DuBois High’s BEST Robotics team going to Texas. An article by Glenn Schuckers.

The biggest news at the March 16 work session of the DuBois Area School Board came near the end of the meeting when the advisors of the Best Robotics Team told the Board two of their teams had qualified for the  World Championships tournament in Dallas, Texas,  in April. The two teams competed in regional competition and as a result of winning there they are eligible to compete against some 800 other teams. This marks the second year in a row that DuBois teams have made this competition.  There will be a more detailed article on the team in Reynlow News later. 

In discussion near the end of the work session, board member Charlie Watt said he did not think it fair that the students had to raise money to pay for the $2,400 registration fee and suggested that a motion be put on the agenda to cover that cost in addition to the $2,900 it will cost to fly the students and their advisors to Texas. With the agreement of the other Board members present the total cost of $5,300 will be on the agenda for the upcoming voting meeting. 

Earlier in the meeting the Board heard a presentation from IT Director Dan Brocious regarding the phone system in the district. Brocious said that due to the age of the present system he can lo longer order parts that need to be replaced and due to the nature of the current system many phones on the market cannot be used.  He said that replacing all 500 phones in the district would be expensive but in the long run replacing them now would save money in the future. He added that he was able to negotiate four months of free service from their new company that provides a cloud based system.

The directors will vote on a number of items that were clarified for them by Superintendent Wendy Benton at the regular voting meeting on March 23.