By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays school board approved the purchase of three new route buses at its meeting Monday night and added the purchase of a coach activity bus.
The original proposal was to buy two diesel and one gas route bus. The total cost for the buses will be $283,987, which is $20,013 under budget. The route buses were part of the five-year transportation plan.
However, board member Greg Schwartz amended the motion to include the coach bus.
The new coach activity bus was supposed to be in the budget for the next fiscal year.
Russ Henningsen, transportation director, proposed ordering the bus in July at the beginning of the fiscal year. If the bus was ordered in the July, it would likely be ready by the fall sports season.
Schwartz suggested going out for bids now and using contingency funds to pay for the activity bus. The contingency funds could be replaced in July out of the capital outlay budget.
Henningsen estimated the coach bus will cost between $240,000 and $250,000.
If the bus is ordered in January, it could be ready for the spring sports season.
Ron Wilson, superintendent, said the spring is the district's busiest time of year for activities.
"I feel we do have the money to replace [the money] after July 1, and it doesn’t put the district at any kind of risk," Wilson said.
Henningsen said he saw nothing wrong with purchase. The district has the bus budgeted for the next fiscal year. An older activity bus is scheduled to be taken out of service at that time.
Keith Hall, interim director of finance, said the district has about $1.2 million in its contingency fund. The money is there to make the purchase. However, he could not speculate what the district might need contingency funds for in the next six months.
Board member Sophia Rose Young said she did not want to approve the purchase of the activity bus until she had seen bids.
Schwartz said board policy dictates the purchase would still have to go out for bids.
He also noted most of the other WAC schools already have one or two coach buses.
"It's not like we are going to be some elite school," he said. "We are just going to be like everybody else."
After a couple of amendments, a motion to purchase the four buses passed on a vote of 4-2 with Young and Luke Oborny voting against. Board member Lance Bickle was absent.
Munjor
The board approved transferring ownership of Munjor school to the Salina Catholic Diocese. A portion of the property is already owned by the Catholic church.
The early childhood program that was located at the school has moved to the newly renovated USD 489 Early Childhood Complex on 13th Street in Hays.
Teachers crowd the Hays school board meeting Monday. Negotiations have gone to fact finding.
Negotiations
Teacher negotiations have yet to be resolved. The process has entered fact finding. Teachers wearing red KNEA shirts crowded the board room on Monday night to the point of standing room only.
The main stumbling blocks in the negotiations continues to be pay and health insurance benefits.