Anonymous donor helps school district with transportation need
The Nov. 16 Somers School District
board meeting was filled with announcements of good news, but the
icing on the cake came from superintendent Casey Love.
He told the group that an anonymous
donor had purchased a van for the school district to transport
meals from Somers Middle School to Lakeside Elementary School. The
van the district had been using recently broke down and there was
no funding for a replacement.
“It’s so neat that we have community
members who are willing to do that for our school,” Love said.
Love used the school’s ALERT
notification system to spread the word that the Somers district was
in a bind. Soon after, he heard from a community member who had
taken some time to find a vehicle he thought would match the need.
Love went and test drove the van and decided it was a good fit, so
the donor paid for it on the spot.
“I was so humbled by the experience
that someone would be willing to do that,” Love said.
When Lakeside Elementary School was
built there was only a small serving kitchen put in the cafeteria,
as the plan was always to make the breakfasts and lunches at Somers
Middle School and transport them to the other school. Last month,
an average of 57 breakfasts and 255 lunches were served at Lakeside
each school day.
The food transporting van is the only
vehicle owned by the Somers School District. The buses are all
privately contracted. So the district was totally without
transportation for getting Lakeside meals.
“I wasn’t sure what we were going to
do,” Love said. “I’m just really glad this worked out the way it
did.”
OTHER BUSINESS
At the board meeting it was also
announced that Lakeside’s enrollment numbers are still growing.
There are 45 more students at the school this year than last year
at this point in the year. The total for Lakeside is now at 395
students, as of Nov. 7. Somers Middle School’s enrollment is down
25 students from last year.
Additionally at the meeting, the
board’s policy committee unveiled its newly drawn up committees
procedures plan. Although it is a basic list of procedures for
members of the board’s various committees to follow, there were no
set guidelines in print prior to this list for the board to
follow.
The procedures include the following:
Each committee will appoint a secretary for the purpose of notes
for a written post; Written report will be forwarded to the
district clerk for inclusion in board packets; The report will
include information and discussion that was presented at the
meeting, as well as recommendations form the committee to the
entire board; No decisions will be made by the committee; No
committee meetings will take place one week prior to the regular
scheduled monthly board meeting to allow notes from the proceeding
to be included in board packets.