Hello Panther Community. I just wanted to start updating the communities on items that are happening within our district. Obviously, we passed the bond and have been working through that process as a district. This is ongoing and I will start by updating where we are at with the actual bond projects.
First of all, the upgrades to electrical and HVAC at the Jr/Sr High school were started last
summer. They have been hit and miss with the electrical piece during the school term. The
HVAC piece was put on hold as we had some supply issues. We will have both of these projects
completed by July 4 th of this summer.
The upgrade to restrooms and current locker rooms has been completed. That work was
completed by the start of basketball season and the updated locker rooms were utilized at
Courtland during the basketball season.
Another obvious, and much needed, item was the paving of the parking lot and bus loading
zone at Courtland. Again, that was completed last summer and it is awesome to not hit those
potholes in the parking lot.
We have had to make some adjustments to our predicted bond projects. Due to increase in
what our actual bids came in at, the district had to decide not to go ahead with the new locker
room/shelters at either school. This has been a difficult decision, but we felt that the CTE
expansion needed to take precedence and did not want to cut down the size of that expansion.
During this process and with the amounts not utilized for the shelters/locker rooms, we are
able to renovate a couple of classrooms at the Jr/Sr High School to build them into two new
locker rooms. This will allow us to separate the Jr and Sr high student groups for safety
concerns. It also will allow us to house the visiting teams for football and volleyball in a more
presentable fashion.
The CTE expansion has begun. The plan is to have this part of the project completed for the
start of school next fall. We are planning for the new ag classroom (in the old woods shop) to
be done by early in the school year. During this same time frame, the plan is to have the two
new locker rooms done shortly after the start of the school year as well.
The electrical upgrades and the renovation of an old restroom area to an ADA acceptable
restroom will all be completed this summer. Yes, our buildings will be a mess this summer and
our custodial staff knows they must be flexible. With that being said, we are very excited for
these all to be done and our students and staff can enjoy the use of our new and updated
facilities.
A few other items that are not part of the bond issue, but that the district has decided to spend
funds on: replacing many of the exterior doors at both buildings, fixing the potholes and doing an overlay of part of the road around the school, updating the concessions/restrooms at the football field and continuing to update our vehicle fleet. These projects will be paid from capital outlay, contingency reserve and the use of some of the $100,000 donated from the county commissioners from the windfall dollars. Many thanks to the county commissioners for recognizing the importance of our county schools.
As we close out the school year I want to share some thoughts from our first “Soup with the
Sup” meeting. First of all, we drew names of two teachers from both buildings to have soup
with the superintendent and have some honest conversations about our district and how we
are doing. We had some specific items for discussion and the first main two items were teacher
appreciation and mental health.
We had some great discussion on both items and I would like to let you know specifically about
the teacher appreciation. After a lengthy discussion, we decided to try and get our community
involved. We know and hear how supportive our communities are and appreciate that. We are
wondering if businesses/organizations would be willing to sponsor staff appreciation for one
month of the school year. If your business or organization would be interested in sponsoring a
month to recognize and honor our staff, please give Mr. Joonas a call at the central office (785-
335-2206) and let him know.
These can be whatever the business or organization would like to do. It could be once a week
for that month or one time during the month to recognize and honor the hard work that our
staffs do on a daily basis. We simply want to show how much we appreciate all their dedication
to helping our students succeed. Thank you for all of your support. Panther Proud!
Steve Joonas