Concession stand eyed for student project

After being on hold for more than two years, efforts to replace the Raider Field concession stand at Medford Area Senior High School are moving forward.

At Monday’s school board meeting, board members approved allowing building trades teacher Doug Eichman to take on replacing the concession stand as a class project to give the students hands-on project design and building experience.

The board’s action was not without its critics as resident Fred Ebert questioned why the district would add to its overall building footprint at a time when they were unable to afford to maintain what they already have. Ebert said he thought it was awesome that the students in building trades would have the opportunity for hands-on instruction.

As proposed, the new building would include a concession stand area, a place to sell school merchandise and have adequate bathroom facilities for the 1,500 people the stadium will hold without having to cross the parking lot to the existing tech ed building. The current concession stand does not have running water, which makes clean up difficult, and its wiring is not sufficient to meet the demands of those running the concession stand.

“Other than at sporting events does this have other purposes?” Ebert asked during the public comment portion of the meeting. Sullivan noted that the stand is used frequently throughout the year for both community and high school sporting events with groups using the concession stand for their fundraisers.

It was also noted that the concession stand is outdated compared to what is at other schools. “You don’t have to keep up with the Joneses, but it would be nice to able to offer a little more,” Sullivan said.

The last time the district put the project out for bid, it came with a price of $280,000. Ebert questioned if the project was more of a want than a need especially with the district trying to put money away to meet maintenance needs in the future.

“We are building new floor space when we can’t maintain what we have. It doesn’t make any sense,” Ebert said.

During the regular portion of the meeting, discussion continued on the stand with board president Dave Fleegel noting that he would like the class to proceed with making a plan and bringing it to the board. Others, including board member Brian Hallgren said they would like the board to commit to doing the project as a not to exceed cost.

District administrator Pat Sullivan said they would hope to see some cost savings from using the student labor for the project, but said he was not sure how much that savings would be noting they would still need plumbers and electricians involved.

Larry Brandl of the All Sports Booster Club made the decision of the board a little easier, noting that the group has about $60,000 in reserve from community fundraising efforts that are earmarked for the concession/ restroom building as well as a ticket stand and entrance plaza concept.

“We still support that and convey that we would like to see it done,” he said, noting that with the potential to use students he felt the timing was right to get it done.

“I would like to see this through to the end,” Brandl said, calling on the board to finish the renovation plan.

In the end, board members approved having the class prepare new plans for state approval and moving forward with the project.

Back to school protocols

Things will look like normal in the schools as students return to classes next week, with the board committed to having masks optional except on school buses. Federal rules require the masks to be worn on the buses, something Barb Krug of Krug Bus Service said is a challenge for drivers to enforce. She said as they look at consolidation routes they will “do their best” to enforce it.

According to Sullivan, the district is not planning any of the restrictions on student interaction or forced social distancing that was in place last school year. He explained that quarantining and contact tracing would take place as in the past under requirements from county and state public health officials.

Sullivan said that masks would be optional for students and staff. That said, he asked for the board to give direction and set up a protocol to follow if the number of cases in a building reached a tipping point. Fleegel compared it to the H1N1 outbreak several years ago which forced the closure of the building for a few days to do deep cleaning.

Sullivan asked for the board to set a threshold number at which they would go into mandatory masking for a specific school building. For example, he said with 685 students at the high school 4% out with confirmed cases of COVID-19 would be 27 students. This would not count those absent due to being quarantined.

Zuleger questioned why the district would favor this method over the running average of total number of cases in the county that was set last spring as the board removed the mask mandate. Sullivan explained that including the entire county could end up forcing masks in the building even though none of the cases were in the school here.

Board member Don Everhard said it is questionable to him how much value the masks have. He said setting a threshold “sounds nice” and is possibly reassuring to those who are concerned about it. He said if the numbers reached 4% or 5% it may not have much of an impact.

Board member Brian Hallgren questioned the possibility of going back to the restrictions in place last year with the virtual learning option.

“The virtual option was not good for the student body at all,” Fleegel said, describing it as being the best attempt

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possible. He questioned the value of setting a number, noting that last year there was no time when there were 10 positive cases in a school building at one time. He noted that if they had 29 staff or students out with the number of other students who would be on quarantine, it would essentially sort itself out because there wouldn’t be anyone left to hold class.

“The reality of the situation we don’t know where or when anyone contracts the virus,” Fleegel said, noting people intermingle both inside and outside the school building.

Board member Jodi Neubauer noted that last year’s low numbers of cases in the school was when they had restrictions in place. “We don’t know what it will look like with no protocols in place,” she said.

“We dropped it and the sky didn’t fall,” Everhard said of the decision last spring to end the mask requirement.

Neubauer said she could see the benefit to having criteria that would apply not just to COVID but to other communicable diseases when there may be staffing shortages.

Sullivan said having the threshold in place would be reassuring to some parents in the district and help them make the decision to keep their students in school. In the end, board members voted to set that if 3% of the students in a building are out due to being COVID positive then the next day masks would be mandatory for that building until the next school board meeting. Fleegel noted that special board meetings could be called at any time.

In other business, board members:

_ Approved spending $29,400 to pave the walking trail inside the fence at the Medford Area Middle School for use for the physical education classes and when they run the mile. Previously the students would run around the block. The request came as part of an update on the outdoor equipment being installed at the middle school.

_ Approved an $8.5 million line of credit. It had previously been approved at the annual meeting. The credit line is through AbbyBank at a rate of 2% interest and is used for cash flow purposes to cover payroll and expenses between when the state and local tax payments are received. According to finance director Audra Brooks, the interest is charged as an expense to the RVA.