Solar energy, school security considered by Highland Board

Energy cost sav-ings through solar energy and on-site secu-rity were two of many top-ics dis-cussed at the Feb-ru-ary 13 High-land Board of Edu-ca-tion meeting.Board mem-ber John Mess-mer said the pos-si-bil-ity of solar power for the three school build-ings is being exam-ined by the board."We've met with a solar out-fit over the past month sev-eral times and it looks like a good oppor-tu-nity for every-body in the com-mu-nity," he explained. "We've got some more work to do on it but we hope by this time next month, we'll have some-thing to share that we'll be mov-ing for-ward with."
Mess-mer said it would pro-vide a great cost sav-ings for the school dis-trict and the board will keep the pub-lic updated. Solar Planet of West-er-ville and Con-stel-la-tion Energy are the two com-pa-nies that have been contacted.Supt Dr. Bill Dodds said the school is get-ting closer to hav-ing a resource offi-cer on cam-pus full time, and the goal is to begin that in April."Our part-ner-ship is with the Mor-row County Sheriff's Office," he said. "They have an offi-cer in school resource train-ing who will fin-ish up in August. That is what we have found to be the safest and most secure way to pro-tect our stu-dents beyond the mea-sures we already take."Board Pres-i-dent Eric Thacker said he sat in on a pre-sen-ta-tion given by Mor-row County Hos-pi-tal CEO Chris Truax regard-ing the pro-posed south-ern Mor-row County urgent care-type med-ical center.
"He gave sort of a vision of what they're hop-ing to do with it, and it ties in nicely with safety and secu-rity for our kids as well as health," Thacker explained. "They're going to have around 4,000 sq. ft. of ther-apy space and bring in spe-cial-ists. If your chil-dren or grand-chil-dren have par-tic-i-pated in sports here, some-times the very first care-givers they are with are the train-ers asso-ci-ated with Mor-row County Hos-pi-tal. It will be nice to con-tinue that com-mu-ni-ca-tion, hav-ing spe-cial-ists that will be based out of that new facil-ity near the free-way and hav-ing licensed phys-i-cal ther-a-pists there."Supt. Dodds said Gov. Kasich has come out with his new bud-get for schools, and it sounded very appeal-ing to school dis-tricts at first, but that changed when fig-ures were released."We shouldn't be too dis-ap-pointed yet, because they have a long way to go," Dodds said.