Performing arts center construction remains well ahead of schedule

Nevada Daily Mail

Construction of the performing arts center and multipurpose building at Nevada High School is still running well ahead of the original schedule, Aaron Hight, Crossland Construction's construction manager for the project told the Nevada R-5 School Board during its Wednesday night meeting.

The schedule for the multipurpose building has gained two days he said, making the estimated completion date Aug. 21, he told the board.

Hight reported Texas Scenic, which won the contract for the stage rigging at the performing arts center, was taking measurements Wednesday.

"They're trying to push the envelope," Hight said. "They know that will be the last part, and the sooner they are done, the sooner you get into the building."

He told the board June was a big month with around $600,000 in work billed and "July is going to be a huge month" with another $750,000 in billings expected.

Currently, about 65 percent of the project has been billed.

Paving of the north parking lot at the high school is expected to get under way Aug. 5, Hight said in response to questions.

On another matter, Jerry Whalen, newly appointed high school principal, told the board that the Model Schools Conference was a "great conference."

Unlike a lot of conferences he has attended, this one had programs that specifically addressed secondary school issues.

A lot of the programs he said he attended stressed the 3Rs, and not reading, writing and arithmetic. But "Rigor, Relevance and Relationship," he said.

Of those, Whalen said relationships may be the most important, because without a good relationship between the administrators and the staff, students and parents, the other two will not matter.

"We need to explore that part of the culture," he said.

Michelle Branham, the director at Heartland Hos-pital, said she attended several technology related programs.

She said classrooms have changed in recent years from being a chalkboard centered classroom where students listened and took notes to a technology based classroom today.

"Our kids are digital learners," she said.

In old classrooms, if students text back and forth, that's considered cheating, but that is how students today live. They ask each other questions that way, she said.

Another concept Branham said she brought back from the conference is the "flipped classroom," where students get their assignments on You Tube or the Internet at home and then do their homework the next day at school.

Debbie Spaur, Bryan Elementary principal, told the board, she had attend one of these conferences 10 or 15 years ago.

"The conference was really energizing," she said.

Spaur said she left the conference with several new ideas, including "making grade cards more standards based."

"The cards don't show what the students are really doing, like what reading level they are on," she said.

In other business the board:

* Voted 4-0, with Steve Cubbage and Monty Smith absent, to approve renewing the district lease agreement for four classrooms in the Cedar Ridge School.

*Unanimously approved the 2014 professional development handbook.

*Unanimously approved amending the 2014 budget to cover the cost of installing a new boiler at Benton Elementary. The board had budgeted $2,000 for the boiler, but it needs to be increased to $12,000 to cover all the expenses.