Working through a combination of video and teleconferencing, the Watonga School Board met March 24 in special session. On the agenda was an action to change the date of the school board election for seat 5. The move was necessary because the state elections secretary cancelled all April 7 elections because of the coronavirus.
The members – with Lane Edsall and Aaron Clewell on videoconference, Joyce Lucas on telephone and board president Dwight McGee live at the meeting – agreed to move the vote to June 30, the day of the state primary election.
Other actions included adopting policies retroactively to allow the board members to meet virtually. The agenda must post notice where the members will be, whether in person or video conferencing. If a member indicates he or she will be at the meeting in person, they must appear and cannot elect to change to virtual presence.
The board next discussed its plan to reconstruct the stadium concession stand and restrooms. “At the moment I think the future is very uncertain. We are making decisions for six-to-eight months out with no clear idea of how this thing will go,” said superintendent Mark Batt.
Edsall wondered if the architects, who will be paid for the project plans, could be counted on to revise or update the plans if need be when the school was ready to move ahead with the project. Batt thought they would agree to that, while Clewell pointed out that now the school owned the plans.
The group agreed to hold off building the concession and restroom, but the decision on restroom renovations in the middle school was a little more contentious. Lucas was of the opinion that the renovation was a necessity.
“It is more pressing than the other (project) but maybe not absolutely vital in uncertain times, “ Batt said. He also said, though, that with the condition the restrooms are in, it wasn’t a matter of if there was a catastrophic failure, it was a matter of when it happened.
Lucas held to her guns, voting to go ahead with the work, but she was outvoted by the three other board members present.
Batt offered a bright side to putting off the work until the double pronged assault on the budget – coronavirus slowing the whole economy and the oil and gas bust poking a hole in gross production income – had passed. He reminded the board the building fund had about $900,000 in it, and that money, although coming slower, would continue to accumulate. And it was possible when the decision was made to move ahead, there would be more companies looking to get back to work, meaning the bids on the project could be more competitive and bring the entire cost to the school down.
Connie Burcham can be reached at Editor@WatongaRepublican.com