USD 253 Emporia Board of Education members approved a contract for soil investigations of work sites for the district’s $78 million facility improvement project Wednesday evening.
Board members unanimously approved a contract with Terracon: Consulting Engineers and Scientists who will be conducting geotechnical investigations at each district facility in the coming months. The process entails engineers drilling into the ground, roughly 20 feet, to collect core samples to determine the current state of soil conditions around each site.
The district has utilized Terracon for this purpose in the past at six different district facilities, Emporia High School, Emporia Middle School, Logan Avenue, Riverside, Timmerman and Walnut, on multiple occasions over the past 30 plus years. According to USD 253 Superintendent Kevin Case, the results of those previous explorations will be considered in the formulation of future recommendations.
The total cost of the explorations is $26,000 and is included in the total bond dollars approved back in November. Work is anticipated to begin in the coming months, however, an official timeline has yet to be determined.
In other business, the board received an update on a new software program meant to help protect students on school busses. Transportant is a monitoring program implemented in district school buses which provides a number of benefits to parents, students and bus drivers alike.
This includes a complete roster on the dashboard of each driver, instant alerts in the event of wrong drop offs, updates in the event of an emergency, and up to date notifications for students when busses are three stops away amongst other tools. Transportant Director of Business Development Andy Vaughn says in today’s society you can track the status of a package or food order up to the moment it arrives safely, however, you can’t always do the same with your children. This is where Transportant plays a pivotal role.
Another tool included with the program will be up to date route updates and turn by turn directions which District Transportation Director Becky Douglas says will help to increase driver’s attention behind the wheel.
District staff have been testing the program with a small group of students and plan to roll the program out fully by next school year.
Other items on the agenda included a review of district ACT data, board appointments to outside committees, approval of the board’s official meeting time and place for 2020-21 and approval of extending board officer terms. Two executive sessions also took place with no action taken.
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7 pm inside the Mary Herbert Education Center.
