Board OKs $857,000 to level schools

By SALLY BOYD

Gazette Neigh­bors Editor

life@gazettepublishingco.com

The Belle­vue City School Dis­trict may have closed four of its build­ings this month in antic­i­pa­tion of the open­ing of the new Belle­vue Ele­men­tary and Belle­vue Mid­dle Schools in August, but the cit­i­zens of Belle­vue will now be gain­ing not only the two beau­ti­ful build­ings, but as of Thurs­day evening, also three new city parks.

The Belle­vue Board of Edu­ca­tion, meet­ing in reg­u­lar monthly ses­sion Thurs­day night, approved the sale of the land on which sits the now defunct Belle­vue Mid­dle School, Ellis and Ridge Ele­men­tary Schools to the City of Belle­vue for use as parks.

Under terms of the res­o­lu­tion adopted by the board, the trio of prop­er­ties — located at 327 Ellis Ave., 126 Ridge Dr., and 215 North St., will be trans­ferred to the City of Belle­vue for the sale price of $1.

The agree­ment includes a com­mit­ment by the board to com­plete demo­li­tion and removal of the build­ings as soon as prac­ti­cal, but no ear­lier than Fall 2012, fol­low­ing approval and exe­cu­tion of the agree­ment by the board and city; and a reser­va­tion in favor of the board for a right of first offer, effec­tive for 20 years fol­low­ing the legal clos­ing, to re-purchase the prop­erty or any rel­e­vant por­tion thereof, in the event the city intends to sell or oth­er­wise trans­fer own­er­ship of any part of the prop­erty to a third party or if the prop­erty is used for any pur­pose other than for city parks.

Super­in­ten­dent Kim Schu­bert said, “I am extremely excited the board is mak­ing this dona­tion to the city… These are prop­er­ties the tax­pay­ers have paid for… They will pro­vide more oppor­tu­ni­ties for fam­i­lies to share time together outdoors.”

Schu­bert said the city intends to use the Ellis prop­erty for a neigh­bor­hood park, with the cur­rent play­ground equip­ment to remain; Ridge will become Lit­tle League fields and the Mid­dle School will become a “town square” where a vari­ety of activ­i­ties can be envi­sioned, includ­ing concerts.

Along with the planned trans­fer of the prop­er­ties, the board also passed a res­o­lu­tion award­ing the abate­ment and demo­li­tion con­tracts for the three above prop­er­ties, as well as the closed York Ele­men­tary School. For now, at least, the board is retain­ing own­er­ship of that U.S. 20 West property.

A con­tract will be awarded to Total Envi­ron­men­tal Ser­vices for the asbestos and haz­ardous mate­ri­als removal for all four build­ings; the firm, located in Toledo, sub­mit­ted a base bid of $486,830. The con­tract for demo­li­tion of Ellis, Ridge and York, will be let to A.J. Riley, Inc., Nor­walk, for a base bid of $198,484 and the con­tract for the demo­li­tion of Belle­vue Mid­dle School was awarded to Ed Bur­due and Co., LLC, San­dusky, which sub­mit­ted a bid of $172,000. Total cost will be $857,314, which, Trea­surer Nancy Beier said, was “under bud­get by over $700,000.”

The board, which had an unusu­ally heavy agenda, also gave notice it will be plac­ing a renewal levy on the Nov. 6 bal­lot. Trea­surer Nancy Beier requested the res­o­lu­tion autho­riz­ing the renewal of a tax of $1,350,000 for emer­gency pur­poses. The five-year levy was first passed in 1998 by dis­trict vot­ers and last renewed in 2008. The dis­trict will ask vot­ers to approve the same levy, but for 10 years, mean­ing the board does not have to return to vot­ers as often.

“By going to 10 years, this will give sta­bil­ity not only to the dis­trict, but to the tax­pay­ers,” said Schubert.

At Beier’s request, the board approved the finance reports for May, tem­po­rary appro­pri­a­tions of $10,321,758 for fis­cal year 2012–13, added $700 to the res­i­dent edu­ca­tor fund, trans­ferred $127,304 from the per­ma­nent improve­ment fund to the main­te­nance fund, and $2,868 from the gen­eral fund to the bond retire­ment fund (inter­est earned on the bond retire­ment fund, June 2011 through May 2012).

In addi­tion, the board okayed the district’s auto, prop­erty and lia­bil­ity insur­ance through the Ohio School Plan for July 1 through June 30, 2013, at a cost of $51,542 and approved the Belle­vue Pub­lic Library’s fis­cal year 2013 tax budget.

The other major news of the evening was the announce­ment the board has reached new three-year nego­ti­ated agree­ments with the district’s teach­ing (Belle­vue Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion) and non-teaching (OAPSE — Ohio Asso­ci­a­tion of Pub­lic School Employ­ees) unions effec­tive July 1 through June 30, 2015. Both groups agreed to a 1.5 per­cent increase on the base salary each year for a two-year period; con­tracts will be reopened for salary dis­cus­sions only dur­ing the third year of the agreement.

Sim­i­larly, the board approved an iden­ti­cal salary increase of 1.5 per­cent for admin­is­tra­tors, super­in­ten­dent Kim Schu­bert and Trea­surer Nancy Beier, also effec­tive for the same time period with increases com­ing each year for two years. All three groups had taken a pay freeze under the pre­vi­ous con­tract, with Schu­bert express­ing her appre­ci­a­tion to the staff for work­ing with the dis­trict to keep costs under control.

The board adjourned into exec­u­tive ses­sion for the pur­pose of dis­cussing per­son­nel and prop­erty. No action was taken.

Sally Boyd

New Belle­vue High School Prin­ci­pal Nate Artino, cen­ter, talks with ele­men­tary Prin­ci­pal Shan­non Turner, left, and Belle­vue Board of Edu­ca­tion Vice Pres­i­dent Diane Streeter, right, dur­ing a “meet and greet” recep­tion held for Artino and new third grade teacher Shauna Suman, at the con­clu­sion of the June Board of Edu­ca­tion meet­ing held Thurs­day evening at the high school.

Posted by Becky Brooks on Jun 23 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.