Armed personnel survey to go out via ALMA

The Haxtun Board of Education met for a regular meeting on Monday, Sept. 16 in the high school library. The regular Tuesday meeting date was moved to a day earlier to avoid conflict with other events on the school calendar. Looking ahead, board members acted later in the meeting to set the next eight meeting dates, through May 2024, to both plan ahead and avoid calendar clashes throughout the school year.

In his Superintendent's report at the start of the meeting, Aron Jones gave an over on several projects happening or proposed throughout the District facilities. He said the front window to the business window at the high school was recently replaced and the frame was adjusted to hopefully prevent the window from cracking. He is also looking into a safety film to cover the window to add more protection to it. The project, Jones said, will be funded through the school safety grant.

Jones said he also met with Haxtun Police Chief Tom Bullard recently to talk about solutions to the intersection congestion at the corner of North Colorado and West Powell during home games. Two solutions included a portable yellow speed bump or a portable stop sign, both would cost about $150. Jones said he agreed to pay up to half of what Bullard thought would be a suitable solution. He said his suggestion would be to purchase the top sign as it could also be useful to the local police department for other large community events.

The Superintendent also touched on the status of the new buses recently ordered by the District, which are scheduled to be built in January. He said when the buses are next in line to be built, it takes about a day or so with delivery to follow shortly after, usually within the same week.

Don Schelling, Jones said, Maintenance Director, believes the District can get through without the busses until January so long as nothing major comes along. However, Jones said his worry is that the state of the current buses are unpredictable and even with the preventative routine maintenance the District may not be able to service all athletes to their events.

At the end of his report, Jones told the Board he continues to work on the armed school personnel policy. He said he has created a draft survey that will go out to parents via ALMA, the District's online student information system. That survey will go out soon.

Later the Board:

• Set the following meeting dates: Oct. 16, Nov. 19, Dec. 18, Jan. 12, Feb. 18, March 25, April 15 and May 13;

• Approved changing the breakfast price at $2.40 and the lunch price to $4.84 for the current school year;

• Approved Noah Toops as the junior high school head basketball coach;

• Approved increasing the daily substitute teacher pay to $140 per day.