Daniel Prince
Improvements in technology, sports, facilities, and more included
At last week’s school board budget workshop, the five-year capital projects plan was presented. The plan will be voted on by the school board members at next Monday’s regular meeting. The Technology Department plans to begin replacing intercom units at the schools, noting that some systems are original to the buildings. Technology Director Tim Barnado said the systems at Foster Park and Buffalo would likely be replaced first, and the rest would follow in ensuing years. He said work needs to be done to the loading dock at the District Office Annex building on Lakeside Drive, as the door isn’t wide enough to accommodate tractor-trailers with pallet deliveries. Barnado said they are looking at several options, but the cheapest would be to widen the door to the size of a lift gate and have some sort of fall-down ramp to bridge the gap between the dock and the trucks. He is also requesting an additional vehicle for the technology department, as one of the technicians currently has to drive a personal vehicle, as the department only has one vehicle. Barnado said he would like a truck that could haul a small trailer for transport, which is another thing he said the department needs.
A number of sports improvements were included in the capital plan’s student activities section. Athletic Director Scott Sherbert presented some of those to the board, including a new surface coating on the tennis courts and a track surface replacement for the 2025-2026 school year. The plan includes new wireless scoreboard controllers at the middle school, which will have antennas built into the control box to minimize the chances of damage. Both scoreboards at the high school gym would be replaced, and shot clocks would be added, as well. Sherbert noted that the SC High School League says they think a rule for shot clocks will be coming soon, and it will be cheaper to go ahead and install them now rather than wait for the rule to be implemented. Also included in the plan is a new scoreboard and wireless control for the track field at the high school. For baseball and softball, new netting for the batting cages and new backstop netting is needed, as is infield maintenance with a special dirt mix brought in for all the fields at the middle school and high school level. They hope to have a quote for track equipment to include in the capital plan before the board votes next week, as well.
For recurring maintenance and replacement, Maintenance Director Mark Haney said his department plans to replace the carpet in the administrative areas of both middle schools. They plan to paint the gym at Buffalo, and do some painting at Foster Park and in classrooms at the high school, as well as some paint and cosmetic work in the high school gym. He added funding for HVAC replacements, saying they are starting to see failures in some of the rooftop units at the middle schools, and when that happens, they have to replace them with new units that don’t use the R-22 refrigerant. He said the district’s conversion to LED lighting will continue, but it is close to being done. He said he anticipates less expense in that category moving forward, as not as many lights will need to be purchased for replacement each year. Haney said the district’s partnership with Mr. Ketterman’s construction class at the high school was a success, and they built a 12x24 storage building that was transported to Monarch for storage. He said he plans to partner with them again for a similar building for Jonesville and at the high school. He said Foster Park needs one, also, but their need is more immediate, and the district may need to buy one for them. He said he also wants to start a program to patch and seal coat the parking lots in the district, starting with Foster Park. They may add speed bumps at some of the schools to slow down traffic moving through. Leaks in some of the portable classrooms will be addressed. They plan to do work on improving the lawns at the schools. They plan to improve one of the entrances at the Berry Building at the high school to accommodate special needs students. Awnings will be installed at Foster Park from the cafeteria to the PE mobile and from the front to the kindergarten building. They will continue to replace exterior doors at the high school until they are all done. We’ll have more from the meeting, including even more projects included in the capital plan, in a future newscast.