The Final Word – Something Of Which To Be Proud

by Diane Lowrey
R-T Editor
During the June 9 Trenton R-9 Board of Education meeting, I got the chance to tour construction projects currently under way at the high school/ middle school.
WOW….
Much of the work is scheduled to be completed when students and staff come back to school in August, including a new media center, an outdoor courtyard and hallways connecting the high school/middle school to the buildings that house the music, art and ag classrooms. Work on the Performing Arts Center remains on schedule to have the center ready for use in early 2021.
What I was most impressed with is how much bigger everything is than what I had envisioned when I first saw the building plans.
The media center has been completely gutted and, when finished, will be a spacious, open-concept area more suitable to the needs of those using the facility. The librarian will be housed in the middle of the room, with study/reading areas located throughout the center. The computer lab will have a new home in the library and there will also be a conference room for meetings between off-campus service providers and students.
The outdoor courtyard provides plenty of room for a variety of uses, including an outdoor lunch area and classroom instruction on days when the weather would allow. There was even some talk during the tour about being able to show movies to large groups on one of the walls surrounding that area.
The new hallways will be a great place for student art to be displayed, with the many windows along the corridor providing plenty of light to highlight those works. The PAC will be able to seat 500-plus individuals for a variety of events, including music concerts, plays and meetings.
Also under construction and scheduled to be finished when classes start in August is renovation of the entryway at the Rissler Elementary School. The new concession stand at C.F. Russell Stadium will also be ready to go when the fall sports season gears up.
This project is one of which the community can be proud and is one of several improvements the school district has been able to make over the past several years, thanks to voters who saw a need initially for a new middle school and approved a tax to fund that project. Future boards of education were able to pay off those bonds early, then get community support to continue that same tax to fund other projects at no additional cost to taxpayers.
With many other school districts trying to pass levy increases to fund building projects and/or operations, Trenton has been able to put itself in a good position to financially meet the educational needs of its students for many years to come. And when students return to the classroom later this fall, they will be greeted by the results of those decisions made by past and current school boards.