Sigourney Elementary Infrastructure Update Ends Summer Work Only Barely Over Bid Price

SIGOURNEY – During the Sept. 11 meeting of the Sigourney School Board, the board met with Rusty Wolfe from SitelogIQ, who discussed change orders that came up during the elementary infrastructure overhaul during the summer. Contractors had to add extra ceiling tiles, replace a boiler room door, move cabinet heaters and pipes for heaters, add smoke dampeners in vents, reinsulate pipes, replace pipe hangers, fix leaks, reroute outlets, make an electrical panel up to code, and deal with asbestos. Despite these challenges, the infrastructure project only delayed the start of school by a single day. The $5,090,261 project only ended up costing $6,009.50 more than the original bids.

Wolfe stated that all of the remaining chill beams would be installed by the end of the week and that thermostats would be installed by Oct. 1. Superintendent Kevin Hatfield stated that, aside from some electrical work, the remaining steps of the project should be done six or eight months ahead of schedule. Hatfield showed the board a guarantee the district had sent to the fire marshall, promising to upgrade the school’s fire protection systems. An open house tour of the upgraded school will be open from 5-6 for parents and from 6-7 for the community on Oct. 25.

The board reviewed a new state accountability system, which now grades schools on attendance, post secondary readiness, and work-based learning. Secondary Principal Shannon Webb stated that parents would complain about the new state mandated chronic absenteeism policies. Under the new policies, students are not allowed to miss 10% of days, or five days per trimester. If five days are missed, letters will be sent to the student and the county attorney and parents will receive weekly phone calls. After eight days, meetings will be arranged with parents. After 11 days, students will be declared truant.

Webb noted that the state policies don’t make a distinction between excused and unexcused absences, and that sick days count towards absences, while stressing that students should still stay home if sick. Elementary Principal Deanna Spence noted that even time spent in the hospital counts as absences. Hatfield stated the problem is that this is just punitive, with no extra support being given to schools, and that a few students will be able to knock down a school’s ranking. He stated he did agree with the notion that students have to be at school, but disliked the implementation.

The administrators agreed that this would lead to more paperwork for school staff. Board member Adam Clark stated that at least all districts had to deal with this. Hatfield stated that larger schools already have attendance clerks to deal with absenteeism. Spence noted that, technically, this gives students more missed days a year, because Sigourney used to only allow ten absences per year, but now only allows five absences per trimester.

Spence stated that, this year, the state will require the elementary to do individualized reading plans for all non-proficient students. She stated that, last year, the school was notified that there were to many kids in special education who were not proficient in reading, forcing the school to form an action plan to remedy that.

Webb estimated that the district would be up nine or ten kids this year, going from 596 to around 608. Webb noted that high school class sizes have gotten large, with some classrooms having almost thirty to a class.