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Three architectural firms are in the final running for the right to design a remodeling project for Norwell High School.
That was the information delivered by Supt. Dr. Scott Mills to members of the Northern Wells School Board Tuesday evening.
Morrison Kattmann & Menze, Barton Coe & Vilamaa and Moake Park Associates, all of Fort Wayne, are the survivors of a whittling down process by Mills, buildings and grounds supervisor John Kochert, school board president Gene Donaghy and member Scott Elzey. Nine firms originally vied for the right to remake the high school.
Mills said that the next step is to get the three firms to provide information about how much they’ll charge the school corporation for generating ideas about what needs to be done to renovate the high school and for preliminary designs. They will also be required to provide some sort of a cost estimate of how much they will charge for a project ranging from $5 million to $30 million.
The three were to provide those estimates to the school board today, but the problem is, two were sent by e-mail and the school corporation’s e-mail was down Tuesday. Mills hoped to provide the board with the information at the Aug. 26 meeting.
In other business, Mills invited the members of the board to a continental breakfast for teachers today at the high school. Today is the first day for teachers to return to school with Thursday slated as the first student day. Thursday will be a full day for students, a departure from the usual method of operation in past years.
The board members also approved of hiring the following personnel for the 2008-09 school year:
—Judi Sonnigsen and Terra King as bus drivers.
—Shelby Evans and Tonya Topp as cafeteria workers—Evans at the high school/middle school and Topp at Lancaster.
—Joshua Merrick as a high school phys-ed teacher.
—Kelly McIntyre for a latchkey position at Ossian Elementary in the afternoon.
—Eric Thornton and Ron Harnish to a shared internship coordinator position.
—Kathy Fritts as a high school family and consumer science teacher for the first semester only.
—Shelli VanGordon as a high school cheerleading assistant coach.
—Joel Fillman as a high school boys’ head tennis coach.
—Neal Worden as an assistant football coach at the high school.
—Meghann Kenline as a spell bowl coach at Ossian Elementary.
—Mike Wertenberger as a high school boys’ assistant tennis coach.
—Brent Gerber and Rich Beavens as boys’ assistant volunteer tennis coaches at the high school.
—Tiffany Brown as high school JV volleyball coach.
—Trisha Donaghy as high school ninth grade volleyball coach.
—Alex Baker as high school volunteer volleyball coach.
—Krista Warner as high school assistant cheer coach.
The board also:
—Approved of a medical leave of absence for middle school language arts teacher Lori Bender through Sept. 15.
—Learned that Bob Thomas has retired from his bus driving position. Thomas is a long-time bus driver and Mills offered a special thanks for his many years of dedication.
—Learned that Ashley Gonterman has resigned as high school girls’ junior varsity basketball coach and Krissi Ford has resigned as a fourth grade teacher at Ossian Elementary School.
Tuesday’s meeting was preceded by an executive session to discuss collective bargaining, litigation, implementation of a school safety plan, to interview prospective employees, and to discuss the job performance evaluation of individual employees.
The board meets again tonight to ratify a teachers’ contract for the 2008-09 school year. The contract was submitted to the teachers for their vote this morning.
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