T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Martins Ferry City Schools District Superintendent Jim Fogle, standing, recognizes school board members Tuesday during Ohio School Boards Appreciation Month. Pictured are Dave Bruney, from left, Nick Stankovich, James Agnew and treasurer Dana Garrison.

MARTINS FERRY — The Martins Ferry City School District is starting 2023 with more opportunities for learning and by putting the final touches on a project to address floor upheaval in its buildings.

On Tuesday, the board of education heard an update from Lisa Kleevic, site coordinator with the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center, on the district’s after-school and summer activities for middle schoolstudents through the use of a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant.

“We are midway through the fourth year of the grant. We have this year and we have next year,” she said. “Probably around the middle of next year we will write a continuation for the grant, and then rewrite the grant and keep our fingers crossed. Hopefully we get it again.”

Kleevic said the funding was shared with Bridgeport Exempted Village School District’s middle school. For the first three years, the five-year grant released $250,000 per year, then the amount was reduced to $200,000, then $100,000. The Martins Ferry district purchased interactive computers for students and put on numerous programs.

“We started out wonderful this year. We had the biggest class that we ever had. We had 45 kids at the beginning of the year. Actually, now we still have 29,” she said. “We might lose a little bit here with sports and everything starting.”

She said the district offers reading and math enrichment programs. Other district leaders said the effort is worthwhile.

“It’s very well-attended, the after-school program, and I give Mrs. Kleevic all the credit in the world and her staff for all the work they do with our students in after-school hours,” Superintendent Jim Fogle said. “It’s very well-rounded.”

Fogle also reported that work to stabilize floors in the high school and middle school administrative area is nearly complete. Carpeting and tiles have been installed in the offices, library and guidance offices.

Since before summer, the district has been dealing with heaving floors due to expanding pyrite in the ground beneath the foundation’s concrete slab. The slab was being replaced with new concrete and secured. The majority of work was completed prior to the start of the school year. Miller Diversified oversaw JD&E Construction as the contractor on the job.

Fogle said new tiling is set for the main hall, in classrooms off the hall, and in the science lab.

The only remaining sections to work on are the main entryway of the high school and from the rotunda to the front doors. Work should be complete by the end of Saturday.

“Once those two areas are complete, then there are three more rooms that were poured. They were poured later. In fact, one was last week. So we’re looking at a few more months,” he said.

The only classroom remaining to be completed is Classroom C-202.

Afterward, the district will monitor the floors. They will be measured to determine if more stabilizing work is necessary. Fogle said if the floors heave a ½ inch to 1 inch, then a Phase 2 project would be needed.

“When we pulled Phase 1 out, when we took the concrete out and the earth out underneath it … some of those areas look (like they have moved) to the naked eye, but we’re going to have it measured to see where we’re at,” he said. “Phase 2 is just different areas. Phase 1 is anything that heaved over an inch, and we have places that heaved 5 inches. That’s all done.”

Fogle said the district will review the measurements during the February meeting.

In other matters, Fogle marked January as Ohio School Board Recognition Month and commended the board members for their commitment to the district’s students.

“It is important now more than ever that we do all we can to support public education, so that today’s students are prepared to be productive citizens and obviously our leaders of tomorrow,” Fogle said.

The district also had a reorganizational meeting for 2023. Board member Chuck Probst was elected board president and Jon Nagel as vice president. Probst was appointed the district’s representative to the Belmont-Harrison Joint Vocational School District.

The board went into a closed-door executive session to consider items with respect to compensation of a public employee or official, and another private session to confer with an attorney about pending legal matters.