GC School board okays purchase of two new buses
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GLENWOOD CITY — The Glenwood City School District will soon be adding a pair of new buses to its fleet following the school boards approval of the purchase during its October 10 meeting.
At its September 26 meeting, Superintendent Tim Johnson told the board that he would be requesting the unbudgeted purchase of a couple of new buses. At that time, Johnson explained that the district has been experiencing some issues with its aging fleet of diesel buses and that parts to facilitate repairs were difficult to secure.
Monday evening the board gave its approval to buy a pair of 71-passenger, 2023 Blue Bird Vision buses equipped with gasoline engines for a total cost of $218,920. Both units will be fitted with REI camera systems that include a dash-mounted camera, two fish-eye cameras as well as one mounted on the stop arm. Johnson did investigate options for propane-powered buses as well as gasoline and diesel. The lifetime cost to operate a gasoline bus is around $1.05 per gallon compared to $1.13 per gallon for diesel. With grants propane buses cost around 88 cents per mile to operate but also have the lowest fuel economy of about 5.5 miles per gallon compared to seven for gas and eight for diesel.
Johnson said that the two new buses should be delivered to the district within the next two to three weeks with the purchase prices likely to be paid out of Community Education (Fund 80) and General Operations (Fund 10).
Johnson also reported that the district had finalized its third Friday in September count which it reports to the Department of Public Instruction and the state. He told members that the 2022-23 count had actually increased by eight FTE (Full Time Equivalent) over the previous year to 673 which was 13 more than the superintendent had projected during August’s annual meeting and budget hearing. Johnson did note that it would mean a loss of nearly $136,00 for the current school year but that the district would realize gains for next year’s budget as each FTE accounts for approximately $10,000 in state aid.
Johnson also discussed the growing gap the district is facing in students that open enroll out versus those that open enroll into Glenwood City schools. This year, the district had 56 students open enrolled in while 119 open enrolled out to other district with the largest number of those attending Baldwin-Woodville. With that disparity, Johnson said the district is losing around $500,000 per year which it has to pay other districts for its students that are open enrolling elsewhere.
Johnson also informed board members that he would be recommending a $200,000 to $250,000 increase in the tax levy at the next meeting.
In personnel matters, the board approved Bob Swanepoel as a substitute bus driver, Amy McNamara for a paraprofessional position and Preston Shelton as a middle school basketball coach. It also gave its go ahead to create a Fund 21 revenue and expense account for middle school girls’ basketball.
After spending much of the committee meeting that precedes each regular session discussing updates to several school board and district policies, the board accepted and approved changes to Policy 361.1 Instructional Materials, Textbooks selection and Non-Discrimination, Policy 361.2 Selecting Library Materials in the Elementary, Middle and High School Libraries, and Policy 871 Procedures for Handling Complaints about Instructional Programs, Resources, and Materials.
