Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008

338 board looks at final plans going to bid soon

by Clarke Davis

    Architectural plans for a new school addition, a sales pitch for new football lights, and a bleak financial forecast went before the board of education at Valley Falls Monday night.
    Architect Mark Lieb rolled out several sets of blueprints for board members to peruse. He was accompanied by project manager John Kearney, who had his own list of details dealing mostly with cost-cutting measures.
    Lieb was given the green light to finish the details and provide the plans in digital form to be downloaded on the school’s website for contractors to access.
    Kearney said the $3.5 million project would be broken into multiple pieces  for bid letting, which he hopes will take place by Dec. 15.
    Acquiring new electrical service for the school complex went unresolved. Consolidating the power into one transformer and one meter appears will save the district a considerable amount of money over time, but the cost of putting the lines underground remains high.
    New figures from John Delfelder of Superior Electric has brought the cost down from $116,000 to $92,000 since the board’s last meeting with Westar, but issues still remain.
    The board will meet again with Westar officials at 6:30 p.m. Monday to see if one more overhead line can be used to drop the cost still further.
    The question remained whether the  board would handle the matter as a change order or would have to bid the project.
    Salesman Brad Thompson with Musco Lighting, a company based in Oskaloosa, Iowa, estimated new lights at the football field would cost about $100,000.
    The lights would be monitored, maintained, and guaranteed by the company for 25 years. He said four poles would hold the lights and provide an even 30-candle light power over the entire field, about five times the current light, and operate at half the cost. He estimated a $25,000 energy savings over the life the of system.
    Superintendent Loren Feldkamp apprised the board of what he is hearing on the state level about school financing and it didn’t sound good. He said state revenues had a $500 million surplus at the end of fiscal year 2008 but were headed downward.
    “It’s forecast that the state will come up $136 million short at the end of 2009,” Feldkamp said. “and the state has to balance its budget.”
    “There’s a real possibility that every school district will need to contribute or cuts will be made to the education budget. The top Kansas officials all feel we will not receive as much money as we had hoped,” he said.
    Feldkamp distributed a list of preliminary suggestions from the administrative team to start a discussion on long-range planning, but was left speechless after a speech by board member Larry Martin.
    Martin told Feldkamp he was “going about it the hard way,” a sort of shotgun approach with no end in sight. He told the administrators to find out what the end result is that they intend to accomplish and then back into it, acquiring whatever is necesssary to arrive at that objective.
    One piece of the puzzle that requires some planning before the board acts is whether to sign on with the Kan-ed program. This program would cost about $50,000, half coming from grants, to connect to the classroom instruction throughout the state.
    Under the program, a school who provides a televised, interactive class gets paid for it as does the teacher. In turn, the school would have to pay for any class it pipes into the school.
    It could be helpful in two ways. It could expand the curriculum or save the present curriculum if a teacher leaves and cannot be replaced. The program is also less expensive than a teacher and is hinted as being a cost-saving measure.
    Feldkamp said the program is far more popular in the west and southwest portion of the state where they suffer a greater teacher shortage than in northeast Kansas.
    The superintendent said special board meetings for long-range planning that will include Kan-ed will be held after the first of the year.
    The board’s Christmas dinner for the faculty and staff will be held at Cedar Ridge Catering and Banquet north of Atchison Dec. 11.
    Board member Bobbi Kearney was absent.