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City attorney Andrew Carnall and Jim Elizondo, a representative of City Security, presented a resolution to the Bluffton-Harrison School Board at their meeting on Monday evening that approved the continuing disclosure undertaking in reference to bonds. The resolution was approved unanimously by the board.
Elizondo said the school corporation was required as an issuer of the bond to submit documents about its financial condition to the repositories on the east coast to allow future bond holders or bond buyers to receive information.
“So it’s not really for the initial purchasers of your bonds,” said Elizondo, “but the secondary market in your bonds.”
He added, “Five years from now when somebody wants to buy the bonds, there’s is now a repository that they can find information about you as a school district.”
With this resolution, the school district agrees to annually submit various items that are included in the initial official statement or disclosure used to sell the bonds. Items in this list include taxpayers, tax collections and assessed values.
The district will also be required to make notice if something out of the ordinary happened to the school district financially.
Elizondo also said he expects to sell the bonds on May 16 and close on May 26, “plus or minus a day or two either way.” City Security will be going to rating agencies next week, saying “the market is still attractive” even though some interest rates have dropped.
Jon Bennett, principal of the middle school, gave a brief update on ISTEP improvement efforts.
He said two employees from each of the three school buildings were scheduled to go to Fort Wayne to partake in a workshop on the updates to the ISTEP test on May 5.
He also gave the board a report from the Indiana Department of Education that detailed some of the changes being made to the ISTEP test, which included, among other things, testing fourth and sixth graders on science in the spring.
Bennett said they had their third day of Wilson Reading Training last Friday, and he had been getting lots of positive feedback on the program so far.
Tom Gibson, principal of the elementary school, recognized Ginny Vogel as Educator of the Year. This was done after the elementary school employees were polled to see who was the best representative of the school and the school system.
Vogel started in the school district in 1986 as a first grade teacher and a head basketball coach. Since 1996, she has served as a counselor at the elementary school. She now organizes Parents’ Night Out.
Gibson said she “not only counsels the kids, she counsels the big people, too.”
Board president Daryl Elliott presented her with a plaque as a token of the board’s appreciation.
In other business:
–The letter of resignation submitted by Ben Durham, the varsity football coach, was unanimously approved by the board. It takes effect immediately.
–Nola Starkey was recommended for guidance secretary beginning with the 2008-2009 school year. Vicki Van Matre was recommended for head girls’ varsity basketball coach. Carl Reynolds was recommended for middle school diving coach. These recommendations were unanimously approved by the board.
–A request from Jodi Leyse, who teaches physics and math at the high school, for unpaid family medical leave from May 16, 2008, to the end of the 2007-2008 school year was unanimously approved by the board. Leyse recently had a baby.
–The first reading of the junior high student welfare policy was approved unanimously after a brief discussion.
–The board unanimously approved the Public Law 221 plan for the elementary and middle schools. No changes were made to the policy, but it was made more consistent with all three school buildings. This is the state school improvement plan. It requires schools staff members to submit a plan to the state on improving their school and the steps that will be taken to make those improvements.
–The board unanimously approved the 2008-2009 High School Student Handbook as recommended by Steve Baker, principal of the high school.
–Cost increases for adult and student breakfast and lunch prices as recommended by food service director Robin McCorkle, were unanimously approved by the board. The Type A student and adult breakfast will be increased 25 cents to $1.50 for adults and $1.40 for middle school students; student and Type A adult lunch prices will increase ten cents to $2 for middle school and high school students, $1.40 for elementary students, and $2.75 for adults. These increases are needed to help cover the increasing prices of food.
–The board unanimously approved the adoption of language arts textbooks, workbooks and supplemental material as presented at the April 14 board meeting.
–School superintendent Dr. Julie Wood said the Department of Education granted a waver for three full field days instead of six half-days of in service for Wells and Adams Counties for joint meetings.
–Wood also reported that tax anticipation warrants will be put into use since taxes will not be received in a timely manner. All areas have been put in cutbacks and savings mode. All spending is under scrutiny.
–Kent Shady, vice president of the board, passed out information on the Indiana property tax reform and how it will affect the school.
The next meeting of the Bluffton-Harrison School Board will be May 12 at 7 p.m.
nathan@news-banner.com
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