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WILKES-BARRE —Wilkes-Barre Area School Board has yet to make a decision on a massive high school project, but the renovation of the former Mackin Elementary Building is moving quickly, with the board already voting on change orders even as it completes the awarding of contracts.
At Monday’s meeting the board approved a $16,000 increase in the cost for removal of asbestos, a contract change required when asbestos was found in the plaster ceiling above a suspended ceiling in the auditorium, Project Manager Gary Salijko said.
The board also voted to “attempt to award a contract” for heating, ventilation and air conditioning work at the building to Yannuzzi, Inc. of Hazleton at a cost of $1,399,364. The wording of the motion was tweaked by Solicitor Ray Wendolowski because that contract had already been bid out. The board rejected all initial bids after finding issues with paperwork from one bidder, and rebid the entire job.
Wendolowski said the district still hopes to have the building renovated by sometime in November for potential use to house about half the students at Coughlin High School. The board is mulling several options to either renovate or replace Coughlin and Meyers High Schools, and the Mackin plan would be implemented if work is started on Coughlin, or if the building is deemed unsafe.
The district has done emergency repairs to the facades and parapets of both buildings, and is monitoring the structures. The board voted Monday to hire Masonry Preservation Services, Inc., of Berwick to perform a spring facade evaluation of both schools at a cost of $6,000. The plan is to have such studies done every six months, Wendolowski said.
The board has talked for years about implementing a district-wide maintenance plan to prevent the chronic deferral of needed work that many board members blame for the current problem with the district’s aging three high schools. They took a step in that direction Monday by authorizing Apollo Inc. the district construction manager, to prepare documents to put such maintenance work out for bid. The vote included instructions for Apollo to determine what maintenance work could be done in house.
After a harsh winter that included numerous snow days, the board set graduation date for all three high schools on June 5. It also approved a new calendar for 2015-16 with the first day of school on August 31 and the last on June 9, with make-up days built in for potential weather cancellations.
The board voted to temporarily allow Bear Creek Community Charter School to set the minimum number of school days there to 180 for both this year and next, rather than 185. Bear Creek is chartered by the district for operation, and asked for the change this year because of the high number of snow days, and for the change next year to provide some extra time to transition the Bear Creek students to a building currently under construction.
And the board made the following appointments: Lauren Medvec as long-term substitute; Alysa O’Brien as 20-hour kindergarten aide; Allison Fasalka, Nancy Horan, Marie Menendez and Luann Riker as substitute teachers; Joseph Sromovski as substitute custodian not to exceed 28 hours per week.
In sports, the board appointed coaches at Meyers High School: Girl’s Soccer head coach Brynn Nargoski, cross country varsity head coach Ali Schappert and junior high head coach Dave Lewis; Football varsity first assistant half-pay Nicholas Bilski , varsity second assistant Corey Brenner, junior high head coach Joseph Bitzer and junior high assistant coach Keith Moules.