Witt-Birn approve handful of purchases

By: 
Luke Reimer
Reporter

New purchases and capital projects are at the forefront for the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District, as the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School Board approved a group of capital purchases during its meeting on June 27.

The first capital purchase that was discussed was two new school buses.

“We have a 2017 International bus from Midstate Truck available for $45,000,” said Superintendent Garrett Rogowski. “The 2017 has 75,000 miles on it. The 2018 bus is for $49,000 and has 85,000 miles on it. Both are pretty loaded, with luggage racks.”

Rogowski added that both busses are ready to be driven.

“It feels like they are definitely worth purchasing,” said Rogowski. “We will recycle two of our old ones out. They strip those out and use the parts for other busses.”

He added that the 2018 bus would be one of the newer busses in the school district’s fleet.

“Four years ago, we purchased a brand new Bluebird bus that was just your basic, 72-passenger vehicle — that was $85,000,” said Rogowski. “So, when you get an opportunity like this, you’d like to take advantage of it.”

Rogowski noted that the budget for this is $120,000. He added that the $120,000 will cover the price of the busses, as well as a camera system that will be installed in the vehicles.

Second, the board discussed the purchase of a hydraulic saw mill for their technical education classes.

“This saw mill could really provide a unique experience that most kids in most schools won’t get,” said Rogowski.

For the total saw mill unit, the cost is $29,965 plus shipping.

Technology education teacher Caleb McPhail said this is a way to incorporate logging into his lesson plans and classroom.

“If you look around our area, logging is huge,” said McPhail. “You don’t have to have a huge mill to start producing your own lumber. This is just to help see where lumber comes from, the different characteristics of wood and why you would want to make certain things out of certain kinds of wood. I think that this would really help to bring it all together for our students.”

McPhail added that the wood shop class would be working with the forestry class to cut and work with trees.

“I think that when people starting hearing about his, they will get on board with what we need for wood,” said McPhail. “I don’t want to sit on a $30,000 saw mill and have it parked in a garage.”

He added that a goal of the class is to cut the lumber, dry the wood and eventually build the wood into furniture.

“That is when the students will really see the differences in properties in that wood,” said McPhail.

Rogowski added that due to safety, the recommendation is for a hydraulic saw mill.

“We are not going to get anything bigger than what our little trailer can hold,” said McPhail.

Next, the Witt-Birn School Board discussed how they are going to spend their Fund 50 balance. A Fund 50 is used to account and report transactions of a school district’s food and community service activities.

“We get such a significant reimbursement on free meals that our Fund 50 is exploding,” said Rogowski. “It can only be used for items relating to food service. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is requiring Wittenberg-Birnamwood to spend out Fund 50.”

Rogowski said that the school district intends to replace food services tables with part of that fund.

“Our new tables would have Chargers logos on them and they would have the attached larger-sized stools,” said Rogowski. “New tables would also be purchased for the area between the commons and the foyer.”

He added that the price for 12 round tables, four rectangular tables and eight smaller tables would be $59,286 from Marshfield Book and Stationery.


lreimer@newmedia-wi.com