COVINGTON — Members of the Covington Exempted Village School District Board of Education are considering the addition of new indoor track and swimming programs to the district’s athletic department.

“I plan on recommending the allowance of indoor track,” district superintendent Dr. Joseph Hoelzle said. “Kids don’t get a letter for it, but they can choose to participate in a few of the indoor track competitions.”

“I also plan on putting on the agenda a similar resolution to allow kids who want to swim under the Covington name to participate in the OHSA tournament,” Hoelzle said.

Board members discussed the changes during their regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 19. The board will the resolutions during next month’s board meeting.

The only cost to the district would be an approximately $50 fee for entering the OSHA tournament. “I don’t plan on purchasing uniforms,” Hoelzle said. “I plan on approving a volunteer coach.”

“I’ve checked with OHSA, I’ve checked with the athletic director, I’ve checked with our basketball coach,” he said. “I don’t see major issues with us doing that; there are other small schools who do it.”

“I don’t see it taking away from our winter sports,” Hoelzle said.

Indoor track practice would take place at various locations on the school properties, and indoor swimming would mostly be done at the YMCA. The resolutions will authorize the new programs for one year, then board members will have to re-approve the resolutions.

“We’ll see how it goes this year,” Hoelzle said. “I foresee in a few years there not being an interest, but we do have two individual kids who want to do that and I don’t want to deny them that opportunity.”

“They’ve requested to be able to represent our district,” he said.

In other business, board members also discussed the district’s five-year forecast, which will be presented at next month’s board meeting for approval. “It’s nearly complete,” district Treasurer Carmen Seifring said. “We’re waiting on the income tax distribution that I should receive probably within the next week.”

Board members went on to approve a contract with Finfrock Construction of Covington for snow removal during the 2022-2023 school year, and the annual high school trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from March 3 through March 26, 2023.

Board members also heard an update on the district’s new science club for seventh- and eighth-grade students.

“Mrs. Day, our seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher, is currently working out the details for an after-school science club,” junior high school Principal Courtney Downs said. “The plan is to have that fully operational after Thanksgiving break.”

“For a lot of people, their favorite part of science is the experiments,” Downs said. “When you’re looking at a standard 42-minute class period, you are kind of limited on how in-depth you can go with some of those experiments.”

“She wants to do this as an after-school program and work with our winter sports coaches, just to see how can we get as many of our kids involved as possible,” Downs said. “She’s been working with the treasurer’s office for some of the funding, to see what we can do with that out of the principals’ account.”

Board members also heard an update from high school principal Bridget Kerber.

“Our FFA program is going to nationals next week,” Kerber said. “They are being recognized as one of the top 10% chapters in the nation, which is just spectacular for our kids and is just another testament to how hard our FFA program works.”

“Our band qualified for state and took first in the whole class at Piqua’s contest on Saturday,” Kerber said. “They’re really excited; they have one more contest this coming weekend to show what they have coming up.”

Board members also approved a resolution authorizing a contract with Brandon Studebaker Construction for minor renovations to a sink in one of the district’s art rooms. The current sink counter top has been in place since approximately 1976.

“There’s a little bit of dry rot on the divided sink and behind the counter by the sink,” Hoelzle said. “I look at it as kind of a safety issue; we don’t want to get mold back there with the kids.”

Board members adjourned the meeting to move into to an executive session to discuss pending legal matters. The board’s next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 5:30 p.m.