By Ralph Echtinaw

Upgrades to St. Louis schools transportation, custodial service and food service continued Monday with several purchases.

Bus purchase

The school board approved purchase of a new school bus from Midwest Transit for $100,263.

Also ran bidders were Holland ($102,996) and Hoekstra ($103,546).

That’s a repeat of a bus purchase approved in March. So the district has bought two new buses over two months.

Custodial purchases

Six Soleaire floor blowers were purchased from Amazon for $899. The board passed on Betco blowers from Arnold ($1,194) and Home Depot ($1,687).

Next up were two walk-behind floor scrubbers to be used in Nikkari Elementary and the high school. The board approved the purchase of these from Lansing Sanitary Supply for $8,474 and passed on Pantheon ($9,905) and Niagara Machine ($10,396).

A floor polisher to be used in all school buildings was purchased from Arnold Sales of Bay City for $2,342. The companies with higher prices that missed out are Lansing Sanitary Supply ($2,711) and Caliber Equipment ($2,947).

Food service purchases

The board then approved purchase of a serving counter and two refrigerated merchandisers for the food service department.

Food Services Director Charles Clevenger told Superintendent Jennifer McKittrick that he prefers the highest price in this case (Stafford-Smith at $7,585) because the serving counter has a two-inch extension on the top and a laminate side that can be decorated with a Shark logo.

The board approved that purchase instead of going with lower prices from Edward Don and Co. ($4,593) and Boelter ($3,025).

Top students

The top 11 seniors (academically) have been named. Here’s the list: Valedictorian Alex Baxter, Salutatorian Kiersten Francisco, Dawson Brundage, Kayla Vine, Aaron Bowerman, Libby Munderloh, Korah Honig, Zachariah Starry, Gracie Shattuck, Mikenna Borie and  Samantha Burt.

Wood shop awarded

McKittrick announced that one of the chamber of commerce’s St. Louis Pride Awards goes to Phil Maxwell’s Shark Tooth Wood Shop. An award ceremony is set for Friday, April 29, in city hall.

New hires

Michell Nichols was hired as middle school boys track coach.

Brianna “Breezy” Pennock is the new varsity girls track assistant. Pennock is an SLHS grad, class of 2015. Her maiden name is Allen.