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HARTINGTON — Hartington-Newcastle school buses will soon have a new home when they are not out on their routes.
The school's fleet of five-to-seven buses has been parked at Peitz GMC for at least the last 35 years. HNS Supt. A.J. Johnson said the local business wants to make some changes to their northwest Hartington lot, and has asked the school to find another home to store their vehicles.
Brandon Eickhoff, who is a part-owner of Broadway Self Storage, said he would be willing to make room for the buses at his Comfy Feet facility on the southwest edge of town.
Eickhoff is putting another building on the lot, and the buses could actually be stored inside that building.
'While we greatly appreciate the way Peitz has worked with us these many years, it would also be nice to be able to store our buses out of the weather,' Johnson said prior to the meeting.
The Board voted Monday to approve a five-year contract with Eickhoff to rent storage space from him at $19,500 a year.
Eickhoff said Hartington is one of only a handful of area schools that parks their vehicles outside.
Students who ride those buses to attend band festivals will be getting new band uniforms, the Board decided.
Johnson said the school has not had band uniforms for many years. Band instructor Mary Hahne would like to take the marching band to a competition or two and uniforms would be needed to do this.
The Board approved a quote of $31,656 from Missouri-based Stanberry uniforms.
'The good thing is, they should have quite a long lifespan, unlike sports uniforms, where they need to be replaced every four or five years,' Johnson said. 'I would expect them to last at least 20 years.'
Also Monday, the Board voted to change some graduation requirements beginning with students who will be graduating in the class of 2028. In the last few years, the Legislature has mandated students must take both a computer applications class and a personal finance class in order to graduate.
The school has been offering the classes as one year classes, but this has caused difficulty for some students trying to take various electives, Johnson said. The classes will now be offered as one semester classes, instead of two-semester classes. This change still meets the state requirement, he said.
'Right now, we're just finding some kids are having a hard time getting the classes they want,' Johnson said. 'This should make it easier.'
The Board also agreed to transfer $25,000 from the general fund account into the school lunch account. Because of federal funding from COVID and other programs, the Board has not had to do this for several years.
Johnson said those funds are drying up and other federal funds are also going away.
'We will also be losing some of the grant funds we had been depending on,' he said. 'It's unfortunate some of those decisions have been made. It's going to affect the quality of some of the things we've been able to serve.'
The Board also approved principal contracts and raises for the non-certified staff . Johnson said the para-professionals, cooks, custodians and bus drivers will receive on average about a two-and-ahalf percent raise.
Jr.-Sr. High School Principal Corey Uldrich and Elementary School Principal Sarah Edwards will also receive two-and-a-half percent contract increases approved by the Board Monday. This brings Uldrich's annual salary to $110,500, while Edwards is at $108,000.
Neb. Assoc. of School Boards representative Sherry Becker was also on hand Monday to explain some of the benefits and programs the group offers. HNS has been a member of the organization for many years.
Edwards told the Board the elementary students have been very busy. The sixth graders recently helped Floral Designs to plant flowers for the community and they did a clean-up project for the flower beds in front of the elementary.
In April, fourth graders took part in a Arbor Day celebration to help the Hartington Tree Board plant two trees by the new elementary building.
Cedar Knox Public Power District recently hosted the fifth and sixth graders to talk about safety.
The next School Board meeting is set for June 16 at 5:30 p.m.
