(Atlantic, Iowa) – During a regular meeting Wednesday evening of the Atlantic School Board, Superintendent Steve Barber addressed a number of matters. The first pertained to the status of repairs underway at the Middle School. The facility was damaged by a fire that began while crews were on a lunch break from laying down new roofing this past July. The cause was never found, but it was deemed accidental. Barber said crews were wrapping-up repairs to the new roof on Wednesday.

Demolition work on the Central Office at Washington is done. It is currently an open space. Mr. Barber said also the cost of LED lighting in the entire building will be costlier than expected. The original plan after the fire, was to convert the building from the current conventional lighting to LED, which would have been more energy-efficient over the years, last longer and don’t flicker when they wear out. But they do tend be more costly than the fluorescent bulbs.

The consensus of the Atlantic School Board was to not include LED lighting in the reconstruction process, and stick with the type they had. In other business, the district is seeking specifications in order to solicit bids for a 77 passenger bus for 2023 delivery.

Barber also discussed the federal vaccine mandate that was temporarily put on hold by a Federal Judge, and that was supposed to go into effect on January 4, 2022, for all businesses with 100 or more employees.

The District’s legal counsel is studying the matter since the temporary STAY was enacted last week.