The Greene County School Board met Wednesday night in regular session.

Following a public hearing, the Board tabled their decision on awarding the contract bid for the new high school and career academy project, due to all of the bids being over budget. Superintendent Tim Christensen said they will work with the lower bidder, Henkel Construction from Mason City, for value engineering to see if the contractor can do parts of the project differently to save money.

The Board then approved to give the Greene County School District Foundation the remaining funds from the Halcyon-Dixon Estate of about $550,000 to add to their total of over $1.1 million in their endowment so that they can give each 2019 graduating senior a $500 scholarship. Additionally, the Board approved the revisions to the board policy for foreign exchange students as presented, the revisions to the District Developed Service Delivery Plan for Special Education as presented, a fundraiser request for a pink out game and they disapproved the proposed increase in admission prices for students to pay $5 for Heart of Iowa Conference activities.

The Board also tabled their decision to next month on mowing bids and set the public hearing on the 2019-2020 school calendar for their March 13th regular board meeting.

During reports, it was mentioned that the bus driver’s union proposed a three-year contract with a three-percent increase in wages each year and to have everything in their handbooks put back in their contracts. The district will make its initial offer.

The meeting then ended in a closed session to discuss imminent litigation.