by Garrick Moritz, Garretson Gazette
The Garretson School board met in regular session on Monday, Feb. 8. Major topics of discussion were plans for a new tax opt out public meeting and election and the expansion of the driver’s education program for this school year, and the process of purchasing new busses for the district.
As the meeting got underway, there were no public comments as no one from the public save the newspaper editor attended the meeting. Shannon Nordstrom took a moment to read a letter sent by Sharon Kringen addressed to the board. She said that she would like a regular announcer at the sporting events that are broadcast on the Alliance channel. Everyone agreed that it would be good to have one, and wondered if this couldn’t become a student project.
An item from their regular consent agenda business was pulled out for brief discussion. Normally the school budgets for 3 student teacher positions from our local universities to fill, and Supt. Guy Johnson noted that all those slots have applications already and that he expects more, so he told the board to expect a budgetary increase for that in the coming weeks. He said the school used to budget for at least a half dozen such positions, but that many would go vacant so they set the number lower to 3, and since have had no problem filling that quota every year. This year, Johnson said that they would probably be hiring one or two more such spots.
The next topic under discussion was the Driver’s Education program for this year. Because of COVID-19 closure of schools this past year, there was no Driver’s Ed classes held at Garretson. Because of that, there is a backlog of students wanting to take these courses. With the high level of interest in these classes, Supt. Johnson said that the district realistically must host two sessions. Coordinating with the regular Driver’s Ed instructor, these classes with be hosted both in March and in June. Normally the classes are held in late May, but our regular instructor has coaching commitment this May, as well as other Drivers Ed course commitments in other districts, since they are all in a similar situation as our district.
Supt. Johnson also made a case for raising the tuition of these classes to $235 for Garretson district students and $285 for non-GHS students, which would put the cost much closer to break even for the district.
Next, the board discussed the purchasing of the two new busses in order to take advantage of the Diesel Emission Reduction Act, which can provide up to a 35% cost reimbursement if a school buys a new bus with the reduced emissions diesel engines or the new propane fueled busses.
The consensus of the board, administration and head bus driver Tim Nelson is to go for the new propane fueled busses. Right now, there are two types being manufactured by the Blue Bird and Thomas companies. The board could go one of two ways with these purchases; they could use the established state bid, or they could generate specifications and send the bids out themselves. Supt. Johnson said that if they bid their own specifications, creating their own custom orders, it’s likely the companies will bid these newly manufactured busses at a better price.
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