The Eureka Springs School District is still waiting on the new school bus it purchased a year ago, but in order to stay ahead of the waiting game, the school board approved another new bus purchase at its regular meeting on Monday, Dec. 12.
“We’re just trying to be proactive and [got the approval] to purchase another bus to give us a slot to get one,” Superintendent Bryan Pruitt said. “We were supposed to get [the bus purchased in 2021] in August, but now they’re saying April.”
The bus approved at the Dec. 12 meeting will cost the district $135,000, approximately $10,000 more than the one the district is still waiting on.
“It’s all about inflation and demand,” Pruitt said. “But as hard as the buses are to get, we just wanted to stay on top of that.”
The key to the delay, Pruitt said, is air conditioners. “COVID has affected everybody’s ability to get school buses,” he said. “The one we bought that was supposed to be one to come in this year but hasn’t because they haven’t been able to get air conditioners installed on them. The buses are built, but none of the schools in the state have been getting those buses because I believe the factory that installed the air conditioners closed their doors.
“So, they’re trying to get somebody to reopen that facility.” Pruitt said the district uses nine buses and rotates the oldest one out each year.
“We have nine buses and eight routes,” he said. “We buy a new bus every year … as long as we do that, our oldest bus is nine years old when we pull it off.”
OTHER BUSINESS
Also at the meeting, the board recognized Jim Nelson, owner of Nelson’s clothing store in downtown Eureka Springs, who recently gave district staff members $35 gift cards to use for holiday shopping at his store. “We have 100-something employees and 99 took advantage of that,” Pruitt said. “It’s a great donation for our staff and it’s a very nice gesture. The staff will get to go down there during the holidays and have a chance to buy something from his store. So, we wanted to recognize him for doing that.”
The donation for staff is another example of the partnership the district has with businesses in the community, Pruitt said.
“We’re just glad to be an integral partner with everybody in our town,” he said. “We want to be receptive to all of our businesses in town and are glad to be partners with so many of them. They pay taxes that help us run the school and in return we don’t want to take that lightly. We respect what they do to help us.”
The board also approved a fiscal operations policy change for daily per diem while on district travel.
“In the past we’ve had like a $44 per day per diem,” Pruitt said. “Now, we’re going to go with whatever the government federal rate, the GSA [General Services Administration] rate for travel reimbursements.
“Now, we won’t have to keep coming back and revising that every six months or every year.”
The board also approved one transfer of a student to Green Forest.
The next school board meeting will be held on Monday, Jan. 9.
