Harrisburg School Board prepares for state aid cuts
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Harrisburg School Board members are preparing for what could be deep cuts in state aid to the district.
Tuesday afternoon, the State Board of Education posted on the Internet a draft detailing several cuts. Superintendent Dennis Smith quickly went over the cuts to see what they mean for the district. HE briefed the board at the regular meeting Tuesday night.
Among the cuts are a 50 percent reduction in the reading and improvement grant; 32.4 percent cuts in aid to the $340,000 pre-kindergarten program; a 70 percent cut to the $50,000 Americans With Disabilities Act block grant; and a 50 percent cut in the agriculture education grant. The cuts will amount to a $260,000 to $275,000 reduction, Smith said.
Smith suggested some of the rationale behind the cuts could amount to priming the pump for a tax increase next year, or later this year.
The board started laying the groundwork last month for cuts in the pre-k program. Last night, board member agreed to keep three teachers in the pre-k program, but move Megan Porter to third grade and Jamie Tavender-Banks to the position of Even Start program coordinator.
Work should begin soon on the press box at Taylor Field, which was destroyed by a wind storm in May. The estimated cost of the project is $50,000.
Architect Ed Kerkhover plans to distribute blueprints and bid specifications to contractors at a pre-bid meeting 1 p.m. Monday. Bids will be opened 2 p.m. next Friday. The board authorized the Building Committee to approve the lowest bid without the board convening a special meeting. The committee's action will be ratified in August at the regular meeting.
Board members hope to have the press box ready Aug. 31, shortly before the start of varsity football season.
Smith, Michele Way and Kerkhover met with city officials Monday about the smell emanating from parts of the Central Office. An environmental company hired by the district determined the smell, first detected last fall, is fecal matter, most likely from a city sewer.
"We agreed to do five or six core samples outside to see if we can catch the direction of the flow," Smith said.
Presumably, if the school can establish the sewer flow comes from the city's sewer lines, then the city will take care of the problem, Smith said. Board members also hope to eliminate the possibility of the sewer smell coming from an old septic tank located at the former site of the gasoline station at the corner of Church and Vine streets.
The smell caused the board to close the Central Office temporarily until a determination could be made that the smell was not hazardous.
A $19 million tentative budget was put on public display with an eye toward final approval on Aug. 25. Just over $15 million was allocated to the Education Fund.
The budget includes $10,275,000 state aid.
"But look out," Smith said in his written budget comments.
Several of the numbers are in flux after the ISBE's decisions on Tuesday, Smith said.
Harrisburg High School Principal Karen Crank and Assistant Principal Randy Smithpeters recently ran across an old document detailing the school's history through the late 1940s. The document was possibly written by Harry Taylor, HHS principal and district superintendent from 1898 to 1946.
The first records of the school date to 1861, but the writer is sure there was instruction in the area earlier. The first school was located at Vine and Church streets, "in the forest on Crusoe's Island."
In 1875, a school for minority students was established, according to the document.
The high school was built at the current location in 1904. The old "B" building was the high school at that time. Media and Technology Coordinator Cindy Black plans to put the document online for viewing.
During the meeting:
-- Resignations were accepted from Joe Thompson as assistant football and head baseball coach; Steve Vinyard as a classroom aide, assistant volleyball coach, assistant track coach and head girls' basketball coach at HHS; Terry Bacher as HHS flag corps and color guard coach; Jennifer Campbell as sixth grade math and language arts teacher; and Kathryn Shane as a school nurse. Shane was named records nurse later in the meeting.
-- Ally Ryan was rehired as prevention specialist at East Side for the 2009-2010 school year.
-- Cara Bramlet was hired as school nurse at the middle school.
-- April Horning was hired as HHS girls' basketball coach. Horning plans to co-coach with Denise Clayton and split the stipend. Both coaches will have equal authority, Horning said.
-- Jay Thompson was named HHS baseball coach; Al Way was named assistant football coach; Keri Lyn Simmons was named assistant volleyball coach at HHS; Brooke Behnke was named assistant track coach; and Benjie Willsey was named assistant cheerleading sponsor for football.
-- An auction will be conducted for several items declared surplus at the high school.