ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The USD 480 school board made quick work of its agenda during its most recent meeting Monday evening.
The meeting began with the board approving multiple appointments, including Dana Handy as USD 480 treasurer and Nila Newton as assistant treasurer, Rusty Tuman as USD 480 clerk and Maria Martinez as USD 480 assistant clerk, Lane Frymire as the USD 480 board attorney, and Hay Rice & Associates as the district's auditor. All the appointments are for the 2025-26 school year.
The board began the agenda’s official new business by approving Board Resolutions A through U, which concern such matters as setting the date, time and place of board meetings for 2025-26, appointing an authorized representative of the district to direct the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS), designating the school district employee responsible for coordinating compliance efforts and the hearing officer for complaints alleging violation of Title IX, and adopts the district's organizational chart for 2025-2026, among many other matters.
The board then spent some time discussing the purchase of printer ink for the district.
“After this died from the lack of a motion at the last meeting, we did some more research into all of this,” Technology Director Rusty Tuman said. “My team called HP themselves, we had received an email while the bid was still open asking if there were some vendors who had reached out to us already and asked about pricing and some of that stuff. We reached back out to HP and asked if they knew such and such vendor, did they sell to such and such vendor(s). We got HP’s sign-off that was a vendor they worked with and there was a good working relationship there. That vendor was able to supply a HP certificate to prove they’re part of what they call their Amplify program. We talked to the vendor as well and got all the information we needed and a list of references and everything else.”
“Do these prices include freight and shipping?” board member Nick Hatcher asked.
“On each bid, I required them to indicate whether or not their price included freight and shipping,” Tuman said. “And I don’t believe there was amy company that said shipping would be extra. And before the order is placed, I will absolutely get in touch with them and make them verify the price they quoted is the final price given whatever amount is approved by the board is all that can be spent. I completely understand the concern, and I have the bid sheets, and we can’t spend any more money than what the board ultimately approves.”
After a few more minutes of discussion, the board ultimately unanimously approved a bid from Rasix Computer Center in the amount of $168,874.77 for the purchase of printer ink.
Up next for the board was discussion of library software, and the board ultimately unanimously approved a quote from Destiny in the amount of $10,139.52.
To conclude the meeting’s new business, the board then took on discussion of Hirefox contracts.
“The contracts that were previously approved didn’t have revisions from legal counsel,” Tuman said. “The revisions weren’t 100 percent accepted by Hirefox, but Lane [Frymire] basically said ‘These are the contracts we’ll sign’ and then it all went from there.”
“When they first brought us the contracts, they said it had already gone through Lane, so I’m kind of confused about what we’re looking at now,” board member Alan Brown said. “
“The contracts did go through Lane, but this is the next step,” Tuman replied. “This is what they call a USD 480 job order, so this is the next step in the process. It’s not just ‘Sign here and we’re done,’ there’s a few steps that have to be taken. It took a bit of extra time to get to us because the board looked at it, then Lane looked at it and made his revisions, which took some time, and now here we are.”
Ultimately, the board voted to approve the Hirefox contracts per legal counsel's revisions by a margin of 6-0, with Brown abstaining.
