BEDFORD – The North Lawrence Community Schools approved the sale of the Heltonville School Thursday night during their meeting.
The building sits on 19.75 acres, and was constructed in 2007.
The appraisal for the school came at an average of $779,000. The school corporation voted to accept a minimum bid of $350,000. The board plans to open those bids in the April school board meeting.
Jenise Roane, of business services, asked to transfer $400,000 from the education fund to the operations fund, by law if the rate exceeds 15 percent this must be reported publicly.
“This has not been easy to get there, however with the consolidation, we have been moving in the right direction,” said Dr. Ty Mungle North Lawrence Community School Superintendent.
In 2018, this rate was at 20 percent and now has been reduced to approximately 16 percent or $400,000.
In other business the board:
- Gave an update on upcoming summer school classes for Elementary, Middle School, High School, and Career Center classes.
- Approved the purchase of the MBA PowerSchool Plug-in program this will allow the corporation to retire an old program. This will manage the book fees and Chromebooks – bring three systems into one at a decrease in costs.
- Approved the purchase of Chromebooks for teachers at the high school, high school students, and 3rd, 6th, and 9th grades. This will be a third of the students in the North Lawrence Community School system.
- Approved the purchase of the ” Art of Education” curriculum. This purchase will be able to provide professional development for the art teachers.
- Dr. Mungle recognized custodian Sandra Thorp and instructional assistant Amy Donica for going above and beyond in working with students.
- Approved a resolution to oppose Education Savings accounts and voucher expansion. According to Dr. Mungle, a total of 92 school corporations have already signed this resolution.
- Approved the North Lawrence Summer Food Service program. This year the food will be distributed at Parkview Elementary School.
Eric Johnson, a resident of Springville addressed the school board in regards to his daughter being punished for reaching out and emailing a school teacher she had confidence in. The school board took the concern under advisement.
Dr. Mungle read a statement in regards to North Lawrence Community Schools not being reached out for a response in regards to a meeting in Indian Creek Township on Tuesday.
In the meeting Tuesday night, Indian Creek residents expressed concerns they did not want their facilities to be used as juvenile detention facility, drug rehabilitation facility or Section 8 housing or any business that could be detrimental to their community.
The meeting Tuesday night was a public meeting of the Indian Creek Township and no representatives of the North Lawrence Community School Corporation attended the meeting in which the sale of Fayetteville Elementary School was discussed.
In the statement read Thursday night by Dr. Mungle he stated, “Concerns have been expressed that North Lawrence Community Schools already has plans for these buildings, this is by far from the truth. None of these buildings have been shown to prospective buyers or shown intended use. We are saddened to hear that a petition is being circulated in Indian Creek Township falsely accusing North Lawrence Community Schools of planning the sell the building to be used for a jail or detention center. This simply is not true.”
The North Lawrence Community Schools have an option to accept Springville back if the township no longer has a use for the building or no debt is owed on the building.
At this time, there is no agreement on the Fayetteville Elementary School building and no agreement has been approved by the North Lawrence Community board on the Springville Elementary School.
“The future use of these facilities and how they will be maintained will be determined by each township if they decide to accept the offer,” the statement concluded by Dr. Ty Mungle.
