New buses to be purchased

Jay Schools will be buying five new buses.
Board members approved the purchase Monday of three Safetyliner conventional buses from Kerlin at $99,389 each, an International conventional bus at a cost of $99,776 and a Safetyliner conventional lift bus from Kerlin at a cost of $108,103.
Total cost of the purchases is not to exceed $506,046 and will be funded by a bank loan.
The buses will replace three with mileage approaching 200,000 miles and one with 271,000 miles, as well as one destroyed by fire in January.
Transportation director Teresa Myers told the board she had gone through the state purchasing program in order to get the lowest possible prices. While the Safetyliner buses were favored, she wanted to try the International bus “to see what improvements have been made to their product and service. We have had some issues in the past but have been assured that their product and service have seen great improvements.”
She added, “Experience is the true test, and we would like to experiment with one bus to help with any recommendations in the future.”
The board also unanimously approved the purchase of a cargo van at a cost not to exceed $22,500. Business manager Brad DeRome said the corporation would be looking at models such as the Ford Transit Connect, the Chevy City Express and the Dodge Sprinter.
Also on a unanimous vote, the board approved a number of policies on topics ranging from meetings to religion in the curriculum, from adoption of curricular materials to animals on school property through their first reading. The policy changes have been made to reflect changes in state and federal law.
In other business, the board:
•Hired Amanda Tipton as an instructional assistant at Jay County High School, Pamela Reitenour as a food service employee at JCHS and Allison Bell as an instructional assistant at JCHS.
•Accepted the resignations of food service employees Adam Daniels, Judity Newsome and Kristy Ainsworth.
•Approve a resignation/leave for JCHS guidance counselor Tom Ferfuson.
•Approved leaves of absence for elementary school librarian Jessica Root, JCHS business teacher Courtney Daniels-Clay and JCHS health occupations teacher Jean Ann Poole.
•Approved extracurricular assignments for Annette Stultz as track coach at West Jay Middle School and Amy Hawbaker as half-time assistant softball coach at JCHS.
•Accepted the extracurricular resignations of Alan Bailey as boys soccer coach at JCHS and Cody Linville as freshman football coach and archery coach at JCHS.
•Approved field trips by the JCHS foreign language clubs, JCHS FFA students, the West Jay Middle School archery team, JCHS ag students, the JCHS girls basketball teams, fifth graders at General Shanks Elementary School, seventh graders at East Jay Middle School and the JCHS boys basketball team.
•Approved bus requests by Jay Community Center and Zion Lutheran Pre-School.
•Approved a special education consulting contract with Curtis and Livers.
•Approved a schedule of board meeting dates from Aug. 17 through Dec. 12, 2016.
•Approved middle school and high school social studies textbooks and a high school physics II textbook.
•Approved elementary and JCHS student/parent handbooks.
•Approved an elementary textbook and rental fee schedule that calls for a $108 fee for kindergarten, $122 for first grade, $108 for second grade, $130 for third grade, $121 for fourth grade and $124 for fifth grade.