Carroll School Board received only one timely bid for lawn care. Two other bids came on the day that bids were due, but missed the 11 a.m. deadline.

At the Feb. 23 board meeting, Superintendent John Sayers said the other two bids were not opened because they were late. He said the job could be re-advertised with a new deadline in order to have competitive bids.

“I don’t like that,” board member Dave Lambert said. “These are adults and they should have had their bids in on time.” He went on to say that students who turned in assignments late wouldn’t be given a second chance. He said he thought the board should award the bid to the person who complied with the deadline.

Board member Michelle Simmons asked if the other two bidders had given a reason for their lateness. Sayers said they both mentioned that they were involved with snow removal, and that delayed turning their bids in.

Lambert made the motion to accept the on-time bid, for mowing and trimming only. It passed unanimously. The bidder was Rob’s Lawn Care - $395 a mow for approximately 30 mows, for the whole campus, including athletic fields. Rob’s Lawn Care (Rob Appleton) has had the mowing contract the last few years. The board will consider additional lawn care - spraying, fertilizing, etc. – at a later date.

Chiller project

The board also unanimously accepted a bid on the chiller project for the juniorsenior high school. Sayers said he was pleased with how the bids came in, and with the number of bids – seven. The lowest base bid was accepted - $438,000 from Quality Plumbing & Heating. Lambert made the motion to accept the base bid plus the following bid components: base equipment (chiller) from York, $85,000; alternate 2, new water softener, $9,500; alternate 3, structural platform for large deliveries, $8,000; and concrete approach for forklift, $3,500. The total bid for the project is $544,000. Sayers said that is under the original estimate for the project, which was around $630,000.

The board decided to reject two other alternates – prep and paint the boiler room and replace the lighting in the boiler room – because of the cost. Quality Plumbing and Heating quoted $7,800 for the prep and painting and $5,500 for the lighting.

“That seems like a lot of money to paint a small room,” Lambert said. “We had the whole gym painted for around that cost.”

Brian Walker and Dana Wannemacher from Barton- Coe-Vilamaa, architects and engineers, were present to answer questions and offer their opinions.

Walker said the high cost for the painting is because of extensive preparation work.

The board decided to secure painting estimates on their own, and to leave the lighting the way it is.

Other bid discussion pertained to the water softener replacement and to the number of boilers. Although board members accepted the water softener alternate as submitted, they may consider a change order later to upgrade the softener. Maintenance supervisor Tom Allbaugh said the school has had the current softener since 1983.

The base bid includes one 5 million BTU boiler. An alternate called for a twoboiler system, one 2 million BTUs and one 3 million BTUs, which would be more efficient, according to Walker. But neither the board nor Allbaugh thought the extra efficiency would compensate for the extra $35,500 cost for two boilers instead of one.

The school also has two new boilers in another part of the building. Allbaugh said the extra 5 million BTU boiler is more than the school needs right now, but the school is planning ahead for when a new science wing is anticipated.

Shortfall strategy

The school board and committees at both schools have been discussing ways to make up the $300,000 shortfall in the general fund, caused by state cutbacks. Sayers called the process “painful.” He said some of the areas being looked at are athletics, extracurricular activities, conference and field trips, overtime, positions and efficiency use of staff. When the plan is finished, Sayers said it will be made public, and public input will be sought.

Corporation audit

The school corporation had a routine audit by the State Board of Accounts. Board president Sam Zook said the examination report was good.

“There was just one comment… if not for that, we would have a perfect report,” he said.

The one comment pertained to deposits to the Extracurricular Account at the junior-senior high school. According to the report, “Receipts were not always deposited within a reasonable time. Receipts, in some instances, were held for periods in excess of 12 days before depositing.” The related Indiana Code states in part: “…receipts shall be deposited without unreasonable delay.” Similar comments pertaining to the Extracurricular Account were made in three previous audit reports.

Zook said the current report can be viewed online at the State Board of Accounts web site or upon request.

‘Failure report’

Principal Charles Huckstep gave the “failure report,” based on the Feb. 8 progress report (midterm of the nine weeks). Students who drive to school and who participate in athletics lose those privileges if they get even one failing grade at midterm or at the end of a grading period. They have four and a half weeks to bring the grade or grades up and regain their eligibility.

Huckstep said since the reporting began, the number of failing grades at each grade level has been up and down. The most cause for concern this time was in seventh grade where 30 students had one or more F’s.

“This is a red flag, and we have to act on it,” Zook said, “or we’ll have a spike in our drop-out rate.”

Huckstep said most of the F’s in the failure report are because of homework not being turned in. He said help is available at lunch time study hall and with many of the teachers before or after school.

Juniors showed the most improvement, dropping from 14 failing students at the end of the semester to four failing students at midterm.

Other grade levels had the following number of students with failing grades at midterm: Seniors, 12; sophomores, seven; freshmen, eight; and eighth graders, 15.

Semester final grades showed only one athlete losing eligibility. That number rose to six at midterm, including two seniors, two eighth graders, and two seventh graders. Twelve drivers lost eligibility at midterm.

Zook said the data is being gathered to see if the school’s remediation is helping.

The board signed an updated agreement with the Indian Trails Career Cooperative. Sayers said there are no major changes since the last agreement. Carroll and 10 other schools are in the vocational co-op.

P.E. teacher

Jonathan Cole was hired to complete the rest of the school year as a physical education/health teacher at the junior-senior high school.

The FFA Livestock Team was approved to go to a contest April 17 in Illinois, and FCCLA students were approved to go to the State Conference March 5 and 6 in Indianapolis. Lambert asked that future requests for conference and field trips also include the costs.

Announcements by the principals included: Lions Club vision screening, ISTEP testing March 1-10, student teacher in Spanish, dual credit with Ivy Tech, and Battle of the Books may expand to Rossville and beyond.

Five facility use requests were approved: Carroll eighth grade Blue Chip Basketball, West Lafayette Blue Chip Basketball, Carroll Pony League Baseball, Flora Cub Scout Pine Wood Derby (March 13), and Jubilee Fellowship Easter Egg Hunt (April 3).

March meetings

The first board meeting in March has been changed to March 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Administration Building. The second meeting will be March 16 at 1 p.m. in the high school media center, with the annual joint meeting with the students to begin at 1:30.