elementary; LuAnn Wisor, middle school special education teacher; Whitney Griffith, high school special education teacher; Jennifer Poleti, special education teacher at Bradford Township Elementary.
Appointments: Tanya Baez, part-time PCA at the middle school; Jamie Witherow, part-time PCA at the high school; Mike Gill and Tom Greslick, volunteer wrestling coaches; Randy Pollick, volunteer swimming coach; David Domico, elementary wrestling coach.
Position creation/collapse: create one part-time PCA position at the high school; one part-time classroom assistant at Clearfield Elementary and one five-hour per day cook at the middle school; collapse one cook position at Girard-Goshen Elementary and one four-hour per day food service technician at the middle school.
Leaves: Connie Seaburn, high school cleaner Family Medical Leave Act leave of absence starting July 9 for up to 12 weeks.
• the board retroactively approved the emergency building use request by Master Touch Consulting of Clearfield to use the middle school kitchen last Saturday for a catering event. The caterer had proper liability insurance and agreed to pay a flat fee. A school district employee also works for the caterer and was present to act in a supervisory capacity.
• approve the new agreement with Drayer Physical Therapy Institute for it to provide athletic training services to student athletes.
Otto said the Aug. 20 committee meeting would be advertised to allow it to be a regular voting meeting as well.
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