With the opening of the 2010-11 school year a week away, the Belle Plaine Board of Education spent a considerable amount of its meeting last night (Wednesday) hearing about final preparations for the start of the year, approving several personnel items and touring the new facilities at the junior-senior high school and at Longfellow Elementary School.

As the new school year opens, parents and students will notice that some of the construction is still to be completed, even as they begin to use many new classrooms and common areas. Principal Cherie Brown reported that just over 300 families were registered earlier in the week. Preliminary enrollment numbers were still unavailable, as several parents were continuing to come in to register this week.

The area near Longfellow Elementary will be particularly congested as teachers and parents vie for parking spaces with construction vehicles. Add to that the influx of many more students coming to that building this year, as it will now house pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, and school administrators and local law enforcement officials hope parents will be patient and take advantage of provisions made for the additional traffic in the area.

There will be a slight revision in the start and ending times of classes this year in the district. Classes will begin at 8:10 a.m. And end at 3:18 p.m. Shuttle bus service will be provided from the old junior high building to Longfellow and the junior-senior high building in the morning and back in the afternoon. For those who wish to take their children to the Longfellow building, they may want to drop off their children west of Seventh Avenue on Seventh Street and allow them to walk to the school. A school stop light will be active, along with a crossing guard, at the intersection. Additional school personnel will also help in guiding students to the building through the traffic.

Parents should be reminded that another problem will be the construction on the resurfacing of Seventh Avenue through the city which should take the first few weeks of the school year.

A lot of the exterior renovations at Longfellow still must be completed. Brown was asked what the plan was for recess for the students. She said the playground area in front of the building will be cleared in time for the start of school. She also said that some classes may walk to Franklin Park to take advantage of the playground and playing fields there.

The interiors of both buildings is essentially complete. Teachers were slated to continue moving into their new classrooms later this week. The wood gym floor at Longfellow has not yet been installed, since the moisture level in the concrete base is still too high for proper installation.

Several change orders which will increase the final cost of construction were approved, but only after some questions from Pierce on why the cost of installation of downspouts on the Longfellow gym into a storm sewer was not part of the original plan. Originally, he said the plan was to allow the runoff from the gym roof to empty onto the concrete parking lot behind the school. But Pierce pointed out that this would cause a safety hazard in the wintertime when melting snow from the roof flows onto the concrete and then later freezes on the parking lot. The change orders were approved, with the stipulation that this one be reviewed by school attorneys to determine who should pay for the change.

In personnel matters, the board approved the appointment of Brandon Heying as a sixth grade teacher and head wrestling coach. A graduate of Upper Iowa University, Heying has been a long-term substitute teacher and assistant coach in the Starmont and Wapsie Valley districts.

Ryan Ridout was hired as an assistant football coach, replacing Dennis Kurriger, who retired from the coaching post. Morgan Mitchell was hired as assistant volleyball coach, following the resignation of Evan Hrabak. The board also accepted the resignation of assistant softball coach Katie Stull. The request of Erica Sparks to transfer from the preschool the prep-K position was approved. Sunnie Densmore was hired for the preschool position.

The contract of Greg Walton, activities director, was approved with a 2.8 percent raise. Board member Jim Pierce asked that the administration and board have a future discussion on the proper use of the activity account and the use of purchase orders in the district. The matter will be placed on the September agenda.

The board approved the curriculum for the upcoming school year, particularly the shared programs with the HLV and Iowa Valley School Districts. German and Spanish will be offered at HLV, vocational agriculture will be offered at Belle Plaine, industrial technology will be offered at HLV and a health careers class will be held with Iowa Valley through Kirkwood Community College. Advanced placement classes with HLV will include social studies courses at Belle Plaine and biology and calculus at HLV.