The Greene County School District is bringing a service entirely back in house.

For the last decade, the school district has contracted with Raccoon Valley Lawn Care to do most of the mowing and other lawn maintenance responsibilities. However, the School Board recently decided to bring those services back within the district and hire two additional full-time buildings and grounds employees.

The Board discussed the issue at March’s meeting and after comparing the current contract with Raccoon Valley Lawn Care of $65,000 and hiring two employees with total salaries between $70,000-$75,000, the Board agreed on the latter. The current buildings and grounds staff has three employees and there was a lot of overtime used this last winter. Superintendent Tim Christensen says having two more employees will help in other areas of the district as well.

“So that’s what the Board decided to do was move in that direction to hire two full-time people, and we would take care of our own lawn care and those people would also drive a bus, and help clean buildings, and it would be a year round position.”

The Board also approved purchasing additional equipment needed to do lawn care, which would come from the district’s Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) fund, while the employee salaries would be from the district’s general fund.