Published: May 13, 2009 11:00 pm      

Administrator returns to District 118

DANVILLE — A former Danville District 118 administrator rejoined the district at the school board meeting Wednesday night.

Jason Bletzinger, Oakwood Junior High School principal, had been the South View Middle School principal until a year ago when he took the job in Oakwood.

Bletzinger will be the North Ridge Middle School school administration manager next school year. The position is designed to free building principals’ time of non-academic tasks.

LeeAnn Fermon, who currently serves as South View’s dean of students, will be the school administration manager there in the fall.

“I’m interested in this type of position,” Bletzinger said after the meeting.

Bletzinger said he liked the District 118 middle school philosophy, and he’s eager to work with North Ridge Principal Mark Goodwin again.

The SAM position is a different method of administration, he added.

Fermon and Bletzinger will be paid according to their level on the district’s teacher salary schedule.

Also at the meeting, local real estate agent Bob Randall addressed the board.

Randall served on the committee that was charged with advising the board on how to proceed with renovating or replacing the district’s old junior high school buildings East Park Elementary School and North Ridge and South View middle schools.

The committee recommended a full rehabilitative project to update North Ridge and South View and renovate East Park.

The committee also advised the board to accept the old Walgreens Accounting property on Bowman Avenue as a gift from the owner. But district officials would have to pour millions of dollars into the building to make it usable as a school.

Board members tabled the Walgreens decision for the second time in early April.

Some school board members, including newly elected member Frank Young, had been critical of some aspects of the committee’s recommendation.

Young had been wary of the idea of committing all of the district’s debt capacity for the entire scope of work.

Wednesday, Randall responded.

“The public criticism of our suggesting to use our total financing limit for this single project is shallow. I suggest that you consider that to ‘wait’ for the possibility that we many need the borrowing power for an urgent, unexpected issue, is short-sighted,” Randall said.

Board members had decided to table the Walgreens issue the second time because to them, there wasn’t enough of a plan in place.

“That simply and blatantly is not true,” Randall said.

The committee’s suggestion is to use the Walgreens building temporarily during other buildings’ renovations and then turn it into a permanent school building.

Randall said purchasing building services and materials makes the most sense in the current economy.

“We can have a new school in District 118 for the bargain price of $7-$10 million dollars,” he said.

In other business, the board:

-- Approved the employment of Rae Williams a teacher at Liberty Elementary School; Susan Berenz, a special education teacher at Southwest Elementary School; Jodie Fatheree, a guidance counselor at South View; and Alison Watkins, a social worker at the Jackson Building, effective in August.

-- Approved the resignations of Rachel Hamilton and Daniel Roberts, teachers at Danville High School, effective July 17 and May 29 respectively.

-- Approved the retirements of Jacqueline Easley, a teaching assistant at East Park, effective May 29 and Betty Grove, a music teacher at Meade Park Elementary School effective at the end of the 2011-12 year.

-- Heard the new high school social studies curriculum, which includes a new course in local history for upper classmen. The course will also include community service and will be a part of the Academy of Creative Experience upper house small learning community.

-- Approved the middle school social studies curriculum.

-- Approved the list of 287 prospective graduating DHS seniors.

-- Approved student fees for the 2009-10 school year.

-- Approved the architectural fees for the replacement of the DHS roof over the original 1924 structure.

Indianapolis-based Schmidt & Associates architectural firm will provide the engineering services for $30,000 plus reimbursable expenses.

Superintendent Nanette Mellen told the board a rough estimate for the roof project is about $600,000. The complicated design makes the work larger in scope than standard roofing repair work, she said.

Roof work would proceed throughout next school year.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Danville District 118 School Bord will meet at 6:30 p.m. May 27 in the Jackson Building, 516 N. Jackson St.