TVS roof project nearing completion

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WEST ALEXANDRIA — The roof project at Twin Valley South is ongoing, but should be finished very soon. According to Director of Transportation and Maintenance Jeff Tully, crews were finishing up guards and other finishing touches earlier this month. He gave his report during the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 10.

“They are getting pretty close to being done. Before Christmas the last part of the roof was glued down, now all they have to do is the round edges, touching them up. They have to put up snow guards where it slopes, so the snow doesn’t fall down and hit somebody,” he said.

“They’re right on schedule. Over Christmas break we had two new skylights put in, there were a couple chilly hours there, but we were able to contain the heat loss to the high school commons. They’re more see through — not clear, but what they call frost — but it’s amazing how much natural light we’re getting. I’m excited with how they look.”

“Jeff [Tully] was right. They chose the two coldest days we’ve had this year to replace the skylights,” Superintendent Bob Fischer said.

Tully added, they were thinking about pushing back the replacement, due to the cold, but he didn’t want to delay the project. Fischer replied that the next, and hopefully the last, construction meeting was scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 11.

Tully shared that over the holidays, the building was cleaned, the central hub of the library was painted, red and white stripes were painted in the elementary hallways, and controller problems caused a shutdown to part of the system, freezing two coils.

One coil has been repaired and they are working on the other one.

There were also draining issues in the bathrooms that required Korrect pluming to come in over the weekend.

The new salt spreader has been used a few times since purchased and is in good working order. However, salt usage was cut down from 12-14 to six bags to treat the entire area. The salt spreader also allowed waste to be eliminated form yard on the doors, due to the controlled distribution.

There was also a water softener installed in the bus garage to eliminate water spots from the bus windows after washing. This helps improve night vision.

In addition to building projects, there is a lot going on at Twin Valley South in the world of technology. Derrick Myers, Director of Technology, has been working hard to make TVS as technologically advanced as possible.

He noted, staff had installed a 75-inch television in the Media Center. This will alleviate the need for moving a projector cart out during board meetings, prevent tripping over cords, and provide more floor space. It will also be used regularly for library activities on the high school side, as well as staff meetings.

They also removed five 12-year-old desktop computers from the Media Center. These computers are no longer needed, because the library has a lab of 30 Chromebooks. This allows for more seating and room.

There is a new addition to the athletic web page. There is now a Google Agenda with all practices listed which is updated regularly. This was done as a way to reach out to parents and make sure they know what is going on with school sports and their children. It is interactive, so families can view the entire month or scroll through events.

Athletic events are still posted on the main calendar.

Myers shared he attended SOITA Hour of Code night on Dec. 4 with his son. This was something he sought to do for fun, but he ended up bringing information back to the admin team.

“There is a week when a bunch of organizations and schools have Hour of Code events and activities, where they expose the benefits of having coding in schools. I went to that with my son for fun and there was some relevant information I brought back to my admin meeting the next day, to try and think about our curriculum in the high school and include more coding,” Myers said.

Board member Christine Bitner asked if it would be possible to do an after school coding extra-curricular, if it is not possible to include coding in the curriculum.

“At our admin meetings we’ve been talking about general extra-curricular ideas, so that is something we could discuss,” Myers responded. “I wanted to mention, also, the elementary has been doing more typing at that level so that when they’re up to middle and high school level, they already have those skills. In my opinion, it is way too late to start typing courses at the high school level.”

According to K-6 Principal Patti Holly, only three students have not received the necessary passing scores on their ELA AIR Testing. Students will have another opportunity in April to take the test and, according to Holly, they have never had a student not pass the test after additional opportunities.

Holly is also in the process of planning a family night for parents to participate in a behavioral management program presented by Scott Ervin, The Kid Whisperer.

The board also held apublic hearing on the 2018-2019 District Calender. They will vote on the item during the February meeting, which will be held on Monday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. in the Twin Valley Community Local School District Media Center.

By Kelsey Kimbler

[email protected]

Reach Kelsey Kimbler at 937-683-4061 or on Twitter @KKimbler_RH

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