By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
On May 6, the USD 431 Hoisington Board of Education tentatively approved the purchase of a pair of used buses from Midwest Bus to replace another of the district's old buses. On May 10, the board held a special meeting to discuss the purchase of a vehicle. At Monday's meeting, Superintendent Patrick Crowdis clarified the district had purchased a single bus.
"We did decide not to purchase the two buses," he said. "We did purchase the MCI bus from Coach Master's out of Kearney, Neb. Tuesday of last week, (Assistant Transportation Director Diane Lamia) and (Activity Driver Bill Shepard) went up and picked that up and brought that home. She has already gotten it to First Class Auto and they are taking a look at putting a wrap on it."
The Midwest buses could seat up to 44 passengers. As discussed at the May 6 meeting, the MCI bus can seat up to 52 passengers and is comparable to the bus the district is replacing. Crowdis said the district can now turn its attention to another bus.
"If you remember, we did have an accident in the spring with bus 12," he said. "As they have finished all the repairs, the hood does not seem to be matching up and they're afraid there may be a bend in the frame. I am contacting KSDE transportation, as well as our insurance, to see what the next steps would be and to make sure we are not going to have safety issues if we put a bent-frame bus on the road."
Crowdis said both Kansas State Department of Education representatives he has communicated with are retired Kansas Highway Patrolmen and he is confident in the answer he will get from them.