The Salem Grade School District Board and Superintendent are extremely happy with its new bus contractor Robinson Transportation following the first year of their multiyear contract. Superintendent Dr. Leslie Foppe and board members Brad Crowe and John Gaston all expressed positive comments from the bus drivers and others.
Foppe notes instead of dealing with transportation problems every day, she had five issues in the past year that were taken care of by the contractor Eric Robinson.
“If Eric needs to get involved, he gets involved for you guys and has your back 110 percent. It has just been a fantastic year. We don’t have to stay until five o’clock for the kids to come back and be picked up. We don’t have to pay the aides to stay. It would also take principals away from things they needed to do at the end of the day. It has just been wonderful.”
Foppe says when there is a discipline issue they can now immediately get a video instead of not knowing if the video equipment was even working.
Foppe also read a letter from Robinson thanking the board for the opportunity and commending the bus drivers as well as the staff and parents. He added they have purchased a garage and land to house the busses on Westgate Avenue near the Kaskaskia Workshop which is much more spacious for the local staff.
The change did help lead to a $235,000 transportation fund deficit, but that has been covered by surpluses in other funds. After the transfer, Foppe says the district should end up with a half-million dollar surplus in the education fund, $17,000 in the building fund, and nearly $50,000 in working cash.
The board was told 95 students will graduate eighth grade at Franklin Park School on Friday night at seven pm.
The board thanked the Salem Ministerial Alliance for their work in providing weekend snack packs for low-income students who may have food insecurities at home. The First Christian Church is providing 55 packages to Hawthorn students and the First Baptist Church is providing 65 packages to Franklin Park students.
In personnel action, the board approved letters of resignation from 7th-grade math teacher Andrea Harre, 7th-grade history teacher Lisa Kiselewski and paraprofessionals Taylor Jeffords and Tonya Pryor.
The board agreed to transfer Amy Lipe to the 7th-grade history position and Ricky Huge to the 7th-grade math position.
The board hired Amy Brubaker as Head Coach for Girls Cross Country and Jackson Lingafeldter for a summer maintenance position.
