GENTRY — A new chiller was purchased for the high school auditorium to re- place the 28-year-old unit which had been repaired many times and was only running at 25 percent ca- pacity.

Randy Barrett, super- intendent for the Gentry School District, reported the emergency purchase to the board because of the failure of the old unit and the need to use the auditorium for student activities and as- semblies.

The cost to replace the 120-ton water-chiller sys- tem was $87,050 plus tax, according to Barrett. The

new unit was purchased from Air Works, a division of Multi-Craft Contractors, Barrett said.

Barrett said he had previ- ously advised the board that the day might come when an emergency purchase would be necessary to replace the unit.

With the shift to the new Common Core State Stan- dards in instruction at the schools, Barrett asked for and received the board’s un- derstanding should student test scores under the old Benchmark Exams not meet state annual yearly progress requirements under the old requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, saying they could expect an implemen- tation dip in test scores.

The board agreed with Barrett that it would be better to begin the shift to the Common Core curricu- lum — even if Benchmark testing based on the old standards caused scores to come up short of expected progress — than to be be- hind when the new testing based on Common Core standards begins in the 2014-2015 school year.

Barrett asked for the understanding because he did not want teachers to fear they would receive poor evaluations and pos- sibly be dismissed if some items under the old stan- dards and included in Benchmark testing were not included in Common Core instruction.

News, Pages 3 on 08/29/2012