Tuesday,  August 14, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 031 • 3 of 38 •  Other Editions

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transportation costs to the away games for the football and wrestling squads.
• The Debate program also has the funds in place to start the year. Head Coach Kristen Gonsoir expects about 10 students to participate in the program this year. They have 12 events scheduled for the year and will also continue several of the fundraisers they started last year. The implemented a Wake Up Wednesday serving cappuccino in the lunch room each Wednesday morning.
• Golf and DI are also set to start the school year, financially, according to Business Manager Mike Weber. Both programs are scheduled to talk to the school board members next month.
• As reported last school board meeting, the school lunch program will be seeing several changes this year, due to the changes in the Federal School Lunch Program. One of the changes will be charging students for going back for seconds (or thirds) of the main entree. Students in the high school will have to pay $.75 for each trip back, and elementary students will need to pay $.50. The fee will have to be paid in cash that day, there will be no charging and the trip for seconds can not be deducted from the students lunch tickets. The fee only applies to trips back for the main entree. Both schools will have a fruit and vegetable bar set up, students can go back to these as often as they like at no additional cost.
• The bus routes will remain similar to the last year with a couple of changes. Lena Cox will be taking the south route to Conde and her old route in the Columbia area will be driven by Linda McInerney.  The Columbia route will also have a slight change due to families moving into the area. The Bath students that formally road the Columbia route will now be picked up by Jim Gerdes, balancing out the length and number of students riding each route.
• There was also discussion on the school district's fleet of vehicles. Several of the buses are high mileage, Groton Superintendent Laura Schuster recommended that the district continue the policy of purchasing a bus every other year and trying to slip a second one in when possible.
• "You look at the mileage a bus is driven each year," Schuster said. "It doesn't take long for it to add up, we have a large school district and our buses cover a large area."
• Schuster also reported on the amount of repairs done on each bus and the other vehicles in the fleet.
• "The Ford Torus is very high mileage," Schuster said. "But as long as it keeps starting and the teachers like diving it, we'll keep it going."
• Letters were received from the Webster and Langford School Districts. As per SB77 a formal letter needs to be sent to a school district if another school district

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