New activity bus discussed

At the monthly school board meeting last week, Superintendent John Sullivan approached the Whitehall School Board of Trustees about the possibility of purchasing an activity bus for the districts.

Sullivan said this issue has come up more and more as the teams travel, and the current Whitehall activity bus supplied by Harlow’s was out of commission for most of October.

Sullivan said fans have expressed their desire for Whitehall kids to travel in a better bus.

“It’s a community pride thing. I think it’s time to explore the idea of owning our own bus,” he said.

Sullivan added he has approached Tucker Transportation of Butte about the possibility of them helping find the district a bus, as well as housing the bus, supplying a driver, and a providing a service contract to repair the bus.

Sullivan said the District’s activity contract with Harlow’s expires in June, and they can either renew with them or go in their own direction.

Sullivan also discussed with the board about replacing or making the bleachers at the Trojans field safer. Sullivan said work was done on one side of the bleachers, but where the parents sit, and the bleachers on the opposing sidelines are not in good shape.

Sullivan said he has heard concerns from the community, and would like to pursue something in the spring about fixing or moving to metal bleachers.

“I think we want it to look nice and be safe,” he said.

Trustee Gina Ossello said she is surprised someone has not been hurt on the current wood bleachers.

In other business, Sullivan said they are continuing to tweak the system for the new rooftop heaters installed this summer at Whitehall Hall High School. Sullivan said they would be installing some timing devices on the units so they would be providing air flow through the building, but not all running at once. Sullivan added the door security systems at the schools are working well, and there have not been a lot of complaints from parents.

Whitehall Elementary Principal Britt McLean said the current enrollment at the school is 169. Middle and High School Principal Hannah Nieskens said the combined enrollment at the two schools is 209.

McLean said he recently completed non-tenured teacher evaluations for Kelsey Stoker, Kristen Wirth, Brennan Hayes, Stefanie Forcella, Dana Grob and Casey Harris. Mclean said he didn’t find many problems and all of the teachers are doing a great job.

Nieskens said she completed non-tenured teacher evaluations for Rita Brown, Caitlin Chiller, Herman Gerving, Laura McDonald, Malcolm Neil and Ally Reamy. Nieskens said overall the teachers did very good, and she has no major concerns. She added she does however like to give the teachers, both tenured and non-tenured, constructive criticism following their evaluations.