Allen Schools will be getting two activity buses, instead of just one, due to extra funds from the government. The news was shared Monday evening at the regular meeting of the Allen School Board.

Superintendent Jeff Hiatt spoke about two things in action items, with one being “accepting bid for the transportation bond along with the DERA (Diesel Emissions Reduction Act) Grant and ESSER II (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund) funds, with Summit Bus for the purchase of two 2022 International activity buses, two 2022 International route buses, and one 2019 International route bus.”

“So, originally when we did the transportation bond, we were looking for an activity bus, two route buses, the Suburban, driver’s ed car and ag truck,” Hiatt said. “But actually, with the DERA grant, which, we’ll have to get rid of our oldest bus, that’s why that route bus is on there, and with our ESSER funds, we can get two route buses and two activity buses.”

Hiatt said initially, the two new route buses won’t be used on routes that include dirt roads, only highways.

“We’re going to hold them back and put our older buses out on the routes, so hopefully, those 2022 route buses in five years will be still good. But anyway, our fleet is going to go from bad to excellent.”

Hiatt said the buses will have cameras as well.

“In today’s world, we gotta have cameras,” Hiatt said. “And they’re infrared cameras so they see in the dark, like coming back from a late game. And, they hear. They pick up all of what’s being said. So that’s a good feature.”

The board approved.

Another action item was accepting bid for the transportation bond with Seth Wadley Chevrolet of Ada for the purchase of a 2021 Suburban, 2021 Equinox (driver’s ed car) and a 2021 Chevrolet 2500 diesel ag truck.

“And I got quotes from everybody on them,” Hiatt said. “The only one that was close was (in) Shawnee. They were close but Seth Wadley would match anything that they would throw at me. Everybody else was giving me retail prices. We went to Seminole, we went to Davis, I wanted to give everybody a shot. I’m kinda glad Seth Wadley came in the cheapest because he’s local and we can run over there and get oil changed for free.”

Board members commented that Seth Wadley has previously helped support the school’s ag program.

“He does help us, and he said he will continue to help us in other ways,” Hiatt said.

Administrative Reports

Hiatt also spoke about the buses and additional funding in administrative reports.

“Last week, we received our notice of our ESSER III funds, we got a lot of money there,” Hiatt said. “There’s a lot of things that they have preapproved that we can spend it on, but ESSER III, we still haven’t got the details on that yet. They said the middle of May, would be for guidelines, and then we’ll get the money July 1. With that money, we have to do a budget. We have to submit a budget to the state department telling them what we’re spending it on, and it has to meet this criteria: it has to prepare, prevent or respond to COVID.”

Hiatt said some things that have been preapproved are route buses, carpet to tile, heat and air units that allow fresh air in, and other things such text books and additional supplies for the classrooms.

Hiatt said the school system will get the transportation bond money on May 20, and the vehicles can be ordered then. He said the ag truck will need to be ordered, and made at the factory, so it may take a while. He is not yet sure when it will be available.

“The other vehicles, they think, we can have pretty quickly,” Hiatt said. “The (route) buses, I think they’re pretty much ready. Because you can buy buses with COVID money now, there is a backorder on all route buses. What I’d like to do is buy an extra activity bus with the transportation (bond money), and then buy a route bus out of our ESSER II funds, because that’s preapproved. Our bus fleet will be top notch.”

Hiatt said the first activity bus is in the process of being custom “wrapped.”

Other Administrative Reports

In administrative reports, Elementary School Principal Amy Mayhue spoke about recent happenings and updates on playgrounds.

“I just wanted to let you all know that last week we went to a Big 5 banquet,” Mayhue said. “Mr. Hiatt and I attended, we were well-represented. All of our staff was there, and we had about four students recognized and a parent recognized for their reading, and a couple of teachers. It was a reading contest that they turned in a log of how many minutes they did of reading. For our little ones, it was really exciting to let the kids go up and get their awards and be there to support them.”

Mayhue informed the board that the elementary school is 100% testing completed.

“Virtual and in-person students 100%,” she said. “Mrs. Hiatt worked very hard to make sure that we had all of them done, so we are complete.”