T-L Photo/KAILEY CARPINO Bellaire Board of Education members Jim Thoburn, from left, Susan Rataiczak, Treasurer Cathy Moore, Superintendent Derrick McAfee, members William Marinelli, Jason Ayers and Jim LaRoche discuss tearing down structures on the corner of Guernsey and 35th streets in Bellaire.

BELLAIRE — The Bellaire Local School Board of Education discussed tearing down buildings on the school district’s recently acquired properties on the corner of Guernsey and 35th streets.

Superintendent Derrick McAfee said the buildings are residential properties.

“One had a storefront, but I haven’t seen any commercial activity in it since I’ve been around,” he said.

Belmont County Community Improvement Corp. Executive Director Crystal Lorimor along with Katherine Kelich, Belmont County treasurer and chairwoman of the Belmont County Land Reutilization Corp., have teamed up with the school district for the project.

McAfee said he has been working with the reutilization organization, known as the land bank, but is facing delays due to the amount of garbage in the buildings.

“Some of those buildings are so full of garbage, essentially, that the agency couldn’t come in and do a phase one assessment. Phase one assessment is making sure there is no asbestos, lead paint, things like that, that would slow down the demolition,” he said.

McAfee said the land bank will attempt to clear out the buildings so that the assessment can be completed.

“If we are unable to do that, the land bank has to do something called a hot demo, which means they basically have to treat every little tiny thing and every little tiny piece of garbage in those buildings as contaminated, which also requires them to take them all to a special bin,” he said.

“We’re really hoping that there will be a certain level of cleanup done so we can do this,” McAfee said.

McAfee said the school district does not yet have a set plan for the site.

“We’ve been exploring some opportunities,” he said.

McAfee also said that state report cards were issued for buildings and districts several weeks ago. He said that Bellaire Local School District received four out of five stars.

“This is the second-highest rating in Belmont County. Of course we’re happy, but we’re not satisfied with that,” McAfee said.

McAfee said he has been talking to attorneys about putting together a bid package to replace the high school’s roof.

“One of the things we’ve been focused on over the last few years, and I think you’ve seen this if you’ve been around town, is making sure our facilities are ready to stand the test of time,” he said.

At a school board meeting on Monday, member Jason Ayers discussed a new piece of federal legislation that would pay off lunch debts for students at Monday’s meeting.

“It was introduced by three senators, and it is to have the USDA, the Department of Agriculture, pay for the lunch debts of the school children nationwide,” he explained. “What would happen is the USDA would pay the schools the allotted amounts.”

Ayers said the legislation is very new and he will keep the board updated on progress.

Ayers also gave an update on two pieces of state legislation, one for religious exemption days and one for 4-H exemption days.

He said the two bills would allow students to have excused absences for religious holidays and for 4-H camps or activities. Ayers said legislators may combine the two bills.

“What they’re trying to do now is marry those two bills together and come up with an acceptable number of excusable hours for both of those things combined. …The new legislation hasn’t been written, but that is what they’re trying to do,” he said.

Elementary Principal Ben Doyle discussed a new extracurricular activity for fourth-graders.

“We’re happy to announce that we have a fourth grade production team that is completely student led, and they’ll be doing everything from filming to audio to web design and copy writing, anything they can think of, any ideas that they have that they can bring to life,” he said.

Doyle said signing up for the production team is voluntary, and the team already has many members.

“We have a big group, which is great, and I’ve been making time to meet with them,” he said.

Doyle said he let the students come up with a name for the production company, and it is called “The Creation Space.” He said students also designed a logo for the production company last week.

“They will get gigs, and they will be producing stuff for our school,” Doyle said. “Bear with us. There will be mistakes. They’re going to make mistakes along the way, and that’s OK. You will see improvement. You will see effort.”

The team recently launched its own website, and a link can be found on Bellaire Elementary’s website.

Doyle said the school has a fourth grade leadership team organized by school counselor Natalie Manners. Doyle said the leadership team reached out to Neffs Fire Department to start a shoe drive, which launched on Monday and runs until Oct. 20. The drive will be collecting new shoes for Bellaire Elementary students, and all shoes can be dropped off at the fire department.

“We really want to highlight our students and have them doing more because they’re very, very capable,” Doyle said.