OISD School
Olney’s new $1.5 million baseball complex took another step toward opening next spring - on time and on budget - with the addition of two new scoreboards courtesy of InterBank, Olney Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Greg Roach told the school board.
InterBank agreed to sponsor the two scoreboards for the Cubs and Lady Cubs teams at a cost of about $22,000 plus $3,000 for installation, Dr. Roach said. The electrical wiring at the field is completed and the scoreboards can be installed as soon as they are delivered, he said.
The next step is to take bids for concrete work for the dugouts, sidewalks, and walkways around the facility, he said.
Olney ISD is requesting bids for the construction of two 42-foot-by12-foot dugouts at the softball field, and bids for concrete work, including two dugout slabs and flat work at both the baseball and softball fields. After the dugouts are completed, the fencing will be installed, he said. OISD maintenance crews have gutted the concession stand and restrooms and are in the process of replacing all rotted wood and old fixtures and adding new fixtures, wiring, and appliances to the concession stand and new sinks, commodes, and doors to the restrooms, he said. “We are doing a lot of it ourselves and are using local folks to put in the plumbing,” Dr. Roach said. “Our maintenance people are doing quite a bit of that. I would say we will be ready to roll by the end of February. We could play on it right now but the amenities would not be there,” he said.
The district also is partnering with Tower Extrusions on permitting a new water pipeline that will run from Tower to storage tanks beside the complex. Tower has agreed to supply the ball fields with potable rejected reverse osmosis water from its manufacturing facility to irrigate the fields.
“Our plan is to run a line from Tower Extrusions to the ballpark and put in tanks there and a pump,” Dr.Roach said. “It’s a little less than a mile. They are going to pump it to us, we’re going to store it in a tank.
We probably will store between 20,000-30,000 gallons.”
The school board on Nov. 28 also approved the purchases of a John Deere 5 Gang Reel Mower and John Deere Field Rake to groom the fields.
OISD seeks bids for Ag Farm Roof
The OISD is taking bids for replacing the roof of the 5,500-square-foot FFA Ag Farm roof, and repairing the rotting truss system. The school board received bids ranging from $30,000 to $100,000 to replace the roof, which is at least 20 years old, Superintendent Dr. Greg Roach said. “We decided we wanted to get more bids …to make sure we can get the scope of work done for the price that’s needed,” he said. The job entails replacing the trusses and any aging metal. The school recently mowed and cleaned up trash at the Ag Farm to get it ready for FFA and 4H show season, he said. Contact Tim Orsak at 940-564-3519 to view the existing structure and for submission of bids.
OISD enrollment tops expectations
OISD Superintendent Dr. Greg Roach reported enrollment of 727 students across the three Olney campuses, about 30 more students than on last year’s rolls. “That’s very good from a funding standpoint,” he said. “We thought we would have about 650 on our average daily attendance and currently are at 660.” The district created 30-second ads touting the accolades and awards Olney schools earned in the past two years from U.S. News & World Report and the wide array of academic programming and extracurricular activities the district offers. The ads ran on Wichita Falls television stations.
School board gets safety plan draft
The Olney school board received a general overview of the first draft of a school security assessment the district commissioned from security expert Danny Defenbaugh. The report will not be made public, and should be finalized by the end of December, Superintendent Dr. Greg Roach said. The report contained “a lot of practical information” and found “no glaring holes in [OISD’s] security,” Dr. Roach said. “We were told we are doing a pretty good job.” The district will conduct an indepth review of the plan to prioritize and lay in additional security measures
School district considers activity bus
The OISD is taking a look at adding an activity bus to its fleet to give students more comfort when traveling to far-flung games and activities. Activity buses look like regular school buses but are white and about three feet longer, Superintendent Dr. Greg Roach said. They have added storage underneath and above the passenger compartment to store sporting or band equipment but fewer seats – 50 instead of 72, he said. That would allow Olney teams to travel more comfortably on the road in its newly expanded district, whose farthest point is now Colorado City, a 334-mile round trip, Dr. Roach said. An activity bus costs $135,280
“We are taking a harder look at the existing bus fleet to ensure an activity bus fits our needs. We can’t run it on [school bus] routes,” he said. “They are more comfortable and … we’ve got long distances to travel because of the new football district.