Malta School Board still wrestling with Zortman bus route: 3 options on table

Following nearly 50 years of not having to worry much about how children living in Zortman would get to and from school, the Malta School Board is now in uncharted waters with that bus route.

Malta’s Craig Mangis retired from driving the daily 110-mile bus trip from Zortman to the Malta schools at the end of last school year and with just over six weeks before the 2018-19 school year gets underway, the Malta School Board decided to throw everything they have at the wall and see if anything sticks.

Trustee Carter Clausen made a motion during last Wednesday night’s July meeting that the Malta School Board take three steps of action in resolving the Zortman transportation issue: 1. Continue to recruit for a bus driver (the help wanted advertisement is currently running on the classified page of the Phillips County News); 2. Offer individual travel contracts or; 3. Accept bids on the route (the public notice for bids for the Zortman route are also on this week’s classified page.)

The motion passed 3-0. Malta Public School’s Superintendent Kris Kuehn told the PCN in June that if no driver for the route is found, unfortunately, no bus service would be offered to families in Zortman after over 50-years of having the service.

“I have talked to people and no one has any interest in applying or thinking about becoming a bus driver,” Supt. Kuehn said at Wednesday night’s meeting.

Supt. Kuehn said that last year, the Zortman route had 20 children— 15 of those students were younger, kindergarten through eighth grade.

Earlier in the meeting, during the action items, Malta Middle School football and volleyball coaches for 2018-19 were approved on Principal Shawn Bleth’s recommendation (Aaron DeVries, Hal Moore, and Frank Benson for football and Cassandra Pratt and Jessica Cebulski for volleyball.)

During new business, the Board approved a $16,000 purchase of a 2012 Chevy Traverse to be used for the high school’s driver’s education classes (the car was purchased from a local family and has under 37,000 miles) and out-of-district agreements for five students from Dodson (three of the five are kindergarten age) were approved to attend school in Malta next year.

The next regularly scheduled Malta School Board meeting is slated for Wednesday, August 8, at 7 p.m. and the first day of school is Wednesday, August 22.