In School District One
By David meade
Anderson School District One is making good on their promise to increase safety and security in all fourteen schools if voters approved the One Cent Local Options Sales Tax, which they did. Improvements on athletic facilites are also getting underway soon.
District One schools and the District Office will begin getting new security cameras and electronic security doors next week Assistant Superintendent of Administration Robbie Binnicker said.
He told the Anderson District One Board Tuesday that Encore Technology Group of Greenville was the low bidder on the upgrades at $236,999.
The District had 12 companies at the pre-bid meeting and five companies bid on the project resulting in very competitive bids, according to Binnicker. The upgrades should be completed by the end of December, he said.
Binnicker said the District teachers and students have also been participating in “violent intruder on campus” training drills to help them in making decisions should an incident arise.
Binnicker also said the District plans to purchase all new defibrillators for each of the schools. Current defibrillators are less than three years old but it is getting harder to find batteries for them, he said.
Binnicker also said the district can now accept credit card payments and about half of the schools are accepting payments online while the rest are in the process of being able to.
Superintendent David Havird updated the Board on the timeline for construction projects for 2016-17.
Concrete Primary will be the first to receive upgrades because it is one of the largest and fastest growing in the district.
The $2.1 million addition at Concrete will include six new classrooms, renovation of the old gym into two classrooms and the addition of a new gym.
Havird said Scott Powell of Craig Gaulden Davis Architecture will be presenting plans of the Concrete additions to the Board in November.
Havird said plans for the tennis court upgrades at Wren and new tennis court facilities at Powdersville High will also be presented at the Nov. meeting.
Work is expected to begin in February or March he said.
The Powdersville tennis courts will be located on three acres behind the school and near the football stadium.
Plans for athletic weight rooms and a new field house at Wren and a multi-purpose athletic facility at Palmetto High will be presented to the Board in January. Work at Wren is expected to begin in February and at Palmetto in May or June.
“This is all being done debt free,” Havird said. “It is pay as you go.”
The projects are being funded through the One Cent Local Option Sales Tax.
Havird said the District will also be “rolling approximately $100,000 in debt off our millage” using funding from the sales tax.
Havird warned the board that the Concrete project will “drag out over most of the school year” because it is being implemented in stages to minimize the disruption of school.
Havird said that a key to the timeline and funding available was to “get an excellent bid for Concrete.”
