Callaway Public School encourages parents to become involved in their children’s educational experience, and a policy stating that was one of five shared in a public hearing on Aug. 14.

“It is the policy of our district to provide full access to the parent or family members of any student in our district to review textbooks, and curriculum, and study materials,” explained Superintendent Bryon Hanson. “We do have a process in place for parents to be able to review materials and to review books. It’s not just the reviewing of materials; we also look at this as the involvement of parents and giving them the ability to take a look at what we’ve got going on.”

The Callaway Board of Education also held public hearings on policies governing attendance, student fees, bullying prevention, and multicultural education to open their monthly board meeting.

As the board moved into the business portion of the meeting, one item of discussion was a report from Hanson on behalf of the transportation committee. “Bus wise we are in really good shape,” said Hanson.

The district does have some vehicles, however, that are no longer needed and Hanson recommended declaring those as surplus and selling them on Big Iron Auction. Those items include an Aerostar van, an Impala sedan, and a Dodge minivan. Hanson said none of those vehicles have been used for a long time.

“We had vehicles that weren’t being used effectively and efficiently,” Hanson added.

The board approved declaring all three vehicles as surplus and selling them at auction.

Within the next couple of years, the district is looking at acquiring two 12-passenger vans that can be used for smaller groups, such as FCCLA and others, as well as staff who travel to conferences and meetings. Hanson said he has had some good leads on two or three different vans, but they sell quickly.

“They are just hard to find right now. That’s why we talked about authorizing me up to a certain dollar amount, so when something does come up we can try to get it quickly,” Hanson said. “I get on a couple of sites every day and check, and I just would like to be able to move quickly.”

Principal and AD Heath Birkel agreed with Hanson that the district is in need of two vans. “Right now we are pretty tight. We were looking at the fall drive schedule for activities and talked about the possibility of the volleyball team taking two vans because of the numbers. But if we do that, by the time you add in the routes we don’t have any extra,” Birkel shared.

Hanson said the money is available in this year’s budget for the purchase of a van. Part of that is insurance money from last year, along with funds that were already budgeted this year.

“The larger vans would give us so much more flexibility than minivans,” said Hanson.

The board approved authorizing Hanson for up to $40,000 for the purchase of a 12-passenger van. Of that amount, $32,000 is insurance money and the rest will be gained from the sale of the surplus vehicles.

Hanson also discussed this year’s bus routes and shared that this year a bus will be picking up the 3 and 4-year-olds for preschool. “Our 4-year-olds will then be able to eat lunch here. It is not a significant cost, as Kyle is already on the clock. It’s about a two-mile loop. It also allows our daycares to not have to worry about overlap,” said Hanson.

The district was able to eliminate one bus route this year, bringing it down to three routes.

In other South Loup Committee action, activity passes will be the same price as last year, as will admission costs for activities. They also discussed the shared athletic director contract from the 2022-23 school year.

“Everybody agreed that they are very, very happy with the job that Heath is doing and the committee members proposed a salary of $8,500 for the AD salary for this year,” said Hanson. The board later approved that salary proposal, of which Callaway Public School pays twothirds and Arnold Public School pays one-third. Hanson also shared the coaching assignments for 2023-24. Those include Andy Schwarz as assistant girls' basketball coach, and Gavin Robertson will be the assistant wrestling coach. Birkel also updated the board on uniforms for this year.

In other business, the board approved the purchase of two new copy machines from Eakes in the amount of $15,721 for the pair and approved the South Loup athletic handbook as presented. The board will meet on Aug. 29 at 7 a.m. for the end-of-fiscal year meeting; the next regular board meeting will be Sept. 11, with budget hearings preceding the business meeting.