By WILL BRUMLEVE will@fordcountychronicle.com

GIBSON CITY — The Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley school board voted Monday night to accept a $618,950 bid from Eureka-based Blunier Builders for the construction of a new maintenance shed.

The 60-by-160-foot Morton-style building — which Superintendent Jeremy Darnell described as “a steel panel-frame building on a concrete slab” — will replace the old maintenance shed on North State Street across from the high school’s football field, which sustained damage to its brick foundation in last August’s flash flood and was deemed a total loss by the district’s insurance company.

The insurance claim resulted in a payout of $689,000 to the district — funds that will be used to pay for the new shed’s construction in upcoming months, Darnell said. Following extensive negotiations with Darnell, the insurance company agreed to raise its initial estimated replacement cost of $74 per square foot by more than double — to $170 per square foot, he noted.

“I was absolutely flabbergasted,” Darnell said, “because it literally just took pushing back and saying, ‘No, this isn’t right,’ and getting some contractor quotes (to confirm the correct value).”

Construction of the new shed’s concrete foundation is expected to be completed this summer, Darnell said, followed by the construction of the shed itself this fall. Darnell said the project is targeted for completion by mid-December.

The school district has never used Blunier Builders in the past, Darnell said, but “several area farmers and families have.” The company’s bid was the lowest among the four received, which ranged from $618,000 to $847,000, Darnell said.

The school district will use the shed to store some of its vehicles — including its minibuses, driver’s education car and maintenance vehicles — along with its lawnmowers and tractors. It will also be used for storage of bulk cleaning supplies and dry goods, such as toilet paper. There will be a workshop inside, as well, allowing school district staff to work on vehicles and other equipment there.

“And it’s got room to grow,” Darnell noted. “We’re building it big enough so that we’ll have some space to where, as we add things, we’ll have room to put them in there.”

Before its foundation caved in during last August’s flood, the old maintenance shed was used by the district to store supplies for the maintenance department, Darnell said, along with old furniture, for example, that had been removed from schools.

The old maintenance shed had been a Jehovah’s Witnesses church before the district purchased the building some 20 years ago and retrofitted it for use as a shed, according to Darnell.

Other business Also at Monday’s school board meeting:

— The board voted to accept a $33,389 bid from Champaign-based Reliable Mechanical Co. for the replacement of the high school’s water main and its relocation from the south side of the school to the west side. “It will travel underneath the parking lot into the sub-floor where the boilers are,” Darnell said. The old water main is being replaced and relocated, Darnell said, because it has “broken two times in the last years and actually travels directly below our cafeteria.” Replacing and relocating it, Darnell noted, “eliminates the possibility of longer-term school disruption.”

— The board approved the purchase of a 2013 Chevrolet Suburban from Bradbury Auto Sales in Gibson City and the trade-in of a Chrysler 200. The $29,275 difference will be paid to Bradbury Auto Sales. The Suburban purchased has about 19,000 miles on its odometer and will be used for small-team travel and towing the district’s 8-by-16-foot school-equipment trailer, Darnell said.

— The board approved a natural gas purchase contract with Mansfield Energy. The district’s current contract with Mansfield Energy expires in June. Darnell said the district does not yet know what rate it will be paying for natural gas under the new one-year contract, but the hope is that the district will be able to lock in a reduced rate once the “massive spike” in natural gas prices settles. The district has used Mansfield Energy for five or six years, Darnell estimated.

— The board made plans to approve an amended budget for the 2022 fiscal year — which ends June 30 — during its May meeting. Darnell said “exact numbers” for the amended budget were not yet finalized, but he said he should have them done “by the end of next week.” Darnell said he is amending the budget “due to the large amounts of flow-through with insurance claims and added costs with fuel and energy costs being so high.”

— The board approved spending $99,000 on a technology infrastructure replacement and improvement plan, as presented by MCS Office Technologies of Gibson City. The plan calls for the replacement of some of the cameras at the district’s buildings — including all door cameras, which are “as old as the buildings” themselves, Darnell noted — and the installation of some additional cameras in “blind spots,” as well. The plan also includes a new platform in which the cameras are integrated, allowing district staff to monitor the cameras through a web-based portal on their phones or desktop computers. The $99,000 cost includes an annual licensure fee.

— Darnell said the district is expected to receive a “huge jump” in corporate personal property replacement tax revenue. The district is expected to receive $1.2 million this year, Darnell said, up from the typical annual amount ranging from $500,000 to $700,000. The roughly $500,000 increase will help with the rising cost of doing business, Darnell said, and maintenance projects that arise. The funds were not budgeted, Darnell said. Next year, the district is expected to begin receiving property tax revenue from the Ford County Wind Farm near Gibson City and Sibley, Darnell added.

— The board heard reports from board committees, school principals, the superintendent, the curriculum director and the director of the Ford County Special Education Cooperative. In summarizing the reports, Darnell said all seem to be “looking forward to a factory reset in 2022-23” and “getting back to traditional public school expectations.” Darnell said next school year will feel a lot more like normal than the pandemic-affected last two. Expectations will return to normal, as well, Darnell said. “We’ll be getting back to having high expectations, holding people accountable and supporting them in the process,” Darnell said.

— Darnell said he plans to start hosting “open-mic nights” quarterly next school year, each focusing on a specific topic or two. Darnell started the series of community forums this school year to better engage the public. One was held last fall and the other this spring.

— The board approved the destruction of audio recordings of closed sessions dating through end of October 2020.

— The board voted to accept a $1,500 anonymous donation toward middle school field trips.

— The board approved a facility-use agreement for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ annual camp on July 25-28 at the athletic fields and middle school.

— The board voted to accept the resignations of Colton Leake as a girls’ basketball coach, Keri Dornbusch as head high school girls’ basketball coach, Taylor Flynn as eighth-grade volleyball coach and Andrea Dibble as middle school cheerleading sponsor, all effective immediately.

— The board approved Cody Moody as the head wrestling coach for the GCMS/Fisher high school wrestling team for the 2022-23 school year.

— The board approved providing tuition reimbursement to Allison Case, Colton Leake and Danielle Kirby for their respective master’s degree programs at Eastern Illinois University.

— The board approved 12-week maternity leave requests from Taylor Flynn and Kaylee Petersen.

— The board voted to accept an irrevocable letter of retirement from math teacher Susan Riley, effective at the end of the 2024-25 school year, and provide a three-year 6 percent salary incentive.

— The board approved three-year contracts with high school athletic director Mike Allen (with a starting salary of $102,000 for the 2022-23 school year), Kyle Bielfeldt as GCMS High School principal (with a starting salary of $92,000 for school year 2022-23), Justin Kean as GCMS Elementary School principal (with a starting salary of $103,00 for the 2022-23 school year) and Staci Lindelof as the associate elementary school principal (with a starting salary of $87,000 for the 2022-23 school year.

— The board approved Katie Van Vickle as a social worker for the school district for the 2022-23 school year.

— The board voted to accept the resignations of Chrystal Little and Jordan Ryan as elementary school teachers, both effective at the end of the 2021-2022 school year.

— The board approved Ross Harden as the head high school girls’ basketball coach for the 2022-23 school year.

— The board approved the hiring of Brynn Ginger as a math teacher for the 2022-23 school year.