NORTH ROBINSON—The Colonel Crawford board of education held its monthly meeting on Monday night in the media center.

To begin the meeting, everyone in attendance could catch a sneak peek of this year’s student production of The Little Mermaid. 

The board is looking to finally add an auxiliary gym to the building in the open space between the cafeteria and the new hallway leading to the high school wing. 

Fanning Howey, out of Dublin, Ohio, presented two blueprints to the board. 

Auxiliary gym option one featured two full-sized cross courts (50’x84’) and took up the entire space between buildings for approximately 10,532 sq. ft. 

Auxiliary gym option two featured two smaller cross courts (40’x60’) with excess space to the side. This option would be up against the cafeteria and have 30 feet between it and the hallway leading to the high school wing to comply with fire and safety codes. 

The auxiliary gym would be able to be used by all students for any sport, indoor recess, excess lunch tables when needed, etc.

Currently, when the weather is not permitting, track athletes will run through the hallways in school, and indoor recess sometimes overflows into the hallways due to lack of space. During basketball season, some teams have practice times late in the evening due to limited gym space and the number of teams needing the space. The auxiliary gym would allow for a better solution for these issues. Drop-down nets could also be placed inside to serve as batting cages for baseball and softball players. 

The auxiliary gym was originally on the ballot at the same time as the high school wing for extra funding when the original allotted amount of money from the state wasn’t received, resulting in a shorter high school wing than planned and the inability to build the gym. 

The board approved hiring four student summer workers at the state minimum wage of just over ten dollars an hour for June, July, and August. One would work in the high school. Two would work in the elementary and intermediate wings, and one for the bus garage. 

The board approved the purchase of a cargo van not to exceed forty thousand dollars for hauling equipment to and from sporting events.

Kennedy Landscaping LLC was approved for general lawn maintenance on the South lawn, and Cutting Edge Lawncare and Landscaping LLC for the athletic field maintenance and the North lawn.

The 2023-2024 school academic calendar was approved, and the first day of school for students is August 22.

The next board meeting is April 17 at 7 p.m.