The Butler School Board approved the purchase of 225 new band uniforms Monday at a cost of $109,000. The approved sample uniform is the one worn by the student. The design is still pending some minor alterations. At front is band director Jeff Kroner.

Next year’s Golden Tornado Marching Band will hit the turf looking fresh.

The Butler School Board approved a $109,000 contract for 225 marching band uniforms Monday. The board offered criticisms of a sample uniform from the uniform company, some of which will be addressed, but in the end board members unanimously approved the buy.

The chosen company, Stanbury Uniforms, bid $25,000 less than the school’s estimated price, according to Jeff Kroner, band director.

“They already have a tentative date to come in and measure on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving the students that we have so they can begin production,” Kroner said. “We could have them in May.”

The company’s approved bid form requires the uniforms be shipped within 180 to 210 days after approval and measurements are provided.

The last time the district bought new uniforms was in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina of 2005, Kroner said. The district donated its old uniforms to a school in the affected area. This time, they’re still considering what will be done with the old uniforms. One proposal, Kroner said, is to allow current students to buy them, and then sell whatever are left to alumni.

Board member Al Vavro offered most of the board’s criticisms. He specifically took issue with “busy” mixtures of colors in the uniform’s planned feathery plumes.

“When you put 200 out there, that shape isn’t going to work,” Vavro said. “It’s going to be too busy. It’s going to create clarity problems.”

Kroner said a few details on the uniforms would be changed from the sample. A few circles that emphasize buttons on the jackets and hats are going to be removed, he said.

Board Chairman Nina Teff asked why the uniform’s gold isn’t the exact gold used by the district elsewhere. No uniform company carries the specific color, Kroner said, unless they want to pay to have all the uniforms specially dyed.

School closures

Superintendent Brian White said he has already drafted a letter to state level administrators asking that Butler’s two missed days from last week’s ice storm be considered emergency exceptions from the state’s 180 school day requirement.

The district’s last school to have power returned was Center Township Elementary. A blown fuse off Route 8 was discovered to be the cause of the school’s delayed return.

Some food, such as portable milk coolers, was lost in the lapse in electricity, he said. Overtime was also incurred. He did not have a dollar amount to pin on the losses yet.

Other business

White and Nick Morelli, acting director of business, explained the district’s closing fund balances for 2018. The district is finishing the year with about $660,000 remaining of its $97.9 million revenues.

Several capital projects were identified as priorities for the winter and early spring. White noted that they were priorities because they can be done first, not necessarily because they’re the most important projects needing to be done.

Those projects are: catch basins that need repairs, demolition of some tennis courts at the intermediate high school, security entrance and fencing upgrades at the high school campus and the vocational-technical school, a new pump at Emily Brittain Elementary and safety cables for basketball courts at the intermediate school. Each will need to be bid out and approved by the board.