As school is being let out for the year, students won’t think much more until the summer’s over and school starts again. By that time, the campus will have gotten a new makeover from ongoing projects. Renovations for the track and field have started and construction for replacing the windows and doors at the high school is in the works.

The renovation for the stadium started on May 14 with the groundbreaking ceremony. This project has been ongoing since November and a lot of changes has been made to the plans since.

“We’ve been awarded a $40,000 field construction grant from USA Football in order to help reduce the cost of the construction of the field and that’s helpful. We’re always looking at opportunities to help continue lowering the cost,” Superintendent Jeffrey Fuller said.

So far, the schedule is still set and the field is set to be done with construction by mid-August if no delays occur. This is set to be done right before the football team starts to have their first games of the season.

One other noteworthy thing about the construction of the field is that in the plans for the field, the bulldog logo and the words “Freedom” were forgotten to be put in the plans to be painted on the field. During the meeting on May 8, the school board decided that instead, the costs would be lowered by going with white lettering in the end-zones saying “Freedom” on the elementary school side and “Bulldogs” on the opposite side. Also, they decided going against having anything in the center and keeping the field looking like the same way it is now.

Since the original plans of the field were constructed, the total cost of the project has been lowered. To begin with, the project was originally supposed to cost $1.44 million. Now, the project is set to cost only $1.29 million, with savings of $145,918. The savings mainly come from having workers at the school to remove the fencing around the field, along with other work such as that.

On a different topic, the school board originally made the decision back in January to replace all of the doors and windows in the high school in order to make the school a more comfortable environment for the students. The total project was estimated to take about 139 days: 54 days for the bidding process and 85 days for the actual replacement.

The bidding process opened on Thursday, May 3. The school board reviewed the two bids that they received on May 8 and decided to go with Gurtner Construction Co. Inc. with a bid of $1.08 million.

In the plan, Gurtner Construction will be replacing all of the windows and doors. For the doors, they will be receiving aluminum frames, which are more durable than the current ones. The windows will also be aluminum framed and also have integral blinds and a high performance coating in order to ensure that they last longer and look nicer.

The school board took a sample removal of one of the windows in the custodian office in order to make sure it would work out correctly. They looked at the documents that showed how the windows were originally put in to figure out how take them out.

The windows are set to be received somewhere around June 20, with removal  starting on June 28. Because of construction starting so late, the project will extend into the beginning of next school year. In order to accommodate for this, the windows that are being replaced will follow a schedule.

“If we go into the start of next school year, then the contractor will work second shift and they will come in and do their work after students and staff leave. If we need to adjust some classrooms, then we may need to move a class for maybe a day or two, it should just be minor,” Fuller said.

Both of these projects are set to take place over the summer and by the time students come back to school next year, a large majority of the campus will be changed. These renovations not only affect students, but also community members.

“I think both projects are very important for this school district. The stadium is the one place that every student in the district uses during the school year. Whether it’s for PE classes or for participating in some athletic event or the pep rally or walking on the track, and then especially for commencement, and on Friday nights during the fall, it’s the one place in the community that brings most of the public together,” Fuller stated.