There will be four new buses among the Whitley County School District’s fleet of vehicles next school year.
During the Whitley County Board of Education’s special-called meeting last Tuesday, board members unanimously approved the purchase. Superintendent John Siler said that the district is “excited” to be able to update the fleet and provide a better, safer experience for students.
“We always want to put the safety of our students first—not only in the school setting, but while we’re transporting our students to and from school and other events. We want to always try to keep them in newer buses with more modern safety devices,” said Siler.
The buses approved to be purchased during last week’s meeting will come equipped with camera systems both inside and outside of the bus as well as other amenities.
The total cost of the buses will be approximately $670,000, according to Siler. However, the school district is able to maintain its own fleet of vehicles, relying on district-hired mechanics instead of a fleet management service as some other districts do.
In other board of education business:
– An update was provided regarding an ongoing construction project on the baseball and softball fields at Whitley County High School.
According to Siler, the project is slightly behind schedule due to the amount of rain over the past several weeks, though some strategies and ideas are being considered to try and mitigate some of the lost time and get the project back on schedule.
Both the baseball and softball fields are currently in the process of having the existing natural sod converted to artificial turf.
Completion of the project will be updated as work continues, though it was originally expected to be done before the respective seasons begin in the spring.
– A second reading of an update to the district’s purchasing and bidding policies and procedures.
According to Siler, the district is constantly looking at ways to ensure that best practices are being followed when the district decides to make a purchase.
“We always want to look at ways that we can put more checks and balances into purchases and our bidding processes and things like that. So many of the items that we purchase—from the milk that the students consume in the cafeteria to the tires we put on our buses—require that we put out bids and advertise for those bids,” said Siler. “So, this just updates how we go about that.”
