March 29, 2024
Local News | Putnam County Record


Local News

Riding the school bus ...

Bad bus behavior discussed at PC School Board meeting

GRANVILLE — While stating most Putnam County students are well-mannered, Superintendent Carl Carlson discussed what he said were “pockets of bad behavior” in the district’s school buses.

“After nine weeks, we should know what the rules are; we should know how to sit in our seat, be quiet and to be respectful to the bus driver ... appreciate the ride,” Carlson said of student bus behavior during the Putnam County School Board meeting on Oct. 17.

Saying he’d spoken with the bus company and viewed tapes to see examples of the behavior in question, Carlson has met with the district’s administrative team. During their monthly meeting, it was decided the district will be re-visiting the expectations of student behavior on the bus.

“We’re going to address the consequences right then and not wait until this becomes more of an issue,” Carlson said.

Carlson added he’s evaluating a proposal from the bus company, Johannes Bus, which could possibly save the district money by changing the pre-kindergarten bus routing to be more efficient.

In other board news:

• During the state funding update, it was shown the district is owed a total of $214,005.04 from the state — $108,397.08 for transportation; $105,541.24 for special education and $66.72 for the Illinois Free Lunch program. The district has not yet received any funding from the state for the Early Childhood program.

“This takes us back to the typical $200,000 or more in delayed payments from the state that we’ve seen during the last few years,” Carlson said.

• Carlson said he’ll soon be meeting with a representative from First Midstate to discuss the district’s options in regards to the potential bond repayment issues created by the county’s mistake of assessing the tax levy in one year rather than over five years.

“We’ll be looking for the best possible plan for our district moving forward. The reason we took the bonds out in the first place was to have a protective interest in the fund because we weren’t sure about the state issues. We’re still not sure about the state, but we’re going to see if we can possibly pay it all back in one sum, which would save us a lot of interest to be paid, but it depends on what type of bond it is. It’s basically a mess,” Carlson said.

• The board will be developing a checklist to ensure the district’s various HVACR equipment receives regular maintenance work and inspections.

• The board approved the addition of Midland High School to the regional wrestling co-op of Hall High School and Putnam County.

Carlson said, “This will mean we’ll share a third of the costs instead of half and will also result in more weight classes being filled; it will benefit all three schools.”

Putnam County typically has 10 to 12 wrestlers per year, and Hall and Midland each have approximately eight to 10.

He also said they’ll have to redesign the uniforms to incorporate Midland’s school color — green. Previously the uniforms were split, colored with the appropriate school color and logo on each side, red for Hall and black for Putnam County.