Improve area around McClain Hall

Staff editorial

As students, we sometimes wonder where the school’s money goes. Where do the taxpayer dollars go for projects and improvements?

Over the summer, the hallways of our building were repainted. Brightened up others could add.

While COVID-19 was the reason students did eLearning through the months of March- May, our school took that time plus the summer to reevaluate the looks of our building. The appearance and use of it improved with the school’s money. The custodial staff and others worked on our school during the five months while students were at home.

Meanwhile, the bleachers were replaced in McClain Hall. The old wooden bleachers did not have adequate handrails and were worn down. The portions of the new bleachers now can move to any location in the gymnasium and the bleachers spell out the school initials when collapsed. However, the bleachers did not come for free; the project cost about $125,000 to complete with $30,000 coming from the high school, $30,000 coming from the athletic department, and $68,000 coming from the district’s operations budget, according to the Scott County School Board of Education minutes from Feb. 24.

Now that we have put money into our hallways and bleachers, we could focus on other parts of our building. A good use of that money could be putting it towards McClain Hall.

Here’s why: Volleyball and wrestling meets there, hosting games and tournaments. Graduation brings most of the county together in McClain Hall. The gymnasium hosts band, choir, color guard, and theatre performances. Driver’s education spends time in a classroom in that portion of the building.

Bottom line: Many visitors come through McClain Hall and out in the hallways and spaces around the gym. People pay attention to how the place looks and judge our school and our people by what they see. Not to mention that compared to all the other places in the school, the hallways, the classrooms, the clocks stuck at 12:00, and the locker rooms in McClain Hall appear more outdated when one puts it side-by-side to other schools.

The school mentioned purchasing a digital sign in front of our school for at least $42,000 during the June 22 Board of Education meeting, and the Board decided not to make the purchase. But if they did, we could put that amount of money toward improving our school, such as a sports facility, improving the areas around McClain Hall, or upgrading outdated classrooms.

As a staff, we have all agreed that our biggest focus was on improving the area around McClain Hall. Once that is dealt with, a sports facility — more gym space or a pool for our swim team — mentioned in this issue should be seriously considered.