Six new school buses and some instructional materials are coming to Henry County thanks to money saved during the last E-SPLOST program.

  The Henry County Board of Education voted at its December 9 regular business meeting to approve the purchase of six buses from Yancey Bus Sales and Service at a total cost of $615,000. Also approved was a $135,000 expenditure “for growth and replacement of board-adopted instructional materials,” according to a staff report.

  District officials pointed out that the fourth E-SPLOST program, approved by voters eight years ago, ended collections in December of 2017. After covering a wide range of projects from the construction to Hampton High School and the installation of security measures at all schools to the addition of air conditioning to all middle school gymnasiums, which didn’t already have it, about $750,000 was left in the account due to “diligent budgeting” that resulted in cost savings in certain areas.

  All of the buses are 2021 propane-powered Blue Bird vehicles with air conditioning and a seating capacity of 72. The acquisition will bring this year’s bus purchases to 10, one for each school cluster in the district, according to officials.

  In other business, all personnel recommendations by superintendent Dr. Mary Elizabeth Davis were approved in a single vote except for one. That was a separate motion initiated by the board to renew Davis’ contract for the full 36-month term allowed by Georgia law.

  The terms of the contract are not changed from what was previously adopted earlier this year, with the exception that it is now in effect through December 2022, according to a statement released by the district two days after the meeting.

  In addition to approving the move by unanimous vote, all five members of the board publicly expressed their pleasure with the performance of Davis, who was first named superintendent in October of 2017 and started on the job the following month. She began, at that time, with a three-year contract at $213,000 per year, but that contract was terminated and a new deal, which took effect in March of this year, calls for a $300,000 annual salary over the same length of time.

  If she fulfills her current contract, Davis will have been on the job longer than each of her three immediate predecessors.