M-P board buys buses, tour pre-school

The Mid-Prairie Board of Education Monday dealt with two major items that directly benefit students: buying two new buses and touring the new preschool facility.
The board approved the total bid of $159,178 from School Bus Sales of Waterloo for two new buses, prices at $80,939 each. The trade-in allowance for dropped the price to $159,178 from $161,878. The buses will be equipped with video cameras as are other units. Although there was lower bid from Hoglund Bus Sales, that would have totaled $151,050, there was an additional cost of $4,100 per bus to upgrade the engines to the required specs.
The preschool tour, which came at the end of the session, was at the new Parkside Activities Center which officially opens to the public January 18. The Mid-Prairie District arranged to rent space for its preschool program as part of support for the Parkside project last year. The preschool program, currently in Kalona, will move to Parkside Tuesday.
In other business, the board:

• held a second reading of board policies involving classified staff early separation, student honors (with board members Jim Hussey and George Schaefer opposed to having valedictorian and salutation awards)a and a first reading for graduation requirements;
• approved a Memorandum of Understanding to support the Race to the Top application. The Race to the Top is a federal competitive grant program that focuses on competency-based system for teacher and administrator preparation by making some $60,000 available over a four-year period. However, the state has to be approved for the grant before local districts are eligible;
• approved joining the Iowa School finance Information Service for $1,515;
• discussed and agreed to continue matching PPEL funds; and
• tabled a discussion of budget cuts criteria to the January 25 meeting.