School board updated on Lucerne property sale

The Hot Springs County School Board’s Sept. 20 meeting saw Business Manager Chauncy Johnson provide an update on the progress of the Lucerne property, before Superintendent Dustin Hunt delivered an update on the safety audit.

The board approved the sale of the Lucerne property in August, and Johnson informed the board on Sept. 20 that the Hot Springs County School District will work with its attorney to advertise for the bid of the property.

“At one point, we were talking about putting it up on our auction site,” Johnson said. “I think it needs to be advertised (instead) in local papers, so we can include more specifics for the local area, as well as for legal notice, that we can’t provide within the auction site.”

According to Johnson, the legal notice in newspapers will include “a bid starting and closing date” and “a bid opening date, time and location,” so the district can take bids, and “there will be a specific time and location, like many of the bids we do for other items within the district.”

Johnson elaborated that the legal notice will also provide a description of the first right of refusal for the heirs, while the district continues communicating with the heirs on the progress of the property sale.

“Once the bid is accepted, we’ll utilize the attorney to draft a purchase agreement,” Johnson said. “We won’t need to utilize the services of a realtor.”

Johnson noted this is fortunate, because “I am not a realtor, and I don’t want to pretend I am.”

No further board action was required, because Johnson estimated that none of the attorney’s fees would “rise to the level” of requiring approval.

Johnson conceded, “I do think it’ll probably take just a little bit longer than a month to actually get bids in for approval.”

Moving onto the safety audit update, Hunt reported the district had a signed agreement for Paul Timm, a board-certified Physical Security Professional and the Vice President of Facility Engineering Associates, to visit the district within the coming month.

“I have a team put together to do the audit with me,” said Hunt, who included Johnson, Transportation Director Justin Budd, Maintenance Director Jere Apland and Technology Director Josh Taylor, “because some of those things will require technology changes, so we will spend two days going through the full safety audit.”

Hunt reiterated that the safety audit’s goal is “a full rewrite of the crisis plan (in) a much more usable format,” by using reports from the audit to implement “structural changes” to the district’s buildings, entryways and staff drills.

Hunt noted that civil rights audits are conducted at the district in a similar fashion, every three years, to evaluate how disabilities are accommodated, and whether the district is up-to-date on the latest laws.

“When (the Office of Civil Rights) does their walk-through, they give us findings, that we then have a certain amount of time to complete, as funds become available,” Hunt said. “We won’t have a time limit with this, but I do think I would like to engage the building committee, and have some urgency about getting these things taken care of.”

Hunt pointed out that 20% of “major maintenance” can be used for “security enhancements, so we should have plenty of money, depending on how big some of those projects are.”

Hunt expressed the hope that some changes could be made during the Christmas break, while students are absent, “so we don’t have to worry about disrupting any classes.”