Gentry’s athletic needs reported to school board

— Plans are in place to improve lighting in the high school gymnasium and also strip and refinish the floors there and in the Carl Gym, according to Gentry’s dean of students and football coach, Brian Little.

Little was filling in for Gentry Athletic Director Brae Harper when he spoke at the March 15 school board meeting.

Floors at the high schoolgym and at the Carl gym are scheduled to be stripped, repainted and refinished, Little said. The work is tentatively planned for this summer during dead time when no student practices can be held.

Little said the school hoped to make lighting improvements at the high school before working on the gym floors to avoid the possibility of damaging the refinished floor with equipment needed to reach the lights and the ceiling.

The estimated cost for the gym maintenance and improvements was $20,000 to $25,000.

Other needs were presented for the purpose of future planning, including major repairs to the football field, replacing visitor bleachers, repairsto the track and a field house for practicing indoors during inclement weather.

“It would take near $200,000 to do it the right way,” Little said of repairs to the football field, explaining that dirt work and drainage was a key component in improving the field.

New visitor bleachers are an even more immediate need, according to Little. He suggested aluminum bleachers which would be placed on a concrete slab. The estimated cost would be between $150,000 and $175,000 if the school replaces the visitor bleachers with something of comparable size. The new bleachers would comply with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, he said, and could help protect the school against liability.

Improvements to the athletic facilities could improve the public’s perception of the school system, Little said. “It’s what you see and your first impression of the school,” he said.

Little also pointed out that there were schoolswith worse facilities, and the football field was still adequate. The improvements were suggested to the board for planning purposes as it considers the future needs for athletics, when money for such projects is available.

“We need to look at teachers’ salaries first before spending lots ofmoney on other projects, school superintendent Dr. Randy Barrett said. “If I’m a teacher here, I want to feel that I’m as valuable as the visitors’ bleachers. Wehave to maintain the buildings. But there’s a balance here, and we have to find that.”

Board member Ted Dorn seconded Barrett’s comments, saying, “Anything we do, it’s after teacher raises.”

Dorn and board member David Williams suggested giving voters the choice.

“I want voters to decide,” Dorn said. “I’d like to see us take one of the mils passed already and dedicate it for the athletes. We would not be asking for more or less taxes. We would just be giving (voters) the opportunity to decide.”

Barrett said he would “do some number crunching to see how this would affect the district overall” and report back to the board.

Sports, Pages 7 on 03/24/2010