Monday night the District 202 School Board heard a presentation from High School Principal Chad Bahnks regarding the creation of an alternative school within the district.
Bahnks says that in the last five years the high school has seen a marked increase in at-risk students. At-risk students generally defined a student who is likely to fail at school, in this context school failure is seen as dropping out. “We have a lot of at-risk kids at our school. I would say from year to year we’re talking between 20 and 30 kids who struggle to stay in classes, and struggle to pass the classes.”
Banks says that the new alternative, called Knoxville Opportunities, would be similar to Galesburg North – serving the at-risk population in the district.
Since 2015, 75 students have been dropped from the high school due to chronic absenteeism, transfers, homeschooling or to attend Regional Alternative Educational Services East in Galesburg.
Bahnks hopes is that by creating an alternative school in the district, students will still be able to graduate as Blue Bullets.
The school board also approved the leasing of school buses for the upcoming school year.
The district received two bids for six buses, four conventional, one activities, and one lift from Central States Bus Sales and Midwest Transit Equipment.
Superintendent Steve Wilder said that the two bids they’d received detailed the different costs, per year, per bus, for the different types of buses.
Wilder said that while Central States Bus Sales didn’t have the best price for the conventional bus, their bid met all the requirements the district was looking for, which is why he recommended that one. Wilder said that the, “We’ve had some issues with the Thomas buses in terms of getting them serviced quickly, which is one of Chuck’s big concerns. If one of those buses goes down, they’re usually out for a couple of days.” He added, “While we do have spares, one of the advantages with Central States is that they allow Chuck to do a lot of the repairs and warranty work himself.” Wilder was referring to district employee Chuck Hillery.
The costs to the district will be $12,653,50 annually for each conventional bus, $14,276.51 for the lift bus, and $15,775.30 for the activity bus.
The board approved the lease bid from Central States Bus Sales unanimously. Additional action from the board included the approval of Greg Ruetz as KHS Girls Track Coach and Allison Sylvester as Assistant Track Coach.
