Southern Local BOE looks at future projects | News, Sports, Jobs

SALINEVILLE — Southern Local’s board began looking at some projects they would like to see in the district’s near future during last weeks board of education meeting.

With a roof needing repairs, Treasurer Greg Sabbato said there is currently about $3 million available in the general fund and he anticipates it will require about half of it to cover the cost.

Additionally, the board has been considering a long-time need of the district, an auditorium where music concerts, theatrical performances and graduations could be held. Since the high school was built in 1962, the only stage has been on one end of the cafeteria.

Since then there has been the addition space which began construction in 2002 to eventually move the entire district K-12 under one roof.

Sabbato said there remains money in the permanent improvement funds, which will at least get the project of an auditorium started. With interest rates low, Sabbato said they also could look at borrowing the additional money needed.

Only in the preliminary stages, the board heard from two representatives from, Garmann Miller, an architecture and engineering company which specializes in creating spaces for K-12 education clients. Ben Miller, an engineer and business development professional whose father was one of the founders of the 29-year-old company, and Matt Hibner, a principal architect with the company, joined Southern Local’s board electronically with a video presentation.

The two men shared photos of some of the company’s prior auditoriums built for schools mostly in central and western Ohio, as well as eastern Indiana. The company began in the Ohio small town of Minster, near the Indiana border. The company now has 59 employees and additional offices in both Columbus and Indianapolis.

However, Miller pointed out the company understands small communities and how important the school is in a rural area. The company showed the board some of the auditoriums designed and built for other schools, many providing seating for 600 to 700 people, theatrical lighting, sound acoustic materials and control rooms. Others include the ability to adjust them for cafeteria space or divide the room for smaller crowds or with deployable bleachers to increase the amount of seating when needed. Additionally, there were examples of how stages can be made totally disability accessible and another with features allowing for part of the stage to be removed for a pit orchestra.

While it is not decided whether Southern Local would pursue an attached auditorium or a stand alone building, the men offered they would like to look at the school’s current set up and the lack of parking someone had mentioned. The company would look at whether the school’s current systems could handle the additional space.

Following the presentation, Superintendent Tom Cunningham indicated they would talk about the information and board members indicated they may want to talk to some of the company’s past clients. It was noted Southern Local is located farther east than any of the other schools on the list.

In other matters:

— The board voted to add substitutes to the list — Dawn Spooner, custodian and cafeteria, and Mackenzie Reynolds, cafeteria and secretary. Additionally the board approved Brian Spahlinger as a volunteer assistant coach for the varsity and JV baseball team, as well as changing Mark Witherow’s status from assistant girls basketball volunteer to JV girls basketball coach for the past season.

— The board approved Sabbato to pay the State Teachers Retirement System additional money owed after a calculation error was discovered.

— The board approved a change in contracts providing vacation and severance payouts for employees Tammy Phillips, Rob Marra, Charlie Puckett, Julie Dowling, Whitney Tsesmilles and Josh Manist. It was noted union contracts with the district spell out the policies for severance and vacation, but the non-union employees did not have anything mentioned.

— The board approved the school calendar for 2022-2023, with school starting on Aug. 22 for students and including Dec. 19 through Jan. 2 for winter break, April 7-14 for spring break and the final day for students on June 5.

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