Chesterton High
School has gained Marc Urban as its new head boys basketball coach.
Urban was at
Monday’s brief meeting of the Duneland School Board, with his wife Traci and
daughters Grace and Averie, as the board accepted a recommendation from CHS
administration to hire him after Coach Tom Peller stepped down after 14
seasons.
An Indiana
Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year and an ICGSA District One
Coach of the Year, Urban has coached the Lake Central HS Girls Basketball
Team for three years and was for six years coach of the junior varsity team
and boys varsity assistant before that, said Assistant Superintendent Monte
Moffett.
Moffett said Urban
has had 80 winning games in his career and two sectional championship wins.
Urban said he plans
to move out to Chesterton and is excited for the opportunity.
“I feel like this
program and the community has a lot of potential. I thank the board for
allowing me to be the guy that chases that potential,” Urban said.
In addition to
coaching, Urban will also teach health and physical education at CHS
starting in the 2016-17 school year.
CMS
Erratic heating and
cooling issues plaguing Chesterton Middle School should see their end next
year as the school board approved a bid from Johnson Controls for $452,570
to install a controlled HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning)
system with 143 individual controlling units.
Board President
Kristin Kroeger said she has heard complaints of the classrooms being
“extremely hot or extremely cold” with the system there now.
Director of Support
Services Greg Lindy said it’s been challenging to maintain a balance of
temperature because the current HVAC serves several groups of classrooms.
With the new system, maintenance staff will be able to control from their
mobile phones, even when they are not in the building, Lindy said.
The system will
include variable air vox fans that can have their speeds also controlled
manually.
“It’s going to save
us money by saving us energy costs,” Lindy told the board.
Installation will
begin this summer and should be complete sometime during the first semester
of next school year, Lindy said.
The system will be
paid for through the facilities project bond that Duneland Schools issued
last year.
Lunches
Duneland lunches
are going to be a dime pricier next year because of the federal government.
The extra charge is
so Duneland can match what the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act reimburses the
schools through the free meals school lunch programs, said Duneland Chief
Financial Officer Lynn Kwilasz.
“We need to raise
(lunches) a dime in order to get in line under the federal grant. This is
becoming an annual thing for us,” Kwilasz said.
Grades K-6 in
Duneland will pay $2.55 for lunch starting next school year. Grades 7-12
will pay $2.75 and adults will pay $3.60.
Duneland
Superintendent of Schools Dave Pruis said the price hike is for lunches
only, not breakfast.
Board member John
Marshall asked Kwilasz if she had any insight on U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita’s,
R-Indianapolis, proposal bill to restrict the free and reduced lunch
program.
Kwilasz said she
has not met with the food services directors but will meet soon to talk
about the issue.
School’s Out June 2
Some folks around
Duneland acknowledged that Monday was the last Monday of the current school
year, Pruis said.
The last day for
students is Thursday, June 2, a snow make-up day, but classes will not be in
session for Memorial Day next week.
CHS graduation will
be on the night of June 2, Pruis added, inside the football stadium, weather
permitting.
Lastly, Pruis gave
praise to the individual winners of the Chesterton Math Team comprised of
6th, 7th and 8th graders for “a clean sweep” in their championship of the
Ben Franklin Math Competition last week.
“A great job,” he
said.
Exec meeting
The board convened
in closed executive session after the 20-minute public meeting to discuss
collective bargaining, litigation and the purchase or lease of real
property, according to the meeting notice.