SISD approves bus purchase, TASB update

Members of the Shiner ISD board of directors approved the purchase of a new school bus for the 2023-24 school year at their regular monthly business meeting held Monday, Dec. 18.
“Bus eight is our lift bus and that’s the bus we use for transporting our kids to and from Yoakum. We have a wheelchair student, so we have to have a lift that works, but bus eight is the bus that always breaks down,” Superintendent Alex Remschel said.
“So, my recommendation is a new 54 passenger, three wheelchair bus for that purpose. When bus eight breaks down, we don’t have another wheelchair bus.”
The board approved the purchase of a new 54-passenger, wheelchair accessible school bus at a cost of $149,140. As school superintendent Alex Remschel noted, had they bought the same bus a year ago, it would have cost just $107,000.
“I spoke with (members) from the Education Foundation and there is money from that foundation,” Remschel said. “I asked for permission to supplement $115,000 that we have in those funds, and we got it. We would still use bus eight as a substitute bus, but it’s not a daily driver anymore because it breaks down too often.”
SISD agreed they would purchase a new bus every three years, as a means of keeping the school’s fleet as up-to-date as possible with the funding it had available.
The board of trustees also reviewed the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) policy updates.
One of these updates include updates involved the recently passed Senate Bill 629, which requires Texas school districts to have a supply of life-saving drugs epinephrine or naloxone on campuses.
These drugs act as opioid antagonists to a person experiencing an apparent opioid-related drug overdose. Staff members must be trained in administering this and it is applied to grades six through 12.
“This is just a regulation that we will follow on opioid antagonists,” Remschel said. “All of our staff will be trained for this by Jan. 3.”
In other business:
• SISD got a reimbursement from the band booster club for half the cost of the charter busses used recently for the band students competing in the state marching contest.
• Current enrollment numbers stand at 694 students, after SISD had four students move away.
• School board members heard a presentation by Singleton Architects on the status of the 2023 bond project. There will be eight to 10 months of construction on the project, work they plan to start in March 2024.