On July 16, Boscobel School Board members gathered for their monthly meeting. The main issues discussed were items that needed to progress before school began in September, such as maintenance work and the Laude Program. Some smaller issues were also discussed dealing with donations and the selling of two buses.

Maintenance

As it is getting closer to the beginning of the school year, there is still a lot of maintenance work that needs to be completed. Barb Puckett, Chairperson for the Buildings and Grounds Committee, asked the board for a total of $150,000 for maintenance work.

Some of the most important jobs that need to be worked on are the sidewalk in front of the high school and the drain in the student parking area.

The sidewalk has some hazardous tripping areas, so the plan is to have the sidewalk repaired before students return in the fall. The company fixing the sidewalk will be Sand Prairie for $13,950. The board has not officially agreed to the bid from Reynolds to remove the existing sidewalk for a total of $2,500.

The board is also hoping to have new blacktop placed for the three parking lots at all the schools. The company the board accepted the bid from was D&P Enterprises for $21,000.

Cameras

Also part of the $150,000 asked of the board was to be put toward phase one of putting cameras in the schools.

After the building and grounds committee walked around the school there were a total of 25 cameras needed at the high school, as well as a license. There will also be 14 cameras to be bought for the Annex, Elementary and Rock buildings.  The total for all 39 cameras and three servers is $129,000.

Some of the money for the cameras will be coming from the Cy Pres money received from Microsoft totaling $45,000 and the rest of the money will be coming from the district’s Fund 10 account or the general fund.

Laude Program

High School Principal Greg Bell asked the board for approval to move forward with the Laude Program for the 2013-2014 school year. Bell would like to see the program begin with this year’s incoming freshmen.

With the board approving Bell to move forward with the Laude Program, Bell will be meeting with teachers and sending letters out to the incoming freshmen to explain the Laude Program.

The teachers and Bell will be getting together to talk about what classes will be considered for Laude points and what won’t. Then he will bring the list of classes to the board’s next meeting for approval.

Buses Sold

At the June board meeting, board members decided to go through with the purchase of the 2014 76p Blue Bird All American bus for $93,020. When the board had originally planned for the bus, they only budgeted $92,000, so they were planning to take the additional $1,020 out of the Fund 10 account or the general fund.

In order to make up for the money taken out of the general fund, board members made a decision to sell two of their older buses.

At the July meeting, one bid came back for the two older buses hoping for approval from the board. Warco offered a total of $12,001 for the purchase of both buses. The bid was approved and the money would be put toward the purchase of the new 2014 Blue Bird, leaving the total of the bus at $81,019.

Donation

The Boscobel School District received a donation for the Boscobel Cross Country team from the Knights of Columbus’ Raffle Account of $1,500. The Boscobel School Board would like to thank the Knights of Columbus for their wonderful donation to the Boscobel Cross County team and their support.