The Fairbanks Board of Education approved the purchase of a new maintenance truck at Monday night’s meeting.
According to Superintendent Bob Humble, maintenance worker Scott Shively had voiced concerns about one of the maintenance trucks not functioning. He said Shively was worried there would be a situation where the school wouldn’t have two trucks ready to plow the school’s driveways.
“We’re coming up to that point where Scott feels that he’s not confident that we’re always going to have two trucks available for the first time it snows,” Humble said. “We don’t want to get into a situation where the roads are clear but we can’t get into our parking lot because we don’t have the trucks to actually plow the snow.”
He said it would be best to purchase a new 2018 vehicle so the board could have a vehicle with a warranty. With the options he explored, they had too much mileage on them to be covered under a warranty. He also said the state won’t be able to help with the costs of the truck if it’s used.
Humble said he’s looking at a truck with a steel frame, as opposed to an aluminum frame, so it could hold a plow. With this in mind, he said Shively suggested a Chevrolet truck.
Also at the meeting, the board approved for the district to pay 25 percent of the total cost toward a school resource officer, to be hired by the Union County Sheriff’s Office. Like with Milford Center’s recent village meeting, Sheriff Jamie Patton arrived to talk about a school resource officer who would help teach drug awareness programs to students.
Patton said, with the cooperation with school districts, school boards, commissioners, various townships and state funding, this was made into a possibility. With prior discussions with Humble, they were able to hammer out the details of the program with Fairbanks Schools.
“We’re going to take it from, not only a school setting, but also from beyond the school doors and help families with struggling kids,” Patton said. “The whole idea is to get a healthy environment and a change in the culture. We hope, in the years to come, we’ll see a major change… and a better society as a whole.”
Also in the meeting, the board approved of the organization META Solutions Cooperative to advertise and receive bids, on behalf of the board, for the purchase of a school bus.
Finally, at the meeting, audience member Roy Burton requested Fairbanks High School’s gym be named after former Fairbanks coach Patty Pease. Burton was accompanied by at least eight other people in support of this initiative.
He said this would be a more fitting way to respect Pease compared to a plaque, as she would want the school to “pay for programs around the school” instead. The board agreed to table the decision for a later meeting, as they’ll need to take some time to talk about it.