By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The USD 489 school board will review several bids for construction projects to be completed this year at its meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Rockwell Administration Center.
Rusty Lindsay, buildings and grounds director, will present bids for roof work on both Wilson and O'Loughlin Elementary schools.
The entire roof at O’Loughlin would be replaced, and a section of Wilson’s roof would be repaired.
Both low bids are from High Plains Roofing of Hays. The bid for the O'Loughlin roof is $155,729, and the bid for the Wilson roof is $91,094.
Lindsay will also present a low bid from Commercial Builders to replace concrete at Hays High School. That bid is $110,318. The school district is replacing concrete in the HHS parking lot annually as funds allow.
The roof of the transportation center also needs to be replaced. Quinter Manufacturing & Construction was the low bidder at $136,000.
Staffing
The district will also listen to a proposal for new staffing.
For the 2020-21 school year, school staff is asking for the addition of the equivalent of four and a half more staff members to allow for longer class periods at HMS as well as a new half-time woods teacher.
For the 2021-22 school year the staff is requesting the following additions:
• Two kindergarten teachers at Roosevelt and Wilson to reduce class sizes
• New English teacher at HHS to reduce class sizes
• New reading intervention teacher at Wilson. Wilson is the only elementary school in the district without this service.
• Half-time HHS health/PE teacher to reduce class sizes
• HHS family and consumer science teacher to add Pathway opportunities
Additional requests include:
• Math teacher at Roosevelt to work with students working below grade level
• Tier three behavior room teacher at Roosevelt
• Edguniuity (School within a School) half-time teacher at HHS to help with remediation, credit retrieval and student schedule flexibility
• Quarter-time music teacher at Roosevelt
• Quarter-time art teacher at Roosevelt
Administrative contracts are also up for renewal and will be a matter of discussion for the board Monday night.
JAG-K
The school board will consider renewing its contract with the Jobs for America's Graduates-Kansas organization. The program helps students at HHS who have risk factors that might keep them from graduating.
The annual cost of the program is $73,000. USD 489 would be responsible for $11,000 with federal funds paying for the rest of the cost of the program.
The board will also hear a report from HMS staff on possible changes in scheduling at the school, report from Luke Lundmark on the HHS pen pal program and an audit report from Adams, Brown, Beran & Ball.