Breckenridge Texan

During a special board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 2, the Breckenridge Independent School District board of trustees voted to amend the school district’s 2017-18 budget, approve a contract for electrical work for the new classroom building being installed at South Elementary and purchase a wheelchair lift bus.

According to BISD Superintendent Tim Seymore, the $150,000 budget amendment brings in money to the 2017-2018 budget that the district has already collected through property taxes. He said the district collected over $200,000 more revenue in property taxes than they had budgeted for and is adding the additional $150,000 into the budget because they have had some unexpected expenditures, like the additional electrical work needed at South Elementary.

After approving the budget amendment, trustees approved a $40,520 contract to Resist-All Electric in Breckenridge to provide the electrical work at South Elementary. According to Seymore, because they are bringing in a new building, everything has to be brought up to code and they discovered that there was not enough electrical services at South Elementary. The approved work will include installation of a new service meter, underground cabling and new disconnects at the building.

Additionally, Seymore said they are also putting some of the amended funding into the budget to make accommodations at the high school and junior high because of the road construction in front of the school. He said because of the expected traffic congestion caused by the road construction, they are trying to find ways to accommodate more students at lunch and keep more kids on campus to eat lunch.

“We’re looking at some things, like what do we do at lunch,” he said. “We’re looking at the possibility of adding some ways to feed more kids at lunch so everybody doesn’t have to leave at lunch. It may require some more outdoor seating; we’re looking at the possibility of bringing a food truck in.”

The food truck would be operated by the BISD food service, he said.

Trustees also approved $74,900 for the purchase of a 2016 International 42 passenger-size school bus with one wheelchair station from American Bus Sales out of Collinsville, Oklahoma. The district received three bids for the bus purchase.  The funding for the bus will come from the 2017-18 Federal Special Education Grant Funds.

According to Seymore, there was a change in how Federal Special Education Funds are allocated. He said that for many years the unspent funds were reallocated to the next fiscal year, but they changed that and now the school district needs to clear out the Federal Special Education spending each year to avoid a lot of confusing account juggling.

The district’s current Special Education bus is 12 years old, and the backup Special Education bus is 20 years old. The bus the district is purchasing is a 42 passenger-size bus, but because of the space used by the wheelchair lift and the wheelchair station, the bus will accommodate one wheelchair and 30 passengers. Seymore said additional wheelchair stations can be easily added by unclamping and removing three passenger seats from the bus and then clamping in the additional wheelchair where the seats were.

Story by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texas

Cutline, top photo: A construction worker works on the railing for the front porch of the new portable classroom building at South Elementary. The building is expected to be ready for classes when school starts in a couple of weeks. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)