The Highland school bus fleet will be housed in a new bus barn this spring.

At a recent meeting the Highland School Board approved the project bids for a bus barn which totaled $130,424. They also did a second and final reading of a change to their purchasing policy. Their policy read before that improvements of at least $90,000 required competitive bids, and was changed to raise the threshold to $135,000 to reflect changes in state law.

Highland currently has a garage to house one bus at a time for maintenance, but this barn will house 12 busses with electrical outlets and extra storage space, according to Superintendent Dr. Mike Jorgensen, “When I met with the building committee in the fall, and as we began to determine our priorities for this year, this was certainly one of the top three priorities that the building committee had to get completed. So we’re very happy now that this will actually finally get done.”

Construction of the barn is expected to be completed by May, located on the north side of the high school. The barn is being funded by the district’s facilities fund and proceeds from the refinancing of their tax refund bond.