School Board tours Heckart Performing Arts Center
The Sedalia School District 200 Board of Education toured the nearly completed Heckart Performing Arts Center prior to their regular meeting Monday night.
Project Architect Sam Winn, who led the tour, said several contractors are working to install carpeting on the theater stairs and stain the remaining concrete flooring. The new theater will have two ticket windows which will have custom woodwork completed by the school. The lobby area also will have a concession area where various fundraising items will be sold.
The board members viewed the stage area and several climbed the winding stairs leading to a catwalk area above the stage’s lighting.
“The acoustics are really great,” Winn said. “You can hear well without amplification.”
Dennis Paul, of Septagon Construction Co., said the seating, stage rigging and flooring will be complete next week. Training on the theater’s systems will begin next week as well and the curtain is expected to be installed Dec. 28, Paul said.
The theater is expected to be finished in January.
The board also heard an update on the Federal Emergency Management Agency shelter located at Smith-Cotton Junior High School. Winn said athletic and food service equipment is being installed. Winn said the cold temperatures have delayed exterior work, but the project is ahead of schedule and expected to be complete at the end of January.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Winn said. “The project is moving along fine.”
During the meeting, Sedalia School District Foundation President Gena Swearingen presented the board with a check for $64,000. The funds were garnered through the foundation’s Touch of Class project at the high school. The project gave alumni and residents the opportunity to purchase several memorial or dedication items at the school. Swearingen said the foundation sold 44 leaves on the Tree of Life sculpture, 21 bars on the performing arts granite artwork, 22 bars on the athletic granite artwork and five benches located outside the school.
In other business, the board approved partnering with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to take part in the Race to the Top, or RT3. States will compete to be awarded a portion of $4.3 billion through the Race to the Top competition. RT3 will award funds to states that develop comprehensive reform plans addressing four areas including standards and assessments, data systems to support instruction, great teachers and administrators and turning around struggling schools.
Superintendent Harriet Wolfe said she believed Sedalia schools could benefit from the grant because the funds could be used to expand the Project Lead the Way, a science and engineering plan offered at the high school level.
“This is a very good fit for what we are doing with Project Lead the Way,” she said. “Outside funds would help us expand the program.”
Board members also agreed to allow Smith-Cotton Junior High business education teacher Marlo Siron pursue a grant. Siron, who teaches ninth grade, is applying for $36,333.71 from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Vocational -Technical Education Enhancement Grant.
The grant assists schools in implementing new or improving existing career education programs by providing funds for instructional equipment, furniture, software and curriculum enhancement for approved career education courses. The funds would be used to purchase computers, SMART boards, cameras, printers, cabinets, desks and chairs.
The grant requires a 25 percent match on equipment expenditures and 50 percent match on software, which would equal $10,082.63.
If the grant is awarded, the school plans to use the old equipment and furniture to create a second computer lab that could be used by all grade levels at the junior high.
