HOOPESTON —
Mark Eighner, transportation and grounds director, announced the school district has received a $50,000 EPA grant to purchase two school buses for $25,000 each.
Advertisement for bids for one diesel and one propane bus for the district will run for two weeks in the local newspapers, Eighner said, beginning Feb. 27.
“Hopefully the committee will have a recommendation to purchase two new buses at the next meeting,” Eighner said at the Hoopeston School Board meeting Thursday night.
Eighner gave credit to Rod Comstock and Tim Walsh for seeking and researching available grants for the buses, then writing the EPA grant. Only 30 schools were approved to receive the grant, Eighner said, and Hoopeston was one.
In other business, the board:
- Unanimously approved the 2013 Summer Migrant Application for $81,993 and the advertisement for bids for the purchase of two school buses.
- Learned the Tri-Party Deactivation Agreement for 2013-14 had been completed between Rossville-Alvin, Bismarck-Henning and Hoopeston Area School districts for one year.
- Learned the bullying policy would be presented at the next meeting.
- Learned a board/administration retreat would be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 28.
- Learned that Maple Grade School had raised more than $4,000 for the American Heart Association during its annual Jump Rope for Heart.
- Learned the state of Illinois is changing the scoring system in the ISAT test. The state determined the expectation for students in grades 3-8 were too low and were aligning the scores to focus on success in college and the work force. The new ISAT cut scores will be lower than the current scores.
“It (scores) doesn’t reflect any less learning,” John Greer Principal Dan Walder said. “It reflects a different grading scale.”
- Heard presentations on work done from the community liaison, curriculum coordinator and the RTI coordinator.
- Approved unanimously the employment of all building principals for the 2013-14 school year.
- Approved the retirements of Richard Sollars and Gail Lithgow at the end of the 2012-13 school year and the transfer of Lucy Overlander from part-time personal aide to full-time personal aide for the remainder of the 2012-13 school year.
- Approved the resignation of Nathanial Albaugh, high school wrestling coach, effective immediately, and the resignation of Jenny Maurer, Maple kindergarten teacher, at the end of the 2012-13 school year.
What’s next
The Hoopeston School Board will meet at 6:30 p.m. March 21 in the Hoopeston High School library.
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