Libby school board leases space

Libby School Board members approved Monday a lease agreement between Libby Food Pantry and Libby School District.

A motion was made by board member Les Nelson to approve the lease and Lori Benson seconded. The food pantry will use approximately 1,500 square feet of the Asa Wood building; however, the actual location in the building has not yet been designated. Storage space and the parking lot will also be used for office purposes. The five-year lease indicates that Libby Food Pantry will pay $100 per month for rent. This will cover heat, electricity, water and sewer usage, according to the lease.

Superintendent Kirby Maki also suggested leasing out the McGrade School building to the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks for temporary use due to flooding of Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ current facility.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Maki said. “It is close enough and they will get good use from it.”

Maki also suggested a continuation of leasing out McGrade School in order to help with funding for a new kitchen for the public schools.

Building a new kitchen has been an agenda item for years. The estimated cost of building the kitchen is $200,000, and is not accounted for in the current budget. Maki proposed that with the budgeted building fund, the Metal Mines Fund and revenue through leasing the McGrade School building, the new kitchen will be attainable in the near future if approved by the board. He estimates that by leasing the McGrade School building, an additional $40,000 to $50,000 can be added to the budget per year.

The bandwidth for school district Internet access was recently increased from 40 megabytes to 100 megabytes. The increased bandwidth will help teachers utilize YouTube for Education, which recently became active for student use. Educationally-approved YouTube sites will now be accessible to students without having to log into the Sonic Wall Blocker.

The board announced that 110 new computers and laptops have been purchased for the next school year. Eighty of the new computers will be used by staff; the other 30 are for the Middle/High School library. Part of the funding for the new computers came from a previous Microsoft settlement as a result of the Olson v. Microsoft case in 2001. Microsoft overcharged for services and paid more than $6.1 billion to seven states. Libby School District received more than $100,000 from the settlement and has been preserving the fund for years. The rest of the money came from the school board technology budget. Old computers will be replaced within the next few weeks, and old computers will be auctioned off this summer.  

A reorganization of the board resulted in election of board members Ellen Johnston as board chair, Lori Benson as vice chair and Leslie Forster as clerk. Benson and Susan Monahan were re-certified for their positions on the board.