The former Monterey School Building is in the process of being appraised, ahead of a planned sale of the property. Culver Schools Interim Superintendent Chuck Kitchell told the school board Monday that one appraisal was completed a couple of weeks ago and another was scheduled for Tuesday of this week. Kitchell promised to share the results with school board members, once they are available.
The two appraisals are required before the Culver Community Schools Corporation can move ahead with selling the building. Once the results are in, the school board will have the option to either hold a public auction or accept bids for the Monterey Building. The Culver Community Schools Corporation estimates selling the building will save about $50,000 a year on maintenance costs.
Also during Monday’s meeting, Kitchell told board members that while students have been on spring break, the corporation has been working on upgrades to the high school gym bleachers. “We’ve got the new [hand]rail system going in at the high school gymnasium,” he said. “The lower-level rails have been put in place, and they’re working on the upper-level section of those rails right now.”
He said that effort also includes work to make it easier for spectators to move between seating areas in the gym, “We’re reopening up the walkways between the lower level and the upper level. If you remember, we’ve got that guard rail right there and we’ve kind of closed off those walkways for a number of years. We’ve made the decision now with the handrails to go ahead and open those up again, so custodians are working on that this week also, so that people can go from the lower level straight up to the upper level, or the other way around, without having to come down and walk down the stairs, on the gym floor, and then back up. So we think that’s going to help us out for some of our ball games and graduation and those kinds of things.”
The old handrails had been considered a safety concern in the high school gym. The upgrades were funded with proceeds from the corporation’s bond refunding. It gave the corporation just under a million dollars for capital projects, but not the corporation’s struggling General Fund.
