BELPRE - The Belpre City Schools District Board of Education Monday approved seeking bids for the replacement of the heating system in the old Stone Elementary School building.
Superintendent Harry Fleming said the district buildings and grounds committee received three recommendations from a local heating and cooling company. The recommendations include repairing the known problems with the current boiler system, replacing parts of the system or putting in an entirely new system, which is the most economical.
"I agree that we need to get away from that boiler system," said board member Fred Meredith. "We have been putting money into it for 50 years."
Article Photos
Photo by Jeff Baughan
Harry Fleming, superintendent of Belpre City Schools, answers a question about boiler replacement during the board of education meeting Monday night at Belpre Middle School.
The new system is expected to cost about $134,000 and the district will either use state funds or finance the system through a low-interest loan acquired locally, Fleming said.
"We could make the repairs and spend less money right now, but where you fix one part another goes bad," said board member Mike Wile. "It is best that we just replace it."
The heating system at the former elementary school is important now because the district recently move the administrative offices into one end of the building while the other wing is expected to house preschool and possibly kindergarten in the coming year.
Fleming said the district was heating the Stone Elementary School building whether it was being used or not, so the board would be discussing a new heating system whether the administration had left the former offices on Washington Boulevard or stayed there.
In other business:
* Two weeks after the five-year permanent improvement levy failed, the board remains unsure of what to do - let the issue die or try on another ballot.
"We haven't had a chance to talk about it, yet," said board president Bobbie Simmons Monday night. "As a board we haven't had a chance to get together and discuss the next step."
Fleming said the next step - whether to try the levy on another ballot or to start making cuts to the district - is up to the school board.
"The board makes the decisions and I carry them out," he said.
The five-year permanent improvement levy failed by almost 60 percent, 1,091 votes against and 739 votes for it, according to the Washington County Board of Elections.
* The board approved to allow the Safetytown summer program to take place at Belpre Elementary School June 14-18.
Bill VanPelt, teacher and co-coordinator for Safetytown, said this will be the 28th year Belpre City Schools has hosted the program.
"I am so glad we are able to offer Safetytown," VanPelt said.
The program is for 5-year-olds from around the Mid-Ohio Valley and between 60 and 70 children are expected to learn how to be safe near roadways and on sidewalks.
