MENTONE - With the Guaranteed Energy Savings project at the Burket Educational Center nearly complete, the Tippecanoe Valley School Board continues to look at more ways to save energy and money.
Monday night, the school board continued discussions with Performance Services representatives about a Guaranteed Energy Savings project and a wind turbine project at the middle and high schools campus. At the August meeting, the board approved Performance Services to go ahead with a wind feasibility study.Phil Yuska, business development manager, Performance Services, said the energy savings project will help optimize the energy equipment Valley has now at TVMS and TVHS.
Also, Yuska said, they are still working on obtaining a low-interest rate bond from the state for the projects. He said they expected to hear the results of Valley's request by now, but have not. Instead of getting a zero percent interest, if Valley is awarded the bonding, Yuska said it may be more around 1 to 1.25 percent. However, it's still a good rate if you can get it, he said.
The next step for Valley on the energy savings project is for the board to approve a resolution for Performance Services to begin doing the detailed work on it. He provided a sample resolution for the board.
The board decided to wait until the October meeting to vote on whether or not to approve such a resolution. While Yuska said the project was covered when they advertised for the Burket energy savings project, the board was not so certain the TVMS and TVHS projects were covered under that advertisement. Superintendent Brett Boggs said he wanted to consult legal services on the matter.
Tony Kuykendall, business development manager, Performance Services, then gave a presentation to the Valley School Board on the wind turbine project. Performance Services is building a similar project at Randolph Eastern School Corp.
Performance Services already has purchased the wind data for Valley. He provided them with maps of the wind data and a location for the wind turbine.
Kuykendall said Valley's wind turbine would be a two-blade system. On average, the location being considered for the wind turbine gets 13 to 14 mph wind and will be 220 feet high.
Hal Hoffman, board vice president, asked if the woods next to the location was being considered. Kuykendall said it was, and would actually hurt the project a little.
Kuykendall said the results of the feasibility study will be reported to the school board at its October or November meeting. Timeline wise, he said, they'd like to do it in conjunction with the energy savings project at the campus.
For the second consecutive year, Boggs said, Tippecanoe Valley High School's SAT scores have been good. In two of the three sections of the SAT, Valley's students scored above average.
The number of Valley students who took the test also increased. Valley had 93 students take the test in 2009, up from 66 in 2008. Boggs said 53 percent of Valley's seniors took the test.
Indiana's SAT writing mean score for 2009 was 480. Valley's score of 506 ranked in the top 7 percent in the state.
Valley's 497 SAT reading score also was above the state average of 496, and this ranked in the top 26 percent.
The combined SAT reading and writing score put Valley among the top 11 percent in Indiana.
Valley's math score was 478, with the state average at 507.
"Our math scores, obviously, we've got plenty of room for improvement there," Boggs said.
He said the teachers and staff at the high school are doing a great job of preparing students. Valley students are doing better on the SAT and more are taking it. Boggs said that tells him that more students are thinking beyond high school.
In other business, the school board:
n Announced a benefit chili supper for the Greer family to help with medical expenses will be Sept. 25. from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Tippecanoe Valley High School commons. Cost is a free-will donation.
n Heard from Boggs that an open house for the Burket Educational Center will be Oct. 11 from 2 to 4 p.m. The open house will be held to share the completion of the Guaranteed Energy Savings work completed at the school.
n Approved the 2010 capital projects fund plan, school bus replacement plan and budget of $22,725,743. Resolutions to reduce appropriations as needed also were approved.
The school board held a public hearing on the 2010 budget Sept. 3 with no members of the public present.
n Approved all non-teaching salaries for the 2009-10 school year.
n Approved for Tippecanoe Valley Middle School eighth-grade social studies teacher Scott Backus and two students to attend an education symposium at Wabash College Oct. 29-30.
n Approved the senior trip to Washington, D.C., April 21-25. Cost of the trip is paid by the students. This year's trip will be approximately $500 for each student.
n Announced upcoming meetings will be Oct. 12, Nov. 9 and Dec. 14. All meets are at 7:30 p.m. at Mentone Elementary School.
