e Hays USD 489 school board passed several time-sensitive items in a special 7 a.m. meeting Thursday morning.
The meeting originally had been scheduled to address the bid for leasing 25 photocopiers — two large-productions machines for the district’s central Copy Center and 23 among the buildings.
New business later added to the agenda dealt with funding requests for the district’s Head Start and special education.
At its May 21 meeting, the board voted down a $52,221 bid from Sumner One of St. Louis over questions about whether or not software and card readers that track copier use were included in that price.
USD 489 executive director of finance and support services Tracy Kaiser clarified they were not included, and the vote was 4-2 against accepting the bid.
Thursday morning, Kaiser further detailed the company’s bid with the inclusion of the software and card readers.
“As you can see Sumner One still has the low bid including all of that at $56,043, so it would still be a savings of $9,100 for the district,” she said.
Board member Greg Schwartz still had concerns with the five-year contract, however.
“I would like to see what it would be if we did a one-, two- or three-year lease,” he said.
At the May 21 meeting, Schwartz questioned the need for so many copiers especially with the one-to-one initiative that provides students and teachers with laptops or tablets.
The contract with Sumner One would allow the district to reduce the number of copiers by 10 percent each year.
“I would like to see us scale that back at a much quicker pace,” he said.