North Lawrence School board approves to purchase three school buses

NLCS

BEDFORD – The North Lawrence School Community School board approved the purchase of three school buses Thursday night.

The corporation will purchase two new 81 passenger school buses and one used 66 passenger school bus. The cost for one of the new 81 passenger school buses is $92,137 the other is $92,485. The used 66 passenger school bus will cost $35,000.

In other business the school board:

  • Approved a contract with eFunds for Schools, which is designed to help schools process cash, checks, and credit cards faster and at a lower cost by delivering the best-in-class online, mobile, point-of-sale, and express payment platforms. eFunds for Schools provides a safe and secure payment processing to parents, guardians to purchase school lunches and textbooks.
  • Jenise Roane, business services director, informed the board she has sent a letter to the Indiana Department of Education explaining why the school transferred more than 16.48 percent of the education budget into the operations budget. She must do this because state law requires anytime a school corporation transfers more than 15 percent of the education budget into another account it must be explained why it was done.
  • Approved the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt curriculum for the social study classes for students in 6-8.
  • Approved the out-of-district student transfers for the 2021-2022 school year.

Superintendent Dr. Ty Mungle told the board the new turf installation for the football/soccer fields will begin next week. It will take an expected eight weeks to complete the project, weather permitting. The project should be completed by July 15.

A free COVID-19 vaccination clinic will be held on Saturday June 5, 2021 at Bedford Middle School. The clinic is sponsored by IU Health Bedford Hospital in Bedford. More details will be announced soon.

Maintenance Director Don Zollman told the board that preventative maintenance is underway on the cooling system for the school. The air cooling system in the auxillary gym at the high school will also have to be replaced and a plan is being drafted on how to go about that process.

The Bedford North Lawrence High School graduation will take place on June 4, at the BNL High School gym.

During the public comment period, Tim Morrow a taxpayer of both Indian Creek and Perry Township asked the board about the repurposing of property at both Fayetteville and Springville Elementary Schools. No response was given, which is standard procedure for the school board. Morrow also made an iquiry regarding the policy for teachers which requires them to approach the superintendent first before being permitted to address the school board. According to School Board member Wendy Miller, the policy has been in place since 1995. The school board is open to revisiting that policy.