TORONTO - Get out the special shovels.
Set for 11 a.m. Saturday, the groundbreaking for the city school district's new junior/senior high school will take place at the construction site behind Karaffa Elementary School.
Superintendent Fred Burns discussed his excitement during Thursday's regular school board meeting and said he is expecting a good turnout for the event.
"It's going to be fantastic. This is just a combination of everyone's hard work," said Burns.
The event will include a number of speakers from Burns to county, state and school representatives. Burns said refreshments will be provided and attendees are welcome to bring chairs.
In 2010, the school district passed a 6.95-mill bond issue that is providing the money for the new structure. Burns said it will be a state-of-the-art high school facility that will contain new labs for science, technology for wireless Internet and meeting rooms, room-to-room broadcasting and intercom communication, as well as improved emergency communication systems.
The building is planned to be in use for the 2013 school year.
"I'm very excited for our district. We're right here right now and we're ready to go," said Burns.
The board also:
Retroactively approved the purchase of a four-wheel drive tractor from Pytash Tractor for the banks at the new school site at a cost of $11,800 to be paid from the general fund.
Approved the field base/clinical agreement between Franciscan University of Steubenville and the school district to provide teacher education students at the undergraduate level with early experience and student teaching field based/clinical experiences.
Approved the following for summer employment to be utilized for summer cleaning: Debbie Griffith, Robert Holmes, Ron Holmes, Cheryl King, Carolyn Rodesh, Ming Unkefer, Judy Wilson, Kayla Graham, Dylan King and Joe Shimmel.
Approved employment of Toni Calabrese for summer clerical work.
