The El Dorado School Board voted on Monday night to make an offer on a parcel with the goal of turning it into a maintenance shop, bus shop and food service area.
The board voted to pay $15,000 per acre for 10.76 acres of land behind El Dorado High School, south of Parnell Road and east of the Highway 82 bypass. The cost would total around $161,400 for the land.
The goal is to use the area to construct a bus shop, a maintenance shop and a food services facility. The location for all three are currently at different locations around town.
As part of the discussion, Superintendent Jim Tucker brought up looking at selling a 72-acre parcel of land east of town on Highway 63. The land is currently vacant, said Katie Sandifer, Digital Media & Marketing. The board gave Tucker permission to pursue that.
“It would help the district tremendously if we could have all three of those in one location, and I think this land would be perfect for it,” Tucker said.
The board also voted to purchase a new truck for the maintenance director. Tucker said the district currently has two trucks that aren’t really in working order and one that is aging. He wants to sell the two that aren’t working and move the aging truck to a spare.
In order to do this, he proposed buying a new truck that the maintenance director would be able to use, which would include all bed attachments he would need, including a toolbox. The roofer would take the director’s current truck – after the district purchases the bed attachments that the roofer needs – and the roofer’s current truck would be used as a spare.
Tucker said in order to purchase the new truck with bed attachments and the needed additions for the current truck, it would cost the district $43,000. This is coming from a local dealer at the state’s price. The board approved the purchase.
Michael Shine may be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook @MichaelAZShine for updates on Union County school news.