The Greene County Schools board went back-to-school shopping during its July 7 meeting. The biggest ticket item is a new playground for pre-kindergarten students at the elementary school.
The new playground will be located directly west of the pre-K wing, between the building and the parking area. It is replacing a playground south of the main playground on the east side of the building. Pre-K children will no longer start and end their recess time walking from one corner of the building to the other.
The playground will have a safety surface, a sidewalk for riding/pedaling toys, two large shaded areas and four large play structures. The playground will be fenced in with limited access. It will be three times larger than the current pre-K playground.
Total cost of the new playground is $181,080. Of that, the school Education Foundation is paying $50,000, BOOST is paying $10,000, and another donor Abbotts declined to name at the meeting is providing $40,000. The district is paying $81,080 from PPEL funds. Installation will be this fall.
The board approved the first phase of a three-phase project to provide more uniform student and teacher furniture in the elementary school. Superintendent Brett Abbotts explained that he and principal Audrey Hinote had inventoried all the desks, tables and chairs in the classrooms and found some classrooms had as many as five different styles of chairs. Abbotts also said new furniture at the school has been in the district’s long term plan.
The first phase is to purchase approximately 700 student chairs at a cost of $60,525. The chairs will be identical but in four different sizes. Of the total, $3,500 is an allowance for whatever tariffs are finally put in place.
A few different styles of student desks will be “piloted” during the coming year, with the plan to purchase the selected styles next summer. Teacher desks, stands and chairs will be purchased during the summer of 2027.
Teachers were surveyed as part of the planning process, Abbotts said.
The furniture is being purchased now because other PPEL projects have come in lower than anticipated.
The board approved the purchase of 200 Chromebooks at a cost of $275 each, along with the required software at a cost of $32 each, at a total cost of $61,400. The purchase had been estimated at $65,000. Abbotts called the Chromebooks “a good, consistent device.”
The board approved bids from Dennhardt Construction for concrete in the long jump area at Linduska Field not to exceed $32,499, and concrete for the high jump area not to exceed $58,580.56.
The board also approved a quote from Iowa Irrigation for the practice field irrigation system at the high school. The quote was from Iowa Irrigation at a total cost not to exceed $23,976.
