The grant application will go through Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for funding through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
As discussed at a previous board meeting, the tornado-safe room will serve as protection for the residents of a community during a natural disaster. The room will be built to withstand tornadic conditions, and can also serve as community gathering place during any type of emergency situation.
Nevada School officials have looked at the possible grant funds as a way of adding another large multi-use room (this one will be 8,100 square feet) onto the high school facility, as well as providing a service to the community. With the high school constru-ction/remodeling project just underway, plans for a tornado-safe room have been tentatively woven into the overall construction plans.
Chris Osore, of the DLR Group (the school's architecture firm on the high school project), was present Monday to show the plans for how the tornado-safe room would fit in with the high school's plans. He showed that the high school's new administrative office complex and front entryway to the school can be incorporated with the tornado-safe room, and built onto the west side of that structure.
In approving submission of the grant, the school board has guaranteed that the district will fund 15 percent of the project - $323,000. Superintendent Jim Walker said that adding on the high school administrative offices would add an additional $673,000 for the district to fund. School business manager, Brian Schaeffer, said that by Dec. 31, the district would have around $1 million in local option sales tax funds on hand that are unallocated. Walker said that these funds could be put toward this project.
Osore said the district's chances of being awarded a tornado-safe room grant is good. He said that when FEMA did a cost/benefit ratio to test the viability of the Nevada project, the result was encouraging. The number FEMA looks for is around 1.0, he said, and Nevada's cost/benefit ratio score was a 2.32, "which really bodes well for us in terms of the approval process."
Board member Marcia Engler, in looking at the drawing of where the tornado-safe room will be located, asked if there would still be space for a school auditorium to eventually be built. Osore said there would be enough space to the south of the tornado-safe room structure for the building of an auditorium.
Walker said it would be sometime this fall before the district will know whether or not it has been approved to receive a grant for a tornado-safe room.
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Osore also spoke to the Nevada School Board about the start of construction at Nevada High School. He said Dean Snyder Construction, the general contractor, said they hope to meet the schedule that is outlined, weather permitting. During the past few days, they have been involved in stripping and doing a lot of preliminary grading, he said.
On Monday, perimeter fencing was put up around the construction area to keep people from wandering into the construction zone.
Early retirement
benefit discussed
The board discussed its early retirement policy and whether or not it wanted to make any changes to the current policy, which basically pays a retiring employee 45 percent of their current year contracted salary (excluding overtime pay, supplemental pay or extended contract pay). The incentive is paid to a tax-sheltered annuity account on behalf of the retiree in annual payments not to exceed three years. The employees must be full-time employees of the district and have completed 15 years of full-time service with the district. The school does set a limit; the total amount that can be paid in one year is $100,000, which can reduce the size of each retiree's benefit in years when a number of people are retiring.
In discussing the early retirement benefit, board member David Laird asked Walker to what extent the benefit is influencing decisions of staff members to retire. Walker said he wasn't really sure how it was impacting decisions.
Laird questioned what would happen if the early retirement package was eliminated. "Are we getting $100,000-worth of value out of this?," Laird asked.
Board Vice President Marty Chitty said he thinks the district is getting a pretty good return on its dollar.
High School Principal Ray Murray and Elementary Principal Kathy Goecke agreed that they feel the benefit saves the district money when higher paid educators retire and younger professionals, who are lower on the pay scale, are hired to replace them.
Laird said he wasn't arguing that there is a cost-saving side of it, but he said if the early retirement incentive didn't exist, "these people would retire anyway, and ... five years from now, we'd have reached an equilibrium."
Board member Mike Bates asked if it was possible for the administration to put "a pencil and paper" on the early retirement policy and see just how much or how little savings the figures show. Administra-tion was also asked to look at the early retirement policies that exist in other area school districts, and bring that information back for the board to consider.
The present early retirement policy for Nevada Schools has not been revised since 2005.
In other business:
* the board approved the bylaws of the new high school IT Club, which is now a sanctioned organization. In addition, the board was told by Superintendent Walker that most clubs and organizations in the Nevada School District do not have bylaws. The board, in approving the IT Club's bylaws, noted that developing a set of bylaws would be something for all clubs at Nevada Schools to work on.
* the board approved a five-year contract with Coke to supply beverages for the district concessions and vending.
* the board received a resignation from PE teacher Crystal Richardson, who taught mostly at the high school.
