MINOT – The School Committee has approved the wording of a flier explaining a referendum on financing a new well at the Minot Consolidated School.

The Nov. 2 referendum asks for authority to borrow up to $55,000 for a new well, a water filtration system and a heated 10- by 20-foot enclosure for it.

The state Department of Education would forgive $32,626 of the bond by a grant, leaving Minot responsible for repaying $22,374.

Board Chairman Coleen Quint noted that school and town officials are looking into a potentially less expensive alternative of laying a line from the town garage well to serve the school. Final costs of this alternative are not known.

Both the school well and the town garage well will need treatment for arsenic content, but it appears the garage well would not require the more costly and much larger radon treatment facility.

Union 29 Director of Operations Gordon Murray told the board the new bus should be available in about two weeks.

While the school lunch report is, as Quint noted, “scary, as it very often is at the beginning of the school year,” it appears the number of students eating hot lunch has increased considerably. Quint said last spring the school experimented with creating a salad bar, and it appears this is drawing a lot more students into taking lunch at school.

After reviewing the school’s eligibility policy for winter and spring sports, the School Committee agreed to use student grades as of Oct. 29 to determine eligibility for playing basketball.

The school’s current policy is based on a quarterly system, and the school this year has begun using a trimester grading system. This means the committee must make certain adjustments to the policy to realign the grading systems with the sports season.

The board also appointed Harold Bridgham as girls basketball coach and Sean Johnson to be the boys basketball coach. Tryouts are scheduled for the second week in November with practice to start after Nov. 15.