School board OKs contracts for mowing, food

The Brown County Schools Board of Trustees approved the following April 16:

• A mowing contract for the 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons with Billy Watkins for Van Buren Elementary School and Eagle Park.
• A mowing contract for the 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons with G. Wagler Landscaping LLC for Helmsburg Elementary School, Sprunica Elementary School and the Nashville campus.
• Recommendation to rescind the board’s action on Feb. 20 approving the resignation of Natalie Van Zuiden. Van Zuiden will remain an employee of Brown County Schools for the 2020-2021 school year.
• Accepting an offer from the Indiana Department of Transportation for acquisition of property related to a bridge repair south of Van Buren Elementary School on State Road 135 South. INDOT offered the school district $1,500 for a triangle portion of property near the bridge.
• Renewing the food service management company contract for the 2020-2021 school year with Compass Group USA Inc. by and through its Chartwells Division.
• Separating Brown County Schools occupational therapist Laura Martinez, effective May 30. This was not a termination.
• Separating Brown County High School boys basketball coach John Berning, effective immediately. This was not a termination.
• Appointing BCS transportation mechanic Dale Hatchett, $25 per hour, full-time with benefits, eight hours per day, 260 days per year, effective May 4. This is a new position.
• Appointing BCS bus driver Jackie Hoskins, $93 per day, 180 days per year, effective Aug. 5. This is a new position that will cover a bus route the district will now manage.

Parking lot at Van Buren to be expanded

Brown County Schools is working to expand the parking lot at Van Buren Elementary School to allow more room for safe morning drop-off and afternoon release.

When the district decided to close Nashville Elementary School and redistrict, Van Buren wound up having more buses visiting the school, Superintendent Laura Hammack said at the April 16 Brown County Schools Board of Trustees meeting.

“I hate to say this, but we’re struggling with safety in morning drop-off and afternoon release,” she said.

“Now because of special education buses, because of the number of buses that are on this contract, we’re in this situation where you can’t get all of the buses around the arc at Van Buren where you come in and pull out, so we’ve been looking at some solutions.”

Hammack said Principal Gavin Steele, Maintenance Director Jimmy Jackson and Transportation Director Roger Cline have been studying the issue for the past year to come up with a solution.

“This is so bad that sometimes if all of the buses aren’t bunched up tightly enough, the last bus to come could have its tail on 135, which is unacceptable,” Hammack said.

“You have people who blow by the school. It’s just frightening. We have to get a solution. Of course, every solution is expensive.”

The district received a bid from Jack Todd Paving Inc. to take a portion of the former ball field at Van Buren and gravel it, “gravel a drive and then some parking spaces in that field, so kind of taking that grassy space, building a culvert over … the trench there to get in, and then do a turnaround,” Hammack explained.

“Then, effectively, Gavin can separate that bus traffic from his drop-off traffic.”

The cost of the project is between $125,000 and $135,000. “It would fix the problem 100 percent. Mr. Steele is really happy with the design,” Hammack said. “It seems to be a fix.”

Board member Steve Miller suggested getting a bid from Todd to pave the field instead of graveling it. Board President Carol Bowden said there may be concerns about flooding in the field if asphalt is used.

“The eastern edge of that lot abuts the creek, so that’s where the floodwater can kind of come up and over. There will be water on that land. … It’s only those epic events where we’ve seen it come up and over on to the field, but it does come up and over,” Hammack said.

Hammack said she would work to get a bid for asphalt and bring the bids back to the board for review.