The Columbia County Board of Education offered thanks for two donations during its regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 14.
The first half of the school board’s meeting was comprised of an awards’ day, with eight special recognitions including for the Georgia Music Educators Association, the Thespian Honor Society and the Georgia 4-H Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer award winner (bus driver Billy Wilkes).
The recognitions culminated with the J.D. Paugh Foundation donating $7,800 to the district for the purchase of custom-fitted armored vests for School District Police officers.
The J.D. Paugh Memorial Foundation is named for motorcycle police officer J.D. Paugh who was gunned down in the line of duty in 2011, and raises funds for items of necessity for law enforcement agencies. This donation is its first to the Columbia County Board of Education.
SRP Credit Union also gifted the school board, presenting a check for more than $38,000 to the district, accumulated for Columbia County schools last year via the Affinity Debit Card program.
The affinity program is SRP’s initiative to contribute additional funding to local schools. The credit helps develop a co-branded debit card unique for a select school. Each time a customer makes a transaction using the branded debit card, the SRP makes a monetary donation to that school.
The school board voted to approve the purchase of six 60-passenger school buses and three 40-passenger buses with handicap lifts from Rush Truck Centers of Georgia. The price of the nine new vehicles is more than $1 million, with a discount on the Georgia state contract price.
Payment for the buses will draw $792,900 from state bond funds, and $6,000 from Georgia Department of Education safety and senate funding, leaving only $294,510 to be taken out of special purpose local option sales tax funds.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
