East Ohio engineering

MARION CENTER — Representatives of the architectural andengineering firm HHSDR Monday outlined their proposals for making$2.5 million in repairs to the district’s high school building,including new drainage controls to prevent water runoff fromentering the building’s foundation.

Andreas Dometakis, an architect with HHSDR, explained hiscompany’s recommendations to build a new rock-lined drainagechannel and to add larger-diameter foundation drains to capturemore of the water that flows onto school property from higherground along Cemetery Road. The collected water would then bediverted away from the school buildings in a drain along Route 403and emptied into Pine Run near the railroad tracks at the edge ofschool property.

The largest of the proposed repairs to the high school is thereplacement of most of the roof. Dometakis recommended tearing offall the existing roof material in the areas to be repaired, andthen installing a layer of gypsum board, followed by insulation andbase and top layers of membrane.

Also proposed is an expansion, to include a shower, of arestroom in the life skills classroom; repairs to the loading dockat the rear of the high school; repairs to the exterior stairs atthe side of the auditorium; installation of 12 or more securitycameras at entrances and along corridors; replacement of rigging,curtains and some lighting controls at the stage in the auditorium;and an evaluation of the efficiency of the building’s heating,cooling and ventilating equipment.

Dometakis broke down the cost estimates into seven areas:$155,000 for general construction; $15,000 for mechanical services;$100,000 for electrical work; $1.2 million to $1.3 million for roofrepairs; $220,000 for stage equipment replacement; $350,000 fordrain construction and installation; and $395,000 for soft costs,including engineering and design fees and a contingency fund.

The total price for the proposed work is estimated at$2,535,000, but alternate specifications to be included in the biddocuments would offer some options on the scope of the work to bedone.

A timetable prepared by HHSDR suggested that if the schooldirectors as early as next week authorize school administrators andHHSDR to finalize the bid packages, the work could begin June 11and be completed by Aug. 24 during the school summer vacation.

District superintendent Dr. Frank Garritano said a meeting isplanned for 6:30 p.m. on March 7 with about 15 parents who have oneor more children interested in enrolling in the district’s newcyber academy, being developed as a joint venture with the PennsManor Area School District.

Details, including which courses will be offered, remain to beworked out, Garritano said. But the Marion Center Area-Penns ManorCyber Academy will offer a “blending” of options in which studentsmay take some courses on-line and go to their district’sbricks-and-mortar schools for some classes.

About 32 Marion Center students are now enrolled in cyberschools. Garritano said the new district-run academy will offersome advantages. Among those, he said, will be student access tothe district’s guidance counselors and technology support staff andopportunities to take the PSAT (Preliminary SAT). And Marion Centerstudents in the cyber academy will graduate with a Marion Centerdiploma.

Business manager Richard Martini told the directors that Gov.Tom Corbett’s state budget proposal, as it stands now, leaves theschool district short more than $166,000 from the preliminarybudget approved in January. Deleted from Corbett’s proposed statebudget for next year is the Accountability Block Grant, which thisyear gave the district more than $105,000. The Accountability BlockGrant, could, among other things, be used for reducing class sizesand maintaining a full-day kindergarten as opposed to a half-daykindergarten.

Martini also said Corbett is proposing a new concept byreplacing what had been the Basic Education Grant with a newsubsidy to be known as the Student Achievement Education BlockGrant. The new subsidy will combine the Basic Education Grant withreimbursements for Social Security and for transportation of bothpublic and non-public students.

“Those four, which were separate, are now rolled into one,”Martini said.

Also, the Armstrong-Indiana Intermediate Unit now pays fortransportation for some students, but Corbett’s budget proposessending money for that directly to the district.

“On the revenue side it looks like an increase,” but thedistrict will now have to cover the expense, Martini said.

Martini expects to learn more about Corbett’s proposed schoolfunding budget for 2012-13 Friday during a webinar sponsored by thePennsylvania Association of School Business Officials.

Board President Gregg Sacco suggested the directors work as aboard-of-the-whole in refining the district’s budget and evaluatingexpenses that may be trimmed, rather than turning that task over toa budget committee. Sacco said that, given the board’s track recordon controversial topics, he doesn’t think the board has “thedynamic” for all directors to accept and agree upon cost-cuttingmeasures suggested by three or four directors on a committee.

Board Vice President Ron Oswald said if the directors act as aboard-of-the-whole for budget preparations, then, for consistency,all issues, including contract negotiations, should be handled thatway rather than by committees.

March 7 was added as an additional board meeting date, solelyfor budget preparation work.

Director Justin Elkin said he was aware of two groups of peopleinterested in buying the closed Creekside-Washington ElementarySchool and one group interested in acquiring the closed Canoe-GrantElementary building. Canoe-Grant and Creekside-Washington wereclosed in June 2010 as the school district consolidated its fallingstudent enrollment into the district’s remaining buildings.

“The lawsuit is the only thing that is preventing us from movingforward with a constructive divestiture of these properties,” Elkinsaid.

Some directors suggested recently that the board should considerselling the two buildings to raise cash for other needs. But legalcounsel has recommended not selling the buildings until a lawsuitfiled by the Marion Center Concerned Taxpayers is resolved. Thesuit challenges the process followed in closing the schools, anddirectors Lori Marshall and Keith Isenberg are among the plaintiffsin the suit.

“At a time when we are in the midst of teacher contract talks,the additional monies wasted on a frivolous lawsuit would go a longway toward a settlement,” Elkin said. “So … let’s hold these boardmembers who are wasting our money accountable and move on with aconstructive divestiture of the buildings as a sitting board may sodecide to do in some manner.”

Charles Adamchik, the district’s director of curriculum,instruction and assessment, told the board about research heconducted on what influences SAT scores. Adamchik said students arelikely to have higher SAT scores if they have taken the PSAT and ifthey have taken and done well in rigorous science and mathcourses.

There is also a positive correlation between SAT scores and thenumber of school clubs a student is active in, he said. However,involvement in too many school sports can hinder SAT scores,according to Adamchik.

Marshall reiterated her contention that the district shouldproactively make parents aware that students have the option oftaking the PSAT early in their high school years. Only one of 106Marion Center freshmen took the PSAT in October, and 41 of 100Marion Center juniors took the PSAT in October, she said.

Marshall also noted that compared to Indiana University ofPennsylvania’s standard of 500 on the SAT for both critical readingand math, the 2011 Pennsylvania mean SAT score for reading was 493,and Marion Center’s mean score was 472. Also for 2011, thePennsylvania SAT mean score for math was 501, and Marion Center’smean SAT math score was 486.

Curriculum changes and remedial programs are in place and beingplanned to enhance student achievement. Garritano said it couldtake a few years for the results of major curriculum changes,especially beginning in the elementary grades, to become evident inhigher SAT scores. Some remedial reading programs, according to AmyGaston, supervisor of special education, have helped some studentsmake significant gains just in the first half of this schoolyear.