SCHOOL RENOVATIONS BEGIN AT OAK RIDGE

OAK RIDGE -- Basketball games will sound like basketball games again at Oak Ridge High School. The gold and blue carpet on the gymnasium floor is being replaced with a more traditional wood floor.

Installation of the new floor is scheduled to begin today and will cost $30,850. Superintendent Roger Tatum said the wood floor was originally included in an improvement and construction plan for the high school, which voters approved in April.

The gymnasium floor was listed as a possibility, if funds held out. Since April, he said, the school's booster club and area residents have committed to fund the floor. That commitment allowed work to begin on the floor this week.

Bid specifications for other parts of the renovation plan are still being written.

The gymnasium floor has been carpeted for about a dozen years. Tatum said the carpet has worn well and it works: basketballs bounce and children play. But games sound much different when played on carpet and carpeting isn't the first choice for gymnasium floors.

At the time that the carpet was installed, Tatum explained, wood floors cost even more than they cost today.

"The carpet did a good job, and the carpeted floor was better than the tile underneath," he said. "The wood is obviously better."

The floor should be completed in about a week and is being installed on top of the carpet, which will raise the floor about two inches. The basketball goals will be raised accordingly.

In April, Oak Ridge voters approved $710,000 in general obligation bonds to build a 12,000-square-foot addition to the existing high school.

The bonds were sold within a couple hours to two Missouri banks, Tatum said. "We've had the funds on hand since the first week of May, invested and earned a little interest money," he said.

The time schedule calls for bids to be available the first week of July and awarded the first week of August.

The new building will house classrooms for language arts, mathematics and business, a home-economics laboratory, a computer lab, a science lab, and two science lecture rooms.

The building will be placed west of the cafeteria and gymnasium. Renovations are planned to the existing buildings also.

The home-economics room will be converted to an art room. The art and science rooms will be converted to a library for grades kindergarten through 12.