Here’s a quick look at Monday’s Great Bend USD 428 Board of Education meeting

• Park Leadership Club was recognized.

• GB Middle School Gaming Club was recognized.

• The board heard a report on the Great Bend Reading Initiative.

• The GBHS Program of Studies for 2022-2023 was approved on the second reading.

• The board had its “first reading” on policy revisions. The revisions will be on the agenda at a subsequent meeting for board action.

• Grants and contributions were approved, including $25 from the GBHS Class of 1956 to the GBHS Baseball program in member of Gaylen Sullivan, a 1956 GBHS graduate who was on the 1955 state championship baseball team coached by Al Burns. Also approved:

- GBMS Booster Club donated $500 to GBMS for MTSS Intervention Materials

- Matt Hiss, Hiss Sherman Wealth Management, contributed cash to schools for participation in the Wheatland Electric Cram the Van Food Drive event. Jefferson Elementary received $300; Lincoln Elementary $200; and Eisenhower, Park, Riley, GBHS and GBMS each received $100.

- Courtney Damm is donating $388.50 in scrap sales (Acme Scrap Metal) to the GBHS Welding/Ag class.

- Four teachers received grants from Credit Union of America: Jefferson teacher Janae Donham, $332; GBMS teacher Gary Pinkall, $500; GBMS teacher Amy Stein, $450; and GBHS teacher Erin Bentley, $500.

- GBMS Music in Motion Group received $150 from the Evening Lions Club.

- GBHS Madrigals received $300 for holiday performances from each of the following businesses, Adams Brown LLC and Peoples Bank and Trust.

• Personnel changes were approved:

- Darwin Bouray, sixth-grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary

- Suzann Bouray - contracted substitute teacher

- Ann Heine - school psychologist for Barton County Special Services

- Caleb Bartlett - teacher for the 2022-2023 school year, school and level to be determined

- Sam Hill - transfer to contracted substitute teacher

• There was a 15-minute executive session for the preliminary discussion of real property. After that, the board resumed its open meeting and voted to purchase the property at 625 E. 10th Street owned by Central Power Systems & Services for $1,550,000.

• There was an executive session for discussion personnel, as the board discussed the annual superintendent’s evaluation.

The Great Bend USD 428 Board of Education voted Monday to purchase the property at 625 E. 10th Street owned by Central Power Systems & Services for $1,550,000.

Superintendent Khris Thexton said the site will be for maintenance, transportation, custodian and grounds services, and for food service.

“Currently there’s not a food service facility in that (location) but it will be part of our plan to add that in the near future,” Thexton said.

Last May, the board approved making an offer for an undisclosed price on 904 Washington and 25 16 9th St. – formerly Becker Tire and later Best-One Tire – but that purchase never happened.

“We made the offer and it just didn’t work out,” Thexton said. “The timing didn’t work out.”

Then, as now, the district was looking for a site for a new support services complex.

Central Power Systems is relocating to Garden City. Thexton said the administration was interested when the property became available and checked with the district architect to see if it would meet the district’s needs. He did most of the negotiating and this all came together over the past two weeks.

Thexton estimated the facility is just under 33,000 square feet and will replace facilities with a total area of about 20,000 square feet.

It will probably take 30 to 60 days to take ownership of the property and then the district will be ready to move maintenance, transportation and grounds. “When we add the kitchen, that’s when the architects and engineers will get involved,” he said.

The district will go through the process outlined by Kansas statute, hiring a Construction Manager at Risk and seeking board approval before making additional purchases on renovation.

“It’s estimated at $2.6 million to renovate that whole facility, so we’ll be in about $4.6 million to get that all finished,” Thexton said. The district has the money in its capital outlay fund.

Assistant Superintendent John Popp said the administration is excited about this opportunity because it will cost less than new construction. During the 2019 bond election, which failed, the district proposed using land it already owns to build a complex next to the district education center.

“If we were to build this facility over here, in our last bond we were talking close to $10 million to do that,” Popp said. “So buying and renovating is way cheaper than trying to build this new – and I think the cost would be a lot higher now than it was in the bond.”

Note: An earlier version of this story about the property purchase was posted on Dec. 13.