Floyd BOE OKs purchase of stadium lights
The 2018-2019 system calendar is also approved and will move fall break back a week and spring break back two weeks.
The Pepperell High School football field is set to get new poles and lights after the Floyd County Board of Education approved the $165,000 purchase Tuesday night.
The four new poles with high-intensity discharge lights and precast concrete bases are being purchased from Iowabased Musco Lighting. Some of the current light poles were damaged from high winds.
According to Facilities Manager David Van Hook, the lighting systems will be delivered a month earlier since they are being bought off a state pre-bid contract, which also saves the system $45,000.
Superintendent John Jackson said money will have to be transferred from the general fund to the capital projects fund to complete the buy.
The system had the option of equipping the poles with more energy-efficient LED lights — for an additional $25,000 — but to recoup its investment they would have to be on for 200 hours each year for 25 years, Van Hook said. And 200 hours is far more than the lights would be on, he said.
Around the 25-year mark new poles and lights would need to be purchased anyway, Van Hook continued.
Timing is essential for the school system as they still have to bid out the installation work, which is expected to bring the project’s bill over $200,000, and have it completed before Pepperell’s first home football game Sept. 1, Jackson said.
The resurfacing of the high school’s track is also slated to begin this month.
In other items, the board approved the 2018-2019 calendar, which pushes back fall break by one week and spring break by two weeks, and recognized two employees with Distinguished Service Awards.
Under the calendar changes, fall break will come the second week of October 2018 and spring break will be the second week of April 2019. During that school year, Floyd County Schools will have its fall and spring breaks on different weeks than Rome City Schools, but Jackson said the systems would work on aligning their breaks for 2019-2020.
Altering the calendar in this way, Jackson added, keeps the school open for the full-time enrollment count day on Oct. 2, 2018, that figures funding per student.
Instructional Technology Coordinator Ryan White received the Distinguished Service Employee of the Year Award under the certified category and bus driver Dewey Thomas won the award in the classified category.