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Daisy Ellis

The controls that were installed as apart of the summer renovations.

Walking through the hallways, returning students noticed some changes since they had last seen it. Over the summer, new lights, lunch tables, and additional flooring were all put into place throughout the school.

“There’s several renovation projects that are part of the district maintenance cycle,” Principal Todd Dain said. “ So, for example, every five or six years we have the parking lot repainted, we have different maintenance projects that are kind of going throughout the district, the new lights went into all schools this summer. Every school in the district got new LED lighting with the dimmers.”

As opposed to the old lights, the new LED’s are equipped with a dimming feature rather than being set to one specific setting.

“I don’t hate the dimming feature, but I liked it better last year when you could do half lights on, half lights off, as opposed to the half brightness,” sophomore Walker Jackson said. “I feel like when it’s slightly dimmed, it’s not bright enough to easily work in or focus. And it’s not dark enough to be an actual dark room, and it feels like my eyes are constantly trying to adjust. I like the diffusion. It’s better than it was last year. But overall, I prefer the old ones because of their ability to be half on half off in a normal sized classroom.”

The district had their reasons for replacing the lights. LED’s allow for more energy efficiency, promising a way to cut costs through lower electricity bills. A major benefit of these new lights is cost effectiveness. However, the larger challenge that came with these benefits was getting the previous lights removed in a safe and effective manner.

“They’re a lot cheaper, they’re a lot cheaper to replace, they’re a lot easier to maintain, and they don’t consume as much energy and electricity as the old tube lights that we had,” Dain said. “When they removed all of the old lights, we had to have a special disposal plan for each one of those fluorescent lights, because you can’t take those to the dump. Those have to be disposed of because of the chemicals inside of them, and they have to have to be disposed of in a special location.”

The old lights had to be removed and stored in a safe location until a qualified contractor could come and take the lights to a place that could take the bulbs from the district. Getting the old lights removed and the new ones installed was a small challenge in and of itself, but some other problems came as a result of the installation. People throughout the school were surprised when instead of the bell music, a weird fuzzy sound was emitting from the speakers in the hallways. This was caused by several of the speakers being disconnected due to the lighting infrastructures having to be replaced.

“We are still working on trying to rewire all of the overhead speakers in the building. Most of them in classrooms are up and running, but we still have a few that need to be rewired,” Dain said. “When they installed the lights, they had to disconnect the wires to all the speakers and all the PA systems throughout the building. So we’re still working on finishing that part of the project.”

A new addition completed the cafeteria furniture refresh over the summer. Previously, basic tables and chairs filled the cafeteria. Pathways through the cafeteria were oftentimes blocked by the mass of chairs and bags on the ground beside them. This setup caused issues for the cleaning of the lunchroom and its organization–as 500 chairs are difficult to clean quickly. The benches ensure enough space for a collective 520 students and a quicker cleanup compared to individual chairs.

“I don’t particularly like the benches more than the chairs,” Jackson said. “It’s slightly more uncomfortable, but I can see why they do it. The chairs would often get strewn around and, on occasion, thrown. So it’s a lot more simple, and I assume, easier to clean, and you don’t have to push in chairs anymore. I think they’re overall good.”

In addition to the new tables and lights, the weight room had its floor replaced. Following significant renovations in 2020, the floor was damaged by the amount of weight on top of it as well as by heavier weights being dropped on it. The current floor now has a layer of concrete directly underneath it, preventing further damage and making the room safer to handle heavier weights in.

“[The weight room] was the old stage gym and basketball court, and when they turned this into the weight room they laid this black Mondo flooring over the top of the basketball floor,” weights teacher Nick Foster said. “But the basketball floor wasn’t reinforced, and there’s actually about a four inch gap between that old basketball floor and the concrete slab that sits underneath it. A lot of students lift heavy weights, and depending on some of the weights we were doing, when they were hitting the floor, it was cracking the old basketball floor.”

With all these renovations in this and in the last few years many people wonder what’s next for South? With the floors on the west side of the building still yet to be replaced, that can be pointed to as one of the closer renovations, but others are being formed in the minds of the district and school officials. There are so many things that could be done and some may take more effort and funding than others, but the hope of the school is to provide the best services it can to all within the building.

“We’re continuing to look at the courtyard area as a space that is a valuable outdoor classroom, and that’s kind of been a priority,” Dain said. “I know the South Foundation is working on some fundraisers in association with that, so that’s kind of a priority for me, just because it’s used literally every day.”

One major renovation to the building that’s been on the minds of the administration has been the idea of moving the counseling center more accessible to visitors. Having the counseling center on the main level could pose significant benefits for the school as a whole, making it easier to navigate to for those who don’t know their way around school very well.

“That was kind of what we were looking at prior to the last bond,” Dain said. “Somehow navigating a new counseling center near the main entrance that would be easier to access for visitors coming to the building, for recruiters that are coming in, and for new enrollments that are coming in.”