Money was the theme for the USD 257 Board of Education Tuesday night. The meeting covered a range of topics from upcoming spending plans to new handbook policies next year.
For the year, USD 257 is projected to finish out the year within its budget. With just one month until the end of the fiscal year, Brian Pekarek, USD 257 superintendent, noted that the budget still had room inside the margin.
“With just 17 percent of the school year left, we are sitting at 34 percent unencumbered budget,” Pekarek said. “We still have some of the summer projects and summer paychecks for staff and summer school teachers to take care of but nothing worries me at this point.”
Scott Stanley, director of operations for USD 257, talked about the summer projects schedule as well as report back on the most recent bid process for installing a new section of roofing system on Iola Middle School. The areas affected by the improvement will be the band and music rooms and the locker rooms.
“We were anticipating bids in the range of $90,000-$100,000,” Stanley said. “Bids came in very high. There wasn’t any real explanation other than just the cost of the materials has crept up over time.”
Initial bids ranged from $143,599 to $181,400. The large gap between what was expected versus what came in forced Stanley to ask for what he termed, “alternate pricing.” Two of the companies, JB Turner & Sons and Premier Roofing came back with slightly lower bids. Stanley emphasized that while the bids were lower, quality of service and materials would not be affected.
“Going with the alternate will not sacrifice anything on the roof,” said Stanley. “It’s just a different method of application. We’re going to a mechanically fastened system rather than a fully adhered, which is a fully glued down system.”
The price of the roof as accepted by the board is projected to be $128,976. Stanley said he didn’t think anything major would happen that would change that price dramatically. Stanley, however, did caution that one other item on the list might create an unintended cost increase overall.
“We’re contracted for everything,” Stanley said. “There is one other possibility and that is the columns at Jefferson Elementary. When they pull the cracking veneer tiles off the front, if we see any substantial structural damage behind that, that would be the only significant increase in cost.”
Despite the lower bids, the project pushed to exceed what was initially budgeted for the summer schedule overall by more than $11,000. Stanley was asked about the possibility of moving back some of the already approved items on the schedule.
With all of the projects already bid out, Stanley said that getting one of those contracts off the schedule would have to be done quickly before contractors began purchasing supplies which the district would be on the hook for. After some further questions from board members, Pekarek, recommended the board approve the additional money to make up the difference.
“Being fiscally conservative has been our philosophy this year. With this we still have $596,000 for capital outlay fund,” Pekarek said.
The board ended up approving the additional funds for the roofing project. Work is projected to start on the roof 30 days after the bid is accepted.
Board members then turned their attention to the legislative report from Pekarek. The superintendent spoke about what he termed, “a disappointing session from an education standpoint.” The issue that resonated most with the board was the discussion on the “2.5 mile” rule. According to the new rule, neighboring districts would be able to come into USD 257 all the way up to within 2.5 miles from an applicable school building to pick up students to go to neighboring schools Yates Center, Humboldt or Moran. The board members said there might be concern in the future for such a thing to happen.
The board adjourned after spending more than 30 minutes in executive session talking about the upcoming contract negotiations with the teacher’s union. The board and teacher’s union will meet 6 p.m. Thursday in the Iola High library. The meeting is open to the public.
