The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Carthage, Jasper County

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October 20, 2009

Carthage board hears update on vo-tech building project

By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Construction on a new Carthage Vocational-Technical School should be back on schedule soon, members of the Carthage School Board learned this week.

Rainy weather and delays in some deliveries of materials had slowed the work, Bevan Brawner, with Hight Jackson Associates, the district’s architectural firm, said during a progress report on construction projects.

“They’ve made up some time, but they’re still a little behind,” he said.

A spokesman with Wehr Construction Co., Springfield, the general contractor on the project, said work should be back on schedule in another week, barring more bad weather. He said crews hope to have the roof on the new building by early January, so work can continue during the winter months.

Plans call for the $3.7 million project to be finished next summer on a site just east of the new Carthage High School. The new center will house agriculture, machining, marketing, computer science and electronics programs. The carpentry, automotive and health sciences programs will remain at the current center at 609 River St.

The vo-tech construction comes in the wake of projects to build a new high school and to remodel the former high school as a junior high school. Students moved into the new high school last March and into the renovated junior high at the start of the current school year.

In other business, the board:

-- Presented a “Do the Right Thing” award to Chloe Orscheln, a student at Steadley Elementary School who donated 10 inches of her hair to the Locks of Love program, which benefits those who have lost their hair in cancer treatment or through other illnesses.

-- Heard a report from Andrew Marmouget, of Davis, Lynn & Moots, on an audit of school district financial statements and other records for the year ending June 30, 2009. He said the district received an “unqualified” audit, detecting no problems with accounting, internal controls or the handling of grant funds.

-- Heard and accepted reports on preschool education and parent education programs.

-- Heard a report on student performance at Mark Twain Elementary School.

-- Continued an offer to sell the school carpentry house at 2534 Stephen St. for $165,550.



Vo-tech costs

Costs for the new vo-tech center are being paid through a state grant and a grant from the Steadley Foundation. Up to $850,000 in interest costs are being saved through the issuance of Qualified School Construction Bonds, after voter approval of the arrangement last August.

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