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The Grainger County Board of Education Tuesday adopted a new three-year cooperative purchasing agreement with Sourcewell Purchasing which will permit continued purchases at discounted rates.

“The County Commission voted to use Sourcewell a couple of years ago,” Director of Schools Mark Briscoe said. “James (Dr. Atkins) asked if he could (use Sourcewell). He and (former director of schools Edwin) Jarnagin used it to save money on a lawn mower a few years ago.”

The $10,000 lawn mower was purchased from Hawkins Farmers Coop in Rogersville a few years ago through Sourcewell.

At issue was bus route 20 that was given up by contractor Jane McElhaney Feb. 3. The current bus has only one year left of service remaining. The route has been handled by the county using a backup bus from the bus shop. The Sourcewell contract allows the board to purchase a new bus for the route at a price of $114,000. If ordered now, the new bus should be ready for the route this fall.

“This is a way we can buy a new bus from Sourcewell without doing a bid,” Briscoe said. “These buses are already six months into production. We could probably get it delivered this summer and put into operation. (To use Sourcewell) we have everything it takes. We already have an ID, the whole nine yards. I just want to make sure that if it is okay, we can continue to still keep doing that.

“It will allow us to put a brand new bus on said route and have it more than likely prior to the (2023-24) school year,” Briscoe said. “It will put us at a big advantage. Buying a lawn mower for $10,000 is little different than buying a $114,000 bus.”

Board Member Gary Staley made the motion to approve the cooperative purchasing agreement for another three years beyond the original expiration date in October and was seconded by Karen McNish. The resolution passed 9-0 with member Norma Tate absent.

On the next resolution on whether the county should permanently take over Bus 20’s route, it passed 9-0.

“In the reserve budget, we put two buses in reserve in case something happened,” Briscoe said. “We can buy a bus. The money is there.”

Briscoe also updated the board on the e-rate projects at each school. The Schools and Libraries (E-rate) Program provides discounts to assist most schools and libraries in the United States to obtain affordable high-speed Internet and telecommunication services.

“Mr. Jarnagin and Dr. Atkins started the e-rate project to constantly try to improve switches in your building,” Briscoe said. “Right now, e-rate covers 80% of our bill. Last year we paid about $48,000 for the e-rate. If we increase our Internet at all of the schools, it will go up about $20,000 a year.”

Briscoe cited as an example Grainger High School and the Central Office using 5 gigabytes of data. It’s going to from 7.5 GB to 10 GB at those two locations. All of the locations are 1.5 GB and they will go from 1.5 GB to 7.5 GB. All of the schools will then have the same Internet capabilities.

“I think that’s a pretty good deal,” Briscoe said. “With online testing coming, I would recommend that we do that and it will be reflected in the budget when we present the budget. We have constantly been trying to find ways to better our students.”

Summer School will be held four days a week over four weeks for a total of 17 days. This does not count a TCAT retake test day for those affected by the third-grade retention law. Dates were not formalized.

School trips involving the Grainger High Future Farmers of America, Grainger High FCCLA Chapters 1 and 2 and the Grainger High band were approved. Appointment of Discipline Committee members was also approved by the board.

Aaron Clay was recently named interim principal at Washburn School. He replaces Greg Clay, who accepted the Union County Director of Schools position. Aaron Clay was assistant principal at Washburn.

The March BOE meeting was changed from March 20 to March 27 due to the system being on Spring Break.