Scott Mareing reports..
For about twenty minutes, District Transportation Director Will Knight reviewed the district’s transportation fleet. He recommended for the 2024-25 school year, purchasing four regular school buses, one special education bus, one ¾ ton suburban with a towing package, and one ¾ ton transit van. They would trade in four regular school buses, one special ed bus, and one cargo van. The district rotates vehicles every five years due to wear and tear on them and because of upgrades in technology. The board agreed to seek bids for the vehicles.
In the Superintendent’s report, Jarrod Newell said they just used one emergency day due to the cold weather, so the last day of attendance for students would be May 22nd and the last day for staff would be May 23rd.
The district has worked with the Greater Wabash Food Council on a USDA grant with no cost to the school. The Seeds of Hope Farm2School program will organize school leaders, teachers, volunteers, and producers in ten school districts in southeastern Illinois, including White County, over the next 24 months. Programming will begin in August for the 2024-25 school year.
Unit 5 is a Community Eligibility Program District, so this fall all district students received a Summer 2023 Grocery Benefit with $120 per student on an Illinois P-EBT card, and the benefits will be provided again through the program. All district students are also eligible for up to $30 per month internet discount through the Affordable Connectivity Program.
Newell also thanked all those involved in the CWCIT basketball tournament which is now going on.
In other business, the Board Scholars for the first semester of the 2023-24 school year were named. There were 13 freshmen, 16 sophomores, 19 juniors and 11 seniors.
The board approved declaring the 2004 Freightliner School Bus and the 2003 Chevy Suburban 9-Passenger Bus as surplus property. If possible, these vehicles will be sold by sealed bid.
They approved the modifying of 28 board policies, with final approval at next month’s board meeting.
Also approved was $2,134 in donations to the Brownsville School.
The board went into in Closed Session at 7:40 PM to discuss personnel and collective negotiations.
