The new bus request made during last year's budget season had to be cut.

At the February 11 Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Community School District School Committee meeting, Transportation Director Dave Benner made his request once again. This year, the purchase is necessary, he said.

Bus #4 was pulled from the fleet of CSD buses a few weeks ago due to acute rust issues affecting the wheel wells and a cross member (repaired once). The rusting was discovered during one of the three annual bus inspections.

Benner attributed the rusting to the calcium chloride used to treat snow and ice covered roads.

Benner said removing the body from the frame to get at the rust and rebuild the frame would cost approximately $10,000. The issue with this plan for a 13-year-old bus is the very real possibility that far more would be wrong with the bus and that it would be quite costly to repair.

School Committee member Stephanie Hawke asked if there was some type of rustproofing of the undercarriage of the buses, and if the undercarriages were routinely washed. Benner said no to both queries.

Benner did learn of a company, Bomar Transportation in Brunswick, which offers such services.

“They will bring their equipment to our site in the summer to clean and then spray the rust-proofing film,” Benner said in a post-meeting phone call. “I'm going to be checking on the costs for the service. The rust-proofing new school buses receive is warranted for five years and 100,000 miles. I'll be checking on these maintenance costs and get back to (Superintendent) Eileen (King) with the figures. We might have to plan on respraying every four and a half years.”

Benner received a price quote of $81, 647, from the Portland-based O'Connor Motor Company, for a 72- to 77-capacity bus with 100-gallon fuel tank.

“I will get quotes from a few other companies, but I don't expect we will find a better one than O'Connor because they do the state bid for all the schools,” Benner said.

One of the spare buses, #31, is being used in place of #4 for the remainder of the school year. The fleet, when complete, has seven buses. There are currently two of the four spares remaining for use. One, a mini-bus, is used for the Bath Vocational School, and the other is a substitute for #4. Benner said going to and from Bath Voc chocks up 20,000 miles a year.

“And, if you follow our sports teams, you know our buses put on a lot of miles,” Benner said.

The proposed transportation budget is $28,739 higher than the current budget of $391,135. Of the increase, based on O’Connor quote, the total first year payment would be $17, 484 on a five-year lease to purchase loan.

Adult Education and GED

Maggie Griffin presented the proposed 2014-2015 adult education, an update on enrollment and changes affecting the GED diploma equivalency program.

This winter, 144 residents signed up for adult ed classes, ranging from computers to cooking to local history to hunter safety. Griffin said 80 people signed up for the four cooking classes alone, leading the instructors to add an extra class.

Last year a total of 374 people enrolled in winter and spring programming. Eighty-five people signed up for the computer classes and of those, reported Griffin, 21 were from local businesses seeking to improve job skills, or they were sent by their employers to learn.

Griffin has observed the same pattern happening in this winter's computer enrollment numbers.

Eight to ten local students (a few were GED students participating in college transitions and career programming through Lincoln County College Connection) get accuplacer testing free, career counseling, admissions assistance with forms and about financial aid, and visit colleges. Most of these classes and workshops are in Wiscasset or Damariscotta, a few in Boothbay.

Griffin said the computer-based High School Equivalency Test (HiSET), has replaced the General Development Diploma (GED) as of January 2014. The same five subjects – language arts reading, language arts writing, social studies, science and math – are covered, and until December of the this year, is given as a paper based, multiple choice test. The only exception is the essay portion of the language arts writing testing. After December 2014, HiSET testing will be computer based.

The reason for the change: GED was privatized and began charging “almost double per test to the State of Maine,” Griffin said.

Griffin said the biggest difference was in the scoring. Passing scaled scores must be 45 – or better – to earn an equivalency diploma. But, until 2015, HiSET will coordinate with the GED scoring.

Last year nine individuals passed their GED testing. This year there are four students preparing to take the HiSET equivalency exam. Griffin advised that adults who have passed at least one of the five tests have until December to complete their testing for an equivalency diploma.

For more information on HISET, visit www.maine.gov/doe/adulted/hs-ged/index.html.

Budget talk

The adult education budget reflects a slight increase of $553 (0.85 percent) to $62,938, salary and benefits related.

The proposed 2014-2015 technology budget was down $6,200 at the high school and up $9,845 at the elementary school. The main reason for the increase at Boothbay Region Elementary School is related to the beginning of the upgrades to the computer lab and LCD projectors.

The next meeting, scheduled for February 26 at 6 p.m., was to include an iPad presentation by the K-2 teachers.