Green Forest board approves purchase of 3 used buses

The Green Forest School District is purchasing three used buses from Harrison to replace buses that need costly repairs.

At its regular monthly meeting on Monday, May 15, the school board OK’d buying three buses from the Harrison School District at $6,500 each, according to superintendent Matt Summers.

“We have four buses that are 2006 and 2007 models that have been used exclusively on dirt roads, and the floors are soft,” Summers said. “We checked into having them repaired and it was going to cost $8,000 apiece to repair. So, we didn’t think that was a good avenue.”

That’s when the district found out Harrison had three buses it wanted to sell, Summers said.

“They’re the same year model, same type of buses, but they’ve only been on concrete pavement the whole time,” he said. “They’ve never been on dirt roads. So we’re going to acquire those three and still look for one more.

“We just couldn’t see putting $8,000 into a bus that may not be worth that.”

Summers said the district normally buys two or three new buses each year and retires older ones as needed.

“We normally buy two or three each year and they start out as travel buses for athletic teams, for field trips, that kind of thing,” he said. “Then as they get two or three years on them we will transfer them out into other routes. Most of our buses are less than 10 years old and we try to keep that as a golden rule, obviously the best we can.

“If we can buy used buses at a good price, of course we inspect them, and if we’re buying them from another school they’ll have their records and their inspection records every year.”

Green Forest has 26 bus routes, Summers said.

“It’s a larger operation than most people think and it’s extremely costly,” he said. “But, we want our kids in the best possible transportation vehicles we can.”

The board also approved the purchase of two multi-surface cleaning machines that are used in bathrooms at a cost of $4,900 each, Summers said, adding that the purchase will come from “COVID-19 money.”

“We had two we had already purchased so we’ve added to that,” he said, “It’s a touchless system for our bathrooms, kind of like a touchless car wash where foam is sprayed on everything and then it’s washed off. It’s cleaner and reduces bacteria and germs.”

Other items approved by the board included a purchase service agreement for a speech pathologist and school choice transfers.

“At an approximate cost of $85 an hour we will have a speech pathologist visit with our kids for next school year,” Summers said. “We had one student transfer to Harrison and then with school choice we had three coming in from other districts and 11 transferring out to other districts.”

The board also approved an approximate cost of $10,000 for a subscription for Teachers Pay Teachers.

“We’ve got a license for up to 65 teachers to do that,” Summers said.

Also OK’d was a renewal of the district’s legal liability insurance for property, vehicles and equipment at a cost of $48,130, effective July 1, the superintendent said.

Summers and the board also recognized outgoing board members Bud Phillips and Jodie DeMeyer for their service.

“I want to say thanks for their efforts and hard work in assisting students and our schools,” Summers said.

The meeting also included the election of new board officers. Voted in were Kenny Bonham as president, Jeff Boggs as vice president, Kayleen Powell as secretary, Alechia Meador as disbursing officer, John Bailey as alternate disbursing officer and Katrina Newberry as the board’s Connect 4 representative. The remaining member of the board is Dianna Raye Sturtz.

Personnel approvals included the resignations of Toni Welty as a special education paraprofessional, Lexi Meeks as a fifth grade teacher, S. Michael Ledesma as a bus driver and Corynn Wells as a high school paraprofessional, who will continue as a registered volunteer high school cheer sponsor.

Hires approved included Megan Underwood as a high school English teacher and Brittany Jones as a high school math teacher.

Transfers approved were Dana McCutcheon as a certified ISS teacher and Carla Strickland to middle school special education teacher.