Galesburg Reporter

Knoxville District 202 Superintendent, Geoff Schoonover, discussed errors made by the bus company the school district leases from, as well as ways to resolve those mistakes at a recent Community Unit School District board meeting.

Central State Bus Sales had an agreement with the school district to lease six buses for the 2022-23 school year, according to a video of the May 16 meeting posted on YouTube. The agreement was made and approved in December 2021 but errors in paperwork or processing resulted in only five buses being set aside for Knoxville schools.

"Yeah, we had approved this at a prior board meeting, and we had approved for six buses," Schoonover said during the meeting. "For some reason the company came back, and they approved - they had five. So, they approved five busses and did the paperwork and lease paperwork for five instead of six."

The school district made the lease agreement far in advance to ensure their position near the front of the line for leasing buses. However, the school district is unsure if they will be able to get the sixth bus, Schoonover said.

The unit price per bus remains the same whether the purchase was for five or six buses, according to statements made in the video. Schoonover and the school attorney are looking into solving the problem with Central State while researching other companies to lease buses from in the future.