Schools get OK to make land deal with county

NORWALK — Let's make a deal. The Norwalk City Schools board of education gave the OK for Superintendent Brad Cooley to make a real estate exchange/deal with the Huron County commissioners at Tuesday night's meeting. The land involved is across from Norwalk High School. The hope is to build a new elementary school on the property. Here is the official statement from board president Lisa Wick: "I move to authorize the Superintendent and/or Treasurer to enter into an agreement with the Huron County Commissioners to purchase 12 acres of land and to exchange approximately 10 acres of real estate on Shady Lane Drive for the purpose of constructing a new elementary school. An anonymous donor will supply the funds to purchase the new property." This is one of the first steps in that project. There is about 52 acres of land across the street on Shady Lane Drive. The school owns about 20 acres, but is land-locked by the county, which owns about 10 acres to the east (next to the license bureau) and about 22 acres to the west. The county and school will swap 10 acres, then purchase the remaining 12 acres to the west. That would give the county 20 acres next to the license bureau, and the schools 32 acres to the west. "Securing acreage is what you need to do to get to the next step of building a school," Cooley said. "A lot of steps have to be addressed along the way. This is a good step." In other business, retiring teacher Laura Winkler was honored for her 35 years in education, most of them in the Norwalk district. Maplehurst Elementary Principal Ken Moore talked about Winkler's dedication to her students. "Laura has dedicated her life to the service of young children. She remained steadfast as an educator. She spent a lot of time in the summer planting sunflowers around the school in front and back." Moore talked about one time when a little boy thought the sunflowers were weeds and picked them all. He even left the weeds (flowers) "so neatly at the base of our sign." It did not upset Winkler, Moore said. "She made a sign, 'Please, don't pick the flowers,'" Moore said. "She made the sign and went on her way." Between the flowers, applying for grants and all of the other extras, Winkler gave the school everything she had, Moore said. "We are truly thankful for your years of dedication." Winkler said it all in her retirement letter, Cooley said. "She is looking to the future," he said. "She said 'It's time for someone younger than myself to enter this field to have a great career and a great life like I had.'" Cooley said she isn't just thinking about herself, but that "she is eyes for other people." Morgan Savage, a 2010 NHS graduate and coordinator of the Ernsthausen Performing Arts Center, talked about ways to upgrade the facility and draw outside performers into Norwalk. She is in the early stages but has enlisted the help of her friend Brice Helman, a 2009 NHS graduate, an expert in the field who offered to provide the following services: • Consultation • Design • Manage bid process • Oversee installation • Provide training • Continues support "We are really good friends and one of the reasons he signed onto his project," she said. Board member Alison Crawford questioned whether the costs would be worth the efforts, and where the money to make improvements would come from. The board will consider Savage's presentation and will take it up in the September meeting. "The piece the board will be approving will be the rates," Cooley said. "The bigger thing is the funding to bring in outside groups. The trickiest part is getting the funding system to handle that. "Norwalk will appreciate having these groups coming in," he added. "Add the the cultural part of the community. We know how nice it is and we need to be using it more. When we can we would like to schedule outside groups to use it."