By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays school board is set to further discuss plans for a third bond issue at its meeting tonight.
The district will look at organizing a group or groups to bring back plans to the school board for further consideration.
The board and district officials have discussed ways to provide updated facilities for elementary students while vacating older buildings with higher maintenance costs. Administrators has also noted fewer elementary schools would likely result in more efficiency and reduced costs.
The administration is presenting three possible plans in its board packet for tonight.
The first plan suggests the construction of a new elementary school that would house students from O’Loughlin and Lincoln Elementary schools. Under this scenario, the Learning Center, Munjor and the Early Childhood Center could be moved into O’Loughlin.
Under the second plan, ECC students from both Washington and Munjor as well as Lincoln students would be housed in a new elementary school.
In the third plan, O’Loughlin and Lincoln students would be housed in a new elementary school. The Learning Center, Westside program, administration and maintenance would go to O’Loughlin. This would allow for the closure of the current Westside building and Rockwell.
The board will also review its capital improvement schedule at the meeting tonight.
The board will also discuss a pilot program on the use of Chromebooks in the district.
A recommendation from the administration would create pilot programs at the elementary school and middle school levels and at the Learning Center. Fifteen Chromebooks would be purchased for the Learning Center, 25 for an elementary classroom and 30 for a middle school classroom. With training and licensing, the program is estimated to cost $22,543.
The board just approved the purchase of Dell computers for the high school. However, several board members said they would have preferred a proposal that would have included Chromebooks because they felt it would have been a cost savings.
Other items on the agenda include
• Transfer of $300,000 from the general fund to the contingency fund. The new balance in the contingency fund would be $961,828, which is still less than the two month of payroll or $4.8 million recommended by the Kansas Department of Education.
• Discussion of student handbook revisions
• Approval of property and workers compensation insurance