Asbestos-removal pact being finalized for Central Junior High

As the Cape Girardeau School District prepares for construction and renovations at Central Junior High School, a contract is being negotiated with Midwest Environmental Studies to remove asbestos at the school.

The school has several areas that contain asbestos in the floor tile, mastic and coverings, and those areas will have to be asbestos-free before construction begins, superintendent Jim Welker said.

"It's not anything to get concerned about," Welker said. "It's just what you have in older buildings, and you have to go through a process of removing that before we can do construction."

The construction is part of a $20 million bond issue approved by voters in April.

Projects at the junior high school include razing the school's old gymnasium and replacing it with offices. A new practice gym will be built, and science labs, doubling as a storm shelter, will be built in the basement. The classrooms also will be renovated.

The school board Monday voted to move forward with an estimated contract amount of $64,000 with Midwest Environmental Studies for the asbestos removal.

The removal work will be completed during Christmas break, officials said, and the old gym will be closed early next year. Classrooms will be renovated during the summer.

The board also approved negotiating a $39,900 contract with Secure Data Technologies for storage equipment. It was the lowest of three bids received by the district.

The Nimble CS 235 storage array will improve storage capacity, performance and reliability of the district's data center, officials said.

The upgrade is in response to a growing need for technology at the district. The district's current server infrastructure is partially outdated, at near-maximum capacity and causing performance "bottlenecks" to servers, according to district documents.

The improvement in storage, speed and capacity will increase performance of the district's servers and allow for moderate future expansion.

Before the regular meeting, the board also gathered for a special work session where they discussed the high school's 11-point grading scale and the percentages for grades.

An "A" on the district's scale is 96 to 100 percent and an "A-" is 92 to 95 percent. At some districts, Welker said, the "A-" begins at 90 percent.

"Some of the board members were concerned it might hurt some of our students in terms of when they apply for scholarships and other things compared to students from other school districts, because our grading scale was higher," Welker said.

A study of other districts was presented, he said, and most of the discussion was regarding the percentages for grades.

"The biggest change, if we make a change, would be in terms of those percentages," he said.

The high school's principal was asked to take information from the discussion to his staff, review it and make a recommendation to the board at a later meeting, Welker said.

The board also approved the vision insurance plan, as well as the medical and dental insurance plans for 2016.

klamb@semissourian.com

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