Community meetings to discuss the future needs of Great Bend USD 428 get underway this week. At Monday’s school board meeting, Superintendent Khris Thexton said the public meetings will last about an hour each and Terry Wiggers from SJCF Architecture will be present to answer questions.
The first opportunity to learn more and ask questions will be at noon today at the Noon Lions Club meeting, which will be held at the Classic Inn, 30 South Patton Road.
A community steering committee has assisted the district administration and school board in studying building needs. The next step in creating a master plan is to hold community input/feedback meetings.
A sample question that will be asked at the meetings is, “What would be your top facility goals from the following list?
• Keep and expand-in-place existing neighborhood elementary schools
• Adequate facilities to accommodate future education needs
• Provide the building and technology infrastructure required for today’s teaching
• More student and staff safety and security features in schools
• Plan school buildings for future enrollment growth
Some public meetings have already been announced:
• Thursday, Nov. 15 at 5 and at 7 p.m. – Park Elementary School, 1801 Williams St.
• Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 6:30 p.m. – Great Bend Middle School Commons Area, 1919 Harrison St.
• Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 5 p.m. – Great Bend High School Auditorium, 2027 Morton St.
However, district officials said they hope to reach a broad cross-section of the community, so there will be more meetings at civic organizations, the senior center and at a Barton County Young Professionals meeting. There will also be meetings with district employees.
On Thursday, for example, there will be meetings at the District Education Center (DEC), 201 South Patton Road, with the DEC staff, transportation and maintenance, and with the District Site Council. Elementary staff will meet Thursday afternoon at Park Elementary School.
The Young Professionals lunch will be at noon Nov. 27 at Pizza Hut, 4101 10th St. and the meeting at the Great Bend Senior Center, 2005 Kansas Ave., will be at 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 4.
Bus to get new engine
In action items Monday, the board voted to replace a blown engine in “Bus 992,” a 2000 Bluebird activity bus with 179,000 miles.
Transportation Director Cody Schmidt and Superintendent Khris Thexton both recommended buying a Caterpillar engine, which is how the buses were originally marketed. This option is expected to cost $28,896, which was Foley Equipment’s bid. The bus has been sitting at Murphy Tractor since September. Murphy offered a different brand of engine for $25,000, but Foley provided the low bid on a Caterpillar engine.
Administrators did consider the age of the bus, but Schmidt and Thexton both said it is in good shape.
“We feel that it’s a bus worth repairing,” Thexton said. “We can still get plenty of life out of it.”
Schmidt said the bus will probably be ready by the first of the year, and that is when it will be needed most.
Meeting at a glance
Here’s a quick look at what happened at Monday’s Great Bend USD 428 Board of Education meeting.
• Several band students from Great Bend High School and Great Bend Middle School were present to receive recognition from the board. GBHS band instructor Mark DeWald and assistant Don Regehr recently accompanied honor band students to the Southwest District KMEA Honor Band in Dodge City. Two GBHS Jazz Band students and six GBMS students received the honor. In October, the Panther Pride Marching Band attended the WAC Marching Festival in Hays and received a 1 Rating.
• Cristina Ingram, Park Elementary School’s Kansas Reading Roadmap coordinator, discussed recent KRR events.
• Kip Wilson, chairperson for the Great Bend Reading Initiative, provided information about the effort, a combined partnership between Great Bend schools and the Great Bend Public Library.
• After being on file for public review for 30 days at the Barton County Cooperative of Special Education, the Title VI B and Early Childhood Flow-Through budget, which covers salaries for licensed special education staff salaries, was approved.
• The board will recommend Andrea Bauer as its representative on the Great Bend Recreation Commission Board for a four-year term that starts Jan. 1, 2019.
• The board voted to buy a new engine for Bus 992 from Foley Equipment
• Donations were accepted.
• There was a 30-minute executive session to discuss an individual employee’s performance, pursuant to the non-elected personnel exception under the Kansas Open Meetings Act.
• The board approved hiring Kalee Maneth as a second-grade teacher at Eisenhower Elementary, to replace a long-term substitute.
