New look on campus
YELLOWJACKETS’ GYM PART OF SCHOOL SPRUCE-UP
Members of the Mountain View Yellow jackets basketball team have been enjoying some new digs. A remodeling project transformed the campus’s old agriculture building into a new basketball gym, and Mountain View School District Superintendent Rowdy Ross said the community has already experienced the benefits of the new facility.
“We tore out a whole wall [in the former agriculture building], put in a whole new section of bleachers, and chairs with backs on them,” Ross said,“an entirely renovated facility.”
The new renovation allowed the Yellowjackets to host a regional basketball tournament last year.
That expansion puts the capacity of the facility at around 1,200. The district was also able to build a small gym for physical-education classes adjacent to the new basketball arena. New dressing rooms and restrooms were also included in the project.
Hosting the regional tournament not only allowed the Yellowjackets to showcase their campus and new facility, but to boost the local economy as well.
“When you get a regional tournament, you pretty much bid 100 percent of your gate,” Ross said. “It’s good for the motels and restaurants. With Mountain View being a tourist town, in February there’s not a lot going on, so it really gave a boost to the city and the county.”
The renovation was made possible by an earlier construction of a new agriculture building.
The renovation also included a new roof for the Rural Special Elementary School that was installed last summer, Ross said.The Mountain View School District umbrellas the districts of Rural Special and Timbo after the two smaller districts were annexed in 2004.
Are there more construction projects on the horizon? Nothing immediate, Ross said.
“Facility wise, not so much. The last several years, we have been constantly doing stuff. I’m hoping we are getting caught up with what’s going on.”
A criminal-justice program has also been added to the curriculum at Mountain View.The new program offers three courses — Criminal Justice, and Introduction to Law Enforcement 1 and 2.
“Our resource officer is cer tified to teach [the program],” Ross said.
The classes will be held across from the main campus in a building the school district purchased from the county.
Once they complete the three courses, beginning with Criminal Justice at the sophomore level and ending with Intro to Law Enforcement 2 as seniors, students will earn a certificate and be eligible to enter a law-enforcement training academy after graduation.