District officials prepping for new school year

With school starting in just over a month, Wapakoneta City School officials

and staff have been hard at work completing summer

projects. But not everything is done yet.

Only half of the floors in the science rooms at the high school are completed.

"The eastern half of that science wing is complete,"

Mike Watt, director of operations for the district, said.

Watt is hopeful the western half will be finished by the end of the week.

The high school's gym scoreboard was taken down and moved to the middle school. New score boards are supposed to be shipped to the school soon.

"Hopefully (we'll) be

installing those by next week or the first of August," he said.

He wants to get the new scoreboard up by the start of volleyball season.

Electricians are working in the women's restroom at the football stadium, but roofing won't be delivered until the end of the month

or early in August, and

Watt is hoping to have the

restroom opened by the second week of August.

"That's kind of held us up a little bit there," he said. "But everything internally

should be done by then. We'd just need to put the roof on and we'd be ready to roll."

Watt said the biggest challenge WCS has faced in these projects is getting materials on time.

Besides routine painting, LED lighting has been installed at the middle

school, but above-the-stage LED lighting is still being worked on. Supplemental air conditioning on the

second floor hasn't started yet, but Watt said the project will be commissioned soon and hopes to have it completed by the time school starts.

The track around the football field is completed and is now

open again, but painting still needs to be done in the bus lot between the elementary and high schools.

"That'll be re-striped for the bus drivers," he said.

"Our goal is to keep our buildings in the

best shape possible for the students and staff," he said.

He estimated the air conditioning project at $417,000, the LED lighting at over

$283,000, the science floors at $101,000 and

the track at $80,000 for a total of almost $900,000.

"But that's a rough number," Watt said.

As for next year, he said two buildings would have their parking lots sealed

and resealed, something the district tries to do every few years to spread out the cost.

In future projects, the large group room

at the high school will get new carpeting and laminate vinyl tile for the 202223 school year.

"It's just timing," he said. "Trying to get it done when we have

open time to get in and tear it out and not interrupt class."

Other projects could include athletic turf on the baseball and softball fields.

"[There are] things to maintain right

now," he said. "We want to keep the building in as good a

shape as possible for our kids and staff."