ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Many St. Louis-area school districts are reaping the benefits of bond issues passed in November. In the Parkway School District, a monster $265 million no-tax-increase bond issue, Prop S, does a little bit of everything, from restoring playgrounds to constructing storm shelters.
Renovations include a classroom addition and storm shelter at River Bend Elementary, renovation of four high school swimming pools and locker rooms, and construction of a second Early Childhood Center on the south side of the district.
Chief Financial Officer Patty Bedborough said Parkway has more than 3 million square feet inside their 29 buildings. This summer, they’ve replaced two gym floors, at West Middle and South High, and the carpet at schools throughout the district.
Technology changes are also on tap, from redesigning fiber that provides connectivity in school buildings and providing a secondary data center for back-up to turning smartboards into video boards.
As usual, there is also a lot of so-called cycle maintenance. That’s the type of thing that has to be done regularly in a school district, such as roofing, windows, doors and locks.
Bedborough said, “Also playgrounds. We had heard from our constituents that right now our parent-teacher organizations were funding our playground renovations. So, we listened to our community feedback, and we’ve added in playground improvements at all of our elementary schools. So essentially, everyone that doesn’t have a relatively new playground will receive two playgrounds, and the surface will be the rubberized surface, so it’ll have zero entry and be inclusive for all of our students to be able to play on the playgrounds."
There are a few projects carried over from the previous bond issue, including finishing a storm shelter at North High School, Bedborough said. This most recent bond issue also adds a gym at North and makes the front entrance secure.
“So, that will be ready to bid by the end of summer," Bedborough said. "The other project that was mostly designed with our previous bond issue was at River Bend. That was an add-on of four classrooms, in addition to the storm shelter. Also, we’re putting in an elevator and sprinkler system in the entire building.”
The underground storm shelter at North High is almost complete. The gym will be built on top of that storm shelter. Construction on the underground storm shelter at Riverbend starts this fall.
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