Amidst a bidding war, the ISD 166 school board voted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 to sell its bus garage at the Birch Grove Community Center.
The unheated, uninsulated garage had been on the market for $37,000 and had three offers, two of them over the asking price, according to listing real estate agent Terry Backlund. It was sold for $38,200 to a party known only to Backlund until the deal is closed.
The primary reason the board voted as it did was related to safety. If a bus driver arrived at the bus garage and found the bus had a dead battery or a flat tire, getting a replacement bus would take a considerable amount of time. By the time phone calls could be made to all the families on the bus route, some parents would have already left for work while their children were heading to their bus stops.
School board member Mary Sanders said in a July 29 phone conversation that a deciding factor was the realization that the West End bus had been spending its winter nights in the Grand Marais bus garage for a couple of years already. Maintenance Director Mike Groth wanted to be on hand with all the district’s buses each morning to troubleshoot any problems that might come up.
Thevote was unanimous.
At the same meeting, the board voted to raise the price of 10-pass late bus punch cards from $30 to $60. The cost for providing the bus was $21,000 during the 2008-09 school year, Sanders said, but student bus passes generated only $2,200, just over one-tenth of the cost.
Sanders said board member Eric Kemp estimated that the cost to drive in to town to pick up a child would be more than the cost being charged to ride the late bus.
After a short business meeting, the board held a goal-setting workshop with new superintendent Beth Schwarz. Sanders believed they would be voting at the next school board meeting Monday, August 17 on the goals they set during the workshop.
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