CORBIN —

By Jeff Noble  / Staff writer

With a few strokes of a pen Tuesday evening, Corbin Independent Schools will be advertising and selling $2.6 million in bonds Wednesday morning to be used for Phase Two of the Corbin High School renovation project.

The unanimous approval came twice — first in a brief special meeting of the Corbin Independent School District Finance Corporation, where board members gave the thumbs up to a resolution to authorize and advertise for the sale of bonds. That will take place at 11 a.m. today (Wednesday) at the School Facilities Construction Commission.

After the resolution was approved, all other documents to issue the bonds were signed by school board Chairman Kim Croley, who also serves as the school district finance corporation’s president.

The financial firm of Hilliard Lyons in Louisville will be helping out with the sale of the bonds. The company is also the financial advisor to the city school board.

“The state is paying most of the debt service,” said the firm’s Greg Phillips, prior to the bond resolution being approved.

Later during the school board’s special meeting, board members approved the resolution from the school district finance corporation, as well as accept the offer of participation with the state School Facilities Construction Commission, and the contract for Hilliard Lyons to serve as the financial advisor on the renovation project.

All Corbin Independent School employees will get a raise for the new school year. That came with unanimous approval, as the board agreed to a one percent raise. That raise became effective at the start of the 2012-13 school year this past July 1. Croley said school district employees deserved the small raise, adding after it was approved, “We made budget and had a little left over.”

Board members also approved increasing the full meal cost for students by five cents per breakfast and 10 cents per lunch. Full meal costs for adults will go up 15 cents for both breakfast and lunch. It goes into effect for the upcoming school year, and no changes will be made in reduced meal rates. They also approved the meal charge regulation, with the option to do some minor editing to the regulation during the school year.

Among other actions taken at Tuesday’s session, a contract with Sherman-Carter-Barnhart to provide professional services for the Corbin Schools’ District Facility Plan was approved. The action is required by the state Department of Education.  Also approved was the BG-4 (state Buildings and Grounds) document for completing the roof renovations at the Central Office on Roy Kidd Avenue, pending approval of the state Department of Education.

Second readings of policies and board procedures also received the stamp of approval, as well as emergency readings on the Corbin Acceptable Use Policy, or AUP; the AUP agreement form, and a form concerning Access to Electronic Media. The emergency readings were recommended by the Kentucky School Boards Association.

The readings tied in with an earlier approval, which was for the purchase of technology networking equipment from technology infrastructure provider Pomeroy for $76,146.40. That will allow increased access and utilization of technology devices for the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) program in the Corbin schools next month.

To prepare for the BYOD program, board members liked the idea of asking people to donate their old or used electronic devices to the school district for students who don’t have the technology available at home.

“We don’t have all the specifics, but we would like old smart phones, iPads and other smart devices for this program. To start, they can bring them here to the board office. Later, when we get the donating going, they can take them to the individual schools. We hope to have boxes available at each of the schools’ open houses, where the smart phones and other devices can be dropped off,” said Board Member Lisa Cleary after the meeting.