The Manitou Springs School District 14 Board of Education met remotely at 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 18. Board members Tina Vidovich and Connie Brachtenbach were absent and excused from the meeting.
The board unanimously approved the minutes from its February meeting and the intended agenda for the night’s meeting. The consent agenda was also approved unanimously.
With no public comment on the agenda, Superintendent Sean Dorsey moved forward with his report, referencing the recent torrential snowstorm:
“I want to thank Stuart (Cross, director of facilities) and his crew for the … huge heavy lift in getting campuses ready with … unprecedented snow and conditions, and working with limited equipment. They just did a wonderful job, and everybody stayed safe, and everybody was safe arriving today.”
The two items on the superintendent’s agenda for the night included transportation and nutrition.
John Harden, the district’s director of transportation, gave a short presentation on the state of the Transportation Department over the past year and leading into 23/24.
During the 22/23 school year, D14 buses traveled a total of 125,000 miles.
“Every year we do pretty much the same mileage,” Harden said … “with athletics, field trips and routes. Over the last couple of years, we had to combine some routes together just because of a shortage of drivers.”
Harden spoke highly of the district’s drivers, saying, “Our bus drivers … make everything happen. If it wasn’t for them, my life would be pretty hard. They accommodate everything (on) short notice, whatever needs to be done, (they’re) there.”
We need to upgrade our fleet – John Harden
A pre-owned bus has joined the D14 fleet, bringing the total up to 14 for the district. The Transportation Department has also contracted with a service called EverDriven, which provides a vetted transportation service similar to Uber or Lyft for students with special needs, or those who live outside of the district.
Though there have been some positive developments in the department, “one thing I really want to emphasize is (that) we need to upgrade our fleet. Even if it’s just new/used buses. … These old ones that we’ve got are 20-plus years old, and they’re costing the district a lot of money,” Harden said.
The Colorado Department of Education generally discourages districts from keeping buses that old on the road, but Suzi Thompson, D14 chief financial officer, mentioned that “last year CDE put out a survey because they wanted to change regulations … they put out a survey to all school districts and didn’t realize that pretty much all school districts operate on really old fleets like that, so they couldn’t (change regulations). But it is really discouraged.”
On average, the annual upkeep cost for D14 buses totals about 232,373. The last pre-owned bus the district bought cost roughly $75,000. Over time, it will bring down that annual cost in upkeep due to warranties, its newer parts and the vehicle’s overall better performance.
Thompson further mentioned that D14 did apply for a federal grant that would provide electric school buses, but the district is on a waiting list. Moreover, the grant requires a match if approved, with each school bus alone totaling roughly $300,000.
Harden concluded by saying that the best course of action for the District would be to try to procure “one bus at a time, at least a new/used bus, once a year.”
Paula Faucette, the nutrition services director, then gave a short update on the Nutrition Services Department. D14 is participating in the Healthy School Meals for All program, approved by Colorado voters, which enables districts to offer free meals to all students.
“The important thing to remember, though,” Faucette urged, “(is that) families continue to provide their household income information on the meal application. …We still have to gather the information to receive the funding from the federal government.”
Since 2022, the number of free school district meals provided has risen from 306 to 430. The number of reduced-price lunches has risen from 27 to 50.
The NSD also adopted an updated wellness policy, incorporating ideas that encourage non-food fundraisers and events, as well as requiring incentives for behavior other than food, candy or treats.
Because of Vidovich’s and Brachtenbach’s absence, the rest of the board agreed to postpone the vote on the 2024 BOE Calendar to the next session. With no other business to attend to, the meeting concluded at 6:30 p.m.
Information: tinyurl.com/Dist14schoolboard.