Broken Bow School Board Discusses Bus Purchase

Broken Bow School Board Discusses Bus Purchase
Broken Bow School Board and Administration (Photo taken during the July 2 work session)

BROKEN BOW—A new addition to the Broken Bow Public Schools fleet of buses may be in the works. The school board met on Monday night to continue the conversation of the bus situation. Currently, two charter buses are used for activities with yellow buses serving as the daily route buses. (Click here for the meeting agenda.)

The conversation centered on purchasing a flat-nose yellow bus to be used as an activities bus and as a backup. Superintendent Darren Tobey said the 1989 charter bus will likely be retired in order to purchase a flat-nose yellow bus to use for activities in addition to the 2001 charter.

“The charter bus, or our second activities bus that we’ve used here in the past is kind of on its last leg. It’s a 1989 charter bus so our task is how do we replace that 1989 bus? Is it financially responsible to go out and get another charter bus to replace that? Or do we look at different options like a yellow flat-nose bus that has a rear-engine pusher that will do the same thing? It’s just not going to be as fancy as the charter bus,” Tobey said.

The board and administration are working on long-term plans for transportation plans and Tobey said nothing is set in stone at this time. He added the concern of storage still exists.

Curriculum updates were also discussed and the board failed to pass a motion made by Mary Shaw to update the social studies curriculum. The current social studies curriculum is 13 years old and Shaw said it was time to move forward with an update. Carl French said the board was given curriculum priorities earlier this year in which they voted to update the science curriculum and Read 180.

“Science curriculum was purchased earlier this year and then social studies curriculum was supposed to be purchased as well this year. A couple meetings back it was brought to the board’s attention and my attention that maybe there’s a Read 180 program to help elementary students and at the time we felt like the Read 180 program was going to be a program that was going to be more beneficial than purchasing a new social studies curriculum at the time,” Tobey said.

Tobey said usually one new curriculum is purchased per year but with the purchase of science and Read 180, the board has invested roughly $150,000 into curriculum for this year and will likely update social studies next year.

Also on Monday night, Treasurer J.B. Atkins reported that at this time, the board is about $215,000 behind in expenses from previous years. Bids were awarded to Kuchera Painting in the amount of $14,383 and to Greenland for new gutters on the Activities Building.

Booster Club President Wanda Eberle presented a report to the board. The boosters recently voted in new members and announced August 7 as the date for the Fall Sports Kickoff. Eberle also reported that booster club funds have recently gone toward new exercise equipment and picnic tables by the stadium. In addition, funds have contributed to uniforms purchases and other updates for various sports equipment and programs.

J.B. Atkins announced that October 18 is the current date scheduled for the candidate forum for those running for school board in November. The Farm Bureau is hosting the forum and it will likely be held at the Municipal Building.

Middle/High School Principal Rusty Kluender gave a multicultural report saying that multicultural education is “alive and well” for all ages in the school system. He also announced Angie Palmer as the new FBLA instructor

Middle/High School Assistant Principal and Activities Director Jeff Ellis announced that nearly 15 people will head to Lincoln next week for the Nebraska Coaches Association Multi-Sports Clinic.

Various policy updates were approved on Monday night as were employee handbooks, activities handbooks, and the academic calendar.




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