Reed looking at ‘building project’
“New Building Project” was on the agenda for Monday’s USD 428 Board of Education meeting, but the board will have to wait another month to hear what the administration plans to propose.
“We have ideas for a building project,” Superintendent Brad Reed said, adding administrators have been working with an architect.
However, Reed said, “We have ideas but no numbers,” so he wasn’t ready to reveal the plan. He said he needs another month to do more research.
A new sound system purchased for the Great Bend High School Gymnasium could change the experience of watching a program in the gym, school administrators said Monday. It is being installed at the same time as a new scoreboard, during “dead week,” also known as the Kansas State High School Activities Association Fall Athletic Buffer Week, Nov. 13-19.
At Monday’s USD 428 school board meeting, the bid for the sound system was awarded to Wichita-based Mcclelland Sound Inc., the low bidder at $50,000. Local firm Parr Sound and Lighting offered a system for $57,640. Assistant Superintendent Khris Thexton voiced confidence in both companies and said both bids exceeded specifications.
Thexton called the line array system of speakers “game changing.” This type of arrangement delivers more sound to the audience, with improved clarity.
“It’s going to be a vastly different experience in our gym,” he said.
The board also awarded the bid for two 2017 Dodge Grand Caravans to the only bidder, Marmie’s, for a total of $45,696. Thexton noted that each vehicle cost about $3,000 less than expected.
In other business, the board accepted the retirement notice from Great Bend Middle School English teacher Jacolyn Cook, effective at the end of the school year.
Orchestra instructor Isaac Enochs received approval for the GBHS Orchestra to spend a night in Dodge City when it attends the Western Kansas Orchestra Festival, Nov. 28-29. Middle School orchestra students will also attend but won’t stay overnight.
The board also approved the following grant applications and donations:
• Cindy Sandy, Eisenhower Elementary School’s Kansas Reading Roadmap program coordinator, will submit a $1,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthy Habits for Life grant application. KRR, in addition to its reading instruction, teaches the importance of healthy eating, staying physically active and not smoking. The grant, if awarded, would supplement the reading instruction by teaching healthy living habits to at-risk youth. Water bottle filling stations would be installed, and bottles would be provided.
• Jefferson Elementary School Nurse Linda Johnson and Principal Kip Wilson will apply for a Marathon Kids Active Schools Grant. Grant approval would enable implementing a running club through which students would document running distances over several months and could qualify for prizes at various milestones.
• A Rural and Low-Income Federal Grant for $46,569 will be used to purchase one Chromebook cart for each of the five elementary schools, continuing the district’s “One to One” technology initiative.
• A $200 donation was accepted for the One District One Book initiation from Great Bend Regional Hospital.
• An anonymous donor has donated 35 music stands for the Lincoln Elementary School music program. Estimated value is $420.
• Washington Roofing & Insulation has donated $200 to the Drone Club at Park Elementary School.
