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Barnum schools: Districts discuss shared bus routes

Barnum school officials are meeting with officials from the Moose Lake and Willow River districts to discuss schedules and busing changes for the next school year.

“We are discussing the parts of the school bus routes that we can share,” Barnum superintendent Mike McNulty said. “Some of our routes are the other school districts. Some students from each of the school districts go to school in one of the other districts, so we are talking about how to keep bus routes from overlapping.”

McNulty said the districts have also discussed starting each school at different times to accommodate changes in routes.

“We are all short of drivers,” McNulty said. “We are looking at ways to combine routes. There are 23 routes right now in all of the districts. Can we reduce that to 15, is one question that we are asking. We have a software program that pinpoints actual times of the routes. We are going to work with that and see what we can come up with.”

McNulty also talked about the lack of substitute drivers resulting in full-time drivers not being able to take time off for personal days they have earned.

“Both the Moose Lake and Barnum school boards have agreed to a memorandum of understanding that the driver would be paid the substitute driver’s pay on top of the regular pay if he or she had to drive on their personal day,” he said.

Future think

McNulty said the school board is thinking about the fall schedule.

“We are hoping and planning more towards normal patterns in the fall,” said McNulty. “That’s what we are planning right now, but that could change.”

The development for a long-term strategic plan for the school district is underway.

A consulting firm has been conducting listening sessions the last couple of weeks with school staff, students and the public on school issues.

One of the topics is the facilities. “The high school building will be 40 years old in 2022,” McNulty said. “We need to look at what to do about our aging building. There will be an evaluation and then a presentation to the board and the community in the fall.”

In other matters:

The end of the school year is near, and the seniors are getting ready for graduation at Barnum High School Friday, June 4. At the Tuesday, May 18 school board meeting, the plan was to hold as much of a traditional graduation as possible. Five people per graduate would be allowed to attend the ceremony. In crowds of more than 500 people, masks are still required by the state. The ceremony will be live-streamed for those who cannot attend.

The last day for the other students is Tuesday, June 8 and for teachers it is June 9.

 
 

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