Firm warns of 'millions' in fixes at Perry County school district

PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Members of an architectural firm updated the Perry County School Board about their progress on a long-term facilities plan Wednesday, warning several million dollars will be needed for improvements and updates throughout the district.

Brian Foxworthy, architect and president of Incite Design, said some things have been patched too much over the years and should be replaced as soon as possible, with the biggest problems showing up in the early childhood center and fifth grade.

“We need to rip the Band-Aids off these things if we want them to last,” he told the board during a presentation.

Incite began the facilities study in March and anticipates coming up with a long-range plan by October.

“We’re trying to provide a road map for the current and future needs of the district,” he said.

Some of the problems he and other members of the company highlighted include:

• Problems with windows and doors at the middle school;
• Old lighting fixtures that should be changed with an eye toward LED lighting;
• An athletic area in the basement of the high school Foxworthy called “borderline horrible”;
• Power distribution and circuit breakers that weren’t designed to support burgeoning computer technology;
• Forty-year-old HVAC units at the elementary school that are 25 years past life expectancy;
• A 65-year-old boiler in the old vocational building that has been patched repeatedly and might not make it through another winter;
• And elementary and middle school buildings that are over capacity.

“There’s several million dollars we need to put into these buildings,” he said.

In other business, the board approved the 2016-2017 professional development plan for teachers, designed to make the continuing education process as individualized as possible, said Shadrick Shafer, professional development committee chair and an English teacher at the high school.

Shafer said a recent needs assessment showed the need for technology training is a growing issue for teachers in the district, especially since it’s now a Google-dominated environment.

Training sessions will be conducted from August to March next school year, with many topics being offered in three-hour stints that will allow teachers more choices and opportunities to learn.

“You put all of those together and you have valuable time spent on those afternoons,” Shafer said.

The board also approved using a Title IIA grant to fund two teacher salaries to alleviate crowding in the third and fourth grades.

ljones@semissourian.com

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