Fees for Pana Schools set for new year
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Tom Latonis
Breeze-Courier Writer
PANA — The Pana School Board met on Monday night and made some slight adjust- ments in the fees which will charged when the new school year starts. All seven board members were present for the meeting held in the Library of pana High School.
To get into line with federal guidelines, lunch fees at all grade levels for students were raised 25¢. Kindergarten through eighth grade is $3 per student and at the high school level, $3.25. Pana School Superintendent Jason Bauer pointed out while the lunch price is being raised, students will not actually have to pay for their meals this year due to resources provided the district through COVID relief funds.
All other meal prices remained the same.
Textbook rentals will remain at 2020-21 levels with the exception of Lake Land College tuition for on-line courses which will increase $25 to $375. Bauer said this is the first such increase in the fee in about 10 years.
Technology fees went up by 50¢ to $91 for students in grades 6-12. Reduced price fees are $51.
Admission to all high school events as well as season pass- es will remain the same as will admission to junior high and sophomore sporting events.
Board members approve the purchase of two new buses for the district at a total cost of almost $140,000. Money is being appropriated from the ESSER II (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency
Relief Fund) which was estab- lished as part of the response to COVID-19.
Both buses off-lease 72-pas- senger vehicles with 35,000 miles on them. Jeff Stauder, Director of Buildings/Grounds and Transportation, said the buses will bolster the fleet while reducing the payments for bus purchases in the new fiscal year.
Stauder also reported work to replace the floor in the util- ity room/gym has been delayed to Aug. 9. The job should take about two weeks to complete.
He also said work on the drainage/parking lot at Washington School is under- way.
An amended Fiscal Year 2021 budget was approved. The new budget shows a bal- ance of almost $260,000 in
the Education Fund and Operations and Maintenance and Transportation will be in the negative, $309,000 and $152,000, respectively.
Handbooks for all school buildings and athletics were approve by unanimous vote. Board Member Kyle Anderson, who participated in the review of the handbooks, said there were minor changes made, mainly getting the high school and junior high school hand- books more in line with one another.
It was announced the dis- trict’s liability insurance will go up just over 15% to slightly more than $134,000 for the new school year. The premium jumped by almost $18,000. Bauer said this was an indus- try-wide increase being fueled by high payouts by insurance for storm related damages.
This is the third and final year on the contract with Prairie State Insurance Corp. Bauer said he will seek new con- tract bids for next year.
Members went into exec- utive session at 6:51 p.m.
and came back to open session at 7:37. Following the return to open session, members approved the employment of Susan Hicks as fifth grade teacher and Janice Parkhill, substitute bus driver. The resignation of Meleah Brinkoetter as fifth grade teacher was accept- ed. David Myers was named high school cross country coach and Kim West was appointed high school cheerleader coach.
Garrett Claxon was approved as a volunteer high school football coach. Brent McKinney was moved from high school girls junior varsity basket- ball coach to high school varsity coach.
In addition, contracts for the 2021-22 school year with administrative con- tracts being approved. No other details were released.
The meeting adjourned at 7:42 p.m.
