Carroll School Board is planning to turn over the old Flora School property, in trust, to the Carroll Education Foundation (CEF), a nonprofit organization.

The first reading of a resolution pertaining to ground north of the old Flora School was read at the Oct. 3 board meeting. The board was to take action on the resolution at the Oct. 17 meeting (held after Comet press time).

Superintendent John Sayers said the board wouldn't be giving up the property. He said any benefit from the ground would benefit the school corporation.

The property consists of less than five acres of undeveloped real estate, now being rented for farm ground.

The resolution states that the "Carroll Education Foundation may use the Real Estate as income producing property in any manner that it sees fit, and may use any income received from the Real Estate for its exempt purposes under its Bylaws." And "That the Real Estate may not be sold, encumbered, transferred, or otherwise disposed of without the express written authorization of the Board of Trustees of Carroll Consolidated School Corporation."

The resolution further states that "CCSC would like to maintain the opportunity to use the Real Estate at some time in the future as leverage, trade, or capital for additional development on the CCSC campus."

School Attorney Miriam Robeson explained to the Comet last week that if the property isn't placed in trust with the CEF, according to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, the school board should either sell the real estate and put the money into the General Fund, or have a specific plan for the use of the property. She said the board doesn't have a specific plan, but doesn't want the value of the real estate to be absorbed into the General Fund, and lost in one year's budget cycle.

"Instead, the school board would like to keep the property in reserve, in case there is an opportunity to leverage the real estate into some expansion for the school campus, sometime in the unknown future," she said. "By placing it 'in trust,' the school still 'owns' the property, but it can be controlled by the Foundation, and the Foundation can benefit from the farm rent income until such time as the school can make use of the property. The rental income is nominal compared to the school's general budget, so the loss of income to the school is minimal while the benefit to the Foundation would be much greater."

In other business, the board approved a soccer/softball field committee that will recommend future projects on the new fields and will follow through with the steps to complete those projects.

Sayers will chair the committee. Other members are: Steve Keown, baseball coach; Chad Myers, softball coach; Dave Falkenberg, soccer coach; Jill Scharer, Family Resource Network; Tyler Sausaman, industrial education teacher; Tom Allbaugh, maintenance supervisor; Scott Ayres, athletic director; Dave Lambert, school board member; and Sam Zook, alternate school board member.

"Five to 10 years down the road, it's going to really look great out there," Zook said.

Carroll Elementary boys in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades have joined an elementary basketball league at Frontier. They are having practices in the Carroll Elementary gym. Volunteers approved to help with the league are Jeff Hodson, Nick Beaver, Julie Bush, Bill Dillon, Greg Caldwell, and Mike Eldridge.

John Conn was approved as a volunteer elementary boys basketball assistant for fifth grade.

Allbaugh said most of the football concession stand problem areas have been corrected, and the rest of the punch list items have almost been completed. Sayers said if both the architect and the board approve the final work, the concession stand should be open for the football sectional at Carroll Friday night.

The Title I coordinator's hours were increased from seven and a half to eight hours per day, to be paid from the Title I grant. Myra Compton holds the position. Elementary principal Carolyn O'Connell said Compton has much paperwork to do in addition to working with students.

O'Connell announced that the trash bag fundraiser was a success, with 20,000 pounds of trash bags sold and distributed.

Among field trips approved were Steve and Melissa Keown's request to take FFA students to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis Oct. 24-28, and teachers Glen Dillman, Stephanie Dickerson, and Makay Adams to take the Freshman Class to Chicago Oct. 31. The freshmen will go to the Natural History Museum and see the King Tut traveling exhibit.