The Bryan County School Board approved more than $821,000 for the purchase of new school buses at its July 25 meeting in Richmond Hill.
The board authorized the purchase of one 54-passenger school bus, six 72-passenger school buses and two 87-passenger school buses at a cost of $821,182. The buses will be paid for through $463,320 from the bus bond funds and $357,862 from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax V funds.
School board member Denis Seger asked when the buses would be ordered.
"We'll go ahead and do the purchase orders tomorrow (July 26) and go ahead and get that out now that it is approved. These buses are readily available once we order them. The only one we anticipate taking a couple of months is the 54-passenger special education bus," said Jason Roberts, the school board's new assistant superintendent for operations.
Seger asked if they would all be outfitted with cameras and communication equipment and Rogers assured him they would.
School superintendent Dr. Paul Brooksher said some of these buses are new and some will backfill buses currently in the inventory.
"It was a good year for us for buses," the superintendent said.
Brooksher also said 88 new teachers attended new teacher orientation last week and the training was well received by the new employees with several saying it was the best they had ever attended. The school superintendent also thanked the board, staff, principals and teachers for their hard work in preparing for the coming school year.
"The real estate closing is scheduled for July 31 on our land purchase that you authorized me to put under contract. I don't have any new significant updates on that but if I do I'll get those to you," Brooksher added.
The board approved the following:
* Donation of $405.12 from Donor's Choose to Abby Layfield and Carver Elementary School.
* The RHHS 9-12 cross country team to travel to Nash Farms in Hampton, Georgia via school bus August 23-24 for the Battle of Atlanta Cross Country Invitational.
* The RHHS cross country team to travel to Carrollton High School via school bus September 6-7 for a cross country invitational meet.
* The RHHS JROTC Raiders to travel to Hartwell, Georgia via school bus September 13-14.
* The RHHS 9-12 cross country team to travel to Cartersville, Georgia September 20-21 via school bus to participate in the Wingfoot Classic Cross Country Invitational.
* The RHHS JROTC Raiders to travel to Athens, Georgia September 27-28 via school bus.
* The RHHS JROTC Raiders to travel to Elberton, Georgia via school bus October 11-12.
* The RHHS Model UN to travel to Georgia Tech University October 13-15 via school bus to participate in a Model United Nations Conference.
* The M&O millage rate at 15.075 mills. Brooksher noted that both the M&O and debt service millage rates are the same as last years.
* The debt service millage rate at 1.5 mills
* Donation of a screen printer valued at $20,000 to Richmond Hill High School from McAljon.