Hall High School Board takes a look at costs to repair stadium lighting

SPRING VALLEY – Hall High School hopes to complete its stadium lighting project in time for its fall football season.

During Wednesday’s Hall High School Board meeting, architect George Reigle of Green Associates provided the school board information on three options to consider.

Option 1 is to put all electrical wiring underground and keep all existing lights and poles as is, for an estimated $151,500. Option 2 is to put all electrical wiring underground and change to LED lights but keep existing poles for an estimated $385,000. Option 3 is to replace all poles, lights and put all electrical wiring underground for an estimated $644,614.

Reigle said that changing to LED lights will not be a huge saving in energy because there will be additional lights installed. Currently, the lighting level on the field is half of what it should be for high school games. The LED lights will improve visibility and offer better safety for both fans and players.

No action was taken Wednesday, but Reigle said the project should start soon in order to be ready for the fall football season.

Refinancing the 2013 bonds

The board also heard a presentation from John Vizetti of Bernardi Securities. Vizetti said that there was another chance now for the board to refinance the 2013 bonds. Refinancing would drop the interest rate from 3.5% to approximately 2.3%. The bonds would be paid off 3.7 years sooner than originally planned and save the district about $5 million.

New busing contract

The board gave conditional approval to give the bus transportation contract to Johannes Bus Company. Three bids were received and opened two weeks ago. Johannes was the lowest responsible bid. Hall is part of a consortium that works together to secure the bus contracts. As soon as there is 85% approval by a sufficient number of fellow consortium school districts, the superintendent is authorized to work with the bus company to develop and present to the board for its consideration a contract between the bus company and the district.

In other news:

• Principal Adam Meyer updated the board on how the hybrid learning format is going.

Meyers said, “We are 17 days into the hybrid-learning format, and things are going pretty well. Each day, half of the kids are remote while the other half are working in person. We have three weeks left in the quarter, and we will really be pushing kids that are in danger of not passing a class. The list is pretty small.”

Meyers also gave a brief update on attendance. He explained that overall attendance is better now than the first semester, but it is not where it should be overall.

“We are never satisfied with what our attendance is. It can always be better. It’s never where we want it,” he said.

• Assistant Principal Eric Bryant said overall numbers are down for winter sports participation. He also said that scheduling is a constant battle with COVID-19. He said he is scrambling to find games. Bryant said that everyone is working hard to get the most games for the kids.

“It’s a whirlwind and on a day-to-day basis as to what happens,” Bryant said. “We will adjust and roll with the punches. We are playing games, and that is all we can really ask for at this time.”

• The board accepted the resignation of Hugo Heredia as CTE digital media teacher and approved the employment of Ellen Herrmann as English teacher for the 2021-22 school year.

The next meeting will be held at 6 p.m. March 17 in the Hall High School library.