Architectural renderings of the upcoming projects at Eufaula Public Schools were showed to the School Board Monday night. Everyone was impressed.
A centerpiece of the project will be an event center, which includes a new basketball gym and performance stage at the high school.
Other projects include increasing the size of the dining area for the high school cafeteria; a classroom addition at the Middle School and installation of turf at the football field.
The final design and engineering should be completed in the next few days, according to Superintendent Monty Guthrie.
The project is expected to go out to bid by October 19 with a tentative bid opening date of November 11.
Groundbreaking should take place within two to three weeks after opening bids.
The project was made possible by voters approving a $24 million bond issue in April.
Work has already begun in the Middle School gym.
“We’ve got the floors stripped down to wood already,” Guthrie said. “So, we’re moving forward and repining that. We’ve got the scoreboards in. We’re work- ing on the restrooms to make those look more presentable and we’re going to upgrade the sound but we haven’t really gotten started on that yet.”
In other business, Eufaula High School Principal Heather Combs corrected a 2024 dropout rate released by the State Department of Education.
She said the actual rate was 1.01 percent, which is four dropouts. The State reported 14, or 3.54 percent.
“1.01 percent is really a huge improvement from years ago,” she said. “I mean, I think we’re just doing much better job of identifying those at-risk kids at an earlier age.
“When we first started, it was only for juniors and seniors, because they need credit recovery. Well, for the last few years, we started putting some of even freshmen, some freshmen and sophomores ,,, If we don’t catch them at that early age, they’re not going to make it to that junior year or credit recovery.
“So, a lot of times when a kid needs one or two classes, we’ll just throw in an extra virtual class and get it in their schedule throughout the day.
“We’re trying to really identify those at-risk kids at an earlier age. I think that’s solving our dropout report.”
