By Jordan Studer
jstuder@wbcowqel.com
The main item of discussion at the Colonel Crawford School Board meeting Monday night was approving a three-year contract with Strategic Solutions, LLC. The contract will be for a document imaging and requisition approval system project. The estimated cost for the first year was said to be $28,795, with a licensing and scanning estimate of $6,611.00 in the years following.
Superintendent Todd Martin explained the project to the board.
“In the basement when we did the demo, we had a number of boxes that were destroyed. They had disintegrated because they were in water over the years, so we had to shovel them and dispose of them. We still have huge volumes of boxes down in the basement and we don’t have any room to put them,” Martin said.
Martin described a process where the company will come and digitally scan all of the records so the school has them electronically. After the scanning is complete, the company will dispose of the records for the school as part of the service. The benefit of doing this is the school will no longer have accumulations of boxes that they are required to keep that pose the threat of being ruined or lost. The school would also like to transition to having all purchase orders online as well.
“It’s going to get us to where we need to be,” Martin stated.
A concern was brought up by community member Brad Bauer about the safety of having a company outside of school employees handle the records due to all the stories about identity theft that have been publicized.
“This looks like a nightmare. You are going to give all the information of all these students to this company that they are going to have access to. What’s going to keep them from a bad employee deciding to do something else with it? I’m just saying you hear all these nightmares about identity theft and everything and it’s coming from somebody that’s supposed to be trusted. I just wonder what kind of background checks they do when they hire,” Bauer said.
After a discussion was had, it was confirmed that Strategic Solutions, LLC, is indeed a reputable company that many other schools and districts in the state of Ohio as well as Indiana have worked with.
Another matter that was considered was an addition of the name “Colonel Crawford High School” to the sign by the road that identifies the school complex. It was also mentioned that the labeling of the schools on the outside of the building’s wings may need to be changed so people can better know where they are going. Something that stands out was requested, so there is no question which school wing parents need to go to to pick up their child or drop them off.
A name for the old high school was also pondered. The hope was that by next meeting the title for the old building can be determined.
Another construction project was mentioned, an addition of a covered walkway that will connect the old high school to the new high school that was just completed this school year.
A motion was made to approve an agreement with Sports Safe Testing of Powell, Ohio, not to exceed $14,000 for random drug testing of students. Students that are to be tested are those driving to school and for all athletes at the Colonel Crawford Local School, grades 7-12.
They feel that the continuation of this random drug testing is very important and has been proven effective. High school principal Jake Bruner had a point that he voiced to the board to reinforce how important this testing really is.
“You look at the business community and what they’re saying is that they have trouble getting people that consistently come to work . . . . and consistently pass a drug test. So not only is it a school thing, to me it’s a community thing and it’s talked about as well. And if you talk to the business leaders in our community, I think they would agree with that,” Bruner explained.
The resignation of high school guidance counselor Allisun Kelbley at the end of the 2015-2016 school year was also approved.
A contract was additionally approved with the Crawford County Board of Health for school health services and a school nurse for the 2016-2017 school year. This contract will be for 19 hours a week at $33 per hour.
The next board meeting will be held July 18th at 5:30 p.m.