EPHRATA — The Ephrata School District’s Board of Directors approved more than $200,000 of maintenance projects for completion over the summer, as well as the purchase of a new special education bus for about $181,000, according to an ESD press release. 

“Staff completes much of the work themselves, but contracts jobs from time-to-time for efficiency or to handle tasks outside of employed skill sets,” the release said.  

Included in this year’s list of projects were new asphalt, playground equipment installation and landscaping and curbing for the Tiger Cub Preschool. New doors and painting projects were approved for Parkway Intermediate School on Parkway Boulevard, about a block toward the Beezley Hills from Safeway.  

The new bus will help students with special needs get to classes and includes a wheelchair lift and tracks in the floor for four wheelchairs to be secured so the children can travel safely to and from campus. The new bus was purchased from RWC Group in Spokane.  

The bus should arrive in the spring, the release said.