(KLZA)-- The Falls City Board of Education approved a number of policies Monday night including the annual student fees, and parental involvement policies following required annual public hearings on those policies.

Other policies approved concerned bullying, Title I Parental Involvement and Family Engagement; firearms and weapons for non-students, transportation, audio and video recording and student cell phone and other electronic devices.

The Board set the school budget work session for Monday, August 26 and set the budget and property tax hearings for September 9.

Superintendent Tim Heckenlively reported the Falls City School District has been approved for a Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy Grant Award through the 2022-23 Diesel Emissions Reduction Act National grant competition. to use toward the purchase of a new bus.

District 56 will replace a 2004 Thomas bus with a new diesel bus at a quoted price of $135,100. The expected reimbursement for the project is 25 percent of the purchase price up to a maximum reimbursement of $24 thousand. The school bus replacement project must be completed and reimbursement requested by June 30, 2026.

Heckenlively also reported State Aid for the Falls City School District has been set at $1,456,096, approximately the same as last year. The 2024 preliminary property valuation for the school district is $1,209,120,106, an increase of $108,073,576, an increase of just over 9.8 percent from 2023.

It was also reported that Turf Diagnostics has completed the stadium turf impact evaluation at Jug Brown Stadium and filed a favorable report on the condition of the football field.