School board rehires administrators, approves bus purchases

School board members voted to rehire a list of 33 district administrators at last Thursday’s meeting.

The list of administrators whose annual contracts were renewed included principals, vice principals and assistant principals at each building, central office staff, department directors and managers, and various program coordinators.

School board members voted to extend assistant superintendent Jody Wiggins’ contract at the February meeting and voted to continue superintendent Ken Ramey’s contract at the January meeting.

This is the most talented group of people we’ve ever had in this district,” Ramey said of the 33 administrators on the list.

Ramey said he is honored to work with administrators, noting they work hard to make a difference for every child and are frugal with taxpayer money.

“Trust, respect and communication is key to everything we do,” Ramey said.

In other business, the school board approved the purchase of two new 77-passenger school buses at a total cost of $190,136.

The district received three bids for new buses, including a bid of $101,090 per bus from Central State Bus Sales for Blue Bird brand buses; $99,416 per bus from Midwest Bus Sales Inc., for Thomas brand buses; and $95,068 per bus from Summit Bus Sales for International brand buses.

Transportation director Steve Avery recommended the board choose the low bid International buses. The buses will be equipped with cargo storage and air conditioning so that even though they will be used as route buses, they could also have the flexibility to be used for travel buses if needed.

The school purchases one to two buses a year with the goal of having a fleet of route buses that are 15 years old and newer, Avery said.

An inventory of the district’s vehicles shows the school has a total of 46 buses, including route, trip and spare buses.

The school board took the following additional actions:

• Approved emergency sick leave for one teacher.

• Approved the resignation of Kathy Laster, Allen Elementary School counselor.

• Approved the transfer of two students from the Siloam Springs School District to the Gentry School District.