Van purchase approved by school board

WITTENBERG — The Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District board approved the purchase of a vehicle at its Dec. 16 meeting.

The 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe is a seven-passenger van with an odometer reading of 55,000. The van is at the GM Auto Center in Rhinelander and was brought to Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School the week before to be checked out. Josh Beversdorf of Beversdorf Garage has inspected the vehicle and said he found it to be in good condition. There is no history of damage and has been maintained on a regular basis.

According to Superintendent Garrett Rogowski, the vehicle can be used for field trips or competitions or events where there are just a few students participating. It can also be used for staff attending offsite training or educational sessions.

The special education department has $12,000 in grant money that could be used to purchase the vehicle but that would restrict the use of it to only that department. The board decided to use the money from the Fund 10 account which is budgeted for capital purchases.

Once the van arrives administration will set up a plan for requests to use the vehicle which be stored and monitored at the high school.