GENTRY -- The Gentry School Board at its Nov. 16 meeting approved a bus purchase and new hires for the district.
The board approved the low bid of Summit Bus Sales of $98,350 for a new 77-foot school bus for the district. The bids for the other two bus suppliers in the state were considerably higher.
The board approved the hiring of Haven Bolerjack as a custodian and Doel Frazier as a bus driver. It accepted the resignations of Krystal Harrington as a custodian, Jenny Brown as the middle school librarian and Cherice Ward as a primary school kindergarten teacher.
The board also acknowledged the sudden death of cafeteria worker Sheila Hart and expressed condolences to her family.
The family of Robert Andrews presented the board with a record album of Gentry bands from the 1970s, which was received with gratitude.
Terrie Metz, superintendent of Gentry schools, told the board that the school district had 15 active cases of covid-19 but that health department tracing showed that only one of those was transmitted through contact at the schools.
Metz also reported being short-staffed in the custodial department because of all the added work of keeping the school facilities safe and clean during the current pandemic. She and others have been helping out where possible. As a result, the use of the school facilities over the Thanksgiving break had to be limited this year, she said, because she did not have the staff to reclean and sanitize the facilities.
Also reported to the board was feedback on Gentry's virtual day, a STEM grant obtained by Victoria Groomer for the primary school and honors won by Craig Millsap for his work in technology coordination for the district and the state.