The Sweet Springs Board of Education met Thursday, May 8, to approve purchasing a new bus and replacing carpet in the high school.

Superintendent Boyd Jones said the district has purchased large buses the last two years.

"If we buy this one, we can hold off one year before buying another," Jones said.

He said, to his knowledge, the district has always purchased buses from Central State Bus Sales, except the 1993 Chevrolet the district owns.

The district's fleet consists of Blue Bird school buses.

"They have been very good," he said.

The bus that will be traded in was a spare for the district. It was put back onto a route this year with the specific notion that it is in its final year with the district.

When the district is prepared to trade buses in, they have over 140,000 miles and most of them are driving on gravel roads.

"They have given us great trade-in values in the past," Jones said.

Vice President John Dohrman said the board has explored selling the bus by bids in the past, but the trade-in value has always been much better.

The board approved purchasing a Blue Bird bus from Central States and trading the older bus in towards the purchase price.

"I think it's a good idea to stick with buses your drivers are used to driving," Dohrman said.

That way drivers can jump into a bus that has similar signal boards, he continued.

Jones presented three bids to the board for replacement of carpet at the high school.

"We have already replaced some carpet in the high school due to the lack of adhesion to the floor," Jones said. "The carpet is about 10 years old and originally installed inadequately, in my opinion."

The plan is to replace the carpet in the band room, nurse's office and the teacher's workroom with new carpet.

The carpet in the business lab will be replaced with tile.

"The band room (carpet) is in horrific shape," Jones said.

The business teacher wants the room to have tile because of the rolling chairs.

Rudi's Carpet & Furniture, L.L.C returned a bid of $10,911.43, Dugan's Paint and Flooring Centers, $13,588.73 and Carpet Plus, $10,737.26.

Jones suggested the board award Rudi's Carpet the bid, even though they were not low bidder.

"They replaced the carpet in the hall and did a great job," he said.

The board agreed to award Rudi's Carpet the bid.

In other business, the board approved awarding a contract to River Bluff Architects, Inc.

The board has had preliminary discussions with River Bluff concerning the plan to construct an elementary school on the Marshall Street campus.

Jones said this is just a formal commitment to them if the bond issue passes in April 2009 to build a new elementary.

"We have made no commitments or paid anything," Jones said.

He has a contract ready to sign with the company concerning the project.

There are a few loose ends to tie up, but Jones was unconcerned.

"He has done everything I have asked him to do for the contract," Jones said about the person he has been dealing with from the company.

The district and company has agreed on a 6 percent interest rate and will change the option if a problem arises from arbitrary to a lawsuit.

"If something goes wrong, we can go straight to a suit," Jones said. "Our attorney made these suggestions."

If the bond fails, the district only has to pay $1,000 to the company. If it passes, they will pay 6 percent of construction costs.

"This is cheaper than what other schools have paid for, for this kind of work," Jones said.

He said he made several calls about the companies that wanted to do the architectural work for the preliminary phase and River Bluff had the most positive comments.

When approving the consent agenda, the board approved the resignation of Leigh Jones as junior high cheerleader sponsor and Cindy Smith as paraprofessional.

They also approved the employment of Stephanie Malter as elementary instructor; Charles Swopes as part-time custodian; Kristen Fenner as agriculture instructor; and Regina Wilkinson as elementary instructor.

The board approved the appointment of Eric Hon and Fenner as senior sponsors.

Contact Rachel Harper at marshallcity@socket.net