Atlantic School Board approves resignations and new hires; Discusses Proposed Athletic facility changes

January 9th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

The Atlantic School District’s Board of Education approved resignations and new hire contracts during their meeting, Wednesday evening. In addition to our earlier reports on the resignations of Andrea Reilly – TAG, STEM Coordinator & Teacher, Head Cheer sponsor; and Julie Birge – Food Service), the Board approved the resignation of Jeremy Blake, Assistant/JV Volleyball Coach. They also approved the hiring/contracts for Dawn Russell, Assistant Head Cook at Schuler Elementary, Riley Hayes, Washington Elementary Clerical Para, along with Industrial Tech Teachers Ryan Messerschmidt and Dexter Dodson.

Superintendent Steve Barber said the addition of two Industrial Tech teachers is remarkable, considering how hard it is to find qualified instructors in-light of an abundance of teacher shortages. He said “We experienced that last Spring with the late resignation of our Industrial Tech position. Obviously, we worked hard with business partners last year and part of our STEM grant was to build partnerships between the school and create a construction trades program.” A condition of the STEM grant, during the second year of a Construction Trades program, was to hire more people to be able to take care of the requirement and head out into the community to build houses, etc. Barber said “We’re a year ahead. These guys [Messerschmidt and Dodson] have great skills that will help us put this program together.”

The Atlantic School Board discussed some proposed changes to the Athletic Facility Plan. (See the photo’s below. Click on an image to enlarge) Superintendent Barber said the changes do not represent an increase or decrease in $9.5-million dollar price of the projects. In fact, he said “It’s a wash” when some aspects were scaled-back or removed, and others were added. Barber said some of the proposed changes deal with the traffic flow in front of Schuler Elementary.

The Facility Committee, experts and others determined that alleviate all buses from E. 14^th Street, in the drop-off area, and creating two-or three lanes directly in front of the Schuler building, for vehicles to drop-off students more quickly, and putting a parking lot with a separate entrance into the parking lot will allow the teachers to get in there as well.” The parking lot would have anywhere from 66-to 74 stalls. The Board discussed making E. 14^th one-way in front of the school, so as to not cause more traffic problems.

Other proposed changes include moving soccer and tennis to the High School stadium, installing new, natural turf at the high school. The Trojan Bowl would still be used for “Friday Night Lights” (football). The would be no team building at the Trojan Bowl, Barber said, because that was designed to accommodate a soccer team, football team and others.)

With regard to the Atlantic School District Special Election April 2^nd on the bond referendum. It was previously indicated the polls would be open from 7-a.m. until 8-p.m., however, Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman decided the polls will be open from Noon until 8-p.m. on that date, with early voting at the Auditor’s Office beginning at 8-a.m. Two sites are being considered for voting locations: The Atlantic Public Library and the Heritage House.