(KNZA)--Two open positions have been filled at Hiawatha High School for next school year.

Following an executive session Monday evening, the USD 415 Board of Education voted to hire Ted Brown of Ingalls, Kansas as the new head football coach and social studies teacher at the high school.

Brown has coached and taught in Ingalls USD 477 for the past five years.

Hiawatha High School Principal Andrew Gaddis told MSC News that not only is Brown an exceptional social studies teacher but he also has a proven record on the field.  In five seasons, Gaddis says Brown has accumulated a 72 percent winning percentage as head coach.  He says Brown took a team that in four seasons had a record of 8-28 to a record of 10-1 and 9-2 the last two years.

The USD 415 Board in November accepted the resignations of  Chris Diller as head football coach and Alexandra Kilhoffer as high school social studies teacher. 

In other action, it was the consensus of the Board to try a bus rider tracking system on one bus for a month before deciding whether to purchase the necessary equipment for eleven buses.  The equipment, at a cost more than 11-hundred dollars per bus, would come from Verizon Wireless.  In addition, existing tablets would be utilized. The system would allow the district to track which students are riding on a bus at any given time. The need for such a system came up following last November's school bus wreck.

The Board approved a list of an estimated $430,000 worth of capital improvement projects planned this summer.  The biggest project will include the replacement of the exterior doors at the elementary school and high school, which the Board approved letting for bid.

Meanwhile, the middle school gymnasium roof is to be replaced over spring break following the acceptance of the low bid for the project from Midwest Coating, of Topeka, in the amount of $18,800.  The bid was around $13,000 less than had been estimated.       

And the Board approved a school calendar for the 2016-17 school year.  The first day of school will be August 18th and last day, May 25th.