FARMINGTON – At the RSU 9 Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday night, Superintendent Christian Elkington provided the board with his Superintendent’s report and stated that they are discussing the district’s eligibility for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus grant, a grant program that is designed to provide $5 billion over five years to replace existing school buses with zero-emission and low-emission models.
“It’s a big undertaking with the infrastructure set-up, needing power and generators for
backup, along with overall costs,” Elkington wrote in his report. “We are attending meetings to see if we believe it is viable for us.”
Elkington stated that there are concerns about whether or not the batteries will hold up with the weather and the distance the bus will be able to travel on the roads in the area. Regarding carbon footprint and mileage costs, Elkington noted that the district has “made a major investment in propane buses as they are significantly better for the environment than diesel.”
Director of Transportation and Custodial Services Richard Joseph Jr. attended a webinar regarding the grant program and spoke about some information he learned.
Joseph stated that the district is not currently prioritized, so they would not receive the grant in the full amount.
“I have two buses that I think could qualify out of the entire fleet,” Joseph said. “Currently, we have about 20 propane buses and only 13 diesel buses left.”
Joseph also stated that he does not know if electric buses are the way to go for the district, expressing that his biggest concern is the infrastructure. Many of the infrastructure costs will not be covered by the grant program and will need to be paid for by the district.
The board requested that Joseph return to the next board meeting scheduled for January 9 with a rough estimate of these costs.
Elkington also mentioned in his report that Friday, March 15 will be a student day with a partial early release for staff to professional development work, and official information will be going out before the upcoming break.
In other business, Cascade Brooks School Principal Nichole Goodspeed provided the board with an administrator report. Goodspeed stated that CBS has been implementing the Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) program, which is designed to use eight interlocking strategies that build intentional relationships between students and staff.
Goodspeed stated that there are currently four out of five fourth grade teachers trained for the BARR program, and behavior referrals are down in fourth grade by 20% from last year.
Foster Career and Technical Education Center Director Melissa Williams also provided the board with an administrator report and stated that there are currently 462 enrolled CTE students.
Williams noted in her report that over 100 young women in 9th grade from the CTE’s partner schools participated in the Trades for ME conference. They had the opportunity to explore a variety of trades including metal fabrication, aviation, plumbing, emergency medical technician, and more.
Sugarloaf is also the newest apprenticeship site for the CTE, and it has been placed as the first culinary apprentice for the 23-24 season.
“We look forward to continuing and growing this partnership with Sugarloaf into other areas of the resort connecting with multiple FCTEC programs,” Williams wrote in her report.
RLH Enterprise is soon to become the third apprenticeship site for the CTE.
This meeting was recorded by Mt. Blue TV and is available for viewing online at MtBlueTV.org
