SHELBY – Dan Miller knows how to keep his crew busy around the Shelby City Schools campus, both indoors and outside.
Miller, the district’s director of buildings and grounds, shared a presentation before members of the Shelby Board of Education Monday.
Miller and staff working throughout the district
Several projects throughout the district were highlighted, including the demolition of the former Central school building and the razing of W.W. Skiles Field.
Miller said both properties were maintained by the district until the end of this year’s fall sports season.
“It will be exciting to see what happens with these properties in the future,” he said.
Furthermore, updates continue to be added around the district’s $4 million campus, known as the Whippet Athletic Complex (WAC).
Recently added awnings will now provide covered areas outside of the fieldhouse and locker rooms. The Wall of Honor, located near the stadium’s entrance, also reached completion.
Multiple landscaping projects provided beautification outside of district buildings, including new river rock beds which replaced the previously used lava rock.
A memorial garden was created outside of the Shelby Board of Education office, which also received new district branding on the building’s exterior.
“We made this memorial garden from all the memorial stones from Auburn, Dowds and Central (former school buildings),” Miller said. “We wanted to display those outside of the board office.”
Progress made on Championship Drive
The culvert replacement project on Championship Drive, which runs through the center of campus, was successfully completed.
Miller said the project was a massive undertaking, but was interesting to witness.
“The old culvert was actually rusted in half,” he said. “It (the old culvert) really took a beating with the PK-8 building project,” he said.
Additionally, street lights were installed on Championship Drive and a sidewalk, running from the district’s new preschool through eighth grade building to the WAC, was installed.
Indoor additions and subtraction
Moving indoors, building and grounds crew members installed more than 40 interactive display boards between the middle and high school buildings, as well as over 80 bulletin boards.
Bottle filling stations were installed throughout the high school, board office, and WAC, while an island in the home economics room was removed.
“It was getting really tight in that room,” Miller said. “They (students) didn’t really use the islands in there (classroom) and it made it kind of dangerous.”
Miller’s Presentation
Keeping the grounds clean and safe
Traveling back outside, a manure pit was recently constructed behind the vocational agriculture (vo-ag) barn, which Miller said was much-needed.
“With our stadium and baseball field right next door, this really keeps things looking nice and a little more hidden,” he said.
The vo-ag barn parking lot has been resurfaced, as well as expanded to create more parking for visitors attending sporting events at the WAC.
Concrete islands were removed from the board office parking lot, which was also resurfaced.
“Those (islands) were becoming quite an eye-sore,” Miller said. “I had to go out and trim rebar off all the time. It was a hazard.”
After selling the former Dowds Elementary school building, the district needed to decide on a new location for its Safety Town program.
“Since we moved from Dowds, we were able to fit this (program) in here and change up the sizing a little bit to still make everything fit,” he said. “Everything works really nice there.”
Future school-based health center nearing completion
To end his presentation, Miller shared pictures of the future Nationwide Children’s Hospital School-Based Health Center.
The health center will be located in the Shelby Board of Education building, 109 W. Smiley Ave.
“It (health center) turned out really nice,” he said. “There’s just a few items to hang on the walls in there and that’s it.”
A celebratory ribbon-cutting ceremony, which will include a light breakfast, performance from the Shelby High School choir, and self-guided tours, is planned for Dec. 6 at 9 a.m.