School board approves $31.74 million budget

The first bill for Fairfield Middle School?s geothermal heating and cooling project was approved for payment by the school board Monday, while a change request on the project also credited the district.

Shive-Hattery Inc. submitted a bill on behalf of the contractor, Woodruff Construction LLC, for $60,400, less a retainage amount, $3,030. The board approved the payment of $57,380 toward the overall project cost of $5.26 million.

Previously, the board had approved eliminating fire suppression sprinklers in the middle school HVAC project. This change eliminates a $19,550 cost for an additional water service line and another $13,800 by reducing the number of conduits and fittings, for a total $33,350 credit.

?We removed one boiler over spring break at the middle school,? said Fred McElwee, director of auxiliary services. ?The second one will be removed later this month.?

The board also approved the district?s $31.74 million budget for 2012-2013, with a total property tax levy of $15.30 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The district held a public hearing about the proposed budget on March 19, at the beginning of a regular board meeting. No community members attended the hearing.

Fairfield Hy-Vee Food and Drug Store has donated a new $2,500 salad bar to the district, superintendent Art Sathoff said. It will go to the high school to supplement its serving line and offer additional choices at meals.

Sathoff briefly touched on state legislative concerns and a federal education initiative.

?The governor is making a big push about the school start date,? he said. ?The latest I?ve heard is schools should not start before the fourth Monday in August and waiver requests will have a $100 fee. This could impact our school calendar.?

In February, the board approved the 2012-2013 school year calendar with the first day of school Aug. 22, a Wednesday before the fourth Monday, Aug. 27. If any days are cut from one part of the calendar, they will need to be added elsewhere.

?President Obama?s super committee is charged with cutting $1.2 trillion in the federal education budget over 10 years,? said Sathoff. ?So far, it has not made any suggestions about cuts. If it doesn?t make cuts, there?s an automatic provision for a 7.8 percent across-the-board cut on Jan. 13, 2013. That works out to a $775,000 cut to Iowa, or $60,770 to Fairfield Community School District.

?Part of the federal cut would affect our Title I program, cutting $37,000. We?ve been carrying over Title I money so we?re in pretty good shape the first year,? said Sathoff.

?If the Department of Defense is waived out of the budget cut process, it will make the cuts bigger on everyone else.?

The Department of Defense runs many schools on military installations in the U.S. and across the globe.

The board approved the purchase of a 2012 Scag, Turf Tiger lawn mower and bagger for $12,418 from Pat?s Sales and Service, Fairfield. McElwee provided the specifications and said he?d also reviewed a John Deere mower.

Board member Jeremy Miller questioned a monthly bill of $9,055 to be paid to Xerox Corporation.

Business manager Kim Sheets said the district pays a contracted minimum of $6,000 per quarter and the monthly bill includes purchasing materials, including toner, staplers, paper, etc.

?We?ve actually been working to reduce use of copying,? she said. ?We?ve added scanning capability to each machine and encourage users to not need to print everything but share electronic copies.?

Board member Jerry Nelson asked when the rule about bills more than $10,000 needing board approval applies.

?If a big piece of equipment breaks down, it might not be feasible to get a board convened to authorize payments,? said Sathoff.

?Any monthly bills that would incur late fee charges we have authorization to pay before the late charge is due,? added Sheets.

?Some of the payments to Shive have already been approved on the middle school project,? said McElwee.

Nelson said he hadn?t realized the board already had a rule to limit authorization of spending to $5,000.

?Why did we have to raise it to $10,000?? he asked.

In March, the school board approved Sathoff, Sheets and McElwee to each have the authority to approve needed change orders in the middle school HVAC project up to the amount of $10,000 without prior approval from the school board. Administrators asked for this increase to help eliminate the need to stop construction if a change order is needed. All change orders will be reported to the board; any change order costing more than $10,000 will need prior board approval.

In another note, Miller reported the Little League raised more than $2,600 at a pancake breakfast held at Libertyville Elementary School recently.

?Thanks to the community for its donations, and I think this is a good example of the ties between schools and the public,? said Miller.

The board set three committee meetings: the Finance Committee will meet at 6 p.m. Monday at the Administration/Curriculum/Technology Center; the Insurance Committee will meet at 4 p.m. April 19 at A/C/T; and the Policy Committee will meet at 10:30 a.m. April 20 at A/C/T.