Pickett County High School’s bathroom renovation nearly complete, barring a few more coats of paint.
The project was the most needed renovation at the high school, as outlined by the administration last year. Director of Schools Melissa Robbins told the School Board Monday the school bathroom just needs new doors, before they are finally usable.
“It just lacks those doors, and there’s a little bit of paint outside the door that they have to do” Robbins said. “So, but they are fully functional, they flush well, no issues. It looks good.”
While administrators have not found any e-cigarettes yet in the new bathrooms, Robbins said students are tossing toilet paper into the upper portion of the old bathrooms.
“It looked like people have been throwing it up there,” Robbins said. “But other than that, it looked alright. And no vapes in the lines, so far, where they scuffed it, and that’s a blessing.”
Robbins also said work on the junior high hall is fully underway and the hallway is completely gutted.
“They did end up having to take both of those walls out,” Robbins said. “They were going to leave one, but it was not, once they started digging, the one was weak and the ground was weak, so they took all of that out and opened it up. And they scoped that line.”
According to Robbins, the school shut down the gym bathroom because it was backing up in the middle hallway. Robbins said the maintenance crew looked at it Monday and found the back flow was just water. She said it requires a specific grade for the proper flow.
“The gym is fine, but they turned it on because the water was coming from one of the water pipes and filling up that trench,” Robbins said.
Robbins said she expressed the concerns of the school board on the renovations. Since then, she said the construction projects have flowed more smoothly.
Administrators decided last year to undertake a series of renovations at Pickett County High School. School board members and county officials had discussed building a new school.
In other business, the school board also approved to allow food supervisor Jessica Chambers to accept bids for food products and supplies for the school cafeteria fund.
Upon first reading, the board also approved to adopt new policy on public comment. The board approved its polices of the use of pennies in cash transactions. The board updated its procedures for when faculty or staff are under investigation or facing allegations, among other minor changes.
