Superintendent Board Report September 2018

General Comments:  First Month of the School Year has gotten off to a good start. There are always a few glitches due mostly to the fact that we are all human. Our new staff are still acclimating themselves there is not a difficult learning curve for our district. Mostly just getting used to the distances.

Teachers/Students:

Our first after school PLC meetings were held. Initial intervention schedules in which our students are leveled has gotten a productive start in Dyer. There is an air of promise with this idea.

We are planning on conducting a district-wide field trip September 13th to the RENO Air shows again this year. The attached brochure offers additional information. I will be staying back this time to ensure that we have at least one administrator watching things at home.

Our first two in-service days are September 14 “Lego” training and October 19^th Code.org training. These curriculum approaches are fully supported by the staff and are research-proven for a Science Technology Engineer Math (STEM) project/lab learning environment. It is great initiative by the staff. Rob and company will present on some aspects of this at the board meeting.

District Facilities Update.

SPE Phase two: not much additional progress over my report last month (fencing, gutter and maintenance of building and equipment) is partially completed. We have put the library and storage buildings back in to use. We still have a major project in getting water and bathroom up to standard in the library building. They have been cleaned out and painted inside. The storage building still needs new doors and skirting. We did start the construction of the SPE internet tower last week and it is scheduled to be complete in mid-September. Phase three will likely include  safety considerations upgrades to the playground equipment

Goldfield. Phase two is mostly complete, Dilworth’s smartboard and all the maintenance and painting issues associated with the housing are 90% complete. Phase three will include a replacement floor for the gym and creation of a STEM lab out of the old board room.

Dyer Phase one is mostly complete. We have water/plumbing to the old school house but are still working on the floor, HVAC and lab constructs. Phase two is fencing and somewhat separate from the actual Dyer facilities is the Athletic Field project. Doug and Bill have worked on that as time has permitted. I have reached out to Joey De Blanco, a Las Vegas engineer, to give us specs on drainage before we go any further. It will likely reinforce or support what our local volunteers are thinking. I want to be sure. This last flood gave us some pretty good ideas about the water shed out there and it should not be rocket science. When that is complete if it looks like beyond the scope of our volunteers then I will take it to the board to see what you would like to do.

Safe and Orderly school environment.  Budget Fence completed the GF fence project. During the construction Doug discovered that the county owns the alley easement that runs through our playground. This required us to put swing gates at the North and South ends. I approved the change order it was not much. There are four pedestrian gates. Two on the West side (one handicap access), and two on the South for convenience. All are to be locked during school hours except the ones on the West. There are three vehicular gates. Two are the county gates previously mentioned and one is for maintenance access. All are to be locked during school hours unless there is direct and current usage required. The padlocks on each gate require the same key that the staff use to gas vehicles. We have had to order more padlocks and keys. When that is complete we will insure that our First Responder have two keys; one for doors and one for the padlocks.

The external metal doors are still being repaired or replaced but all lower locks and deadbolts have been replaced. The staff have one key for all doors on their site. The Central Office staff and First Responders one key that will open all doors at all sites. If one is lost, then we will have to call the locksmith in to make an adjustment and replace keys for that one site, unless it is a Central Office key. If it is a Central Office key Doug and I will make judgement call based on the circumstances of the loss. The priority was to make sure our Deputies have a master keys secured in their vehicle when responding. One that could open any door/gate at any time. It is also one of the steps in hardening our classroom buildings.

Ace Fire:  All the conduit and wire installation are complete. Ace must make one more trip for the panels. That will happen any day now. A reminder that I approved change orders that included the library building (SPE) and the old school house (Dyer). They were not on the original bid because we were not using those buildings at the time.

We are on the verge of completing the transitioning from Frontier to Valley Electric. I still need to review the options and costs associated with the start-up equipment.

Technology. We have transitioned to Valley Electric for internet services. SPE microwave shot is not quite complete but light at the end of this long tunnel will be this month. I am very pleased with the efforts by John Maurer, VE, Oasis and our staff. Rural internet service for schools has been a long and protracted issue that has reached as far as DC and the Governor’s office.

Policy Updates: We will ask board approval for the Community Relations Policy this month. Next month we will finish up with Support Operations. POOL/PACT has some updates to Personnel etc. that we get periodically, and we will place that on the agenda as well. Thanks Bill for participating in this process again. We will break from our monthly review and pick up again in January. It could be that we may be able to review multiple policy sections each month next year.

Real Estate:  Mike is making some progress on the Title/Deed issue associated with the 5.08 acres. I may have a better sense of where we are by the time the board meets. As you know the district has had an offer and a potential second offer for the 5.08 acres East of GF. Bids were opened by the school board on Tuesday at 6:00 on June 26, 2018 and gave the Superintendent authority to proceed with help from our legal office. Without going into detail, the district is being held up with title issues. Our legal office is communicating with Cow County  and others relevant to exploring the possibility of a court order as well.

We now own the new house at 700 Crook in GF.

A reminder that I have our school attorney working with our Brokers to get a clear title with Title Insurance or its equivalent for the lots just East of the GF Central Office. Cow County Title wants a court approved action that gives the owner authority to sell. We can get this. It may take a month or two depending on the court. This is the property that the board approved last year just prior to my arrival. I will keep you apprised.

Personnel. No issues that we have not been able to take care of so far. I have discontinued advertising for ES teachers until next Spring. I am very proud of both Sandra and Jasmine who passed the very difficult K-8 Praxis. Jasmine is still seeking alternative licensure and her test result brings her one step closer.

Superintendent:  We have received a monetary donation of $1,913 from Albemarle and I have sent a thank you letter.

Local: Most if not all of you know better than I, that there are some folks actively pursuing new mining ops in the area. I sat through an interesting meeting with local players from Tonopah and GF. It was sponsored by Jess Rosner, NYE Communities Coalition and Joel Lenze a mining industry specialist from the governor’s Economic Development Office. My notes are brief.

1.     Gemfield Gold Mine notes: Economic Development mtg Aug 2018

Gemfield Mine:  Planned 12-year operation. 300 initial employees to drop to around 200. Begin as early as next year?

Terhune: we can take an additional 20-25 students (8 per class) at present.      Bus driver?

Ed: solid waste issue, no arrangement with county. Also, north dump road closed. Concerns about diversion (drainage). Ed requested detail on roads from Gemfield

Other Ed person:  medical issues. Discussions about Tonopah clinic.

Ralph Keyes:  county has real small crew for EMS.  Gemfield should have someone on staff to assist the County.  Funding coming into county will be delayed for 3-4 years due to negative gold production at first. Can there be some front payment for road services etc. until tax money comes in?

Sheriff’s Office:  will need 3-4 additional deputies to run a 24-hour operation.  Currently at 5 deputies.  Geography vs population when it come to staffing Law Enforcement?

FLV Mining ops: Lithium and Boron mining about 15 miles off Hwy 264 up Coyote Road in the Silver Peak Range (see attached slides). Pay attention to the proposed timeline offered by the presenter Bernard Rowe from Paradigm Minerals. The estimate is 500 employees during construction and 250-300 permanent.