By Carolyn Cole
Published on January 17, 2007

Mustang School Board approved over $5 million in contracts to start construction of a health and wellness facility and 10 classrooms at Mustang Centennial Elementary.

Gail Armstrong Construction was chosen to build the 46,000-square-foot multi-purpose health and wellness facility on the Mustang High School campus, just east of the gymnasium.

Construction Projects Director Jim Burkey said the company’s bid at $3 million was not the lowest bid, but he felt it was the best one. The lowest of seven bids came from W.L. McNatt Construction, the company that built Mustang Centennial Elementary, for about $25,000 less than the Gail Armstrong bid.

Burkey said he recommended Gail Armstrong Construction, which has built additions at Mustang Trails Elementary and Mustang North Middle School, because the Mustang Centennial Elementary project was delayed beyond problems he felt could be explained by weather.

Board Vice President Tony Ellison asked Burkey if construction was completed.

“We still have handicapped rails, we have punch list items still left,” Burkey said. “It just continues to drag on.”

Construction on the wellness facility is expected to begin this month and will take about a year, he said. The facility will include two gymnasium floors, indoor turf area, coaches’ offices, locker rooms, a weight room and a training room. It will also feature an upstairs track that will encircle the facility.

Athletic Director Mike Clark has said the new facility will allow sports teams more practice space, while providing a place for large-scale testing and banquets.

Board members also approved a $2.23 million bid from Atlas General Contractors to build 10 classrooms at Mustang Centennial Elementary and make renovations at the Mustang Administration Building and build a 2,000-square-foot addition at that facility. Five bids were received for the project, and Atlas was the lowest.
Burkey said he checked the company’s references and past customers of its electrical, dirt work, cabinetry and mechanical contractors. The facilities are expected to be finished within one year.

Building the elementary school classrooms, in addition to four rooms being constructed at Mustang Trails Elementary and six classrooms at Mustang Valley Elementary, is expected to give the district enough classroom space to expand its half-day kindergarten classes into a full-day program and cope with continued student population growth. The board members approved a $1.7 million bid for the classroom additions from Homco Construction Company in November.

The district has set aside $200,000 to hire additional kindergarten teachers that will be needed in the 2011 school year when school districts will be required by the state to offer full-day kindergarten.

Superintendent Karl Springer estimated it will cost the district over $600,000 to hire 16 additional teachers to double its kindergarten faculty. Springer has said he’d like to expand the program sooner.

In other business, Finance Director Kay Medcalf told board members the school district’s mid-term state aid funding allocation increased by $200,000 more than she had expected. The Oklahoma State Department of Education allocated $23 million to Mustang School District, but increased the amount by $750,000 to $23.8 million due to increases in the district’s student population and the numbers of students qualifying for the free and reduced cost lunch program, special education services and gifted and talented classes.

Medcalf said she’d estimated these changes, but called a $34 increase in the state aid factor, or amount paid per student, “almost unheard of.” Last school year the factor was increased by $4 per student.

“They had good collections based on all of the growth in ad valorem and gross production taxes,” she said.

However, the district may also face an unexpected expense regarding a $5,000 incentive paid to nationally board certified teachers and speech language pathologists and psychologists, who must maintain national certification.

Until recently the state Education Department paid the $5,000 directly to educators, who were then required to file taxes on the money as if they were self-employed. Medcalf said the Internal Revenue Service has re-examined that practice and is expected to direct individual school districts to pay the money to their employees and cover related costs, because workers are not employed by the state Department of Education.

Medcalf said schools are expected to receive a letter clarifying the situation Jan. 25, one week before educators would have received their funds on Jan. 31. The state Education Board is expected to give school districts the funding through a supplemental appropriation, she said, but then education officials will seek supplemental funds from the Legislature to cover the additional costs.

Mustang has 32 employees that will be affected by the situation, she said, and the additional expenses will cost $12,240.

The school board also approved:

• Continuing the superintendent’s employment and a three-year-contract expiring July 2011, subject to annual review. Officials said the superintendent’s base annual salary did not change. Last year his base salary was approved at $112,114.10.
• Hiring Ryan McKinney as an assistant principal at Mustang North Middle School, filling a position vacated by Craig Chestnut, who moved to Mustang High School as assistant principal. Chestnut moved after Charles Bradley was hired as Deer Creek High School principal. McKinney worked as Alcott Middle School band director in the Norman Public School District.
• Changes to the school calendar. Students will attend school Monday and May 23 to make up days missed during the ice storm. Monday was scheduled as a professional development day, and school principals will schedule additional training.