The School Committee voted unanimously Monday to buy two eight-passenger vans previously owned by the CASE Collaborative at $1,000 each, plus about $500 for inspections and repairs. Superintendent Linda Dwight asked for approval to purchase the vans as transport for school activities and clubs that don’t need a full-size bus.
Dee Bus Service charges the schools $4.50 a mile for these trips, Dwight said. The schools’ current van has already logged 3,897 miles in the past year, saving about $17,500 in bus costs. And that total does not include the additional hourly fees Dee charges for its drivers’ waiting time during events.
Besides ferrying students to sports practice or club activities, Dwight said the school also uses its van to bring parents who lack transportation to teacher conferences and to school events they otherwise could not attend.
The School Committee voted to authorize the purchase with money from the fund MassDevelopment pays the Harvard schools for educating students who live in Devens.
Dwight also wrote to Council on Aging Director Debbie Thompson, asking if the COA had occasions when it might need to use one of the vans. Dwight said she considered sharing with the COA as part of being a team player in town.
Thompson welcomed the offer at first, writing, “Our van is on the road five days a week, and we still have over 320 unmet rides per year that could be supported with another van.” But after learning that the CASE vans had 180,000 miles on them, she told the Press that the COA needed a newer van to meet the needs of seniors.
HES roof repairs
The School Committee also voted to use Devens funds to finish repairs to the leaky roof at Hildreth Elementary School. HES Principal Josh Myler said the roof work was expected to be completed this week, before Saturday’s predicted rain. That was the good news.
The bad news was that Rockwell Roofing of Leominster, which originally bid $19,500 for the project, now said it would charge an additional $7,000 to seal the seams of the roof’s rubber membrane, a necessary step to make the roof as waterproof as possible. That brought the total cost of the project to $2,500 more than the $24,000 maximum the School Committee had authorized for the work last September.
“I feel a little bit held up on that,” Dwight said ruefully, “but it’s pretty serious.” Committee members agreed on both counts and approved the additional funds.
Applewild seeks Devens expansion
The committee also learned that the Applewild School, a private elementary school, hopes to expand its presence in Devens. Currently, Applewild has preschool and kindergarten programs there. Parents who want their children to continue at Applewild in the later grades must send them to the school’s Fitchburg campus.
Dwight told the School Committee that Applewild Headmaster Christopher Williamson hoped to expand the Devens school up through fifth grade a year at a time, as enrolled children move up grade by grade. Thus, the process would take place over five years from the time it begins.
For the expansion to proceed, according to a memo Dwight wrote, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requires a letter of support from the Harvard School Committee as the educating oversight committee. Dwight said MassDevelopment’s financial director and its legal counsel had also called her about the approval process for the plan. She recommended that the School Committee support the plan, which it did in a unanimous vote. Dwight will draft the letter to the DESE, which MassDevelopment is also expected to sign.
