The Artesia Public Schools Board of Education approved the purchase of the former Warren Brothers U.S. Army Reserve Center property, located at 1213 W. Richey Ave., for $490,000 of HB33 funding Monday.
The district will utilize the current building and property for its maintenance facility.
The board also approved a CES proposal from Dekker Perich Sabatini for design services for additional classroom space and a bus lane at Yucca Elementary School at a cost of up to $316,613. According to Superintendent of Operations Thad Phipps, the addition will add five classrooms as well as provide appropriate spaces for music, art, ancillary services, and STEM activities.
The project is also the next priority on the district’s current Facilities Master Plan. The school’s current enrollment of 346 students exceeds the capacity without portables, which were intended to be temporary but have now been at the school for more than 20 years, utilized by 56 students. The proposed new location of the bus lane will be on the Lolita Avenue side of the school and the current bus lane will be used as a pick-up lane in order to reduce the number of children crossing 13th Street to the Martin Luther King Jr.
Recreation Complex parking lot.
In other items Monday, the board approved a CES proposal from Dekker Perich Sabatini for professional services for programming and schematic design of a remodel of the prior administration building on Quay Avenue to accommodate a school-based health clinic at a cost of $22,492; $40,173.10 to purchase a utility tractor; and $23,930.71 for the purchase of a front mower for the maintenance department.
In staff and operations business, Superintendent John Ross Null reported to the board the resignations of Chelsey Poe, educational assistant, Roselawn Elementary School, Katie Brown, educational assistant, Yeso Elementary School, Kyle Kimple, art teacher, Park Junior High School, and Max Vasquez, custodian, Park Junior High; and the employment of Amanda Torrez, educational assistant, Grand Heights Early Childhood Center, Mirta Perez, custodian, Park Junior High, and Susan Fuentez, custodian, Artesia High School.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the APS board will be held at 5 p.m. – one hour earlier than the normal meeting time – Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, in the Lowell M. Irby Board Room at the APS Administration Building.
