Stew-Stras Board Votes to Replace Faulty HVAC Units

Stewardson-Strasburg school board members Thursday voted to take bids to replace HVAC units that the Board feels were defective.

The motion approved by the Board reads "authorize solicitation of sealed bids to replace defective HVAC units installed by Grunloh Construction Company." The units were installed within the past three years. Since then, talks have gone on between the district and the contractor in an effort to resolve the situation.

The Board learned that St. Rep. Adam Brown of Decatur has designated a $50,000 member initiative grant for the Stew-Stras district for capital projects. Superintendent Michele Lindenmeyer said the District is considering utilizing the grant funds and the findings of an energy assessment being conducted of district building as part of the effort to finance the replacement HVAC units.

Meanwhile, another maintenance grant project continues to progress. Lindenmeyer said soffit and facia work on the old gym as well as tuckpointing has been completed and district is waiting on installation of aluminum guttering to finish the project.

On the budget front, not much good news for the Stew-Stras district. Lindenmeyer said general state aid will drop due to a decrease in enrollment, plus the district's EAV is lower so that means less property tax revenue. The tax rate increase approved by district voters will help cushion the blow, though, and the Shelby County sales tax will be a source of some revenue.

The Stew-Stras board finalized a cooperative agreement with the Windsor school district for high school athletics starting with the 2015-16 school year. The districts will co-op in high school boys basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, cheerleading, track, dance and perhaps girls basketball if a team can be established. Lindenmeyer noted that of the five starters on Shelbyville's girls basketball team last season, four were from Stew-Stras and one was from Windsor so if the team can be established, there's a good nucleus there. The Windsor school board still needs to finalize the co-op agreement.

In personnel moves, the Stew-Stras board accepted a letter of resignation from Nancy Moore as substitute cook, hired Sheila Crist as substitute cook and substitute bus driver and Sheryl Rincker as substitute cook, and approved a leave of absence for Matt Jones due to illness.