School board approves roof replacement, used bus, Berg security cameras

Before school starts in the fall, the Newton Community School District will have begun a roof replacement project, installed new security cameras at Berg Middle School and added a used school bus to its fleet, based on the approved projects at the Monday, June 22, school board meeting.

Members of the NCSD Board of Education approved a $296,000 bid from White Hawk Roofing to partially replace the roof of Newton High School. NCSD Director of Business Services Tim Bloom said the contractor will likely begin work by July and wrap up in August before classes begin.

“I know this is going to be like a complete overhaul,” Bloom said. “They’re going to remove all (the material) and get down to nothing. So it’s a little bit more labor intensive than just putting another sheet or another layer on top of it. This is going to be a lot bigger than a normal (project).”

The partial roof replacement project will be financed through Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) funds; as will the $55,785 purchase of a used 2017 Blue Bird Vision, 77-passenger school bus from the Grinnell-Newburg Community School District.

Since the bus is used and not new, the vehicle does not need to come equipped with seatbelts, Bloom confirmed. State law requires all new buses to have these updated safety features. NCSD recently underwent inspection. The state identified four buses that had rusted out or had mechanical issues, Bloom said.

Two of those buses will be replaced by new vehicles, which were already approved by the school board. The used bus from Grinnell-Newburg will fulfill the one other route. Instead of having three spare buses, Bloom said NCSD will have two spares.

“In order to keep our routes the same and the same number of routes, we needed another bus,” Bloom said, noting even though the used model won’t come equipped with seat belts, it will have other features. “We’ll have the cameras and the GPS on there so it will have all the video footage.”

In March, the school board approved the installation of security cameras at Newton’s elementary schools and the high school auxiliary parking lot. Now, the middle school will become equipped with a similar system. The school board approved the $117,305 bid from Walsh Doors & Security.

This project will be financed with the Berg Middle School Construction Funds.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com