New turf depends on community’s help, no funding offered by school

The Jasper Football Boosters were given permission to move ahead with plans to replace the field at Jerry Brewer Alumni Stadium with artificial turf.

Only three of the five school board members were present for the meeting, but the decision was unanimous.

The one caveat shared by all the board though was that the school corporation would not fund the new field.

The cost has been estimated at around $750,000 just for the field— which is expected to last about 10 to 12 years — and would have to be paid for through donations and potential advertising on the field. The turf field could save the school corporation up to $200,000 over its life.

The three board members all acknowledged that questions concerning the safety and health issues raised by a special NBC news report had been answered to their satisfaction.

They agreed that the conversion of the field to artificial turf would benefit the athletic and other programs and would ultimately cost less in the long run than the grass field.

School Superintendent Dr. Tracey Lorey said afterwards that the school corporation has no money it can allocate to the project. “I think it’s very clear that the district does not have the ability to enter into even a three quarters of a million dollar project on [the] football turf,” she said.

The scope of the project has two priorities. First, install an artificial turf field. Then, see how much money can be raised to perform more extensive renovations to the entire facility. The proposed renovations can be viewed in the attached presentation.

Absent from the meeting were members Nancy Habig, and newest board member Arlet Jackle. Jackle was appointed on December 2 to replace outgoing member Mike Braun, who resigned to fulfill his duties as a newly-elected state representative.

Here is a story about the plans for the stadium.

Also in the meeting, board members listened as Curriculum Director Kim Strobel briefed them on changes in course work to adhere to new state and national standards.

Strobel said that the changes in standards reflect the need to move students to be better prepared for college and career readiness upon graduation.

Also discussed were standards based grading system – already implemented in first grade and next year into second grade.

Lorey says the current system doesn’t tell you what the student really knows.  “Standards based reporting actually gives feedback on the actual skills that a student knows and understands.”

She said that the skills are cumulative as the student moves through the grades in the school.

Finally, Lorey reported that the Department of Local Government Finance has approved the school corporation’s budget and that the assessed valuation of the property in the Jasper School Corporation is up over $21 million from last year.

Lorey tells that it helps in lowering the tax rate for ratepayers in the school district by “almost a penny less that it was last year.”

She reported the tax rate approved by the DLGF was $1.0761 per $100 dollars of assessed value, versus $1.0877 last year. Lorey said the board would get a more comprehensive report on the school corporation finances in the January meeting.

Finally, she announced that the bus contract bids will be advertised and approved in January as well.

The next board meeting will take place on January 5 at 7:30 am for the purpose of reorganization.  The officers will be voted upon and approved during that session.