HOWARD – East Knox Local Schools will purchase new marching band drumline equipment.
The district school board on Thursday approved the purchase from the Pellegrino Music Center in Stark County.
The equipment will cost $19,770, with $5,000 contributed by the board from the high school budget and the rest fundraised by the band boosters.
“(The boosters) got a $500 donation from Knox Community Hospital,” district Treasurer Jessica Busenburg said. “They applied for a grant through the Knox County Foundation and that was approved for $5,000.
“We received $500 from Koch, and then the East Knox band boosters themselves have been fundraising and raised $8,770 towards the purchase, which they have already given to us.”
The equipment will be the property of the district once purchased.
The board also approved Andrew Beatty as the high school head football coach for the 2022-23 school year.
With a few months until graduation, the board approved 74 East Knox students for graduation in 2022, pending successful completion of state and local requirements.
Regarding finances, a few quotes and bid proposals for other district projects and services were approved Thursday.
The board approved a quote of $6,948 from Xtek Partners for two Viewsonic Boards for preschool classrooms, which will be paid for using building construction funds.
The board also approved two other quotes both to be paid for using permanent improvement funds — a quote from ONTA Communications for $8,777.85 for a new camera system (6-Channel HD-DVR w/5th IP) for three school buses and a quote from Reddy Equipment for $32,750 for a new high school trash compactor.
Two bid proposals were also approved, one from Northern Buckeye Education Council for district wide network as a service fee for 52 managed network and UPS devices. The Northern Buckeye contract will begin July 1, 2022, and last for five years, through June 30, 2027, for $24,494.52 annually.
The district will receive an approximate 70% e-rate discount for the services from the Federal Communications Commission’s E-Rate program, which provides discounts from 20 to 90% for telecommunications, Internet access and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries.
The second bid proposal the board approved was also from Northern Buckeye but for district wide managed services for 100 devices. The contract for these services is for the same years mentioned above and for an annual cost of $14,422.09. The district will also receive an approximate 70% e-rate discount for these services.
During public participation at Thursday’s meeting, a resident asked if the board would consider recording future meetings and either posting the recordings online for the public to watch back after or posting a live feed. Board member Derrick Steinmetz said the board would consider it.
Some public discussion centered around an alleged incident involving an East Knox student and bus driver.
Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer provided the following statement to Supt. Steve Larcomb on Feb. 9 about the incident, which Shaffer shared with Knox Pages on Thursday:
“Following the investigation of a reported school bus incident, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office submitted report #S-P2200198 to the Mount Vernon City Law Director’s Office for review. On February 8, 2022 our office was notified by the law director’s office that the report had been reviewed, and they did not see evidence to support any charges.”
