During a board Oct. 21 the BASD School Board voted 8-0 to approve the expenditure needed to purchase new band uniforms for the Liberty HS Band.

Liberty's uniforms were next under a rotation schedule several years ago, but the order was never made due to lack of funds.

Kashket & Partners based in London was the sole bidder and will be making the uniforms under a contract for $139,000. The company was interested in making the uniforms for LHS because of the Grenadier Bands connection to England. The company has provided uniforms for high profile clients such as the Royal Guard in England.

Student representatives from the band publicly thanked the board for approving the purchase.

"On behalf of the entire band we want to say thank you", said Liberty band Student Representative Drew Donaher.

The LHS band will be performing this January in the Rose Bowl Parade in California.

The board also approved funds to purchase new curriculum materials for the math program for grades 4 and 5 for the price of $170,025. The new program that has been chosen is EnVision Math. This new program was selected to prepare students for the rigors of the new Common Core Standards.

A review committee looked at and compared a variety of published materials and staff development options in Spring of 2013. After an extensive review Pearson's EnVision Math Program was selected. This program is also used in neighboring school districts.

The District anticipates the materials arriving in December with formal rollout and training of EnVision Math of Grade 4 and 5 teachers at the end of the first semester.

This program is going right after the soft spots in growth said Dr. Jack Silva, superintendent of curriculum. This is also a onetime purchase and there is room to update the system and its technology component.