Students, their families and board members past and present got a look at a high school addition and the new intermediate school during an open house and dedication for the Seneca R-7 School District Monday night.
“This is just unbelievable progress in the first degree,” said Harold Stephens, former Seneca superintendent.
Stephens and his wife, Fay, drove from McDonald County to take a peek at the new intermediate school. He started in the district in 1965 as an elementary principal and retired in the 1980s.
“The community needs to be proud of this,” he said. “I hope they are.”
INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL
Students tried out their new lockers and hunted for their classrooms.
Sixth grade student Jordan McCready put her things in her locker, and is ready for school to start.
“I really like it,” McCready said. “It’s a little different than what I thought it was going to be.”
Without the new intermediate school, she would have attended the middle school, a place she’s familiar with, but she loved that her locker was full-size, not the half-sized ones she’s seen there.
“I can’t wait until school starts,” she said.
The crowd filled the finished half of the new gymnasium. Built as a Federal Emergency Management Agency shelter, the building’s three-foot thick walls can withstand a F-5 tornado. The 100-foot by 137-foot gymnasium has a cafeteria space and a basketball court. It was built with $150,000 in FEMA funds and a $500,000 local match. The district had applied twice for funds before the May 10, 2008 tornado, but that disaster, said Bill Lant, representative-elect for 131 District, was the tipping point.
In 2008 at a press conference at the site of his demolished feed store, he was introduced to a FEMA official. The man offered his condolences and Lant, who was a school board member at the time, told him about the school district’s application for a FEMA shelter. Six weeks later he got a call: the district’s application had been approved.
“That had to be one of the single greatest days of my life,” Lant said. “I truly believe we would not have gotten it if it had not been for the tornado. Out of something bad, something good comes.”
Now, when severe weather approaches, strobe lights on the corners of the building will go off, letting people know a storm is coming and the building is open. Fire, police and city officials have keys to get the FEMA building open.
“It’s built to hold 2,000 people and to keep them comfortable for two hours,” Lant said. “It’s a monster of an edifice.”
DEDICATION
Families gathered in the half-finished gym for its official dedication and a ribbon cutting with the Seneca Area Chamber of Commerce.
Rick Cook, Seneca superintendent, welcomed the community to a long-awaited event and recognized board members present in the audience.
Josh Dodson, chamber president, said it was a honor for the chamber to attend a dedication for one of the largest employers in the city.
“These young folks here are the future of this community,” Dodson said, applauding voters and community support for the project.
Deann Woodward, 2008 president of the board of education, said she was pleased to see the completed project.
“It’s just so exciting to see everything,” she said. “You have a dream of what it’ll look like and to see it come true is so exciting.”
Current board president Joe Caputo said he was grateful to parents, community members and taxpayers for passing the bond issue.
“I’m excited to see the construction projects come to an end and the opening of the new facilities for our students in Seneca,” Caputo said.
HIGH SCHOOL
For years, the district tried to pass a bond issue. One plan was to build a new high school on Highway U, but voters disliked the idea. The $9,985,000 bond issue passed in November of last year paid for the new intermediate school to be built across from the elementary and the high school expansion that included a new gymnasium, media center and brought the cafeteria under the high school’s roof for the first time.
“It’s going to take us a long way into the future,” said Gregg Spittler, former board member and past president of the school board.
He was part of those early discussions and was proud of the final project.
“At one time our view was to have a totally new high school,” Spittler said. “As much as it seemed impossible we had to keep trying. It’s really paid off.”
There was a lot of planning in the expansion, Cook said, from the fountain in the courtyard, to the walking track above the gymnasium at the high school, and the red and blue school colors sprinkled through the high school addition and the intermediate school.
“It’s not just another school,” Cook said.
The high school gymnasium was not designed solely with basketball in mind, but expanded by six-feet to accommodate another wrestling mat giving Seneca room for five mats in the new gym and three in the old for wrestling tournaments.
The council house will be transformed into a wrestling community center, with mats set up there for the team to practice.
Ceilings were still unfinished in the high school commons, but a spotlight shone on a new bronze statue.
“This is a huge addition in more than just square feet, but academically as well,” said Seneca High School principal Tosha Fox.
Before, students had to cross to the council house for lunch and it was easier for them to leave campus.
The addition offers a new, secure environment, Fox said.
“Anytime you have a more secure environment kids do better academically,” she said.
The school has been crowded and during games or functions in the gyms there is standing room only, said Julie Duncan and her daughter, Brianna, a junior at the school.
“They needed it,” mom said. “We’re happy that they’ve been able to do this.”
“I like the new parts,” said Steven Beebe, a senior at SHS, as he and a few friends pointed out that other parts of the school had not changed and did not share the blue and red scheme.
Costs were held to a minimum thanks to cooperation from contractor Dalton Killinger and architect Kyle Denham, Cook said. He noted that it is unheard of for a school district to come in under budget on a $12 million project.
“I truly believe that our community and students and staff are going to benefit from what the taxpayers approved,” Cook said.
The school has 20 years to pay off its note and the building, he said, should be sufficient.
“I don’t see that our population will outgrow this,” he said.
