By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com

With the weather starting to actually resemble springtime, difficult as that may be to believe, the Buckeye Central Board of Education addressed some upcoming construction projects that are contingent on old man winter finally retiring for another year.

Throughout the course of 2014 there was a joint negotiation effort of the school district and the Village of New Washington to pave the way for the construction of a Verizon cell phone tower. Reception in New Washington has been notoriously poor for a long time, a fact which led Verizon into negotiations for the improvement of this service. Negotiations proved fruitful for all parties concerned in 2014, and the project was slated to begin once the weather broke in 2015. The BC school board kept things moving in the right direction by finalizing the lease arrangement for the cell tower Thursday night. Now, all that’s needed is weather fit for breaking ground.

The other project that was given the official go ahead was addition of the storage room to the bus garage. This addition would be for use by the VoAg department, and a bid from Studer-Obringer of $73,500 was approved for the project.

In personnel items, it was a case of sad goodbyes to some familiar faces, but a welcome introduction to a new member of the team. Janet C. Kibler, a special education teacher, brought to a close 26 years of service to the district by announcing her retirement at the end of the current school year. The other goodbye was the maintenance supervisor Scott McCarthy, who tendered his resignation to pursue opportunities in the Willard Hospital system. Superintendent Mark Robinson wished McCarthy well on his new endeavors and Kibler the best of luck in retirement.

But the mood was quickly lifted at the announcement of new middle school reading teacher Jaclyn Reinhart. She was introduced to the Board in person, having desired to attend the meeting at which her employment would become official.

“It’s exciting when you have new staff members wanting to be here,” Robinson said.

Along with taking on a teach role, Reinhart will be assuming the role of Head Varsity Volleyball Coach for the 2015-16 season.

Treasurer Nancy Ackerman reported that the finances are in good shape, with March being a slight improvement on February. Real Estate Tax revenues for Crawford County were delivered on March 1, and are right in line with what was projected. The permanent improvement funds are currently in good shape, but some big ticket items will be coming down the pike shortly. Robinson reported that that track will have to be resurfaced in the next two to three years, which will cost between $100,000 and $130,000. Also, the bleachers at the football field are currently in good shape, but are aging. They will likely need addressed in a similar time frame to the track.

The next meeting will be 7 p.m. on April 9 in the multipurpose room.