The Goodrich School Board approved an overhaul of current athletic facilities Thursday in their regular gathering for June in the administration building.
The board discussed the makeover of athletic facilities in a budget workshop held before the meeting. The total project cost is $2,419,542, which includes the complete renovation of the track, the destruction and haul-off of the current fieldhouse facility, and construction of a new fieldhouse. The total includes architecture and engineering fees, utilities allowances, and owner contingencies.
“I want to say publicly, it's because of good fiscal management that we're able to do this without a bond,” Goodrich Superintendent Daniel Barton said. Again, we spent $700-something thousand was approved last year on renovating our ag facilities that desperately needed it, our athletic facilities obviously desperately needed it as well. But, to be able to do all of that and not incur the need to go to the community for extra money is to be noted and thankful for.”
In maintenance and operation, the gym floors were finished over the last week. The athletes should be able to get back on them by Friday, and were supposed to stay off of them for seven days.
Floors in the school are still undergoing work throughout and a lot of progress has been made. Also, the walls in the lower elementary have been repainted.
“They're doing a great job,” Barton said of the maintenance team. “They've taken a lot of things down. If you remember last year, prior to the summer, we bought what is called the Big Bertha stripping machine. But they wet-stripped with it. And because some of that wax was oil-based, and it hasn't been stripped completely down to the tile in 10 or 20 years. Not an exaggeration, I mean, it's thick. But they've cut down to the cafeteria, went all the way to the base on it. They're working hard and working fast and trying to stay on track. Grass is a secondary issue; it has to stop raining long enough to cut it.”
Barton presented at the Texas Workforce Commission at an inaugural summit.
“It's the first year they've done it,” Barton said. “They put on a conference. We were guest speakers and spoke about our programs that we have with Lamar State University and Sam Houston. Our students can have their associate's degree for free if they go education. It's to create a teacher pipeline. One of our students can go through high school, and by the end of high school, they'll have their associate's degree. Then, they transfer straight into Sam Houston, so they're done with really two years’ worth of college after they graduate.”
District Nurse Gina Wittenburg presented a wellness plan and health services plan, as is done each year.
“TEA is focusing more on bullying, and so you'll see a lot more of that, and we actually added that into our wellness plan in the SHAC,” Wittenburg said. “We're going to be doing some more parental involvement and notifications, and hopefully to help with that in a positive way, and some better wellness strategies in the school.
Wittenburg said she would send out a survey and ask teachers to complete them at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. That will give data to help develop a plan for next year a little more strategically.
“We are a smaller school, and the distance to the local parks and the safe walking and bike routes, we don't have a lot of that stuff here in our area that some of the bigger districts have. I really just wanted to get a different view from the teachers and stuff to see if those surveys helped me.
“We're going to foster a positive school climate. And we already have been doing a lot of these things. We're just making it more well-known and making it easier for children to report and making it to just getting them kind of more used to things.”
