NEW PARIS — On-site renovations at National Trail are proceeding smoothly while students and staff are out for summer, according to director of facilities Brian Smith.
“We’re ahead of schedule inside the facility,” he said at a June 28 board of education meeting. “Outside, we’re on schedule in the greenhouse, and we’re about a week behind on the athletic training facility, but I think we can quickly catch up on that. There’s no real issue; we started off a little slow with all the rain, and then the topsoil was a little deeper than we were anticipating, so we had to pay for some additional gravel.”
Two new storm drains have been installed on the front side of the building, he said, along with some sidewalk replacement.
“We’re going to redo part, if not all, of the front parking lot,” he said. “If not all of it, just the horseshoe. It’ll take about two weeks. We’re a little behind on that, but I asked them to hold off until we get the greenhouse done because I didn’t want concrete trucks and all kind of stuff driving on our new parking lot and putting little dents and ruts in.
Parts of the front sidewalk were repaved as well, but not all, he reported.
“We only replaced the parts that were cracked,” he explained. “We weren’t replacing stuff just to replace it. If it was cracked, we replaced it. We replaced the curb from the handicapped parking all the way to the south, because that was the original 1968 work.”
Smith said internal facility work during summer usually lasts until the day before the new school year, but he intends for his staff to be done before the end of July.
In other action at Trail’s June board of education meeting, Superintendent Jeff Parker and the school board approved the 2016-17 school year’s service fund, as well as the year’s elementary and middle school fees. The board agreed to enter into a contract with the Ohio School Boards Association for web-based conversion service in the amount of $1,550.
An equipment and furnishings bid was accepted from The Equipment Guys, LLC for $75,625. An athletic accident insurance contract was accepted with S3 Direct Insurance Services, effective Aug. 1 through June 30, 2017. Likewise, a contract was established with Dayton Sports Medicine Institute (DSMI) for athletic training services; the contract will take effect July 7.
The board voted to pay current bills in the amount of $551,305.48 and payroll in the amount of $481,170.03 for the month of May. Approximately $2,199.20 from the district general fund was moved to the 8th grade Washington trip fund, $410,00 was moved from the general fund to the capital maintenance reserve fund, and $50,000 to the food service fund.
Final fiscal year 2016 appropriations in the amount of $14,266,814.10 were approved, and temporary fiscal year 2017 appropriations were approved in the total amount of $13,321,146.50.
Additionally, the school board voted to amend the joint employment contract between the National Trail Local School District, Preble County Educational Service Center (ESC), and treasurer Kerry Borger in the form of a three percent increase, from $93,406.50 to $96,208.70. This amount is split equally between Trail and the ESC, with each responsible for half the amount.
