UCF board weighs spending
There were no voting items during the three-hour-long Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board work session Monday night, but directors did discuss several issues scheduled for a vote later on. Those issues include a proposed middle school trip to Rome and Pompeii.
That trip is tentatively planned for eight days in June of 2025 through EF Tours. According to the presentation, all adults traveling with the group would be fully vetted and there would be one chaperone for every six students.
Also up for a future vote is the purchase of two nine-passenger vans. The district’s Director of Facilities James Whitesel said the buses would be replacing two 12-year-old vans that have more than 160,000 miles on them. Rohrer Enterprise, Inc. offered the lowest bid of $64,489 per van, for a total of $128,978.
“The purchase of these vans will be funded by the Long-Range Facilities Plan,” he said, adding that going with Rohrer is his department’s recommendation.
Whitesel also said the old vans would be put up for bid on a government website after the district gets the new ones.
“That seems to be more beneficial to us than a trade-in amount. But we might keep one just as a spare,” he said.
Whitesel continued saying. The district is also considering buying a new dishwasher for Pocopson Elementary School for $58,007 from Singer Equipment Company. There is also a proposal to replace playground equipment for Pocopson for $73,676. That proposal came from Recreation Resources.
The dishwasher and playground equipment would also be funded with money from the long-range plan, while some of the funds for the playground would also come from the PTO and the school’s building budget, he said. Of the money for the playground, $35,000 would come from the long-range plan, $20,000 from the PTO, and the building funds would make up the difference, Whitesel said.
The district is also considering adding a synthetic surface to the varsity softball batting cage and starting work on replacing the wastewater treatment plant at Chadds Ford Elementary School.
The next regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 20.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
UCF board weighs spending Read More »
