For the first time in 20 years, Putnam County Schools employees will                               see an increase in                                    their dental and vision                             insurance benefits.

During June 16th's                                     Board of Education                                   meeting, members                                    voted to increase                                        those benefits to                                       $1500 annual                                     maximum for dental,                               $1500 lifetime orthodontia, $1500 on implants and impactions (this comes out of the annual maximum). In addition, coverage will increase to $50 for eye exams, $50 on frames and single lenses, $70 on bifocals, and $80 of trifocals, states district spokesperson Karen S. Nowviskie. The increases take effect July 1st.

In other business: 
 

• After PutnamLIVE.com notified the Board of Education about Amanda Grant's perfect attendance from Kindergarten through her senior year at Buffalo High School, she was presented with a plaque.
  
  Grant had little to say after the meeting, preferring to let her attendance speak for itself.
  
  However, district officials were happy to praise her huge accomplishment.
  
  "That's a phenomenal feat. In this day and time that's almost unheard of to go 13 years without an absence," says Superintendent of Schools Harold L. "Chuck" Hatfield. "We're very proud of her. That's remarkable. I wish they'd all do that. From all indications she's a very good kid and I am sure her parents are very proud."
  
  "I wish we had more Amanda Grants," says former Superintendent of Schools Sam Sentelle, who is now a Board of Education member. "I think it would be good for everybody because good attendance helps everybody. Teachers don't have to spend as much time creating make-up lessons."
  
  Sentelle was superintendent during most of Grant's academic career in Putnam County
   

• The board approved the bid from BWAB International, LLC to purchase eight new school buses in the amount of $715,740.
  
  Four will transport 77-passenger during each trip. They are priced at a total of $199,220; two are 84-passenger buses for a total of $399,000; and two are 53-passenger, special needs buses that cost a total $177,520.

  Jack Coyner, a current Board of Education member and a former county schools administrator, says that when he retired 15 years ago the county could purchase the same amount of buses for no more than $500,000.

  That goes to show how inflation works, he said.  A $43,000 bus back then would cost around $93,000 today. He said buses cost almost $100,000 a piece in today's market.
   

• Bids from Supreme Asphalt Maintenance ($20,750) and Blacktop Industries ($59, 452.50) were approved to seal and stripe various parking lots.